I’ll add more of Steve Ketzer’s slides and then wrap up the “Bacardi Coach” section. The first is, L-R, Vernon Ashley, Jerry McMillian (with tell-tall bell pipe imprints…I’d guess D-flathead), and Steve Ketzer. I’m not sure of the location, but the photos that follow are at the 2nd Jerry Waldman Memorial Race at Diamondhead, Hot Springs, AR.
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This is Butch Leavendusky, a great and fearless runabout driver, but I can’t remember who he’s talking to here.
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The Ketzer Racing Team, Uncle Ed Ketzer, Vernon Ashley, Steve Ketzer, Charles Bradley (my half-brother), and Steve Jr., i.e., me.
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Stan Leavendusky doing a walkabout and giving me that look. He and Steve were good buddies, a regular Mutt and Jeff team, but tough hombres. Stan, though, was twice as big as Steve, so I gave him a wide berth, especially when he had that look.
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A similar Ketzer Racing Team picture, but with my cousin Mikey Gronlie, the redhead, replacing Steve Sr., and with Bill Van in the background providing raspberries. Mikey, recently transplanted to Arkansas from Brooklyn, N.Y., got to come to races if he helped in the pits, and he was usually great help, a strong back, and much fun. But on one trip, for some reason, he was being a real slug, so Steve got on him, told Mikey he wouldn’t be able to stay in the camper anymore, to which Mikey, in his Brooklyn accent, replied, “F the camper!” I held my breath, fearing for Mikey’s life, but Steve let it go. Had it been me, I would have been on the ground in a heartbeat with the old man right on top of me. Mikey got a pass, but for the rest of the trip, all he heard from the rest of us, in our best Arkie versions of a Brooklyn accent, including Vernon Ashley, who managed to work it into every sentence, was, “F the camper!” Mike joined the Navy soon afterwards, and while stationed in Meridian, Mississippi, he died in a car accident coming back from a Joe Cocker concert. He was 18.
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Steve Jr., either putting the boats to bed or waking them up.
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Bill Van’s pit at Diamondhead. Bill and Steve were good buddies, as well.
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