Life at Lake X in the '60s

[seeroy]

For years I have wanted to pass along some of the experiences I had at Lake X from 1962 through 1970. This is going to take awhile and will be a living document. That means that I will add bits and pieces over time. Additionally, I invite anyone that was there to add their experiences. CAVEAT! Do not expect everything to be accurate and correct. It's not that I don't want to be correct. But, unfortunately, I will have to work from memory and the few items I still have as clues. Also, I have been known to embelish. If there is one thing I have learned in my life as a former boat racer, fisherman and fighter pilot; it is that boat racers, fishermen and fighter pilots are the greatest liars in the world. I especially know that is true about boat racers because we would always run every race boat through the measured kilo at Lake X many times as we tried new things and as Don Schwebbs banged on our props. We always knew exactly how fast our boats were running before we left the lake. The only significant variables were fuel loads, water conditions and whether we were running in salt water. SOOOOO...you would not believe how many times somebody at a race site would tell me that they were running at 75mph and I would walk past them in an absolute 62mph boat. Excuse me if I get names, places, dates and alot of other things wrong. Also feel free to correct me. I am Steve Sirois and my brother was Bill Sirois. Many of you may have heard of or known him. Very few of you will have known or heard of me. In my next post I will try to explain how we got to Lake X.

[Scream And Fly]

Great post - keep it going!

Greg

[Raceman]

Steve, I'm sittin' on the edge of my seat and can't wait. I only went to Lake X once and glad I was able to go before Swebbie left. I hope you've got some pictures also.

[seeroy]

I just spent an hour writing a post about how Bill started racing and ended up at the Lake,,,,,and then when I submitted it,,,,,, it must have gone to Mars, because I lost it all. Sooooo...I will try again, in smaller bits - Steve

[PARKER RABE]

Man - I Have So Many Pics Of Me My Dad And Swebbie At Lake X , Wish I Had A Scanner

[Mark75H]

Parker, I have a scanner

[PARKER RABE]

Sam - Man You Would Have A Pallett Show Up At The Door ,
I Dont Know Where To Start , As Far As Loading

[Fish]

Man - I Have So Many Pics Of Me My Dad And Swebbie At Lake X , Wish I Had A Scanner

I have a scanner.

Seeroy, great post, thank you.

[seeroy]

Mr. Kiekhaefer had placed 6 or 8 house trailers on the North side of the boat slip. When I first got there three of them were occupied by families, (Wayne Meyer, Johnny Bakos, Dean Schallenberger). The rest were occupide by single men. I moved into the "Triple O" trailer with Chet Strickland and Phil Schenk. We each had a bedroom just large enough for a double bed. There might have been 1' beside the bed and there was a small closet. There was a small kitchen and living room that had two beds in it. Occasionally someone else would occupy those beds. For awhile John Flood did so. John was one of the many Wisconsin guys that would come to the lake to drive endurance. He had arrived with an old Cadillac V8 that was as old as dirt and closely related to it. Apparently he popped a piston or some such malfunction which caused an impressive loss of compression and poor performance. He didn't have any money for repairs so he came up with a rather unique solution. Now I have to tell you that I did not actually see this repair made with my own eyes. Anyway, he dropped the oil pan, removed the head from that bank and disconnected the piston from the crankshaft and removed it. Then somehow filled the vacant cylinder with concrete. Yes, I said concrete. He had created the first 7 cylinder Cadillac. I don't know what transpired next, but if he ever got it running, it must have been real smooth. ...............Gene Berg was also a Wisconsin guy (Appleton to be exact). Gene was another of those fun guys to be around. He and I ran an Offshore race together that would prove to be both the beginning and end of his career as a race driver. This was early in the '60s as the sophistication of our rigging was not very pretty. We were assigned a 19' T-craft with twin outboards to rig and run. The T-craft might have has a little vee in the bottom but it was without a doubt the hardest ride I have ever been in. Every bump would jar your teeth. All we had for protection was a series of aluminum stanchions and railings to hang onto. We had what was probably a 100 gallon gas tank held in place by aluminum angle and poured foam. Anyway the race was to run out of West Palm to Freeport and back (?). It was another of those days when small craft warnings should have been flying. We made it through the Lake Worth inlet and into these huge seas. Gene was driving and I was hanging on for dear life. The second or third bone jarring monster that we encountered sent us both to our knees (everybody ran Offshore standing up in those days). I managed to regain my feet and looked over at gene. The entire inside of his helmet visor was covered with blood. He managed to barely regain his feet. He raised his visor and spit out several teeth. At that point I thought he had just eaten the steering wheel. Unbeknownst to me he had also clobbered his left knee on the gas tank frame. I asked him if he was OK and he nodded yes and took off. The next wave was not quite as bad but it was still nasty. Gene came down off of a plane and told me I would have to take over. I asked him if he really wanted to continue in his condition. He said yes, so I got it back up and off we went. It only took one more monster before he screamed in pain and said that he just could not go any further. I headed back in at idle speed and radioed that I had an injured man on board. Mr. Kiekhaefer met us at the dock with an ambulance and Gene was lifted out of the boat. Later Mr. K visited him in the hospital and made sure that he had the best of care and that the bill was fully taken care. Several broken teeth had to be surgically removed and his left kneecap was removed in 14 pieces. Mr. Kiekhaefer asked him what he wanted to do and Gene replied that he had always wanted to be a truck driver. And so, from that point on he was a Kiekhaefer Corp. truck driver. I have no idea what ever became of Gene but I will always remember him standing there with blood all over his visor, spitting out teeth and saying to me, "Let's keep going". At that point we had only gone about 5 miles of a 200 mile race. We were all young then and we thought we were invincible. Somebody once aske me what it was like to race offshore in those days. I told them to place a ladder against their house, climb up on the roof, jump off, and continue to do that for several hours and they might understand what the physical part of it was like. I stand by that explanation to this day. But, damn, it sure was fun! -Steve

[seeroy]

OK, Let's try again. Circa 1950, When we were kids in Indiana, our Uncle George Horner owned a small Fish Camp on the Kankakee River by Shelby, IN. Bill would have been 9-10 & I 6-7. Bill purloined one of George's fishing boats and was terrorizing the local fishermen when he ran afoul of the local Game Warden. The Fuzz, holding Bill by the ear, returned him to George with the admonition, "You better watch this Kid, he's a menace on the water." If he had only known what the future held!.....I'm going to do this in small pieces so I won't lose too much again - Steve

[seeroy]

1959 Bill was an officer in SHS JB's Club (junior JC's I think). He convinced members that a good project would be to sponsor a boat race on Sarasota Bay. Needless to say, Bill would be the race chairman. I not sure that he told anybody in advance the he also planned to compete. He cobbled together an old fishing boat and attached a Mercury KG-9. I think he did quite well. Bill was also a outstanding swimmer on the SHS swim team and Coach Carlie Cleland was thorougly p---ed when Bill quit the team in order to go to work for Al Holub at Sarasota Marine. Al also had a part interest in a small boat building business and after sending Bill through Mercury Service school began to let him use one of his hulls and a Mercury to run in local races. Bill was forever grateful to Al for that. I went to a race with Bill and his girfriend Suzanne (Willy) Williams in Palmasola Bay. He won that one handily and soon had caught the attention of Mercury. I think that Bob Burford, who was married to Helen Kiekhaefer, got Bill in the door. Anyway, he was soon at Lake X running endurance. A side project was helping to build the 17 mile road around the property. Chet Strickland was right along side of him as they slogged through the swamps. Bill and Chet had been good friends through High School. Chet was also a very successful racer in both the US and Europe. The last time I saw Chet was at Bill's funeral. More later - Steve

[10.5' Tunnel]

I love your stories! Please post more! Its always great to get first hand accounts, especially from a person that can tell a story as well

[seeroy]

June 1962. Right after SHS graduation, Bill helped me get onboard with Mercury at the Siesta Key test station. A point to be made....Back then it was Kiekhaefer Corporation. Later it became Mercury Marine. Gene Wagner was the Boss there and a great guy to work for. Had alot of fun running endurance in salt water and will provide many stories about that in the future. I started at Manatee Jr College in the Fall and barely hung in for awhile. In 1963, I flunked out of MJC and went to work full time at Siesta Key test station and shortly ended up at Lake X driving endurance. Ted Collins ran the admin side of things and Joe Anderson was the boss in the shop. Over the next several years I worked on and off at Lake X and Siesta Key while I also returned to MJC and then Univ of South Florida. Finally eked out a BA in Management at USF in 1968. We ran 24 hour endurance at Lake X from Monday AM until Saturday at Noon when we would pull the boats out of the water an wash them. Often I would then drive a truck to Sarasota to pick up parts at the Airport Distrubution warehouse and return Monday AM. We worked hard sometimes, but played hard all the time. Needless to say, there was a copius amount of adult beverage consumed. Many stories about that in the future. I honestly do not know how I survived those whiskey years. More tomorrow night, I hope! -Steve

[TROPICANAJOHN]

I am a close friend of Chet Strickland and he love to talk about Lake X and life there in the sixties. Unfortunately He is not really into the internet (although he does like to look at old motorcycles on ebay...lol)I am going to forward this forum to his room mate,maybe it will spark some interest. If anyone has a message for him feel free to email me tropicanajohn@msn.com

[Bill Holub]

I have a cousin named Al Holub whose parents owned a place at Sumava Resorts on the Kankakee River. Al, who spent his life after WWII in the marine business and racing "F" hydros first used to run his hydro on the Kankakee when he was a kid. Sumava is down river from Shelby. I cut my teeth on that river also. Anyone out there know Al Holub? He is retired now and lives in Tampa.