Ray From Villa Park Talks About Carroll White

Ray from Villa Park Talks About Carroll White.

In yesterdays posts we mentioned that 922 South Clinton Avenue
was White Radio Repair Service owned by Carroll White in the
1950s.

Ray From Villa Park Says....
Hi Mack, I made these same comments a while ago, but it was
much later than the posting of the subject matter, which I
think was TV retailers in the Trenton area, that no one
probably read it. I knew Carroll White as a young boy.
He was a friend of my fathers. My father Ray, Sr. was a
very talented cabinetmaker and craftsman, who could do
almost anything with wood. Back in the late '40s and
early 50's, Whitey, as he was known by everyone, asked
my father if he would be willing to build a cabin cruiser,
which would be built in the storage part of the building,
behind the retail store. My father agreed. He bought a 21'
Cris Craft cabin cruiser kit from the manufacturer and my
father built it. The boat was made entirely of wood. It was
a lot of work. The keel was built just like you see at a
boatyard, basically from scratch, although all of the lumber
was supplied in the kit. The boat was beautiful, with a
white hull, mahogany deck and trim, with a powder blue roof.
The engine was a 6 cylinder Chrysler Marine. Whitey spent a
ton of money on all of the extras, like chrome fittings, flag
stanchions, fancy cushions, instruments, etc. When it was
completed, they couldn't get it out of the garage door and
into the alley. It was too big. This was quite funny, at the
time. Finally, they had to take down some of the cinder block
wall, next to the door to get it out and make the turn in the
alley. For a kid, helping my father with that project was
exciting. My father only went out on the boat once, and
although Whitey promised me a ride, I never did go out on it.

Thank you for this great story Ray:)