By Tom Oncken
Since I joined AOMCI and its Texas Chapter in the late 1980’s, the number of local chapter meets has dwindled throughout the years. Our meets in my early days were spread across the state from mid-Texas near San Antonio to the Red River north of the Dallas Metroplex area. Unfortunately, just as with the overall growth of AOMCI, a lot of our older gatherings were discontinued due to a loss of membership. Currently, most of our meets are centered across the mid-section of our state and meets in the northern portions of the state have all but disappeared.
The Texas Chapter has lost three primary meets over the years including a wet meet at Lake Texoma on the Red River at the Sheppard Air Force Base Annex, a recurring annual swap meet at George Jacob’s outboard repair shop in Sherman, Texas, and a wet meet at Cypress Springs Marina located halfway between Dallas and the Arkansas border. The deaths of two beloved Texas Chapter members lead to cancellation of the first two aforementioned meets. Retired USAF officer, Frank Jacobs, was our connection with Sheppard Air Force Base Annex, and past AOMCI Membership Chairman, George Jacobs, was the mainstay of our repetitive visits to Sherman, Texas year after year. The Sherman meet and the passing of George was an extreme loss to our Texas Chapter. Last, but not least, we lost Cypress Springs Marina to a thing called “progress”. The whole area was bulldozed, condos were built, and our wonderful meet site was sold. With it, our northern meets have become past history for many years.
A few years ago, one of our younger and newer members began talking about inviting us to his home in northern Texas for a swap meet, but it stalled for a while. With the subsequent loss of another wet meet last year at the Longhorn Resort in Kingsland, Texas, the topic came up again. With some encouragement from our Texas Chapter officers, Tony Robinson of Lipan, Texas volunteered to give it a try early this year, and The First Annual Lipan Swap Meet was born. Tony and his wonderful wife, Andrea, decided to open their homestead to a bunch of old outboard nuts, and the new swap meet was scheduled for Saturday, March 10, 2018. Tony solicited the help of fellow member, Ben McCauley of Weatherford, Texas, and the two of them began preparation for our chapter’s return to north Texas.
Friday, March 9th, was not originally scheduled as part of the formal meet date; however, a number of our members arrived early on Friday at the encouragement of Tony and Ben. My son, Mike Oncken, and his two sons, Tommy and Charlie, packed up my old ’99 Suburban and we made the 6 hour trip to Lipan. The kids slept most of the way in the back seat while Mike and I fought the traffic associated with the annual “Spring Break” session that was just beginning in the Houston area. In spite of the crazy drivers on our Texas highways, the four of us arrived unharmed around 3:00pm on Friday afternoon.
John Slator of New Ulm, Texas had arrived several hours earlier and had already set up a table to display a number of NOS props, some used props, test wheels, prop nuts, and a few other items only a true Texan could appreciate. Tony and Rich Reich of Corsicana, Texas took us on the tour of our new meet site including Tony’s workshop and surrounding property. Tony has several rows of vintage outboard motors hanging in his workshop as well as a few old vehicles and various boats. The area behind his shop even has a row of antique tractors lined up. A young fellow after my own heart, Tony is a hoarder like many of us.
As the daylight began fading, Jim Norbeck and his son, Tyler Urban-Norbeck, finally arrived after fighting traffic from just north of Houston to Lipan. My group of four still needed to go check-in at our hotel; however, Tony informed us that that John Hanson, the preacher/minister at his nearby Church of Christ, had invited us all to attend a dinner being held at John’s personal residence located only a few blocks away. It was an amazing evening as ten of our Texas Chapter members enjoyed excellent Cajun cuisine that John’s family and friends had prepared. The food was outstanding! We were welcomed with open arms to a complimentary meal, and the only requirement was that we had to add the name “Thibodeaux” to the end of our names on our drinking cups so we would fit in. Good food and good company . . . . what else could we ask for?
Well, Tony was not finished yet. He and Ben invited us to take a quick trip to the town of Granbury, Texas which is just twenty to thirty minutes down the highway. They wanted to show us a Texas Historic Landmark to which they had close ties. It is the old power plant for the town of Granbury and is formally called the Granbury Light Plant. It has been well preserved since its closure in 1954 and contains three giant Fairbanks-Morse Type Y diesel engines inside. The “Granbury Flywheelers” were responsible for the restoration of the equipment within the plant, and they continue to maintain and operate the machinery today.
Imagine our surprise to not only enter this unmanned building in the evening hours, but to witness all three of these massive engines run. There are more items in the building than I can describe in this article, but suffice it to say, there are three main two-cycle diesel engines inside including a single cylinder 50HP, a twin cylinder 100HP, and a three cylinder 180HP. The flywheels alone on these monsters weigh as much as my old Suburban, if not more. It was an amazing sight that gave new meaning to “stationary engines”. Keep in mind that the swap meet had not really started yet, and we stayed at the plant until after 10:00pm soaking up the history. The day finally came to an end as we headed to the hotel so we could revive before returning to Tony’s house on Saturday morning.
Needless to say, we were a little sluggish getting up the next morning, and after a breakfast at the nearby McDonald’s (I had to keep the grandsons happy), we headed back to Lipan and arrived a little late at around 10:00am. John Slator, Rich Reich, Jim Norbeck, and Tyler Urban-Norbeck had spent the night in Tony and Andrea’s personal travel trailer that Tony stores next to his workshop. It is my understanding that the night air was so comforting that Tyler opted to use a nearby hammock outside rather than endure the snoring of the other three in the trailer. Another long-distance visitor, Greg Ganz of Katy, Texas also made his appearance on Saturday morning. John “Meatball” Murray arrived early to pick up a 1970’s Johnson from John Slator and purchased a 1980’s Mercury Classic 50 from Tony. Meatball’s visit was short-lived as he was loaded and ready to return to his home in Kingsland, Texas just as we drove in.
Mike Oncken took Tommy (7) and Charlie (6) to an area within the shop and set them up with a couple of old parts motors that Tony had provided. Loaning them the tool bag from my old Suburban, Mike instructed the boys to begin dismantling the motors. Mike intentionally had not allowed the boys to bring their “tablets” with them on this trip. [For you older members, “tablets” are not paper notepads, but instead are electronic devices designed to occupy children and to waste time.] Mike wanted his boys to focus their attention on the old boats and motors this weekend. I recall hearing comments such as “lefty-loosey” and “righty-tighty” as the boys learned about screwdrivers and combination wrenches for the first time. I also recall hearing, “No, you cannot have a hammer!” It was pure joy watching those two disassemble the two outboard motors. It reminded me of years long ago when Mike disassembled our home rotary telephone. [For you younger members, “rotary” telephones had a circular rotating dial that you spun with a finger to dial, as opposed to pushing buttons.] He sure better watch those two boys closely in the near future. Paybacks are hell, Mike!
Not knowing how many Texas Chapter members would make it to this first-ever swap meet, Tony wanted to make sure that there would be a number of people in attendance. So, he decided to invite the “Granbury Flywheelers” which is the local group that he and Ben have joined that collect and restore stationary engines. Ronnie Barton of Crowley, Texas; Billy Boone of Mineral Wells, Texas; Greg and Jonah Boyd of Weatherford, Texas; M. G. Madden of Burleson, Texas; M. J. Parker of Granbury, Texas; and Allan Wright of Weatherford, Texas made a spectacular effort to load up some of their heavy functioning stationary engines and ran them for the majority of the day on Saturday. I have to admit, I had difficulty determining how these unusual contraptions can run so steady and so slow for so long. One of the more massive engines actually tried to get away as it vibrated the trailer on which it was attached and caused the trailer to drop off of the jack stands that were used to level it. No harm was done to the engine or trailer and it was reset in just a few moments.
In addition to his nicely restored bright red “stationary” engine, Ronnie Barton also brought his 14’ Lone Star aluminum boat with a nicely restored 1957 Johnson 18HP with electric start. Ronnie has some special machining skills as was evident by a special device that he built for this outboard. He created a special shift handle that attached to the shift lever on the side of the motor that he could operate from the front by a handle attached to the front steering bar. I would like to offer my personal thanks to Ronnie and the rest of the “Granbury Flywheelers” for their participation in our meet. It was just one of the many unexpected surprises that Tony and Ben had for us while we participated.
Weldon Eklund made the short trip from his home in Oak Point, Texas and brought a few old Johnson square tanks and a little Mercury-built Wizard single cylinder. Weldon said that he went through his collection a few times and would pick out a motor, but then would decide that he just did not want to get rid of it and would put it back. Finally, Weldon decided to bring a few duplicates from his collection and was successful in selling them all. Tony became the new owner of Weldon’s little Wizard while Ben purchased two Johnson outboards, a model A-25 and A-35. Greg Boyd of the “Granbury Flywheelers” took home a nice 1929 Johnson 7.2HP outboard to add to his stationary engine collection. I think I sense a potential new member here guys.
Dave Samstag from Bridgeport, Texas brought items for sale including a nice fold-up Evinrude in its original case. There were a number of other items available as Dave had a few tables loaded with all sorts of outboard related stuff for us to choose from. Before the meet was over, Mike purchased a tool box from Dave that was full of screwdrivers and wrenches for his boys to take home with them. I also saw a hammer in there, so watch out Mike!
An excellent barbecue lunch was catered in from Natty Flat Smokehouse of Lipan, which is near the home of the World’s Largest Cedar Rocking Chair according to the Guinness Book of World Records (the surprises this weekend were never ending). Meal tickets were sold and then Andrea got the chore of going to pick up the food. Thank you, Andrea! We all know that this is the most important part of any given meet. The luncheon consisted of sliced brisket, chopped brisket, sausage, potato salad, beans, coleslaw, and a number of condiments. Buns were provided if a brisket sandwich was desired. Sliced onions and barbecue sauce were available for sandwich toppers. Desserts included peach cobbler and banana pudding. Nobody left hungry from this meet and if someone did, it was absolutely their own fault!
Unfortunately, our Texas Chapter President, Adam Finn, was not able to attend this meet and he sent his apologies to Tony, Andrea, and Ben. Adam had just returned from a trip to Argentina and became very ill when he got back home on the Wednesday immediately prior to the meet. He decided that it was not a good idea for him to attend for fear of being openly ill or passing something on to others. I assured Adam not to worry as our chapter Secretary, Chip Rathbun, and I were both present to cover for him.
The weather could not have been better at this event as temperatures were cool at night and only somewhat warm during the day. There was no rain to be seen. Blue skies remained overhead for the entire day of the event. Considering our strange weather patterns over the past six months, Tony and Ben lucked out for their first-ever swap meet.
A number of Tony’s personal friends were in attendance including Eddy Forbes, Larry Mayo, Mike Morrison, Dirk Roberts, and David Stobaugh. Larry surprised everyone as he brought a very nicely restored 1967 Boston Whaler with its matching 1967 Johnson V-4 outboard. Now that all of these gentlemen have been introduced to a Texas Chapter swap meet, perhaps they will consider joining AOMCI and our Texas Chapter (it is my understanding that Larry has already committed to joining). It is great to have supportive friends when you are hosting a meet for the first time. Thank you gentlemen!
The meet started thinning out a few hours after our lunch as those who traveled from a distance wanted to leave early enough to get home at a decent hour. I was told that Jim Norbeck and Tyler Urban-Norbeck stayed after the meet on Saturday night and volunteered to help Tony clean up and return some of his things back to where they belonged. Good work Jim and Tyler! After spending an additional night in Tony’s trailer, Jim and Tyler left at daybreak on Sunday.
Well, this wraps up my dissertation on The First Annual Lipan Swap Meet. Tony has assured me that we will do this again next year. I want to congratulate Tony and Ben on such an outstanding effort to make this meet the success that it turned out to be. It appears that just under thirty individuals were in attendance at one time or another, and we wish to thank them all for their efforts. Not a bad job for a couple of rookies! It looks like the Texas Chapter has returned to north Texas, and we look forward to seeing all of you folks there again next year!
To see the rest of the pictures submitted(which is a lot!), click the following link: http://www.texaschapteraomci.com/gallery/the-first-lipan-swap-meet/