St Croix Valley Skydiving Club-Osceola, Wis

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Glad you enjoyed the ride! Bob Larson D1900

Glad to see you're still around.
Heard rumor Matt Brockway may have been keeping contacts list but have not been able to verify.
Are you still in the area?

Retired to Florida.I would be interested in reading whatever Matt came up with.
I was surprised to see how memorable Ernie Joyner seemed to be to so many people. I always thought of him as a good bush pilot, just born too far south and east of his natural home. Sure he crashed a few times but everyone always walked away - and the plane never actually caught fire, which is good, right?. It also gave you some practice in doing really low jumps on short notice if you were high and fast enough.

Whatever happened to Vickie Churches. She dated the late Quazy (Pat Quachnick?) and jumped at Osceola a lot?

Did he properly earn that moniker?

He was giving me the business a few weeks back for my occasional 2K throw-out. Gonna have to follow up on this.

Yep, he earned it all right. Two instructors going after our buddy and burning up the altitude like there's no tomorrow (which almost came true). The use of AADs was very minimal, except for the first time jumpers, etc.

Tell John, that Pete says "hi!" We had good times!

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Whatever happened to Vickie Churches. She dated the late Quazy (Pat Quachnick?) and jumped at Osceola a lot?

Good story here... I'm told it involves a jealousy meltdown, guns, and alcohol. PM Proz for details or give him a call. I don’t care to post second hand info, but, maybe someone else can?? Vicky was a nice gal. She has not been seen for quite some time.

When I was at Baldwin, about 8-9 yrs ago, I got the story from Miles. Yep, it was definitely a meltdown.

I'm just wonder where she's living these days and what she does for fun, etc.

Pete

PS: Mike, I thought you were heading to Utah, this summer?

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Jon Quist was my Dad...

Not sure if you know but there is an "In Memory of..." plaque at Baldwin. It was dug up when the new slab was poured but will again be placed somewhere near the landing area (as I understood it).
I dropped by there last week and took a picture just in case you do not have one of the plaque.

Nice. I remember vividly the conversations I had with each person while learning how to skydive.

Kristy, "Your too young to be skydiving." I was 16 yrs old when I made my first jump and met Kristy and Gary.

Gary, "Lets breakoff and head home." After completing an 8 stack.

Quazy, "Slow down!" After taking out a formation.

Q, "Hey Petey."

Curt-Never had the opportunity to meet him. I moved to So Cal prior to this accident.

Blue Skies!

Petey

yep I worked at baldwin as a packer for 7 summers and walked by it everyday.

DQ... You won't recognize the place, lots of improvements. I hope they find a great place to put that plaque. We lost good friends that day!

Pete... I remember that 8 way! You weren't too young, we were all just jealous we didn't start at age 16.

Thanks Mike. That makes my day.

Pete the Pup (as Gary would say)

I finally got some pictures from my old skydiving buddy. They were taken about 4 years ago. "Goofy Lives" is the nick name of the guy that purchased the DC3 and crashed in Alaska, with a full load of salmon-killing Wirth and Hannah. Graffitti was left behind from the old club members that had memorialized this skydiver/pilot on the club house roof.

A lot of great skydivers came from this drop zone. Also, a lot of Zepplin and Hendrix tunes were played on the club's cassette player that could be heard coming from the speaker boxes located on the club house roof. From the paved road, you couldn't see the club house, due to the tall stalks of corn that surrounded it, but you certainly could hear it. But what really has left an indelible mark in my memory banks, was the bon fires we had after a day of skydiving, with the typical "safety meetings." All this took place in the middle of a Wisconsin corn field owned by Art, that had a stretch of packed mud and mowed down weeds, creating a runway fit for a Beech D18.

Jumping from Androwski's Beech, Coors, burned up the entire runway before lifting off with 12 jumpers onboard during the typical hot, 90+ humidity summer days.

I'm glad I'm alive!

RIP

Pete

I found this in Face Book. Earnie Joyner is the one crouching to get in the picture and the plad paints. Hard to miss.

Back then, jumps were $9.00 to 9500.

Pete

Someone at Skydive Superior mistook Mike O'Keefe (Uncle Thug) for Dave Colombo. The photo is of (front row) Ernie Joyner, Art Steffen, Bev Androsky, Mark Androsky, and in the back row, Miles Hubbard, Mike O'Keefe, Bob Schlander, Kevin Anderson, and John Goswitz.

Wow, I was trying to look up some older skydivers, to see if they were still jumping,and I found this forum. Here is my story of Osceola. (Looking through a 5 yr old's eyes.)

I remember waking up on a Saturday morning, hearing the planes taking off. It was either Ernie, Adrian, Bob, Pat, Geno, and of course JQ. It didn't matter to me who was flying the plane, I just knew they were jumping today!!

Most kids my age were probably watching Bugs Bunny, or the Jetsons, and I was going to watch Skydiving. I would ask my Mom, if I could go out to the DZ. She said "Yes, but stay out of the way!!"
What a childhood!!! Another, story was the Memorial Boogie in 81' ( I think). It was a Friday afternoon, when the DC-3 and the Beech Crafts came rolling in. And of course there was also the "Coors" Beech. You could hear them coming from miles away!!! This was the same weekend I saw my first naked jumper

I can go on for pages, but I am not going to ramble on.

I just want to say "Thank You, to everyone who jumped at the farm, and put up with me!" You filled my childhood with wonderful memories!!!

Mike Steffen
Youngest of the late Art Steffen

So did your dad own the drop zone? I remember you, and your brothers, as well as your dad coming into the club house one day yelling at Big Bill for stuffing dead fish into a nailed down coffin and stinking up the club house. Your pops was mad. That was compliments of Sky Dive Superior, via Mr. Coors.

Moochie was one of the other pilots that flew there. He was an incredible pilot, but was burned out with a sour attitude.

I have a couple of jumps with your dad, as well as "rigger rat." Good times! I was 16 at the time.

My Dad was the owner till the spring of 1990. We had a house fire and sold the land to the club.
He started the club in the early 60's out the Airport in Osceola. Then bought the farm in early 70's.

I heard about the fish story. Funny stuff!! There was always some kind of prank going on between Osceola and Superior.

I have one Ernie story. It had to be 1992. The news came on about a plane crash in Southern Minnesota. My Dad was sleeping in his chair, when news reported the pilot of plane crash was Ernie Joyner. Dad jumped out of his chair and said, "That SOB walked away from another crash!!" Then he laughed and went to bed.

Mike

Was Art in the military in the early days? What made him get into skydiving?

I bet you have lots of stories!

Dad was in the 82nd. He got out just before Vietnam War.

He came home to Osceola and was working in the Twin Cities, when he was introduced to Butch Shell. He was also in the Airborne. Some how they got a couple chutes from the Army. (Story has it Dad was getting out, so he stole a couple.) Both thought it was a good idea to see if the chutes worked.

Dr. Linholm town Vet owned a plane in Osceola. Dad convince Doc to give him and Butch a ride around the Osceola area. When Doc saw them wearing their rigs. He wasn't sure what they had in mind as a ride. Dad told Doc it was a one way ride.
Doc thought they were both nuts, but he gave them a ride anyway.

That was the start the St. Croix Valley Skydiving Club. "This story is the best of my knowledge." If there is more to the story, I would love to hear about it.

Has anybody heard the story about Art, Dick Allen and another Guy jumping into downtown Osceola on a bet? The bet was to land on the street between Cascade and P.Y's Bar. For a case a beer. (Remember they were round chutes at the time.)

Art called the bar and told the bartender to have the beer on the steps in 20 minutes. So everybody from both bars ran outside blocked off the street.

25 minutes later Art, Dick and the other guy was drinking a PBR on the steps of the Cascade.

That was my Dad's 1000th jump.

Looks like plans are underway for the "Alpha Boogie II"

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Looks like plans are underway for the "Alpha Boogie II"

http://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Croix-Valley-Skydiving-Club-Alpha-Boogie/167781906591980

I remember of female student landing on top of your barn one year. No injuries.

The power of the internet:

http://www.facebook.com/n/?pages%2FSt-Croix-Valley-Skydiving-Club-Alpha-Boogie%2F167781906591980&mid=___


I'll be there in spirit.

They landed everywhere. Barns, trees, and even in the water.
There was another student who landed on top of the neighbors barn,left there with a broken leg.

I landed across the street in your neighbor's bull pen under a T-10. The farmer ran out and said, "I know you can't control where your going, but that bull is going to get ya!"

Pete