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Roger
Trad climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Jan 30, 2006 - 01:01pm PT
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I'll add one short Largo story, from the late 1970's at JT. After a morning of climbing around Intersection Rock, John was walking back into Hidden Valley Campground along the entrance road. An elderly driver in a large RV was leaving the campground, and he almost hit John with the right side of his wide vehicle. I heard this loud yell "Stop! Stop you motherf**r!" John was holding onto the huge (three feet high) side mirror on the RV, looking like he was about to rip it off. He continued to yell at the driver, and the old guy was slinking down in the driver's seat, probably pissing his pants. The driver must have started to reach down with one hand, because Largo then yelled "Are you grabbing a gun? Go ahead, shoot me, see what happens then."
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de eee
Mountain climber
Tustin
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Jan 30, 2006 - 02:24pm PT
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I remember a funny comment E (E. Ericcson) made in the late '70s when we were climbing alot together. We were talking about hanging out with "Largo" et al. and Eric said, "If we didn't have loads he wouldn't give us the time of day!"
It wasn't really true because on our early trips to the Valley John gave us all the Valley living beta. Where to score a shower, where to wash clothes, and maybe even how to score meals in the cafeteria. It was that skill and the canning money that made the long broke visits possible.
One time "Sketchy" and I pulled off a well executed late night pilfering of the stash of returned cans. We hid in the woods over by Camp Curry and crushed them, then the next day made the rounds of all the rebate spots, never turning in too many at a time to avoid arousing suspicion. The $20 each was good for a couple more weeks in paradise!
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de eee
Mountain climber
Tustin
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Jan 30, 2006 - 05:55pm PT
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Too many memories after a lifetime at the crags, but here is a nice one.
Went climbing with a fellow named Mike Watt (friend from high school '75-'76) that I also used to jam with on Banjo. We both played "old timey" style. We were going to Idyllwild for the weekend and brought our Banjos along to mess around with at Humber Park. Come Sunday morning we were sitting on the tailgate banging out some hick numbers and over comes Tobin. We are playing "Old Joe Clark" or some such and Tob knows the words and starts singin' and dancin' and carryin' on. This went on for quite awhile until whoever he was climbing with dragged him off to hit the crags. We all packed up and headed off.
Just a moment in our lives. I climbed with him a couple of times but that is how I remember Tobin, dancin' and singin' in Humber on a sunny Sunday mornin'.
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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Jan 30, 2006 - 06:35pm PT
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DE: That is one of my fondest memories from dangling in the Valley with virtually no money. Those cans (thanks to a tip from Mark Hudon) nearly financed another 3 weeks of climbing; saving the last few bucks for gas money home.
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de eee
Mountain climber
Tustin
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Jan 30, 2006 - 06:46pm PT
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Another thing that helped were certain peoples late afternoon trips to the market to obtain dinner for the whole campsite. Seems like we ate a lot of tamales!
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Wonder
climber
WA
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Jan 30, 2006 - 07:04pm PT
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i remember the late afternoon trips to the market, those guys were true daredevils.
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Gramicci
Social climber
Ventura
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Jan 30, 2006 - 08:35pm PT
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Sketchy,
That was actually a test with Ed on the NWF. You passed with flying colors to the A list! After all that’s how we all got there, guiding him around. Hope you slipped him some slack every once and a while. It built character you know. :-)
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jan 30, 2006 - 08:59pm PT
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wow. floodgates breach, and the air is so thick with memories i have to swat them away like flies.....
two of my favorites largo stories, probably as much myth as reality but we lived and died by them back in our early teens:
circa 74/75, idylwild:
one story goes that tobin and largo are returning to the parking lot from either tahquitz or suicide, and tobin decides to take a shortcut off one of the embankments and sets off a small rockfall that sends a few small loose rocks into the middle of a bunch of bikers getting ready to mount their choppers. as the story was related to me, by a buddy who claimed to have seen the whole thing, the bikers were in the middle of giving tobin a raft of fairly intimidating biker vibes when largo comes crashing out of the woods in a fury that his bro is getting hassled, throws off his pack and rips off his shirt in one swift motion, exclaiming in his most intimidating baritone "OK, WHICH ONE OF YOU GUYS (OR WORDS TO THAT EFFECT) WANTS TO BE FIRST!?!
another story i recall, again, probably a blend of truth and myth (the best kind): there used to be a greasy spoon biker joint right at the top of the grade where you climbed out of hemet then hit a "t" and took a left into idylwild. story was that largo and company went in there for breakfast and the place was wall-to-wall bikers. largo wades through the scene, takes a look around, and points a hamhock finger at some of the leather-vest-clad ladies in the place and proclaims in a loud, conspicuous voice "HA! CHECK IT OUT! MOTORCYCLE MOMMAS!" then he holds his arms out and pantomimes the "vroom vroom" of a biker gunning his ride.
beyond the stories, there were the actual encounters with JL: at the ski mart on garnet, a block from crystal pier, when largo was working there, again about '75, my buddy and i were sitting in rapt attention while he held forth on climbing: the one moment we most clearlky recalled was when he paused, looked out the window, glanced back at us, and murmered like a zen master as if to himself: "you gotta have vision man, you gotta have vision..."
that summer, astroman went free, and me and a buddy of mine used that quote as the denoument in a decrepit little guide we published to new free climbs in san diego. we were awestruck, inspired, and were climbing the hardest routes of our lives within months of that encounter.
the problem with largo attempting what will essentially be an oral history of the stonemasters is that he was the dominant personality of that small tribe, and in the intervening years has been the principal historian of the period. but i can't wait to see such a project hit the presses.
i have so many other memories, encounters with tobin, bullwinkle, henny penny and the c*#k, the core stonemasters and all the folks who came milliseconds on their heels, getting up their early suicide and tahquitz routes -- although i've climbed far, far harder routes, i think doing "new gen" with mike paul when we were both still teenagers may be one of the two or three most memorable days of my climbing life -- i don't know, there was a magic to those days that i know for a fact is not idle middle-aged nostalgia...it was as real and tangible as the air we breathed on the approach to suicide or the throne or middle....too many memories, too many stories...i try not to reflect so much on the past, as the fututre holds so much more of the same....
berg heil!
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can't say
Social climber
Pasadena CA
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Jan 30, 2006 - 09:11pm PT
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bvb, ain't it the truth!! Great stories all.
I think Largo was probably the most imitated person at the crags. You would hear people out of nowhere say, in a loud and authoritative voice, "HO MAN". It was contagious and before you could say "Fire me a burger" you were saying it too.
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Wonder
climber
WA
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Jan 30, 2006 - 10:15pm PT
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yeah, but there was bridwell. we all smoked camel straights cause he smoked them.
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 30, 2006 - 10:17pm PT
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I didn't! I used filters, I'm light ......
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Wonder
climber
WA
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Jan 30, 2006 - 10:20pm PT
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ps. my favorite largo, " fire or retire"
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sr
climber
Bay Area, CA
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Jan 30, 2006 - 11:15pm PT
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Steve West rounded up these Stonemasters (and some others) at an AAC event in Joshua Tree in the early 90's.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jan 30, 2006 - 11:43pm PT
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i'll take a stab at it....recognize almost all the faces, biut can only crib a few of the names....
left to right:
dude with glasses...i climbed w/ him, but drawing a blank -- wanna say can't say, but i don't think so
next five...seen 'em all, but can't recall....is that russ in there?
i climbed w/ #6, too..
easy pickens:
mariah
clark
the voice
dunno
dunno
dave evans
dunno
wierd, it's like they're all ghostly figmants from jtree in '81, somebody please wake me from this dream....
missing: spencer, shockley, mp, raker, too many too mention.
where's my time machine? i wanna go back to hidden valley, november, 1974....
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 30, 2006 - 11:46pm PT
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Ricky Acamazzo (sp?) way to the left Bob?
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jan 30, 2006 - 11:49pm PT
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accomazzo went into law and has/had darker hair...can't be him unless he went to seed! plus he looks younger in that pic than he did in '77 when he was going to law school at sdu!
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Ksolem
Trad climber
LA, Ca
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Jan 30, 2006 - 11:56pm PT
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Isn't that Lechlinky between Clark and Evans in the front row?
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jan 30, 2006 - 11:58pm PT
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you know, if it's an aac thing and it's the early 90's in josh gordo has gotta be in there somewhere but hell if i can pick him out...nobody in there seems UGLY enough to be todd!!!
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 31, 2006 - 12:01am PT
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These guys are all dinosaurs, where the phuck are all the real climbers?
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jan 31, 2006 - 12:07am PT
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the real climberz??? we're right here in flag, babe. bustin' the moves and keepin' it reealz.
Ksolem: that's not lechlinski.
a) nowhere NEAR ripped enough
b) mari woulda been in the pic too (altho i KNOW i've seen that raven-haired babe mariah is grinning at SOMEWHERE......
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