1974 was a really wet year over in San Jacinto County, Eastern Texas

About this time of the year, October 1974 took us down past Huntsville to do a drainage project. It was a new development on Lake Livingston called Waterwood. It was aptly named, especially that year. We were in a piney … Continue reading 1974 was a really wet year over in San Jacinto County, Eastern Texas

Remembering Oak Hill, Texas in a completely different time

Oak Hill was quite a place in its day. I suppose it’s lost most of it’s charm with all the building and a freeway running through the middle of it. I think of the place it was in the 60s … Continue reading Remembering Oak Hill, Texas in a completely different time

Austin Really Was An Uncomplicated Place, Once Upon A Time

My wife and I moved to Austin in the fall of 1972, after marrying a year earlier. We rented a mobile home just out of Oak Hill, about a mile west of the Y. Life was very simple. She shopped for groceries at HEB, the store at South Congress and Oltorf. That was the nearest larger supermarket to us and the one she enjoyed going to. When I think back to the next 13 years we lived in 3 different locations, all in far South Austin, a real building boom happened. Safeway built at William Cannon at Manchaca Rd., a … Continue reading Austin Really Was An Uncomplicated Place, Once Upon A Time

Susan’s Signs and Bumper Stickers

Susan is a cousin of mine. She lived for a while down at the river by the Lewis Pavilion. Well actually more like right after you came in the gate. She had a small RV. Seemed pretty ideal for her and the park. That way some was there to help shew out trespassers and such. The is very patriotic and back in 2020 a while before the election she erected a nice Trump sign out front of her trailer or maybe tied a Trump banner on the picket fence. Here came Kenny down later to check on things. He pulled … Continue reading Susan’s Signs and Bumper Stickers

Hard of Hearing

I’m not sure what went wrong. May have been from running air tracks, with no ear protection when I was a younger fella. Or being around bulldozers and other noisy equipment my whole life. I don’t think it has anything to do with being yelled at by my wife because she’s never been a yeller. In fact she is so quiet I hardly know when she’s around. Or maybe I’m just not hearing her yell. But she’s been telling me for 20 years or maybe 40 years that I need some hearing aids. I finally decided a few weeks ago … Continue reading Hard of Hearing

Charlie & Minnie Campbell – A Love Story (and other stories about this old couple)

This is a story about an old couple that showed up in Smithwick when I was just a kid. One day Minnie and Charlie Campbell arrived in an old Studebaker car. When people around Smithwick said their name, they always left off the “p” and the “b”. It was Charlie and Minnie Camel. I had never heard them mentioned in my 10 or 12 years or so I’d been around at that time in the early part of the 1960s. But that’s not surprising as they weren’t a very remarkable couple, until I got to know them. Then there was … Continue reading Charlie & Minnie Campbell – A Love Story (and other stories about this old couple)