March 2020
Who do you know that was born in Albuquerque, spent most of their life in California, had a job as a ship builder and looks under garage doors to find old car information? Well, it is time to learn a little in depth information about one of our newest members – Don Gutierrez.
Don was born in Albuquerque, went through junior high in Isleta and graduated from Rio Grande High School. Three days after graduating high school, Don joined the Marines where he served for four years. He was a radio operator, he spent time in Okinawa as an artillery specialist and finished his Marine duty as Sergeant of the Guard in Seal Beach, California.
In California, he was a welder building large ships before he settled on a career as a heavy equipment operator. Don notes that some of the large unloading cranes can weigh more than 675 tons and have over 1 mile of wire line on one lift arm. Don operated dredges clearing shipping channels, he ran a pile driver setting piles for ship docking stations, and worked his way to barge foreman.
Unfortunately, Don was on a barge doing dredging work when a large tie rope broke. The 3” diameter rope whipped him into the air and shattered his leg. When he healed, he opted not to go back on the barges and moved back to New Mexico.
Don is an heir in the Chilili Land Grant and lives in Chilili today. At the last V8 club meeting he was a few minutes late and explained that the snow in the east mountains slowed him down. We didn’t have much snow that night in Albuquerque. For those who don’t remember, Chilili is south of I-40 down highway 337. Don owns the oldest house in the Chilili Land Grant area.
Like most of us Don has always liked cars. He fell for a Model T that he saw driving through Albuquerque when he was very young. His workshop is packed with machinery, which he always seemed to be around. Don still owns the 1938 Ford he has had since his high school days. It isn’t in too good of shape so he plans to take the Columbia rear end out of it for his recently acquired 1939 pickup. Don owns a number of John Deere tractors. Actually, Don was looking for help with the pickup’s distributor when he spotted some old cars behind a partially closed garage door. Thinking, those people may know something about old cars, he stopped and met Joyce, Jim and Will Clements. By goodness they did know something about old cars. Don said Will was really helpful sorting out his distributor issues.
Don was pleased to have found such knowledgeable folks and to be introduced to the Tumbleweed V8 club. He enjoys the people in the club and especially the way everyone shares knowledge of old Fords.
