Tony Baloney: Stories About Tony Albanese
As Told by Tony's Friends and Family
These stories include the many facets of Tony's life; from his early formative years to the present day experiences we've shared with him as an "adult."
Tony has always led an active life, and he's been involved in a number of projects because of his vast array of interests that include airplanes, boats, cars, sheet metal work and so much more. His natural talent is for fixing things, but his friends also know him best for his quick and dry wit, a heart of gold, and for his innate physical agility.
Tony is the consummate perfectionist, a skilled craftsman with extremely high standards for producing only quality work. He’s also known for his inventiveness when it comes to getting other people to laugh. For Tony it is all in good fun. No matter how you slice it, the story isn't so much baloney, as it's just him, being our Tony...
Marilyn Rich (AKA Mrs. Rich)
"I haven't been in touch with Tony for so many years and I was quite shocked and saddened to hear what happened on the terrible day.
I have many old memories of Tony being at our home and spending time at the boat races with my family. I remember making him a birthday cake and celebrating his birthday probably 21 or 22 years ago. Tony used to tell our boy, "No-No" and waive his finger and he would repeat it. This was very cute because my son called him "no-no" instead of Tony. My older son, Todd, was a baby then, and he is now 23 years old! I also have another son, Gary and he is 18 years old and lives in Whittier.
I also remember Tony's cat (I think it was called "Anthony") and the road trip that his Dad took him on when the cat was in the car and his Dad drove far away to work. Unfortunately, when his dad realized that the cat was there in the car, the cat would not wait another minute and his Dad had to let it out several miles away from home. Amazingly, the cat returned home a couple of years later. I liked that story!
Another story that I remember about Tony and his cat, Anthony, is that he used to eat spaghetti and bring the meatball home to the cat. :)"
Marilyn currently resides in Cypress, which is 30 minutes from Brea. She remarried about 11 years ago and she's a Realtor (14 years) in the Orange County area. Marilyn plans to visit Tony soon. Visit her website: www.MrsRich.com.
Patti Porto
My favorite story at work was when Tony and David Scholl let out a whoopee cushion when I walked in to their work area. They both laughed so hard, I looked at them and said..."You guys, if I had really done that I would have run out of the room."
They still thought the joke was funny. Not to be outdone, I borrowed a remote control whoopee cushion from a coworker. I set it up near David School's work area. Whenever Tony walked by I would set it off. I remember looking through the small glass window part of the door as Tony and David looked around to see where the noise was coming from. Actually they were quite perplexed. I probably set off the whoopee cushion about 5 times. After about 5 minutes of fun I appeared with remote in hand and said...Gotcha!
David Scholl and I still laugh over that practical joke, and I share it with many of my friends. I don't know if you had to be there to witness the humor, but it was definitely one of the funniest practical jokes played on me and one of my best "Gotcha" jokes.
Patti Porto is the manager of Human Resources at Toyota Racing Development in Costa Mesa, Tony's former employer. Patti and the rest of the crew at TRD have been keeping up with Tony.
Kevin Davis
This contribution comes from Kevin Davis, a lifelong friend of Tony's. They share many interests and are very much like brothers with an unbreakable bond. Kevin recalls a funny story from the early 1970's when he visited Tony after having moved from Whittier with his family to live in Canyon Lake.
I went out to Canyon Lake to stay with Tony and his family for a few days. It was a boy's paradise! You could go swimming in the lake, hike in the hills, go rabbit hunting and hitch hike. We actually got our picture and a short story about us hitchhiking in the Canyon Lake Newsletter (see picture below).
After a few days in Canyon Lake, we were looking for something else to do. As it turned out, in front of Tony's house there was a manhole cover for the storm drains. It is amazing what boys can do with a little time and some tools. We lifted the manhole cover off (probably just because we could!), it was a hole about 40 inches in diameter and 8 feet deep, and it had two drains in the bottom on the sides that were about the width of a roll of toilet paper. We thought it would be a good idea to plug up the drains with toilet paper and fill up the drain with water from the garden hose.
A little later on, Tony's mom showed up back at the house to find Tony and me swimming in the hole! The water was pretty dirty and muddy. She just didn't understand why we would want to swim is this dirty water and not in the lake. I assume that everybody that spent anytime with Tony would have similar stories of crazy things "that just happened."
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