Life at Lake X in the '60s

[JP Love]

Good memories..

[digital_jeff]

Here is the opposite view and a close-up of the early engines. In the wide shot, if you look to the right of the podium, there appears to be a stacker and a few other race models. The front of the room appears to have the current production models for that year (1969). Actually, the way marketing goes, since this was shot in '69, those could very well be the '70 line-up. Cropped out of this image is a drone starter engine hanging from the ceiling.
Also - if you look closely at the first collection shot, there is a board leaning against the wall on the left that has a bunch of race gearcases attached to it.

jeff

[digital_jeff]

On occasion, I have seen these duck foot stands listed on ebay. I imagine they can fetch a pretty penny.

jeff

[BobbyR]

Greetings....
I am at Carl and Jeanne's for the nite and will be in Fla for a couple of weeks. Is anyone out there??/ We have talked with Odell and Gene Wagnor and would like to talk to more. My phone no. is 281-222-2828. Carl, Jeanne and I have had a blast talking about all of you.
BobbtR

[JFL]

HJ is still there, the bar is history.

[bernie]

That all you have to do on a Friday night? Come back up to Iceland and shovel fricken snow. 1 degree out this morning, warming up to 4 tomorrow AM, a regular heat wave. Did you make it to the Packer game? If this weather doesn't change, I grabbing the camper and going South - see if I can park out at Dale's ranch for a month.

[Mike Ramsey]

Bernie
You should not have left Fl in the first place. In the 50's know

Mike R

[nianticgary]

Jeff,
The latest photos of the museum were awsome. A veritable candy store for big boys. I would have loved a couple of hours in the room. Probably would have had a bib on so I wouldn't be drooling all over myself. Steve, did any of the "experimental" motors ever get into the collection? I assume that most were used in racing and many ended up in private hands. I know that the dealer I worked for always seemed to have some non production Mercury motors around which he let us "kids" beat the crap out of and go fast. He himself would get in our boats and make them go even faster with some fine tuning. I also know he did talk to Carl K from time to time and they were on first name basis. I guess Wisconsin Germans got along with New England Swedes.
Gary Larson

[seeroy]

John - I particularly liked the part about "Please do not litter". I assume that means, if you crash your boat, please do not leave it on the bottom of the lake. - Steve

[seeroy]

How much stuff would you say one would find on the bottom of the lake, especially in the deep hole to the laft of the tower?

Back in post #31 (1/27/05) I talked about draggin for the body of Jim Prey. We pulled many logs from the bottom during that 3 day search before we got Jim out of the lake. Surprisingly to me, most of that was out in the middle of the lake on the North end. I don't really know how deep it is/was in most spots or what the bottom consisted of. The water was very dark from the cypress tree release, so that one could not see very far down. I would imagine that there are alot of boat and motor parts on the bottom. There may even be a few catfish traps left from an interesting entreprenurial enterprise that took place in the '60s (see post #43). What I do know is that the Lake consumed several hats blown from my head as well as all kinds of missles (wet rags, bananas, apples, oranges, water balloons, etc.) that we threw at each other. -Steve

[T2x]

Back in post #31 (1/27/05) I talked about draggin for the body of Jim Prey. We pulled many logs from the bottom during that 3 day search before we got Jim out of the lake. Surprisingly to me, most of that was out in the middle of the lake on the North end. I don't really know how deep it is/was in most spots or what the bottom consisted of. The water was very dark from the cypress tree release, so that one could not see very far down. I would imagine that there are alot of boat and motor parts on the bottom. There may even be a few catfish traps left from an interesting entreprenurial enterprise that took place in the '60s (see post #43). What I do know is that the Lake consumed several hats blown from my head as well as all kinds of missles (wet rags, bananas, apples, oranges, water balloons, etc.) that we threw at each other. -Steve

I know of at least one prop.......and half a prop shaft....

T2x

[digital_jeff]

I want to see if anyone has any info on this picture. Pretty sure it is at the lake from some items in the background - but where? I don't remember the part of the building at the top right of the picture.

jeff

[digital_jeff]

I lost a large lens hood about 50 yds east of the tower - that's the best I can do...

[Tom Smyth]

Use to wrench with a guy in mid 70's in Orlando who worked at the lake as a mechanic. Think his name was Steve McKinney(?). He told a few stories , one about late night boat loads of parts that were taken out and dumped in the lake so no one would know they ever existed. He worked there for several years. Just another story that gets better with age i guess

[digital_jeff]

John - That is also where I thought it was, however there are other shots showing windows that don't match what I remember.
I'll post another in a few minutes.

jeff