Statesman Journal from Salem, Oregon • Page 59

Statesman-Journal, Salem, Sunday, October 26, 1986 Seniors Page7G. ESuiDudbG' on firsik wUh ai7 Travelers really get around Model to Indy 500, he has winning way You either have an urge to, or you don't. I just wanted to see all there was in the world, and I think I've done a pretty good job. Don Buckley I -'if I i i I "w- I I -i -Blip 1 I fX 'li i' H1 Jy Jerry Easterling Of th Statesman-Journal In 1952 the Agajanian Special won the Indianapolis 500. The driver was Troy Ruttman.

The builder of that car was Edward "Eddie" Kuzma, who lives with his wife, Edna, on a 200-acre farm between Stayton and Scio. Kuzma was born in 1911 on a small farm near Portland. He grew up there and planned to become a printer. Then he got his first car: a Model Ford. After he bought a Model A Ford and converted it into a hot rod that would do more than 100 mph, printing didn't have a chance.

In the 1930s Jantzen Beach Park was a big Portland amusement center where midget race cars competed. When he saw the cars, Kuzma decided that he had to have one. So he built one, and he raced it. Then he built a second one and equipped it with a famous four-cylinder Offenhauser racing engine. It was the only racer in the Northwest powered by an Offenhauser, and it was too fast for local competitors.

With a hired a driver he headed east to find faster tracks. He raced in New York, Ohio and Michigan. He did OK, too. World War II abruptly ended his tour. By the end of the war he had spent 3'2 years in the Navy.

But racing was still in his blood. As soon as he was discharged, he sold his midget racer for $2,500 and headed for Los Angeles to seek fame as a builder of race cars. He built a few midgets in a two-car garage he converted into a shop. Then J. C.

Agajanian, a wealthy Californian, asked him to build a sprint car, Kuzma said. That was bigger than a midget but smaller than an Indy 500 car. It performed so well that Agajanian hired him to build the Agajanian Special. But before the special won at at Indianapolis in 1952, Kuzma lived through an emotional crisis or two. Kuzma heard that his car wasn't handling well in trial runs.

Then he heard that Agajanian's driver had set a speed record during the trials. Kuszma assumed he was driving another car, and he "was going to blow his brains out." But he didn't have to. His car had set the record. The throttle jammed on the first turn, and the driver took it faster than he intended to. When he found it could be taken that speed, he put the pedal to the metal and roared to a track record.

That established Kuzma's reputation. Calls started coming in from all over the country. He had made the big time. For a while it looked as if he was going to get it all in 1951. Halfway through the 1951 Indy 500, his car was fighting for the lead, he said, when the engine blew.

The next year it was different. In 1952 the Agajanian Special went all the way to the winner's circle. The Indy 500 cars he built after that were driven by racing greats. In 1969 Mario Andretti won at Indy driving a car that Kuzma had designed and built. A.

J. Foyt won twice driving Kuzma's cars. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -Parke Thompson has a tip for world travelers: The motels in Tibet are few and far between. Thompson should know. He's spent the last three decades traveling, visiting 303 of the 308 countries or regions recognized by the Travelers Century Club.

The 67-year-old Akron lawyer is listed in the 1985, 1986 and 1987 editions of the Guinness Book of World Records as the most-traveled man. "They don't have the motels, the accommodations or the vehicles like the other places," he said recently about his trip to Tibet. He had to stay in former Army barracks. Fellow travel buffs Don Buckley of Denver, and John Clouse of Evansville, have visited 301 places on the list. Clouse's 6-year-old son, G.

Chauncey Clouse, is listed in the 1986 Guinness book as the most traveled child; he's up to place No. 121. "It's not a competition," R.G. Davidson, treasurer and founder of the Los Angeles-based travelers' club, said. "These are three guys hell-bent to visit every country in the world." The Century Club is limited to those who have visited at least 100 countries or regions, Davidson said.

The club defines regions as areas that are politically, geographically or ethnically removed from a parent country, citing Hawaii and Alaska as examples. Thompson started traveling 30 years ago and found he couldn't stop. Buckley said his uncle, a naval officer, stimulated his wanderlust. "You either have an urge to, or you don't," the 77-year-old Buckley said. He spent 20 years in the U.S.

Air Force and 21 years in other federal jobs. "I just wanted to see all there was in the world, and I think I've done a pretty good job." The travelers have found that travel has its heart-stopping moments like the time a 50-ton whale charged a ship Buckley was on near Mexico. "The ship got between her and her calf," he said. "She almost broke the boat up. Luckily, we got the outboard motors started and escaped in rafts." Clouse, 61, said he once was arrested by a Soviet soldier while taking a picture in central Asia.

"This guy starts to interrogate me," lawyer Clouse said. "That's when we realize we are fortunate in the U.S.A. to have the legal system we do." He finally convinced the soldier that he had done nothing wrong. All three say the trips are becoming more and more challenging. Each lists several regions of Antarctica among the places he hasn't gotten to.

"The last five years, my fondest memories have been of getting to areas so difficult to get to it takes many resources to make it," Thompson said. It took him 10 years to find the best way to reach Pitcairn Island, which he visited last month. He flew to New Zealand, then paid a $1,500 fare on a ship headed across the Pacific. "If 1 can get a sponsor with $36,000, I could get to the last places just like that," Thompson said. The only places he hasn't seen are four regions in Antarctica and the island of Fernando de Noronha, off the coast of its mother country, Brazil.

Clouse's next target is Bouvet Island, 1,700 miles southeast of Cape Town, South Africa. He is looking for a ship's captain willing to land there. Last time he tried, the ship couldn't land because the weather was so bad. Buckley, who has spent about $200,000 on travels, said he wants to try to reach the obscure island of Grisgangecunda in the south Atlantic. But he expects he'll have to rough it, because ships that travel to such places don't have cabins for passengers.

"I shouldn't be doing these things," Buckley said. "But I'll do it anyway." Statesman-Journal photo Eddie Kuzma displays trophies of his Indy 500 work. He is a member of the Indy Oldtimers, and two years ago he went back to Indianapolis for the race. "They took good care of us old guys," he said. He sold his shop in Los Angeles in the late 1960s.

In 1968 he bought the farm he and Edna now live on. He leases out most of the farmland. He spends a lot of time in the shop on the farm, surrounded by tools he brought with him from his shop in Los Angeles. Over his bench hangs a painting of the 1969 Indy 500. Two of the cars he built are leading the pack, and a third is running fourth.

He's a long way from the Indy 500, but it's never far from him. Success was tempered by plenty of stress. When he had a shop in Los Angeles, he said, everything had to be done yesterday. And he always worried about the way his cars would perform. He made one bad mistake, he said.

Cars built for the Indianapolis 500 were designed with their bodies set eight inches to the left of center to provide stability as they took the left-hand curves of the track. On three that he built, he took a chance and shifted the bodies back toward the center two inches. It was a bad move. They were not winning cars. But he captured his share of fame.

Six cars that he built or helped build are on display in the Indianapolis 500 Musuem. easures have pros, cons Van O'Sullivan For the Statesman-Journal Oregon senior citizens should support Ballot Measures 11 and 12, which call for property tax relief, according to Robert Van Houte of United Senior Citizens. He said, though, that they should oppose Measure 9, which sets maximum property tax rates. Van Houte spoke to about 40 members of Salem Area Seniors Inc. this month along with Eleonor Roberts, a past president of Salem Educators Association.

He emphasized the need for a no vote on Measure 9 with a rhetorical question: "Would you like this place closed as a frill provision?" He dramatized the query with a wide sweep of his arm that took in the Senior Center. The silence of the listeners spoke louder than words. Van Houte said that Measure 9 would cause cutbacks in services to Karen O'Connell, Oregon nursing home ombudsman, accused the Department of Human Resources of neglecting senior citizens' complaints during a legislative hearing Oct. 2. O'Connell claimed there was a serious time lag between notification and department action on problems in nursing homes.

She said there was not proper followup on cases of bedsores or complaints of under-staffing. Prior to O'ConnelPs accusations, Maureen Whitman of Human Resources testified that the department was bent on improved services. She said more than 300 complaint cases had been completed, and only 35 were yet to be acted on. Steve Boedigemer spoke of recent improvements in the department's health services. Van O'Sullivan is I Salem writer who monitors senior citizens affairs.

Senior Watch seniors. "You would be living mainly on dandelion soup," he warned. Van Houte said that Measure 11, which would exempt part of an owner's home value from property tax, require renter's relief and bar sales tax except by initiative, would be particularly beneficial to the middle class. He also backed Measure 12, which would change state income taxes to provide property tax relief. Van Houte called Measure 7, which would institute a 5 percent sales tax, a dead horse.

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