Category: Amazing Things

Amazing Things, Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, Smithwick, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Race Was On

lewisotr

This is the story of one of the greatest car races ever held in Smithwick. His name was Curtis Brown Parker. Brown Parker was how he was known. Brown was the person my Dad looked up to more, maybe than anyone else. Brown was several years older that Cecil Lewis. I believe that Brown help him become a man in more ways than one in his early days in Smithwick, Texas.However in the 1940’s Brown and Eula moved to California, the same as a lot of people did during that period of time. They operated laundries in and around Carpentaria, … Continue reading The Race Was On

Aging, Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

I’m Living Right This Morning

lewisotr

A call came in on my cell phone. It was “Gerald” wanting to talk about my Medicare Coverage. Had that strange sounding voice. My wife was sitting here beside me in the living room and we are drinking coffee. She doesn’t like listening to me cutting up with these people on the phone. So I held off a few moments deciding whether I should just hang up or whether to go in the other room to talk my usual shenanigans. Then Gerald asked if this was Ronald and Madeline. It was really Geraldine, a lady up in DFW that was … Continue reading I’m Living Right This Morning

Amazing Things, Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Thoughts and Musings, Travels1 Comment

Travels Across The Desert

lewisotr

Few people ever went long distances prior to the last 4 or 5 decades. If they did it was making a migration to hopefully find a better life. That was in about 1955 or 1956. Maw-Maw Nonie and Paw-Paw Theron went with my parents and us to visit California. Kenny and I were both were pre-school age, 3 and 6. All six loaded up in a new Mercury 2 door car that Cec had just bought. It didn’t have air conditioning, few cars did back then. Being in the hot summertime Cec bought a contraption called a Thermador Car Cooler. … Continue reading Travels Across The Desert

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, The Early Days1 Comment

A Trip Up Sheffield Hill

lewisotr

(Originally posted on March 8, 2017) I had been waiting almost 47 years to retrace some tracks that I made in what seems like a different lifetime. My wife and I made a trip out to Big Bend a few years ago, so it was a prefect time see what the big deal with Sheffield Hill was. (also called Lancaster Hill) Driving A Cattle Truck Soon after graduating from high school, I was still 17 years old, I got hired on as a relief driver, driving a cattle truck for the Wenmohs Ranch. I was Wallace Herbert’s swamper. I guess … Continue reading A Trip Up Sheffield Hill

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Taking Care Of Business

lewisotr

We have been procrastinating about something for a long time. Today we went to the funeral home to do a burial prearrangement plan. As we were walking in I looked down on the sidewalk and a credit card was laying there. I picked it up. It had the name of a friend of mine in Liberty Hill. I took a picture of it and texted to that friend. He had in fact lost it. He was getting DEF fluid down the street and some of it splash his card. He laid it on the running board, probably intending to reach … Continue reading Taking Care Of Business

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

The Incident With The IRS Agent

lewisotr

This happened back in the early 1980s, way back in the days before cell phones but, we at least had Motorola 2-Way Radios. Our biggest project going at the time was building Jester Estates, out west of Austin on RM 2222. In fact it was the largest project we’d ever taken on. So knowing that if we didn’t put everything into that project, we could end up out of business. So I stayed out on that project a lot of the time. I had tried to grow the company too fast so we were stretched way too thin with manpower, … Continue reading The Incident With The IRS Agent

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., Past Angora Chronicles Stories, The Early Days, Thoughts and Musings1 Comment

The Quandary

lewisotr

I was late to the party on watching Breaking Bad. I started watching it after the series ended. Then I binge watched the whole thing in a matter of a few days. I can’t for the life of me tell you what sucked me into that show. It’s certainly in no way connected to my real life. Far from it. The premise is nothing that I should have enjoyed. Someone recommended it and my wife and I decided to watch it, probably close to 9 or 10 years ago. The spin-off, Better Call Saul, never struck me as something I’d … Continue reading The Quandary

Amazing Things, Cecil Lewis, Construction, In and Around Austin, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

What Life Almost Was – The Holland Page Construction Story

lewisotr

The year was 1964. There was an old Austin contractor by the name of Holland Page. My dad worked for Mr. Page for a few years in the 60s. His office and shop was just north of US 183 about 3 or 4 blocks on North Lamar. Kenny and I spent many Saturday’s there exploring around climbing on every kind of piece of machinery imaginable. Mr. Page was a very large man, or so it seemed. He was always nice to us. He didn’t seem to care what we did, he only cautioned us to watch for rattlesnakes back around … Continue reading What Life Almost Was – The Holland Page Construction Story

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

Daddy, is you just gonna leave your twailer there?

lewisotr

Matthew was the age that he wanted to go with me everywhere I went. Him being the oldest son, with a new little brother at home. We left the house early that Sunday morning and was making the 8 or 10 mile trip to our Construction Office/Yard, where I was going to unhook from the rather heavy built shop-made bumper pull trailer we had on behind. Back then, in the 1970s you could drive around Austin without running across all that many other cars on the road on an early Sunday morning trip. Matthew, about 4 years old was standing … Continue reading Daddy, is you just gonna leave your twailer there?

Aging, Amazing Things, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Our Dream Home

lewisotr

A story I wrote back in 2014. Wow almost 9 years ago. Times change, circumstances change. Just a while after I wrote this we sold this place and returned to Bertram to the home here that we dearly love. Moving back has afforded us so much more time with our grandchildren, well and our children too. We would have missed out on so much, had we not chosen to come back home. It seems that far too many of us don’t always see the value of family soon enough and miss out of life’s greatest joy. The joy of grandkids. … Continue reading Our Dream Home