Rex the Racer: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Fast”

 

Motorcycles and Midget Racers: My Uncle the Racer

Dwight “Rex” Macbeth:  1934-2006  (Maternal Uncle)
 

My uncle Rex loved the roar of engines and the feeling of speed. He rode motorcycles, but not just as a means of transportation. He raced them, both on the flat track and risking his neck on “motorcycle hill climbs”. Hill climbs featured cyclists gunning their machines up rocky outcrops, either racing to the top or crashing part way up. The crowds loved the wrecks more than the successes, of course.

May 29 Cedar Rapids Gazette, Rex competes in motorcycle flat course

Rex also raced cars—“midget” racers, stock cars, anything that would send him hurtling around a track to the roar of the crowd. Even when he reached late middle age and was no longer racing, he still worked as a racetrack announcer. His first-hand experience and enthusiasm for the sport helped him bring the races to life for the audience.

St. Cloud Times June 20 1962

Despite racing being such an important part of his life, I only remember seeing him race once—a motorcycle hill climb near Mankato. I was really young—I don’t remember much except that it was cloudy and the hill the motorcyclists were trying to crest was covered with dead weeds and a lot of rocks. And I remember the noise of the engines, the low grumble making my chest vibrate.

My mother didn’t think much of Rex’s racing exploits, which is probably why we didn’t go to see him race more often. I don’t know if it was just sibling rivalry, or if she had some sort of issue with racing in general. My grandparents seem to have supported him—they attended races and helped him move race cars from Mankato to distant tracks. I don’t know if they provided financial support as well, or if his work running a gas station and repair shop paid the expenses.

He apparently was still racing in the late 1970s and early 1980s after his second marriage, as he introduced his stepson to the sport and they competed against one another according to info from a bio on his stepson’s website. Rex also sponsored other drivers—I saw a photo of another driver with the R&R Tire logo on the car’s door—Rex and his wife owned a tire store in Mankato, Minnesota called R&R Tires.

1984 Photo of Rex in his race car--Fairmont Speedway

I tried to find news articles about his racing career. I only found a few mentions in the press, along with some information from old race venues. I know our family has more photos than the ones I have used in this post, including some from hill climb events as well as photos of Rex and his various race cars. I need to find them and digitize them.

Belleville Kansas 15 August 1963

I wish my uncle was still around so I could talk to him about his racing career. He was a fascinating man and a fantastic raconteur, so I’m sure I would have heard some amazing stories.

Photos of Macbeth Family Reunions: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Reunion”

 

Two Photos, Two Decades
Walter Macbeth’s Children and Grandchildren

Walter Macbeth: 1860-1955 (Great Grandfather)

 

I am fortunate to have a couple of photos of Walter Macbeth’s family gathered at the Macbeth farm in the early part of the 1930s and another dated 1946. It is interesting to compare the clothes, the faces and the surroundings in the two photos of Macbeth family reunions.

Some family reunions are very large events that require immense planning and a large venue, while others are more intimate — a gathering of a matriarch and patriarch and their children and grandchildren. That’s the type of reunion captured in these two photos. It is unclear if the family was gathering in honor of a holiday or one family member’s birthday or other significant occasion, or if they just selected a summer day to gather back at the old homestead and spend time with one another. My grandmother, Nora Hoffman Macbeth and my great-aunt Annie Macbeth Schostag both labelled the photos “Macbeth Reunion” but provided no further details. The photos both depict the Walter and Lucy Macbeth family: Walter, Lucy, and some of their children and grandchildren.

Sadly, I haven’t seen enough photos of my grandfather’s siblings, nieces and nephews that I am able to identify everyone in the photos. I can pick out my grandparents, my mother, her brother/my uncle Rex, and my great-grandfather Walter. Great-aunt Annie and her husband are also easy to identify, along with my mom’s cousin Joanna (daughter of Harold Macbeth).

I’m not sure of the location of the first photo. I don’t recognize the trees in the background, and no buildings are visible. The bush in the foreground looks like a peony, but is not blooming. In addition, one person in the front row is wearing a jacket. This seems to indicate a spring or early fall date—warm but not hot. My grandmother is at the far right, holding my mother, who appears to be a toddler. My mother was born in April 1928, so I am guessing that this gathering was fall 1930 when she was two to two and a half years old. The cloche hats the ladies are wearing are appropriate for 1930.

My grandfather, Ivan Macbeth, is in the back row, the second man from the right. His father, my great-grandfather Walter Macbeth, is at the far left, and I think the wide lady in the white dress near the center is his wife Lucy. Gus Schostag is next to her. I believe the man in the front row holding the baby is my great uncle Ray Macheth, holding his son Wilfred, who had just been born in May 1930. If the photo was taken in September or October 1930, that would make little Wilfred about four or five months old. I don’t recognize anyone else with any surety.

The second photo was from an album owned by Annie Macbeth Schostag. She identified it as “Macbeth Reunion--1946”. I recognize this location: my grandparents’ farm, which was the Macbeth homeplace where Walter and Lucy raised their family. My grandparents are at the far right of the photo, and my mother is right below them, kneeling. I love the dress my mom is wearing, with the bows at the shoulder and the dark buttons and belt. My Uncle, Dwight/Rex Macbeth, is on the left in the front row.

Annie Macbeth Schostag is standing, second from the left. Her husband Gus is next to my grandparents at the right. I believe the woman in the center, standing next to family patriarch Walter Macbeth, is daughter Gertrude Macbeth Laird. Harold Macbeth may be behind them, right at the center, but I could be wrong. He might be the second person from the left. Harold’s daughter Joanna is in the center row, kneeling, and is third from the left.  I think most of the other younger family members would be members of the Laird or Ott families—Gertrude Macbeth Laird or Ethel Macbeth Ott’s children. I wish I could identify them all with confidence. Lucy Dane Macbeth and Ray Macbeth are not in this photo—both had died years earlier.

I love reunion photos. They provide opportunities to identify extended family members, and give me a glimpse of their lives on a specific date. These two photos, taken about sixteen years apart, show a changing Macbeth family—there were joyous additions as children were born, but also some sad losses of some family members and the aging of the remaining parent and siblings. I treasure these photos.