Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

[Bill Marsh]

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

Hey bluffman

I had a ulna elbow too... right arm.

after 17 years of CAD, my elbow went too hell, pushing around a mouse......very painfull.

had the surgery done and after 3 years recoup, my arm was a-ok

While recouping, i continued to do the CAD deal but with my L arm and bingo.... in 2 years of pushin around a CAD mouse, my other ulna went to hell too. (in 4 years had 2 successful surgeries)

lost my engineering career...... life some times is a pos.

Bmarsh

[bluffman]

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

After 3 weeks or so, the doc removed the cast and wanted me to get some light physical therapy to help improve my manual dexterity in my right hand. I knew what this meant, going somewhere and pick up paper clips, or maybe coins, then put them in a cup or bowl, then dump them out and do it over again, over and over. Another thing some of these therapists liked was having you do needlepoint, this was also supposed to help your hand/ eye coordination or whatever. I decided I would figure out my own therapy program, doing something productive instead of those mundane exercises. Sandy and I discussed a few options, I wanted to build something useful, but it had to be something I could do in our apartment without making a mess. Of course her opinion of “mess” was much different than mine, so we would have to compromise a little bit.

Sandy’s sister Miriam and her husband Denny had adopted two young children, Denise was five, and Marc was three, and it was decided that I would make something for them. Sandy mentioned that maybe a doll house, and an electric train layout, but I was thinking much bigger than that, I was going to make something they could ride in. Sandy kind of rolled her eyes around, shaking her head, and all of that stuff, wondering what the gears grinding around in my head were dreaming up. Then it hit me, I would build a petal car for Denise, and an airplane that Marc could pedal around also. This was far and above what Sandy had in mind, but I explained to her that this was a doable project, and would not be real messy, maybe a little sawdust that we could vacuum up is all.

We went to a place sort of like a Home Depot, but I forget the name, and goy some 1X2 inch boards, a couple of sheets of door skin, lots of Elmers Glue, and some wheels. Sandy was a little concerned about the door skins, but I convinced her that I would cut them down to size pretty quick, I intentionally failed to mention sawing the 1X2s to size, thinking that matter would come up later, for now the door skins had her attention. After we got home with all of this material, I drew up some sketches of what I had in mind, and wrote down dimensions of pieces, all of the time explaining these things to Sandy. When it dawned on her what I had in mind, she became very interested in the project, and was even making some suggestions how certain things should, or could be done. She had the paint schemes all planned out before I had began cutting wood. During the construction, at times I would need to soak pieces of wood or door skin in the bathtub, so I could warp them, which she frowned on at first, but once I had made a few pieces, she thought that was pretty cool. I had Ron Ward, who had a shop nearby where he built race cars, build me a front axle for the car, spindles, and all so that it was steerable. We made good progress, and we cleaned messes up as we went, and we were having a lot of fun. Sandy was a quick learner, and we worked well together, it wasn’t long before I could just mark the wood, and she would saw it to size. The wood door skins were very thin, and could be cut with scissors. Of course Denny, Miriam, and the kids had no idea we were doing this, it was going to be a big surprise. A couple of times we went to their house for dinner, and I would take some measurements of the kids, but they never caught on, probably just thought I was a little strange.

We finished both of the things, and had them come over for dinner. We had them hidden in a bedroom until dinner was over, the wheeled them out, and you should have seen the look on their faces when they saw them. Photos of them will follow, (the fringe on the top of the car was Sandy’s idea).

[bluffman]

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

1974 had not been a very good year, the farm idea not working, to get the kids away from the environment in California, and the problems regarding my ulna nerve surgeries. My arm seemed to be healing pretty good, just had to wear an elbow pad so I wouldn’t bump it, and the doc suggested that I not do anything too strenuous for a while. There was a 500 mile Indy car race scheduled at Ontario on March 9th, with qualifying heats on March 2nd, and some practice days prior to that. Sandy and I decided we would go out there, it was only about five miles from our apartment, and see if we could hook up with a team for the Indianapolis 500. I think it was the second day that we were at the track milling around that we went home to watch the “track news” on TV. Sandy fixed some dinner, and we were tired, so we decided to watch the news in the bedroom. The TV was better in there anyway, and we could sort of stretch out on the bed and eat and watch the report. My daughter Janna had come from Houston, Texas for a visit, so she was there also. After I had taken a few bites of dinner, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my abdomen, and I fell over forward, and let out a groan. Sandy said, “what’s wrong”, and I said, “I think I’ve been shot”. I don’t know why I said that, I had never been shot, maybe I had seen too many Western movies, or something like that. She could tell that I was having terrible pain, and lots of bad things began happening. Sandy and Janna got me in the car, and headed for the nearest hospital. When we got there, I was in real bad shape, the ER doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but thought maybe a ruptured appendix. They rushed me into surgery, and did an emergency appendectomy, my appendix was alright, but they removed it anyway, stitched me up, then took me back to the ER. I was getting much worse by the minute, and I remember them taking an x-ray of my abdomen, and I saw them looking at it, then I went out. Sandy was there, and she heard them yell, “Code Blue”! Cardiopulmonary Arrest! I was “gone”, but they rushed me into surgery again, to try to “bring me back”. There were some strange things that happened at this point, but I have been advised to “save this for the book.”

Larry

[bluffman]

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

I have no idea how long I was out, and have no memory of regaining consciousness while I was in a bed. When I came to, or came back, whichever the case may be, I was sitting bolt upright in a high-back wheelchair, strapped tightly, so I wouldn’t fall forward. This seemed rather strange, and I remember thinking that this must be how a stuffed animal would feel, nothing seemed real. I started becoming aware of my surroundings, and heard whispering voices, then the voices got louder, and I looked up and saw Sandy, her sister Miriam, and Denny. They were at least five feet away from me, and made no moves to get closer for some reason. They started asking me questions, and I became more alert, trying to answer, but at first my answers didn’t sound right to me. The sound of my voice startled me, it didn’t sound like I thought it should. It must have been O.K. though, because they began smiling, and laughing. They seemed to be happy to see me, but at the time I didn’t understand why. I remembered that I had been sick, and there was something about an appendectomy, then nothing further. Denny was a good friend, and liked to tell jokes, so he cut loose with some with some good ones, trying to cheer me up, I guess, but when I laughed it felt like someone was running a chain saw up and down my belly, very painful. I tried to tell him to stop making me laugh, but he didn’t seem to understand. I made some gestures to Sandy, and she got the message, telling Denny to stop. A nurse came into the room, and told them that they would have to leave for a while, she had to change my dressings, and she pulled the curtains around, like they do in hospitals so that nobody could see what she was doing. The nurse undid the straps, and began unwrapping me, and did the things that nurses do, like, “this may sting a little bit”, and all of that. When she got the dressings off, like an idiot, I looked down to see what had been done. There were wire sutures from my sternum, all the way down past my navel. Man, there was enough wire there to “safety wire” everything on a B-29! I thought about asking the nurse what in hell they had done, but decided that I really didn’t want to know yet. I wanted to digest what I had seen for a while before asking any questions.

I was told later that I had a perforated ulcer, and peritonitis had set in or something like that, and at the stage I was in it was usually fatal. I had really dodged a bullet this time!

Larry

[AAFO_WSagar]

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

Larry, I simply can't put into words what I feel when I read your memoirs that you publish here!

I can only thank you for allowing the small slice of motorsports fans who frequent this site for allowing us to be a part of your competitive and personal life which you share with us here!

Can't wait for the next installment, only wishing I had the resources to publish your works as an in-print BOOK...

Thanks again Larry.. Let's get you to Reno this year!!!!!!!

Wayne

[bluffman]

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

Wayne, thanks for your response. Some of my posts may seem a little gory, and very personal, but they are a part of my life, and as I said early on, I will tell it all, warts and all.

I will say it again, Wayne, without this opportunity to post on this thread, I doubt if I would ever would have got around to writing what I hope will become a book that can be enjoyed by many.

I thank you Wayne, for your encouragement.

Larry

[dineega]

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

We are honored to have been given the opportunity to hear your story.
Checking on this thread is the first and last thing I do every day, and everything stops when I see there's a new "chapter".
Many thanks
Rachel

[bluffman]

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

I don’t recall how many days I was in the hospital, but probably a week or ten days. I distinctly remember the day I was released though, because they had put a plastic tube for a drain in my right side, and a nurse along with an intern, came into my room and said that they were going to remove it. This kind of got my attention, wondering if the nurse was going to say the usual, “this may sting a little bit.” Much to my chagrin, she told me to squeeze the intern’s hand real hard, and take a deep breath, because, “ this is going to hurt pretty bad!” I think the guys hand probably hurt worse, because he squeeled like a pig, and jumped back, giving me a dirty look. If he had any expectations of becoming a surgeon, I may have put a kink in his career. I think the nurse got some kind of enjoyment out of this guys response, because she glanced over at me, with a big grin on her face, and winked an eye.

After returning home, Sandy tried to help me as much as she could, but getting in and out of bed, and tending to other functions was real painful, all of that “safety wire” holding me together didn’t like to be pulled on. When I had been taught how to safety wire in the Air Force, I was told to twist the end, so that it wouldn’t stick someone’s finger. I had lots of those wire sutures over the years, and couldn’t figure out why doctors always left the sharp ends dangling.

Everything seemed to be going pretty good until about the sixth day I was home. I began having some unusual discomfort in my right side, and started to get a fever. Sandy was taking my temperature now and then, and it was 101 and climbing, and the discomfort in my side was now becoming pain. I pulled up my shirt to look down there, and there was a lump about the size of a baseball. I told Sandy to get me in the car, and head for the hospital as fast as she could. We went into ER, and when they saw what was going on, instead of treating me there, they put me on a gurney and took me into an examining room, and a doctor came dashing in, and when he saw the lump, which by now was the size of a softball, he reached over to a table and grabbed the first sharp object that he saw, which looked to me like a pair of scissors, and stabbed me where the lump was, and “stuff” flew everywhere. Peritonitis again! They had not got all of the goop cleaned out before stitching me back together. I had not completely dodged the bullet, and I was in trouble again! I have been told that when there is a reoccurrence like this it is nearly always fatal. I reckon it’s like that 1956 “Rocky Graziano” movie starring Paul Newman, “Somebody up there likes me”!

Larry

[bluffman]

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

Rachel, thanks for your response. The doom and gloom is over for now, there are happier days ahead.

Larry

[nageditor]

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

Larry I look forward to your posts I check every day.
Keep up the great work.
John
NAG Editor

[Bob]

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

Larry,
I couldnt help but notice the roof of the tow car, sloped towards the fron for max downforce Oh and it blocks the sun to

Wonderful reading, thank you Sir

[bluffman]

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

After recovering from my abdomenal surgeries, I’m not sure why, but Sandy and I made a decision to move to Phoenix, Arizona. I had been there many times to race “sprint cars” at Manzanita Speedway, also Indy cars, and tire tests at Phoenix International Speedway. Then there was the Paul Newman movie caper, as well. I always liked it there, and had commented to friends that I would like to live there someday. Sandy had been there just the one time, when we passed through on our way back to California, but she said that she liked the desert and mountains. I reckon that’s why we did it, and besides, I didn’t know how my health was going to be after all I had been through. We would just “get a new start”, and see what shook out. I did not have a clue what I would do there as far as work, but I had friends there that might have some ideas.

When we arrived in Phoenix, in late July, I called “Daring Darrell”, and he told me to meet him at a certain address, and I agreed to do so, even though Sandy and I had not even had a chance to find a place to live yet. We located the place Darrell had indicated, and he introduced us to a fellow named Tommy Owens, then had us follow him to the shop in the backyard. There sat a sprint car chassis, and a “big block” Chevy on an engine stand. Darrell said that they had to get the car ready for the “Knoxville Nationals”, a big race in Iowa. He said he was sure glad I showed up, because they needed some help getting the car ready to go there. I could see that they were a long way from having this car go anywhere, let alone Knoxville, but I said, “O.K.”, and told them that Sandy and I would go find a place to live, and I would come back as soon as we got settled. Darrell said, “let Sandy go find an apartment, and you can start work right now”. Sandy had a rather stunned look on her face at this remark, and mentioned that she had no idea where she was, let alone where to find us an apartment. Darrell said that there were some places just up the street, and gave her some directions. Sandy asked me what kind of place did I want, and I said that I was sure that she would figure out something. By the time she got out of the driveway, I was making parts. So much for me wondering what I would find to do in Phoenix!

Larry

[bluffman]

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

Putting the “big block” Chevy in a car built for a “small block” engine was more work than it was worth, but that’s what Tommy Owens wanted, so that’s what he got. Building a decent set of exhaust headers was a real job, but they turned out pretty good. Tommy was a bit eccentric, and had some strange ideas, making it a little difficult at times to do what I thought was right. When he was “engineering”, he would walk around in circles, with his arms behind his back, “twiddling his thumbs”, which drove me crazy. Despite all of this, the car was ready for Knoxville, which was the biggest sprint car race in the country at the time, about 200 cars would show up and try to qualify for the main event that only started about 25 or 26 cars, I think. I didn’t go with them, I felt that the trip would be a bit rough for me. They ran the car, but didn’t make the show, which didn’t surprise me, probably too much “thumb twiddling” instead of tuning. After they returned to Phoenix, we ran it a couple of times at Manzanita, but both Darrell and I figured it was time to move on. Another friend, Bill Roush, had a sprint car, an also owned a radiator shop, so I went to work for him for a while. When I wasn’t tending to the sprint car, he had me build some replica “model T Ford radiators“, for street rods. I met a guy named Ron Minor when looking for Hiem joints for the sprint car, he owned a shop that sold racing stuff, mainly for sports cars. One day when I was at his shop, he asked me if I was interested in working on some sport racing cars, to which I chuckled, and told him no. Shortly, I got tired of building “T” radiators, too damned much work, and I quit Roush, and went looking for something else to do. By then Sandy and I had bought a house in northeast Phoenix, near the Scottsdale Airport. My old friend Gordon Cole helped us get some new carpet for the house, and one day he said something about going out to the airport to weld something for a P-38 owned by Gary Levitz. I asked if him if Sandy and I could go out there with him, and he said, “O.K. When we got there, Gordon introduced us to Ralph Payne, who worked on Gary’s airplanes. Actually seeing, and touching a P-38, up close and personal, really stoked my curiosity. After a while, Levitz came in, and Ralph introduced me to him. Ralph and I became good friends right away, he had been involved in racing, boats, and cars, plus of all things, air racing. He said he had gone to Bonneville with A.J.Foyt years ago, with a “belly tanker”. We both knew some of the same people, so we had a lot to talk about.

Not long after that, I received a phone call from Stuart Bradbury, who said that Ron Minor had given him my number, and my first thought was, oh, no, hoping that this had nothing to do with sporty cars. Well, Stu started telling me his sad story, his wife had bought him a Lola Formula Ford for Christmas in 1974, and it had just been sitting, because when he got it, there were no fluids in it, water, oil, brake fluid, and all of that. I said, yeah, so why are you calling me? Then he told me the sad part of his story, he had put the wrong fluid in everything, oil in the radiators, water where there should have been oil, and so on. This was such an incredible story, I really had to meet this guy! He gave me his address, so Sandy and I went there to check this out. Stuart was a stock broker, and his wife was part of the “Ralston Purina” family, and he asked if I would please fix the Lola for him, no matter how much it cost. The car had been sitting with all of the wrong fluids for months, because he was too embarrassed to call someone to make everything right. He had finally called Ron Minor, and Ron knew that I would probably help this poor soul, so now I began my “sporty car” saga. This turned out to be quite an experience.

Larry

[bluffman]

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

I set a day and time to meet with Stu, and when Sandy and I arrived, he came out to greet us, but I thought that this couldn’t possibly be the guy who was going to drive a Formula Ford! He was 6 foot 4 or 5 inches tall, much too big for this type of car , I figured. Stu was a very friendly guy, with a good sense of humor, which I tested, with remarks about how he could have possibly put the fluids in the wrong places. I think the deal to get it running had to do with his wife gnawing on him to do something with her Christmas gift. I looked the car over, it was brand spanking new, and he hadn’t screwed it up, except for the fluids. Sandy was walking around the car, looking at me now and then, smiling, or maybe smirking , no doubt thinking I would no way want to jack around with this little pea popper. I asked Stu if he had a trailer for it, and he said he did. I had a trailer ball on the wagon, so I told him to get it loaded up, which got a strange look from Sandy. I knew she was thinking, “what had I gotten us into this time”?

We got all loaded, and hitched up, then I told Stu that I needed some money to work with, and he gave me $1000.00, then said that if I needed more, just call him. We took it home, and I spent a couple of days flushing out the systems, then put the fluids where they were supposed to be, then went to Minors to get a new battery, the one in the car was junk from sitting dead for so long. When we got to Minors, I went in acting mad as hell, asking Ron why he had given my phone number to Bradbury, just to get a rise from him. His face got red, and he didn’t know what to say, I reckon he had never been confronted quite like this, but then I started laughing, and told him that I needed a battery for Stu’s Lola. He grinned, and said something about me being an ornery SOB. Then he asked if I wanted some more sporty car work, and I told him, “don’t push it Ron”! Sandy was cracking up, she got a kick out of me acting like this, all the while knowing that I was really a “softy”.

When we got home with the battery, I fired the engine up, and after it got some heat in it, I started jazzing the throttle, and Sandy and I both started laughing, every time I jazzed it, we would laugh harder. We were used to the sounds of a rip snorting Chevy, four cam Ford, or an Offy, and the noise from this little Ford made us real goofy. We both laughed until we had tears running down our cheeks, so I shut it off. Sandy asked if that was what it was supposed to sound like, and I said, “I think so”!

I called Stu to tell him that we had it running, and he was all excited, he said that he would leave work the next day to come to the house so he could see it run. When he came, I had all of the body panels, and the nose on it, and he could hardly wait to hear it run, and get in the car to see how it fit, I thought it was strange that he had never sat in it before. I wanted to fire it up first, I took the engine cover off, so that I could reach the throttle, then told him to reach in and hit the starter. When it lit off, I thought he was going to wet his pants, man, was he excited. He had a big smile on his face, and when I jazzed the throttle, it really turned him on. I shut it off, then told him to climb in and try it on for size. He tried to get in but said his feet were hitting something, so I took the nose off to see what the problem was. It didn’t take much to find the problem, his feet were too big, they were hitting the top of the nose cone. He must have worn about a size 20 shoe, and besides that he had pointed toe cowboy boots on! With the nose off, he was able to snake his way into the car, but it was like putting ten pounds of you know what, in a five pound bag. I knew how to fix that, so I got a three inch hole saw, and started sawing through the nose, which got Stu’s attention, and he said, “what are you doing to my nose”? I said that I was cutting holes for his feet, which got him all excited, saying that he couldn’t race the car with his feet sticking out. I calmed him down, telling him that I would make some streamlined, teardrop shaped bubbles to cover the holes. He couldn’t quite grasp what I was talking about, but made some remark about maybe I knew what I was doing. After I finished cutting the holes, I told him to get in and fire it up, which made him forget about the holes for a while. When it dawned on him that he was in control of this “beast”, he started jazzing the throttle, and was turning the steering wheel back and forth, then began leaning left and right, following the movement of the steering. It was like he was running around LeMans or whatever. Hard telling what was going through his mind, but he was enjoying every second of it. I gave him a signal to shut it off, which he did, but then asked if he could drive it around the block. I told him that he had enough fun for one day, and I would let him drive it in a few days. I wanted to get the blisters made for the nose first. He looked down, and saw his toes sticking out, and decided I was right.

I am posting a photo, shows Sandy, and somebody trying to “shoe horn” Stu into the car, and you can see the “blisters” for his big feet. Brother Dale painted it black, and hand painted the “Phoenix” bird and number on the nose.

Larry

[bluffman]

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

I wanted to run the Formula Ford as bad as Stu did, but I wanted someone that I knew could give it a good test run without tearing it up. I had no confidence in Stu, because I had no idea what his experience level was, and besides that, I didn’t know where to take it for the test. Then it hit me, Gary Levitz’s hangar was on the southwest taxiway at Scottsdale Airport, where there was a long straightaway, with very little traffic, and on top of that, Ralph Payne would be more than happy to give it a run, and he had the expertise to get good data. This was going to be simple, Stu would never know that I had already tested the car. Sandy and I took the car out there, and Ralph made a couple of runs up and down the taxiway, then we did a spark plug reading to see how the carburetor jetting was. Ralph made a run to the south, turned around and came blasting back towards Gary’s hangar, when I noticed a vehicle coming behind Ralph. It was Stu, and he was hot, mad as hell, and I couldn’t figure out how he knew where I was. Well, I knew that a good offense was better than a defense, so I gave Stu hell for driving on the taxiway. This kind of threw him off balance, giving me a few moments to come up with some cock and bull story as to why we were doing this test. Ralph saved me the trouble, he introduced himself to Stu, and told him that it was sure fortunate that I had taken the car to him to test, because he had spotted a couple of things that needed some attention. Then he directed Stu’s attention to the P-38, and was telling Stu all about it, and I think Stu forgot what he was mad about. I think there is a name for this strategy, “misdirection”? I was pretty good at BS-ing, but Ralph topped me on this deal. It took me quite a while to figure out how Stu knew where I was with the car, but it finally came to me. Woodson, “Woody” Woods who ha a couple of Spitfires, and restored WACO UPF-7s had his shop on that taxiway, and he was also part of the “Ralston Purina” family, as Stu’s wife was. “Just a phone call away”!

Stu never mentioned this caper again, it was as though it never happened. We ran a couple of races, Phoenix, and I think, Holtville California, but you couldn’t get much practice during a race event, so Bradbury wanted to know where we could go and rent time on a race course. The best I could come up with was Willow Springs, in California. This was quite a long ways from home, but it was a great facility to test at, so the decision was made by Stu, that we should go there. I made a call, and the earliest open date was 3 or 4 weeks away, and we would have to share track time with another Formula Ford team. This was perfect, I had time to get some extra tires, oil, filters, fuel cans, different gear ratios, and other spares that we might need. Sandy would have time to arrange hotel reservations, and all of that stuff also. I had a spare nose made too, just in case. I had been to Willow Springs before, with Bill Simpson, so I knew that we had to be petty self sufficient because the raceway was out in the “boonies”, a long way from any parts suppliers.

Larry