Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I was in for a surprise, this “K series” thing was an electronic computer/ radar system for bombers. My experience building “crystal set” radio receivers, and a record player made from an Erector Set, that actually worked, wasn’t going to do me much good. The school was very intense, lots of electronics classes, and hands on familiarization with the various components. Of course back then the computers were big gear, and servo units, with lots of vacuum tubes, amplifiers, and other gizmos, that are now replaced with a tiny chip. The system worked damn good though, but was high maintenance. It was also “highly classified”, and we were given strict warnings that we were not to discuss what we learned with anybody. I would soon get a lesson in security. After finishing the training I was given orders to report to Lincoln Air Force Base, but these orders allowed for ten days travel time, giving me a chance to go back to Muncie, and see family and friends. There were four of us in the class from Indiana, and one of them had a 41 Ford coupe with a hopped up engine, so we all piled in and left Denver, heading for Indiana. After a few days visiting, we got back together, and although the guy who had the car wasn’t going to Lincoln, he had to pass through there to get to his duty station at Mountain Home, Idaho. He dropped me of at the gate to LAFB, they wouldn’t let him through the gate, because his orders were for Idaho. The APs at the gate checked over my orders, then phoned somebody, and soon a vehicle drove up, and took me to the 98th A&E Maintenance orderly room. I was checked in by the duty Sergeant, and he took me to my quarters. It was pretty late at night, and this guy told me to report to First Sergeant Molnar at 8:00 AM. I was “home”, I guess you could say. I was far too excited to get much sleep, wondering what the next day would bring.

Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I awoke my first day at Lincoln, rather confused and disoriented. I didn’t know if this room was my permanent quarters or if I would be taken somewhere else, so I didn’t bother to make the bed. I just took my duffel bag and everything else that I owned, and went looking for Sergeant Molnar. I didn’t quite make it by 8 o’clock sharp, I was four minutes late, and this crusty old character chewed me out pretty good, then informed me that had better not happen again. All I could think was, “cut me some slack, I just got here”, but I knew better than to make a remark like that. He checked over my orders, and then said to go to the base security office to get my credentials. I asked him where I could put my gear, and he informed me that I should put them in the room I had slept in the night before. I went back to the barracks, and dropped off my stuff, and asked a man there for directions to the security office. Upon arriving there, a guard asked me for my orders, then directed me to a room down the hall, and when I went into the room, a clerk asked me for my orders, ( these people were nuts about seeing orders) then went to a file cabinet and pulled out a folder. He told me to follow him down the hall, where there was a Major sitting at a desk. This Major opened the folder, and leafed through some papers, and began asking me questions about where I had been since leaving Denver. I explained that I had gone to Indiana to see family and friends. He said that he knew that, but wanted to know who some of the people were that I had met with. Now, I was really confused, this Major was asking me for specific names of friends that I had met with in Muncie. He could see that I was not comfortable with what was taking place, and smiled, then said that I should take it easy, everything was alright, and this briefing was necessary for the level of security I was going to have. I was directed to another room, where my photo was taken, and told to go to a reception room, and wait for my “Security Badge”. After a short while, a Sergeant came over to me and had me sign some papers, then gave me my badge, about a 2-½ inch by 4-inch thing with my name, rank, serial number, photo, and some other things that I had no clue what they meant, with a clip on it that would hold it on my uniform. After all of this, he told me to report back to my First Sergeant. It had been quiet last night and this morning, but as I was walking back to my squadron area, I heard the sound of an aircraft, and looked up. I saw something that I had never seen before, a large, swept wing, jet aircraft dragging a small parachute behind it. My first thought was that this guy must be in trouble, but I reckoned that the chute wasn’t going to save him. As I proceeded walking, I noticed a couple of more of these aircraft that had chutes dragging behind. I approached several airmen, and stopped them to ask what those aircraft were, and they started laughing, and one of them said, “You must be new here, those are B-47s.” They told me that the base had recently been re-opened, and the 98th Bomb Wing was re-deploying at Lincoln after returning from Yakota, Japan where they had been flying B-29s during the Korean Conflict. The flight crews, mechanics and all had been transitioning to B-47s,and there were going to be a lot more coming in.

This was all a bit overwhelming, only a few months ago, I had been cruising around Muncie in my 1931 Ford, Model “A” pick-up, the main thing on my mind was scheming on my female classmates, trying to find a suitable date for the Friday night dance.

After reporting back to SGT. Molnar, he told me to go to the 98th A&E maintenance shop, and report to a SGT. Beam. He welcomed me to the Squadron, then had a couple of the airmen take me out to the flight line, and show me around a B-47. There were several sitting out there, and man, was I excited, those things were beautiful, swept wings drooping down, with six jet engines. The guys that had escorted me out there introduced me to the crew chief, then left. This crew chief was a real nice guy, and we walked around the 47, he pointed out many things, and explained how this and that worked, and why. Then he opened a hatch near the left front of the aircraft, pulled down a telescoping ladder, and told me to climb aboard. I was pretty nervous, and he could tell, but said, “Go ahead, I’ll be right behind you”. It was very cramped inside, which surprised me, electronic components everywhere, he pointed out the pilot and co-pilot seats, flight controls, then told me to go up front, since I was a K-series technician, and observe how the bombsight, radar scope, and all of that were installed. I sat in the bombardier/ navigator seat, trying to get a feel for how it must be on a mission. I was “hooked”, I fell in love with this “bird”. It never occurred to me at the time that I would be associated with this aircraft for the next four years, with duties in England, and Libya. General Curtis Lemay , head of the Strategic Air Command had a lot of chores for us to do.

Larry

[dragfrog]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Hi Larry ... I am working with Mickey Thompson's family (his kids, Danny and Lyndy, his first wife, Judy, and his sister Collene) on a biography on MT ... came across some of your posted stories about time with him and would love to include some of them in the book ... appreciate a way to get in touch and say "hello" ... E

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

During the drive to Phoenix, I told Sandy more stories about my Air Force experiences, which kept us from getting bored on the trip, and made the drive seem shorter. We had been on the road all of September, and into mid October by the time we reached Phoenix, where I figured we would spend a couple of weeks, then head for California. I took Sandy to meet my old buddy from the Air Force, Wayne Eddowes, my friend from the Dockery, and Caruthers racing capers, Gordon Cole, and a few other friends. About October 30th, I got a phone call, and I can’t remember whether I was at Gordons, or Waynes, and don’t recall who made the call, or how anyone even knew where I was, but it was bad news.

Jane was in a hospital in California, and was very sick. I needed to get there quick, Jane’s mother, and sister Suzy were there, tending to my four kids. I had no idea that Jane had been sick, although I had talked to her in July or August and she had said that she needed some money for some kind of blood test. I told Sandy that we had to get to Cal, and explained the situation to her, and we left Phoenix right away. I dropped Sandy off at her mom’s place, in Upland, and hit the road to Cypress, not knowing how serious Jane’s condition was. Suzy and her mother stayed for a couple of weeks, then went back to Indianapolis. Jane had been diagnosed with Leukemia, and there was not much the docs could do for her. She passed away on December 1, 1973. Although we had not been together much, due to my Air Force service, and my traveling around auto racing, we had been married for 17 years. This was a tough deal, especially for our four children. Telling them that their mother was gone was definitely the hardest thing I ever had to do.

Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

A few days later, I called Sandy to tell her what had happened, and she asked how I was getting along with taking care of the kids. I told her that since I had been somewhat of an absentee father over the years, I didn’t quite know how to deal with some of the daily things that were required of a parent. Joe and Brett were teenagers, and did what teenagers do, including rebelling against authority. My daughter Janna , and youngest son, Chris just kind of went along with what I asked them to do. Sandy said that she would come and help me out, but I told her that I didn’t think that was a good idea, having another woman move into the house so soon after their mother had died. I thanked her for the offer, and told her I would think it over, but for the time being I would try to handle things. It didn’t take long for me to realize that getting the kids off to school, cooking meals, doing laundry, and all the other necessary things it took to be a parent was more than I could deal with, I needed help, real bad. I called Sandy, and told her that the only way that I would have her come to help was if we were married. She said O.K., she would do that, so we went to Las Vegas, and got married on December 18th. This may seem a bit callus, and disrespectful, but it was the only solution that I could come up with. The kids didn’t seem to be upset by this, for one thing, Sandy was a much better cook than I was, so they got better meals than I had been preparing. My son Joe turned 17, and got his drivers license, and I bought him a 65 Chevy, one of those 2 door, fastback models, I forget what it was called, but it looked “racy”, and had a sweet sounding dual exhaust. Of course he was happy about this, now he and Brett could go cruising, or what ever. Things seemed to be going pretty smooth, so I thought everything was going to work out.

Larry

[dxlyj]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Things seemed to be going pretty smooth, so I thought everything was going to work out.

Larry

Larry, I love the way you leave us hanging...
Dave

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Things started falling apart, in January, son Joe got stopped for a traffic ticket in his Chevy, and the cops found evidence of “herbs” in the car. I was pretty naïve about this stuff, and I met with the police, and told them that they must be mistaken, but they clued me in regarding the number of kids experimenting with these drugs in California. I was very upset with this situation, and decided that I would remove my kids from this environment, I would just move all of us to Indiana where this kind of thing didn’t exist. The racing season was coming up soon anyway, and this was another reason to go back there. I put the house in Cypress up for sale, and started getting ready for the move. Of course I had to find a place to live in Indiana, and I knew that I couldn’t go there to find a place, leaving Sandy in California with the kids. My solution to this problem was that I would send Sandy to Indy to find us a home.

This was sort of a touchy situation, the only way I could figure out how to do this was to call my brother Dale, and his wife Suzy, to see if they would help. Suzy was Jane’s sister, and I didn’t know if this idea would fly, you know what I mean? I asked Suzy if she would be nice to Sandy, and help her find a house. Suzy is a sweetheart of a lady, you would have to know her to know what I mean, and she agreed to help. Sandy was concerned about this, which is understandable, she being my new wife, going to meet with my late wife’s sister. Besides this, Sandy had never flown on an airlines, and was nervous about that, and she had never bought a house before, either. She asked me what kind of house did I want her to buy, and I told her that I was sure she would find something appropriate, just use her own judgment. I got her an airplane ticket, and gave her some traveling money, including a 100 dollar bill, which really shook her up. She said that she had never had possession of a 100 dollar bill in her life. I took her to the airport, kissed her goodbye, and wished her luck.

Suzy met Sandy at the Indianapolis airport, and has told me since that she fell in love with Sandy right from the start. In a few days, Sandy called and said that she had found a place that she liked, but didn’t know if it would be O.K. with me. I asked her what it was like and where it was, and she hesitated a bit, then said, “it’s a farm in Pittsboro, a big 100 year old house, with a big red barn, several other buildings, and about 10 acres of land.” I asked if she really liked it, and she said “Yes”, so I said, “buy it!” Now I was going to be a farmer, I reckoned ! Sandy flew back to California, and we started packing for our trip to Pittsboro.

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I rented a big U-Haul truck, and a tow bar to drag Joe’s Chevy, and I had bought a new 73 Ford Country Squire station wagon, so I figured that we were all set to go. I flew Brett back to his uncle Joe at El Rancho, he had been acting up, so I thought that would be the best idea, we didn’t any distractions from him. There were other things to deal with, like, Sandy had never driven a big truck, let alone tow a vehicle. I had assumed that Joe would help with the driving, but I don’t recall that happening. Well, Sandy being Sandy, she stepped up, and did what needed to be done. I had no doubt that she could herd that truck down the road. So, Pittsboro, “ready or not , here we come.” I would lead in the wagon, and Sandy would follow, usually with Janna riding “shot gun.” The only big problem we had was climbing the hill after going through Albuqueque, New Mexico, that truck would barely run 25 miles an hour up the hills. I would stop and wait for her now and then, so we wouldn’t get separated. We got to Indy, and Sandy led the way to Pittsboro, since I had no idea where our new place was.

I was anxious to see what Sandy had bought, I think she had brought some pictures back to California, but even at that, seeing the real thing is different.

I am posting photos, I will try to keep them in order.
First photo is the house, second is a shot of the barn and some out buildings, third is a better shot of the red barn, fourth is the driveway, leading to the 40x 96 foot chicken house, fifth is a rear photo of that building, and sixth is the acreage, pond and all.

Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

The farm was a little rough, but we would fix it up, and it would be pretty cool. The big red barn was put together mostly with wooden pegs. We would make a race shop out of the 40x96 building, complete with a proper paint booth. more on that later.

Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

We began fixing up the house, interior paint, carpeting, and all of that, plus converting the “chicken barn” into a shop. It had been many years since any chickens had been there, so it didn’t have that “chicken smell”. I bought a big air compressor, so we could run air lines throughout the building, and also ran electrical wiring everywhere we could possibly think it might be needed. Joe Saldana, a sprint and Indy 500 driver, also an inductee into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, built the paint booth inside the building. (He was also a bricklayer, or whatever you called a guy who layed concrete block.) It was big enough to put a full sized car in, and had fans/ filters, lights, and whatever else brother Dale wanted, he had been painting and lettering race cars for many years, so he knew what it took. We also partitioned it off for engine rooms, etc., that we could rent out.

When May came around, I went to the Indy Speedway, looking for something to do, and went to work for Jim Hurtibise again, this time he had a McLaren- Offy, the Lola that he missed the race with previously, was now a “coffee table” or something. Herk had a friend, Hank Hagusi, I think it was, but I’m not sure of the spelling. Anyway, I would get to the track early on practice days, get the oil heater in, and get the car ready to go, but sometimes they wouldn’t show up for quite a while, if at all. They would go fishing at Eagle Creek instead of coming to the track. Needless to say, I would get pretty upset about this, but Herk would say that he didn’t need much practice, and didn’t want to put many miles on the engine. He ended up qualifying 28th, so he was in the starting field. When the 500 started, he just cruised around, and on lap 31, he pulled in , and said , “That’s enough for today, it’s ready for next year”. I went ballistic, the engine was running fine, and there were no other problems. Nine other cars dropped out before he came in, and he was credited with a 25th position finish. Only 13 cars finished the race, Johnny Rutherford won, followed by Bobby Unser. Hurtibise told me that he made more money coming in, saving the car and engine, and selling his credentials than he would running the whole race. I don’t know about that, but it was his call.

Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I tried to post a clipping, bu it was too big, will try again.

Larry

[kevracer58]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Jim Hurtubise's friend's name was Hank Higuchi.

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I didn’t do any more Indy car racing after Indianapolis, I’m not sure what I did at the farm, but whatever it was I didn’t do much of it. Things were falling apart, the kids weren’t happy being in Indiana. Joe had been doing a lot of surfboarding in California, he had brought his “board” with him, and had even tried it out on the “pond” at the farm. Brett wanted to be in California also, for some reason, not clear to me why. This probably had something to do with my discovering that the “herbs” that I moved back there to get them away from, were growing wild out on the north end of the property, by the railroad tracks. Joe and Brett had got busted by the local lawman, Marshal Spoon, who called me late at night, wanting me to come pick them up. I told him, “you’ve got them, you keep them”, at least overnight. Shortly after that, Joe blew the engine in his Chevy, due to running it out of oil, so I sold it, which really ticked him off. I flew them both to California, Joe went to the beach, and Brett went to live with John Redican, in Cypress. I decided to put the farm up for sale, and told Sandy that we would move back to California. Brother Joe tried to influence me to stay by giving me two goats, which didn’t work out very good, my nearest neighbor was growing some exotic tulips, and the goats got out and ate them. Naturally the neighbor was irate, but cooled off after I paid him $150 for the damage. I didn’t really want to spend the winter in Indiana anyway, so that kind of sealed the deal to head west.

A.J Watson, famed designer and builder of the Watson Roadsters that were so dominate at Indy previous to the rear engine cars appearing on the scene, bought the farm. Sandy and I started packing, and for whatever reason, Janna and Chris stayed in Indianapolis with Dale and Suzy for a while. We went back to Upland, and I went to work for the Summers Brothers, who had broken Mickey Thompson’s land speed record with their “Goldenrod”, a streamliner with four Chrysler engines. They manufactured parts for racing, axles, rear-end spools, and more, including gear drives for camshafts. I did various things, but mainly cam drives. This was an 8 to 5 job, something that I was not used to, but now and then I would stay late and help out on some cars they were tinkering with. Unfortunately, I had an incident while working there, I was using a drill press that for some reason was very top-heavy. Shortly after lunch, I was drilling some holes in a part, and the damned thing tipped over, the motor assembly hit me hard on my left knee. Some of the employees came running over and lifted it off of me, and asked me if I was alright. I told them that I was O.K., but I knew that it had got me good, because of the pain, the all too familiar “broken leg”. I fought it until quiting time at five, figuring that I would go to the doctor later, so Sandy could be with me. As I was getting into my car to leave, one of the guys came over, carrying a gas can, and said that he had ran out of gas on the way to work that morning, and could I take him to a station to get some gas, then drive him to his car. By then I was hurting pretty good, but like a dummy, I told him I would. Having played the “good Samaritan”, I drove home, Sandy had dinner on the table, and asked why I was so late, so I told her about the guys gas problem. As we were finishing dinner, I told her that I had a problem, and I needed to go to the hospital. Of course her response was, “why”, and I told her about the incident, and she asked me when it had happened, to which I said, “right after lunch”. I thought she was going to explode, she said, “get in the car!” Man, she was fuming, giving me hell all of the way. They took an X-ray, and said that I had a “Spiral” fracture from just below the knee down, and put a cast on. I told them that it was too tight, but they didn’t want to hear that, after all, they were doctors, and knew what they were doing. Sandy and I got home about nine o’clock, and by eleven or so, I told her that the cast was really hurting, and I wanted to remove it. She knew that there was no use arguing the point, and we proceeded to chip away on it, and finally got it off. “Ah, that felt much better!” I tried to explain to her, that since it was a spiral fracture, and I wasn’t going to be walking on it, there was no problem, I would just be careful. Besides that, I didn’t want Bob Summers to know that I had been hurt, I wanted to keep working. It didn’t hurt that bad anyway, I would just get used to it and “bite the bullet.” It turned out O.K., I never had any problems with it, and it healed up without any “fan fare.”

Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

kevracer58, Thanks for the correct spelling for Hank.
Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Not very long the incident at Summers Brothers, I began having a lot of pain in my right hand, and I was slowly losing the use of that hand, couldn’t even hold a pencil to write my name. This had nothing to do with the thing at Summers Brothers, it was something to do with he ulna nerve where it goes through a channel in the elbow, so the doctor said. I was told that immediate surgery needed to be done, or it would become much worse, possibly permanent. An appointment was made for me to see a neurosurgeon, and he explained what he would have to do, and being a smart ass, I told him that I didn’t want to be put to sleep for this operation. After all it was only an elbow, how bad could that be? I’d already had five surgeries since 1962 where I had been anesthetized, and I thought this would be an opportunity to see what goes on in an operating room.

They had me lay on a table, and my hand was up in the air, hanging from what looked like an IV stand. Someone gave me what I guess was a local anesthetic, numbing my arm from the shoulder to the hand, and they kept sticking me with something, asking me if I could feel that? After a while, I said, “why is it that you are asking me if I feel something.” I guess that’s the remark they were waiting for, because they started doing their thing. There was a sheet or something, so I couldn’t see what they were doing, so I turned my had to the left where the anesthetnatist, or whatever they are called, was sitting in a chair, and I couldn’t believe what I saw, he was reading a porno magazine! I could feel the docs tugging on my arm, so I figured that they must be fixing the problem, but I didn’t feel any pain. Then I noticed that there were people coming in and out of the room, this wasn’t like the doc shows on TV. Then I heard the surgeons, and assistants making some remarks, one of which was, “did you ever see anything like that? Then some other docs came in to have a look, and one came in with a camera. Man, I’m thinking what is going on here? I was asked if they had my approval to photograph my elbow, and I told them to do whatever turned them on, just get this thing over with. They finally completed their work, and put a cast on my arm, then took me to a recovery room, where Sandy appeared. She asked me how I felt, to which I replied, “don’t ever let me have anything done without anesthetic again! Enough said!

Well, it didn’t turn out like we had hoped, two weeks later, Sandy was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and we were sitting at a red light, when a drunk driver rear ended us, and my right elbow was jammed between the seat and the door. I knew right away that I was in trouble, my arm was hurting like hell. The cops came, and an ambulance, but I told them that Sandy would drive me to the hospital, our vehicle was hardly damaged, just the rear bumper. The police did their report as quick as possible, and let us leave. At the hospital, they took a look at my arm, and called the surgeon who had operated on me, and he said that he would need to fix it all over again. I told him loud and clear, “PUT ME TO SLEEP THIS TIME!”

Larry