I always wanted to meet him but never had the opportunity, even though I always created "extra-time" when I was in the LA area on business in the early 80's. He was always at the top of my must-see list while in the "birthplace of rodding". I had to live through my best friend's experiences and tales when he, in his early 20's was a "gopher" for Ed at the cam business.
Yeah, same here Greg, I had the only opportunity many years ago while manning my swap meet space at the Portland Swap Meet, beautiful sunny day, while at a quiet point, through half closed eyes ISKY strolls by, he was carrying a few Model T era tools, I came real close to saying hello but figured I'd leave him alone as I'm sure he got plenty of that. I did decide to see what kind of things he would stop and look at so sort of (tastefully) shadow him, seemed that old tools was all he was interested in and considering his history he no doubt had "been there and done that" when it came to just about anything else. There are a handful of videos on YouTube featuring Ed, usually showing him in his office. I showed that cluttered desk to my wife and she says " how does he run a business like that", I told her that as far as I know it has been like that for years and he obviously did just fine that way. I'm thinking he was pretty level tempered, never worked for him though, can you imagine what would have happened if someone took it on themselves to organize that desk.
No kidding Doug. Like I'm sure others that "organize" their desks that way, it doesn't mean they don't know what they're doing. It usually means their time is best spent on other things. We should have a contest to see who can find a picture of the youngest Ed with a cigar in his mouth! When my friend worked for him was in 1960 or 61 and he was apparently hard to find without a cigar.
A footnote. I went to Isky's a few months ago and talked to Ed. Difficult as he had great difficulty hearing. His wife had to translate for him. Still a kick to talk to. I was sad to see the old showroom gone, all the stuff piled in there from the 50's onward missing. The Camfather, the 5 cycle cam, Rev Kits, the Mile-A-Mor cam, latest posters for the Red Zone lifters. The last time I saw him he was seated at the table in his former showroom eating his lunch. Had to go around to the side to get my BBC roller cam. I can remember going there in the early seventies to get a hydraulic cam, which I still have. Only paid $40 for it. Ed seemed to have lived a full life and may God Bless him.
I was fortunate enough to meet Ed in 2014 at the Meltdown Drags. We were pushing our dragster up to the starting line and my racing partner was ahead of the car when Ed and Bones came up in a golf cart . My racing partner told Ed " hold up Ed we have a dragster coming through " . Ed waved his hands wildly and Bones stopped the golf cart to let us through . In 2017 at the Meltdown drags i bought a poster from him and he talked to me and signed the poster , he couldn't have been nicer .
I met him and talked to him for a bit at the Meltdown in 2017. What a privilege! @Ryan - you nailed it. Wonderful thoughts. Thank you.
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