"Letters from Heaven" Miami 1960's

[BUIZILLA]

you talking about Jimmy Schaefer who's dad owned Fisherman's Paradise??

[moparbarn]

yes, but his dad owned schaefer electric, over by barry college. his uncle owned fisherman's paradise. if you remember his woodson with the 85 evinrude and doug grammes, then we have to know each other. do you remember a guy, lived a couple houses towards the blvd. from jimmy? revell, tim or allen, maybe. i remember him falling back against an exposed flywheel before a race in the bay up by haulover. i think he pretty much quit racing after that. tore him up pretty bad. he was more a friend/same age as ricky lindheimer. coyners, emersons, sextons, fishers, crooks- we have to know each other! revell was running a d or e runabout, if i remember right.

AIRWALK

[BUIZILLA]

yes, but his dad owned schaefer electric, over by barry college. his uncle owned fisherman's paradise. if you remember his woodson with the 85 evinrude and doug grammes, then we have to know each other. do you remember a guy, lived a couple houses towards the blvd. from jimmy? revell, tim or allen, maybe. i remember him falling back against an exposed flywheel before a race in the bay up by haulover. i think he pretty much quit racing after that. tore him up pretty bad. he was more a friend/same age as ricky lindheimer. coyners, emersons, sextons, fishers, crooks- we have to know each other! revell was running a d or e runabout, if i remember right.
AIRWALK

actually, the Sexton's sold their house to the Swing's... fishers is a void, crook's I remember very well, he went to Curley a year before me, Ronny Beline (sp) was around then too... sounds dumb, but I can't remember some names, (Horace Mann fog) but I damm sure remember every car they all drove that was visiting next door, every single one, including a 4 door something that Reed drove for awhile.. I can list every car everybody had right now perfectly clear... LOL... I thought I saw Reed at a boat show or bike show a couple years back... remember the Diamond sisters??? Chuck Kittell?? Astor's?? Eidenour? yowzaaaaaaaaaa, what a hell of a neighborhood... and this was before the Pumo's moved in on 102.. I remember Ted and me swapping 3 or 4 engines one day on his whaler, then he decided to flip the boat over on the dock and try and sand the hook out of the hull, duhhhhhhh... Ricky came over laughing his ass off, and told Ted to just use his 85 or a 65 with a 50 cowling instead... then we hung a 125 or 140 or something stupid on his Missile, and promptly stood it straight up into the wind in front of Brueil's house,, and about scared us to hell... Tokarski saw that, and quickly put twins on his missile, and he stood his up in the stadium one Sunday... Craig's sister was a hottie too... I can't even begin to count how many screws I helped Teddy put in those pickle boats of his... glue and screw was his motto, they were strong little trash cans... I think Grammes and Vitsur hung together, didn't one of the Grammes brothers die in a cave diving incident in Gainesville?

JH

[moparbarn]

really sorry to hear about ted swing. hope that the rumor about a grammes isn't true. last i heard of doug, he was in philly and had gone back to his dad's name-dickerman. might have been his little brother-wayne(?). mark sexton and i partied a lot. his brother paul was older, and andy, the middle one had a car by then, and was never around much.what was the guy's name who lived across from you that had a 65 gto and then a 454 chevelle? how about cathy(?) mcgahee, 70 or 71 black hemi cuda- nice when daddy owns half the dealership. at ted's you would remember me in a light cream 67 camaro, or next a blue honda 750. there was a connecting road from 103 down to about 100 or 99, cathy(?) lived on one corner, who was on the other? lots of partys there after school!

AIRWALK

[BUIZILLA]

this is tooooo wierd... the black Hemi/auto Cuda was sold to another friend of mine George Bassett, whose parents ran Southeast Banks, that car is still around... he is now heavily into Buicks like I am, I hung with the other McGahey cousins in the Gables that 1/2 owned McGahey Chrysler-Ply where my blue 340 Duster came from... the Chevelle was a dark blue/black guts LS6/M22 that belonged to Chuck DeNote, that came from Sark Chev when I worked there as a whippersnapper, I was in charge of all the HiPo new cars there in 69-70 when they came in and I got fired racing Chucks new car, when I passed Leon Sarkisian about abucktwenty on US1 and 151 street... the only cream 67 Camaro I remember was Ted's mom convert, but I think it was SS350 pale yellow/black top/black guts powerglide, Ronnie B. had a '68 4 speed SS427 red/black/black Impala, somebody else had a light green 4 speed 409 '63 Impala SS, there was a red/black 67 442 Olds, an orange/black 69 SS396 4 speed Chevelle, Ted had a green dual quad 57 'Bird 3 speed he towed the boats with, then he got a blue tripower 68 435 vette 4 speed, somebody had a red/white guts 4 speed 65 Chevelle, somebody else had 67 390 GT red/white Mustang, Crook's dad had a black/white LeMans, Reed had a 4 door Dodge? there was about a dozen more... like I said, can't remember some names, but their toys and boats I remember... I think Ted built 5 or 6 of those boats, don't remember exactly.... one went to an older guy who hung around with his young son, helluva nice guy, I think he worked at another boat mfg. place and raced D and E's too?? I used to go with Ted to every single local race for 2-3 years except the Taveres/Mt Dora race, we would test props every week, as many as 6-10 at a time, I had to keep prop notes for him so I scribbled the speed on each prop with a magic marker. Ted didn't want anyone to know how fast each prop was, so we would mark each on 3 mph less than what they really did, nobody would borrow and trash his props that way LOLOL.. he wanted the fastest of his boats for himself so he would wet sand the varnish or paint the day before a race, and the boat would pick up about 1/2 to 1 mph... then he would varnish the bottom the day after and sell them... I don't think he ever got any free motors from Merc, but he loved those old Mark engines dearly...

JH

[lilabner]

I think the McGaheys in the Gables came from Palm Island. I grew up next to them. Pat and Jill were the kids. My parents and their parents were heavy drinking buddies. Every weekend at our house or theirs the booze flowed. We used to go to the Deauville with them all the time. The dad Willard owned Miami Beach Motors. We also hung with the Belchers..I loved growing up in Miami Beach..a great life.

[2us70]

yes, but his dad owned schaefer electric, over by barry college. his uncle owned fisherman's paradise. if you remember his woodson with the 85 evinrude and doug grammes, then we have to know each other. do you remember a guy, lived a couple houses towards the blvd. from jimmy? revell, tim or allen, maybe. i remember him falling back against an exposed flywheel before a race in the bay up by haulover. i think he pretty much quit racing after that. tore him up pretty bad. he was more a friend/same age as ricky lindheimer. coyners, emersons, sextons, fishers, crooks- we have to know each other! revell was running a d or e runabout, if i remember right.

AIRWALK

That was Allen Rebell at Pellican Harbor. The motor kept breaking timing belts so Allen took the top cover off so he could quickly replace them. He was lucky his Gentex jacket saved him from much more severe injury.Allen kept on racing after that for several years.

[2us70]

Ted Swing had a big handicap when racing. He had terrible vision and he couldn't see the start clock from where we would begin the run to the starting line. Wearing his glasses didn't work so he would just follow the first boats down until he got close enough to see the clock. Whenever Teddy got running good we would sucker him into jumping the gun or starting way off speed to avoid jumping.

[BUIZILLA]

There was a Bob and Tom McGahey, both had kids and both lived in the Gables. They split ownership of the 2nd Ave Chry-Ply store. Willard was the older patriarch. I hung with Tom's kids, Melinda, Tommy and Willard, they lived across from Alhambra canal just east of Red Road.

this topic brings back a TON of teen cool stuff, boy, I wouldn't trade those days for nuthin'

JH

[lilabner]

I remember Tom, and don't forget his brother Commisioner or Congressman Ben...Willards wife Judy was a knockout drop dead georgous woman..my dad knew her from college..she would pick us up from school, drive around the neighborhood, walk from house to house, in short shorts and a bra..and she was well stacked..didn't like panties either..she was not bashful in any way..I remember one TV night in particular..Rocky Marciano was fighting for the Championship.. my dad and Willard were in the kitchen when the fight started, getting their drinks and snacks ready..now remember this was in the 50's..no instant replay..18 seconds into the first round Rocky knocked the dude out..I ran into the kitchen to tell them..needless to say they were crushed..On his way home Willard passed out..fell off our porch into the flowerbed..out cold..A few years later I had Rocky on my paper route in Pinecrest..late 50's..

[moparbarn]

how many of you remember emerald bay yacht club, or families were members? i know i learned how to sail and basic boat handling there, i was aout 7 or 8-late 50's . i remember the name stokes, but more as friends of my parents on a social level. i've seen mention of a sikes, and of questionable character. did he have a younger brother , wayne? run with mike crooks and lived over by grand concourse with his parents originally? if so, i went to grade school (miami shores elem.) with his brother. am i the only one who remembers the 12 cyl. merc up at maule lake? i never saw it move, always parked in the same place, visible from us1.also, still want to know whose trophy it is for 64 around the beach race class V outboard 1st place. talked to seller, they don't know, bought it at a flea market in mt. dora. i'd like to give it back, but i need help with finding out whose it is.i i know these aren't outboards, but how about the grey ghost, sure looked great with the vapor trail from the wet stacks on either side of the boat. wasn't that jim wynne? or the aluminum boat with the twin turbines? boy, talk about scream and fly, that one did! had forgotten that my next door neighbors, the burns, ran that race. way too rough, made it to nassua and dropped out. they had a formula 223 long deck- pre thunderbird. dr. burns' daughters, robin and cindy, talked him into ocean racing. took the boat to holman&moody, down on the miami river, and they installed hipo 289s and didn't put on counter rotating outdrives. first time we took it out, he showered down on it, and it damn near swapped ends. scared the sh** out of him. his wife never set foot in it again. i think he ran 1 goldcoast and maybe miami to key largo race. his daughters were 5 or 6 years older than me and both real good looking. drove a 65 or 66 dark blue mustang with a white convertible top. this thread makes me want to jump on my bicycle and go play. i can still visualize standing on top of my house on 105 st., 6 house west of the blvd., and see the ocean. i remember 1 2 story apt building from the blvd. to the bay. every thing else was vacant. no condos at the end, no townhouses,nothing.
we had a 23' v-king (before fibra) with a white 140 hp sterndrive. kept breaking lower units skiing, so we repowered with a black 160 hp. all work done at skyway marine, of course. had a 45 gal tank, you could go forever in that boat. set it about 2800 to 3200 and make miami to key west without refueling. big pine key took just over 3/4 tank. i know, because i worked at seacamp on big pine during the summers as their mechanic for a couple summers-68,69, i think. ever go to any of the parties on the islands in the bay. not south bay or stiltsville, i mean up btween 79th and 125 st bridges? particularly the one right out from 104 canal. we would tell the parents we were camping, but it was really because we weren't able to make it home later. i'm not sure i could've found the canal, 200 yards away, even with that ugly 14 story condo right at the mouth of it. never got as sick as ronnie, but i chummed for a lot of bait around that island.

AIRWALK

[2us70]

The 12 cyl Mercury was a fake. All they did was stack a second wraparound and top cowling on top of a old Merc 100. The top half was empty and would fall off if you moved the boat.

[BUIZILLA]

hope we're not getting toooo off topic.... the Stokes family lived in the Grove, Tom, John, Claudia, heavy sailors, as was our family, I learned to sail at Pelican Harbor in the mid 60's, then MYC, then CRYC, then taught sailing at Marine Staduim and CRYC until college...Stocks family lived in the Shores, Tom, Tim and a sister (?)... heavy sailors too, Gideon Stocks and Dr. Art Wood was my sailing instructor. Then came boat racing.... oy vey... the 104 island was our landmark party hole, as was the one right off PHYC dock... we sat on the 104 island and watched the races in the mid 60's from there...before I had a boat I took a surfboard and paddled from our dock to the island... Coyner's Aquasport and Schaefer's Woodson hauled the coolers, my Cobia was the ski and ferry boat, as was Swing's Champ (the old man NEVER knew, nor did Ted)... heavy partying was ALWAYS at beer can island by Haulover, softer sand LOL, I got more ass on that island than a toilet seat, this was from 67-70ish... I still remember being able to see the bottom of the 103 canal on a sunny day when the north bay had clean water... we would race all the local home built boats from the blvd bridge at 104, dead stop, to Coyner's dock... loser bought ski gas money, 37 cents a gallon for premium at PHYC, then we would steal the barricades on the blvd and use them for lighted buoys in north Maule Lake finger for ski buoys along with the golf course hole markers stuck in styrofoam slabs... you could slalom course ski at night, and never miss a blinking buoy...

geezus...

[lilabner]

This Stokes family lived in the Pinecrest area, right behind Palmetto High..Mom taught there..If you were a blowboater, then you might remember Chet Tingler, both senior and junior..Senior brought the Cougar Cats to the US, and won most of the Miami-Key Largo races..My brother ran with them..He was a Sailboater and I went for Mercs and speed..

[BUIZILLA]

I've been driving right by Palmetto High, every work day, for the last 25 years or so... did it twice today too.. two of my brother's graduated (or so they say?) from PHS..

JH