Category: Amazing Things

Amazing Things, The Early Days, The Jollyville YearsLeave a comment

The Treehouse Of My Youth

lewisotr

I was running a little ahead of time for a doctor appointment a while back in Austin. I decided to drive by the place we called home from 1958 until 1965. What was back then a small wooden structure built on uneven ground, up a canyon that was 65 acres comprised of mostly shin oak scrub brush and rocky soil with a scattering of live oaks that has now given way to yet another suburban neighborhood. The street leading off of a then unpaved country lane is now Talleyrand Dr. The rocky little trail up to our house is now … Continue reading The Treehouse Of My Youth

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Possum Kingdom Lake & The Goat Shed

lewisotr

Earlier this week someone posted about on FB the 15 out of the way spots in Texas you just have to visit. (Or something like that) One of those is a place called Possum Kingdom. This place appears to be much more populated now than it was back in 1976. We lived there while doing a job up in Stephens County. This was a time between our first two sons being born. Housing was hard to find so while driving around the area, I found The Possum Kingdom Fishing Camp. This was a place that was very active in the … Continue reading Possum Kingdom Lake & The Goat Shed

Amazing Things, Kenny LewisLeave a comment

Kenny Got Off In The Creek

lewisotr

When Kenny stopped by I could tell he wasn’t feeling well. He was real pale. I asked him to get out and eat BBQ with us. He said he thought he’d better head back home. I offered to take him home since he wasn’t feeling well. He said as long as he took it slow and easy he thought he’d be fine. A couple of hours later he texted me to come up to the Burnet Hospital and pick him up. I figured maybe he’d went up there to get checked out to see why he wasn’t feeling well. I … Continue reading Kenny Got Off In The Creek

Amazing Things, Another Daily Happening, Construction, Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

This Is Called “Living In The Past”

lewisotr

A few years ago, when it was time to grab one of the big machines and take off across Texas, Charlie “Speedy” Leseman would get this rig all shined up and head out to wherever it was he needed to go. I don’t care what anyone says, that was a heavy haul rig. I was always proud to see those black trucks (there were others too) pulling out of a job loaded down and going to the next one. There’s a time and a place for everything. So now those are just fond memories. Continue reading This Is Called “Living In The Past”

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

It Took Me Weeks To Figure Out Why She Was Upset.

lewisotr

Not long after we married in 1971, I came home with Madeline a brand new 1972 Dodge Demon automobile. It was an absolute beauty. White with a White Pearlescent Vinyl Top and Snowy White Interior. Very sporty but not in a hot rod sort of way. More in a very hot, young chick sort of way. That baby had all the beauty and innocents that my new wife had. My Dad had gone with me to Austin’s Dependable Dodge on I-35 between St. John’s & US 183, to buy it. I needed him to drive my pickup back. What better … Continue reading It Took Me Weeks To Figure Out Why She Was Upset.

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, My Friends, The Early Days, The Jollyville Years, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Making Of A Short Documentary

lewisotr

This is a Post that I made on this date February 7, 2018. We are six years and a million miles from here now. Several years ago my grandson Nathan came to me and ask for help with a school project. Nathan graduated last year and this happened when he was about 9 or 10 so yes, it’s been awhile. He needed to do a report about something historic. Since we owned the old Bertram Drug Store at that time and I’d researched the history of that building, I suggested that be the topic. A short time before that I … Continue reading The Making Of A Short Documentary

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Kenny LewisLeave a comment

Hunting at the Cinco Loma (A fine story by Kenny Lewis – from February 2015)

lewisotr

Back in the 90s we searched various ranches for the best hunts available in South Texas. We had gotten to know Dusty Davis who owned the Cinco Loma Ranch between Batesville and La Pryor. It was not a large ranch (2500 acres), but with high quality deer. This ranch was along Highway 57 on the way to Eagle Pass and surrounded on 3 sides by a large ranch called the West Wind. Larry Martin owned it and was a very successful business man from Houston who had sold his Waste Company for millions of dollars to the nationally known Waste … Continue reading Hunting at the Cinco Loma (A fine story by Kenny Lewis – from February 2015)

Amazing Things, Cowboys & Rodeo, Crazy Times, My Friends, Past Angora Chronicles StoriesLeave a comment

OVER THE HUMP

lewisotr

This is a story that was written by Carol Chapman for the February 1995 issue of Texas Monthly. It is a story about Howdy Fowler (yes our own Angora Chronicles Friend – Howdy Fowler aka Tejas Redd) “Howdy told me once that this adventure is the single greatest highlight of his life and to have it captured on the pages of Texas Monthly – Don’t get much better than that”. Now Here Is The Texas Monthly Story: THE REAL REASON THAT camels are called ships of the desert is that riding them can make you seasick, declares cowboy evangelist Howdy … Continue reading OVER THE HUMP

Amazing Things, Another Daily Happening, Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, The Jollyville Years, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Sideboards

lewisotr

When I ran across the post below about the Bois D’arc tree, it conjured up a memory from more than 60 years ago. We were living down on the creek out of Jollyville. Cec, our dad bought a 3/4 Chevrolet Pickup. It had been a Texas Highway Department truck in its first life. So it was yellow with the huge logo sanded off the doors. Later on he even painted it green. Not a green anyone else on earth would have chosen for a pickup truck. It was something of a mint green, but not a true mint green. It … Continue reading The Sideboards

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, My Friends, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

It’s Funny How Things Happen

lewisotr

Last night at Kenny’s viewing at the funeral home a good Ol Boy reminded me something. Let me start from the beginning to tell you the whole story from start to finish. I went out to Lakeway in the late 1970s and bid on a project. When I prepared the bid it came out to somewhere around $325,000. I called my bonding company and told them that the bid was going to exceed the amount I originally told them. At that time they were limiting me to a maximum size job of $300,000. I couldn’t convince them to raise my … Continue reading It’s Funny How Things Happen