Memorable Weekend Blind Date, Crystal Ball and Hydroplane Racing - Dave’s Midwestern Ohio Memories

A Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s.

Memorable Weekend - Blind Date, Crystal Ball and Hydroplane Racing

Typhoon Joolie E-396 © Phil Kunz

It was 1968, near the end of my freshman year in college, just a week before our fraternity pledge class was to be initiated. Traditionally, the pledge class “kidnaps” an upper class-man for the weekend and takes a road trip. Our “victim” was the fraternity brother who nicknamed all of us pledges after bars in his hometown of Buffalo, NY. Our nickname for him was Amos and he had a hydroplane named Typhoon Joolie, pictured above, which he was to race that Sunday on Grand Lake St. Mary’s; so off our pledge class went to see the race and do some partying. We called ourselves the Famous Amos Racing Team (FART). Before Sunday’s race, we stayed at the New City Hotel in Minster, owned by my uncle and aunt. I convinced my sister, who was in nurses training at St. E’s in Dayton, to arrange blind dates for all of us. Off we and our blind dates went to Crystal Ball in Frenchtown on Saturday night before the race, where local legendary band, the Bumblebees, were playing. The older brother of a high school classmate was in the band.

To better set the scene, recognize that our fraternity, Theta Xi, was nicknamed Theta Zoo around campus; the photo below gives you some indication of why. For more about this motley crew, click on this previous blog post.

Theta Zoo: Duke, Otis, Eli, Ozzie, Lerczak & Jackie, all nicknamed
after Amos’s favorite Buffalo NY bars back in the 60’s. One of
the bars, Duke’s, is still in business.

As might be expected, the blind dates did not go well. The Bumblebees had a tradition of playing Green Onions as their closing song, but that night we missed it, because our dates had enough of us. We left early, dropped off our dates and the guys adjourned to Bud’s Place across the street from our hotel to drown our sorrows and share the ghastly escapades! To this day, whenever I run into any of those girls, now ladies, who were one of the blind dates, we relive that forgetful night and share some laughs. And my sister will probably never forgive me!

Crystal Ball had quite a history, believe it or not, originally as chicken coop across the street from the Baltes family restaurant. The Baltes’ had two kids, Earl and Jimmie, who had makeshift band instruments they played in the coop, scaring the heck out of the chickens. They eventually became the Melody Makers, a legendary band that played many local parties and weddings. Read more about Earl Baltes and his passion for bands at this blog post. According to this 2005 Daily Standard article about Jimmie Baltes, in the 40’s, the chicken coop was converted into the famous dance hall, eventually hosting such popular groups as Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Sammy Kaye, Tommy Dorsey & Guy Lombardo. According to the article, Guy Lombardo and his band were booked for a gig at the Crystal Ballroom, thinking it was some fancy dance hall near a larger Ohio city. When they arrived to find the place located between two corn fields, they were miffed, but when 1500 showed up for the show, all went much better than expected. And how coincidental is this; Guy Lombardo also raced hydroplanes!

On Sunday afternoon, we finally make it out to Grand Lake St. Marys for the big hydroplane race, and low and behold, in the very first heat, Typhoon Joolie hits a wave the wrong way, the wooden hull cracks wide open and the boat sinks! Famous Amos was ok, but his FART racing team was devastated. However, the story has a happy ending, as the boat was eventually restored to race again. In fact, according to a hydroplane racing blog, it’s still in sailable condition somewhere around Buffalo, NY. Hydroplane racing continues to this day every summer on Lake St. Marys as evidenced by this 2013 YourTube video.

Speaking of happy endings, Crystal Ball happens to be where I first met my wife a few years later! She was sitting with her friend, my cousin from Russia, while the Bumblebees were taking a break, so I went over to say hi and be introduced to the cute brown-eyed brunette. Soon the band started up, and I asked her to dance, but she turned me down, always insisting it was likely because she didn’t want to leave my cousin stranded. But I think it had more to do with that Theta Zoo thing again, as she (fortunately) doesn’t even remember that first introduction! Fast forward a year or so later, I had graduated from college and cleaned up my act when we thankfully reconnected again and since that moment, have been living happily ever after.