The ‘Bay Guys Lunch’ tradition

Everyone has Thanksgiving traditions they fondly remember. Here’s one that relatively few even know about. It would occur every Friday for about four weeks, beginning the day after Thanksgiving. It was a social gathering of the “movers and shakers” of the day, called the “Bay Guys Lunch.” The luncheons would be attended by bankers, Realtors, doctors, city workers, farmers and successful businessmen. It would be held at a different location each week. Sometimes at the Odd Fellows lodge on Pine Street in Lodi. Other times at someone’s farmhouse. Every year it involved a bus trip to Jackson, recalls IOOF Lodge Grand Master Larry Skelton.

The annual gatherings were never really publicized, but everyone knew when they were. There was no real organization to them, yet they came as predictably as fall colors. There were no invitations, but you’d have to be invited to attend. It was not some secret society, but the gatherings were only known to those who attended and those who had heard rumors of it. Attendees would begin arriving at noon on the designated Fridays. Dozens of local guys, all from different walks of life, would show up. Some well-known, others not so much. No one knew for sure who would come, but there always seemed to be a crowd. Al Inman, Gene Kramer, Sil Leonardini, Rich Bonotto and Gar Wright would all be in the kitchen cooking. The menu usually included BBQ’d beef tri-tip, Inman’s famous chili beans made from his secret recipe, bratwurst, Kramer’s famous homemade sausage, and, of course, lots of alcohol. It was the best of times.

Following lunch, guests would repair to the gaming tables for some pinochle, poker or other competitions of “skill.” The booze would flow, cigar smoke and laughter would waft from the building, stories would be exchanged and news of the day debated. Local politicians would discuss the issues with like-minded friends, farmers would bemoan a lousy harvest, even when it was a bumper crop. It was all great fun, a fitting end-ofharvest celebration — a day to give thanks for good food, good health and good friends.

The “Bad Guys” luncheons ended about seven years ago, largely because so many of its “members” got too old to participate or died off, says Skelton, whose father-in-law Marv Davis was a regular at the events. No one seems to know how the luncheons got their name, but the leading suspect is that one of the guys’ wives so named it after her man came home smelling of beer, bratwurst and cigar smoke. Whatever the origin, it stuck.

The Drawing

While the lunches have ended, their memory has forever been preserved in a portrait drawn by the late Walter (Wally) Synowicki. Wally was a gifted artist and craftsman. His passion was drawing and painting, but he made his living designing and creating jewelry, each a unique piece of art. He owned and operated Synowicki’s Jewel Box in downtown Lodi, which still exists today. Wally died in 2012 at the age of 85. His store is now run by his son, Brian.

The sketch Wally drew depicts one of the annual lunch gatherings and is comprised of individual caricatures of people who attended that day in 1994. It’s entitled, “Lunch at Albert’s.” That’s a reference to the ranch-hand quarters at Albert James’ place on Turner Road. There are about 95 people in the picture. It’s a masterpiece, and one of several copies in existence hangs on local optometrist Pete Hetzner’s wall at home. It was given to him by Wally’s daughter, Donna, who died a year after Wally did, in 2013.

Scanning the picture one sees Wally himself, in the foreground, joined by his friends, some of whom include Frank Dragon, who was among the top brass at Farmers and Merchants Bank 25 years ago. Then there’s cherry grower Hy Cadenhead; local chiropractor and real estate investor Ivan (Bud) Hayes, who once treated world heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston at his office in Lodi in the ‘60s.

Others include well-known teacher Dan Boone; cigar-chomping Al Inman, who worked for the city of Lodi as the White Slough wastewater treatment plant supervisor; local businessman and carpet store owner Merle Ray; grape farmer Chris Manna; mobile home park magnate Jim Baum; retired California Highway Patrolman Frank Pearson; Doug Pascoe, then a deputy marshal when there was a local marshal’s office; insurance salesman Ed Bond; grape farmer Al Bechthold.

Local Who’s Who

One of the more notable attendees was Julio Gallo of Gallo Wine fame. Local haberdasher Mike Lapenta, who owned and operated The Toggery men’s store in downtown Lodi for years, is also in the picture. Mike bought the store from his adopted parents, Jerry and Harriet Salomon, in 1974. Local Realtor and former mayor Ben Schaffer is also among the crowd. Ben owned Katzakian and Schaffer Realtors along with his partner, Bozant Katzakian.

Also depicted is Lodi agri-businessman George Scheideman, who owned and operated the East-Side Fruit Growers shipping and cold storage plant. He was also on the Board of Farmers and Merchants Bank and Lodi Memorial Hospital. Lodi-area cherry farmer Dean Devine is in the picture along with Gar Wright, who currently owns Wright Insurance Agency with his son Eric. Longtime grape farmer Gene Kramer is also among the group. Others in Wally Synowicki’s drawing include Tony Rocco; Richard Pressler; local bar owner Garry Seefried; former WWII veteran and superintendent for Claude C. Wood Company Jim Rinaudo; Lodi grape farmer Steve Furry, who was instrumental in helping to open up the grape/wine market for local growers to ship their grapes out of the region; longtime Lodi optometrist Frank Johnson; contractor Gordon Williams; vineyardist Darrell Baumbach; Norm Beckman, a machinist for (now defunct) SuperMold Corporation in Lodi; and Lodi auto repair shop owner Bruce Blair.

There are others in the Synowicki portrait not mentioned here — too many to list. Indeed, there are some whose identities are yet unknown.

As time marches on, and future Fridays-following-Thanksgiving will further distance Lodi’s past from the present, Wally Synowicki’s masterful work of art will forever preserve that part of Lodi’s history experienced by a relative few. It’s an era that was. Here’s a toast to the legend of the “Bad Guys.”