Yes I’m always surprised at what pops up around every corner, or so it seems. Some of those unexpected “surprises” are not good but most of the time they are something to enjoy. Having this forum I get to share much of this, the good and the bad with many of my friends.

I would love to tell you something that happened a couple of days ago. It involves one person that many in Marble Falls knows and that I’ve call a friend for well over a half century, probably around 55 years. This fellow is a few years older than me, I think he was born in 1948, so that would make him 4 years my senior.

The other person is mostly unknown to the folks around Marble Falls, as he grew up in Houston but came to Austin and attended UT, then went to work for one of my competitors in the construction business in the early 1980s. So this fellow is someone I’ve know for over 40 years. Circumstances as they may be caused John and me to become closer than I was with most competitors. His employer and I developed a working relationship for a few years, where we subcontracting work to him, as we both excelled in the same type of underground utility work, the bigger sized pipe that was generally more complex and more difficult than most companies in business in Austin at the time care to deal with.

After the times where our two companies worked together, John left that company and worked for others in Austin. I always stayed in contact and had several opportunities to work together on projects. John even came to work for my company on a couple of occasions. I have even written a few stories that involved John and shared them here. One story that is titled “Rosalinda” made the Angora Book. To this day we talk on the phone at least every few days, so it should be apparent that we are good friends.

By the way, several non-MF’ers that are on here know John and have a great appreciation for his extensive abilities.

Now to tell you about my surprise a couple of days ago. The fellow from up Marble Falls way called me a few days ago, asking if I knew how to get ahold of John. He knew that as many people that I know around the area in the business, that I must know John He would think that because for the past 10 years or so he has worked for our company in the capacity of our Master Plumber. Now don’t get me wrong, I have never witnessed him actually working, but he is on our payroll and serves in more of a oversight capacity.

Back to the called. I told him that yes I know John and would have him call. It wasn’t like I enjoy giving out other peoples phone numbers, well unless it is for the benefit of a practical joke. This didn’t seem like one of those. I ask him why he needed to talk to John and how they knew each other. He told me they were in the same platoon in the Marines and he was John platoon leader. His phone had crapped out the other day and he lost everyone’s phone numbers and he was working to recreate his most important phone numbers in his new phone. In fact he didn’t even have mine. He had his daughter contact me on FB Messenger so I could call him.

I called John and he said “yes we were in the same platoon………….”

This is a photo taken back in the 1970s, showing John and our very own Felipe Gutierrez.

So why did neither of those fools ever mention this to me before?