David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64854
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Erle Stanley Gardner
Here's a never before published photo of Uncle Erle, just getting off the helicopter. Note the goggles on his hat. Photo from Choral Pepper and will
be added to http://ChoralPepper.com
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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Uncle Erle's photo
That is a great old photo of Gardener. I know who the shadow belongs to....an old friend of mine, JW (Blackjack) Black of Paradise, Ca...and inventor
of many vehicles ('Packrats' & 'Grasshoppers') and other helpful gadgets used on these and other expeditions into Baja. If I could ever figure out
how to post some photos on this forum for you I know you would enjoy them. Maybe you could send me a tutorial on posting photos...beginner style.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64854
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Hi Pompano, good eyes spotting the shadow of JW! Have you seen all the photos I have put on http://choralpepper.com so far?
If your photos are in your computer's files, then click on 'Browse' just below where you type you message for a new post. Then click on the photo you
want to show, that's all.
If your photos are on a web page, then right click on the photo, copy the url on the pop up that has the photo's properties and come back here, click
on the box that has the landscape image (right above the place you type onto), and paste the url into the pop up that appears.
Well, that's my non-technical explanation... You may have to reduce the file size of your photos first to meet Doug's 50 kb limit.
One of Choral's pictures...
[Edited on 12-2-2004 by David K]
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bajalou
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4459
Registered: 3-11-2004
Location: South of the broder
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Looks like you got it - great shot.
No Bad Days
\"Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference\"
\"The trouble with doing nothing is - how do I know when I\'m done?\"
Nomad Baja Interactive map
And in the San Felipe area - check out Valle Chico area |
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bajapablo
Nomad
Posts: 226
Registered: 1-27-2004
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you are very fortunate
to wake up to a view like that.
\"changes it lattitudes, changes in attitudes\"
J.Buffet
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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OLD JW BLACK PHOTOS...
Here's some early photos I have of my old friend and campmate, Blackjack (JW Black)..ramrod and inventor for Uncle Erle's expeditions into
Baja. A great fellow and the best story teller around a campfire I ever heard.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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JW Black
This photo is from the old tienda on the highway next to Posada in Conception Bay. Around 1977. Blackjack with a sweet gal named Marlena who ran
that store (anybody remember her?) and wife, Lois.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Blackjack
this is at the gypsum mine on San Marcos Island. We got covered in white dust from the grinders. Blackjack, wife, and mine manager. 1974
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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Blackjack's Inventions
JW Black was a very smart hombre. At first sight he looked like a hillbilly wandering loose in Baja, but as you talked to him and listened, you
began to realize this was one intelligent character. He invented a host of things for Erle Stanly Gardener's expeditions and ramrodded the trips down
into Baja for years. One of those gadgets was this 4X4 Baja bug called a 'grasshopper'..he also made the 'packrat', which was a small collasping
scooter they could carry in the helicopters.
Blackjack was great friends with Uncle Erle. It was Gardener's wish that when he died his ashes would return to Baja, but when he did die his
widow had different ideas and wanted the ashes to stay on her mantel. Blackjack knew Erle's wish and so JW and friends 'liberated' his urn and flew
to Baja where they scattered the ashes out the window high above the Sea of Cortez.
Blackjack loved to fly..learning as a youngster and doing some barnstorming around the nation.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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Jack of all trades....
that motto was made for men like Blackjack. This photo is of him and a few other friends helping me build my water tower in Coyote Bay in the 70's.
Blackjack did all the welding. Blackjack first 'waterwitched' the area and found the best spot to dig. We hit good water at 9 feet. Been pumping an
average of 5000 gallons a day since then..all mountain runoff water headed for the ocean 300 feet away. The tower creates about 30 lbs. pressure. I
supply 10 houses, a ranch across the road, and a cafe with free freshwater... thanks to some friends like Blackjack.
One day Blackjack, myself, and Manuel Diaz went into the mountains behind Coyote Bay and JW waterwitched a well for Manuel, who wanted to start some
crops on fertile land he owned back there. I was a first-time skeptic of witching, but changed my mind after watching him, then Manuel, and finally
myself, find water. I could'nt keep those damn wands from crossing though I tried to keep them straight ahead. The well was dug by hand with a
windlass and they found good water at 80 feet.
Blackjack was quite a guy.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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True Grit....
some of Blackjack's attributes were a genuine modesty of his own good deeds.
a great sense of humor, and an ability to regale us all at our evening campfires and cookouts.
People from all the remote and mountain villages of Baja remember him for his generosity of clothing, baseball equipment, homemade wooden toys, and
his persistance in fixing whatever was wrong with any engine, device, or contraption he found busted wherever he went in Baja. And the folks
remembered him for that spirit. I went on an expedition with him in 1973 to the San Luis Comondus in the hinterland (took 9 hours in the
'grasshopper' to get there from the blacktop highway between the Bay and Loreto. Few northeners had been there before. We were winding around a high
mountain trail and then saw laid out, about a thousand feet below, the two little villages along the waterway. Quite scenic. Blackjack had not been
back to these villages for about 10 years. When we drove into town and stopped by the church in the square the padre came running out, shouting
"Senor Black..senor Black!" The whole village turned out to welcome him...and us. They set up an impromtu lunch right there on the little plaza and
we experienced that old Baja charm and hospitality...the feeling that keeps us coming back.
Our evening campfires and cookouts were our social hour in those days...no TV, no radio..just us to entertain ourselves. Lots of singing, guitars,
and storytelling. Nobody excelled at storytelling like Blackjack. He always wore an old floppy hat with a scorpion pinned to the horsehair braid.
He used Beechnut chewing tobacco and would have a good chaw before getting ready to spin a good one. Remember back when there was the trouble at the
reactor at Three Mile Island, well, one night in the mid-70's or so, a fellow from Las Vegas was at our fire..there was maybe 30 all told...and this
fellow said, "Hey, Blackjack, you know about a whole lot of things...why don't you explain to all us here about how nuclear reactors work?" Blackjack
looked around for a place to spit and then said, "Well, before I answer that, can I ask you a couple of questions?" "Sure.", Las Vegas said. "Do you
know what sheep pellets look like, feller?" Blackjack asks. "No..no, can't say I do." says Vegas "Know what deer scat looks like?" "Nope."
"Have you ever seen a cow pie?" "Don't think so." sighs Vegas. Blackjack spits again and leans back in his campchair saying, "Well, here you are
asking me about nuclear reactors and you don't know sh*t."
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Mexitron
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3397
Registered: 9-21-2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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Mood: Happy!
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Sounded like a great guy, thanks for the memories.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64854
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Thank you so much! This is wonderful...
Where is JW today? I have talked with Bruce Barron on the phone, one of the gang... Ricardo Castillo, too. Great memories, all.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
Member Is Offline
Mood: Optimistic
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JW's metate
those were some very hard working women.....the lab pup, Cheyenne, thinks this one is her spot for collecting shells.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Mexray
Super Nomad
Posts: 1016
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: California Delta
Member Is Offline
Mood: Baja Time
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Pompano...
Gosh...what great stuff you've given us today! Your pictures are just what we need to keep the 'Baja Juices' flowing while we're away in the cold up
here in Alta California waiting for our turn to head south!
I sure hope we have a chance to meet and swap stories when we're settled in again at Playa Los Naranjos, on the Bahia. Keep well.
According to my clock...anytime is \'BAJA TIME\' & as Jimmy Buffett says,
\"It doesn\'t use numbers or moving hands It always just says now...\"
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