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Irma Lund gave me two nearly identical photos she took at the trophy presentation. I had the top one hanging on my wall for years in my office at Alice, then later in the music room. A couple of years ago, Debbie made me replace the top pic with the second one. Who can tell why? Anyone want to guess before "Eagle Eye", our friend across the northern border takes a look?
Nice...............
Who WAS the blonde in the background? And what did you do to p*ss her off................Ok, so it wasn't the blonde. But it kind of looks like it...............
Last edited by F-12; 07-10-2008 at 07:50 PM. Reason: after thought
Charley Bradley
I think I've got it!
OK...let's hear it.
Hey Guys!!!
Leave my Wayne alone at least he posts pics ,!!!.
Jeff youre site doesn' t have much provision for that.!!!
Eh, scoutmaster!!!
RichardKCMo
It was too obvious. And , you're right Charley...it wasn't the blonde. I made the mistake of sizing it too big. It is a 5X7 print and was surrounded by 8 X 10's, so the detail was not very noticable. The second pic was actually the first one taken. Then another photographer hollered "Look at the girl!" That's when Irma took the second pic and the woman in the middle background offered her opinion to the guy taking the picture. A couple of years ago my daughter Alexis happened to notice and shouted "Hey....she's flippin' you the bird," and started laughing. She made it a point to show it to Andrew, and so they began to point it out to all their friends who came over. Hence, the first framed pic has been retired to the darkroom. Until today.And thanks for your support Richard. LOL.
Tragedy strikes again.
On Monday morning Elmer Grade and I flew back to our homes in Florida and Texas respectively, while the rest drove the equipment back home. The following Monday I got a call from Dieter Konig. Our good friend Erwin Zimmerman was killed the day before at a race in Traben Trarbach on the Mosel River in West Germany. I was stunned. I was sorry that he had not been able to make the OD World Championships in Laredo, but I understood because he had just signed with Team Mercury and would be racing at Parker. He was teamed up with Tom Percival, and had they not broken a lower unit late in the race, may have won. Now he was gone.
Erwin was one of the few still driving kneelers in Europe. Dieter said he had abandoned kneelers this year in favor of propriders because he felt he needed those to continue to win. He had two brand new Danisch Propriders. Erwin had won the first heat of OB and was in the 6th lap of heat one of OC when his steering broke. He was leading the race in front of Ranier Bisterfeld. He was thrown in front of Bisterfeld's boat and the lower unit hit Zimmerman in the head. Erwin had no chance.
They were friends. It was with Bisterfeld's cat that Zimmerman used to win the very rough 1978 OD World Championships at Berlin. Bisterfeld must have been devastated. I thanked Dieter for calling, then I called Joe Rome and Jim McKean to let them know. Later on in the day Bill Van called me with the news when he read about it in a St Louis paper. Erwin was one of those superstar racers with racing fuel for blood. Had he not lost his life so young and was able to continue racing I think he would have been in the top echelon of OPC drivers like Bill Seebold, Jimbo McConnell, Cees van der Velden, Renato Molinari, etc......
Here is Erwin standing to the right of fellow competitor and World Champ also, Manfred Richter from Dusseldorf.
A couple of days later Fred Hauenstein called me. My notes are very sketchy at this point, and I have to read between the lines. Fred and I just talked and I didn't want to stop him to clarify anything. I just jotted down notes during the conversation. Thinking back and piecing it together, this is what I remember.
The German Federation "Deutsche Motor Yacht Verband" (DMYV) just told Fred Erwin was injured when he was thrown from his boat. Then Fred went on to tell how Erwin won his last race. It was at Milan, Italy driving for Team Mercury. Billy Seebold was the only person that had a chance of beating Erwin, but he blew something toward the end of the race. Cees Van Der Velden had told Fred what he had heard about Erwin's Accident.
I had told Fred at the beginning that Dieter had called on Monday to inform me of Erwin Zimmerman's death, and I really did appreciate his call. He told me about the OPC racing and Milan...Erwin's start with Team Mercury, but unfortunately I quit writing notes, and we just talked.
Later on that day Joe called me and filled me in on his weekend. He spent Saturday night at Gilley's in Pasadena as a guest of Carl Perkins. Carl was playing at Mickey Gilleys big dancehall. That was where Urban Cowboy was filmed and they had that mechanical bull. Also there was another guest at Carl's table---Houston Oilers quarterback Kenny Stabler...the "Snake". He had two women in tow. Joe had a great time, but he also learned from Carl that Marshall just "retired" from the Johnny Cash band. If you read the book, you know all about that. Carl was scheduled to leave right away for some gigs in London and Joe suggested he take Marshall along. Carl said "That's a good idea Joe...I'll do that". They were both concerned and thought it would be a good way for Marshall to get away with all that was going on. Like Joe and I discussed yesterday---we did a lot of things we more or less didn't think about at the time. As we look back, we're sometimes in awe of what we did and where we were. In Houston, Joe got into more of that kind of stuff than I did, but together we had some interesting times.
About this same time Mel Kirts passed away. I don't have the exact date, but on the 16th, Steve Jones called about sending flowers on behalf of Region 15. Since Mel was Pro VP, we had to elect another one. I suggested Region 15 support Ralph Donald and most everyone else felt the same way because that is who was elected.
On the 24th of May we held a Hydroplanes International meeting at my Dad's house. In attendance besides myself were E.E. Baldwin, Tim Butts and Steve Jones. We discussed the upcoming Pro 700 hydro nationals to be held at Dayton Hydroglobe. We discussed the insurance, time for elimination heats, registration deadline, etc. We had already received some entries and all entries were forwarded to JoAnn Ellis.
A couple of days later Jim McKean called about how the race in Acapulco went, about who we should go with as Pro VP and the upcoming OB World Championhips in Hannover, West Germany.
PRO VP Controversy when Mel Kirts died.
Wayne:
I don't know whether you chose to leave it out of your story or not, or possibly were not aware of it, but when Mel passed away there was an attempt to appoint a new PRO VP by the then President of APBA. Because the proposed appointee was not an "alky" racer, it caused somewhat of an uproar and your Dad and I led an effort to overturn that proposed appointment and have "one of our own" appointed. Because of previous service by Ralph Donald in that position, and his willingness to serve again, and also the unpopular candidate being proposed, Ralph was finally appointed, after much conversation, to serve out Mel's term.
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