When I was a small child there used to be a lot of really large bullfrogs. We had frog legs fairly regularly. I guess they have mostly been killed off. These pictures of my brother, Kenny holding big ones. This was about 1953. But those look small compared to this on I saw here on FB. Now that would make a mess of frog legs. Continue reading There Used To Be Some Big Bullfrogs Around This Area.
Citizens at the Groundbreaking Photos of the new expansion Continue reading BiG – The Single Greatest Organization I’ve Ever Came In Contact With
The are some things that happen in our lives that leave us wondering about mankind. This story left me feeling less trustful and saddened. I had become very good friends with an old gentleman that was my neighbor, Udo Haufler. Upon his retiring after a long and successful career as an excavation contractor in Austin, I bought his office and yard along with several pieces of his equipment. I didn’t buy his business per se, and I’ve alway questioned why I didn’t. He had almost cornered the market on doing big excavation projects around Austin. The Haufler name in the … Continue reading The Double Cross
Anyone remember when they built the new hamburger place on William Cannon at Manchaca Road. It was a GW Jr’s. They started and worked around the clock to have it in operation in 24 hours and they did it. It was an attempt to set a record for the fastest fast food place to be built. They wanted to break a Guinness Book of World Records. Mostly a public relations stunt. Seemed to have worked. Forty years later and we are talking about it. It was in August 9, 1979. How do I remember the date, you may ask. We … Continue reading A Really Fast Food Joint
I have had the great fortune to meet many people in my lifetime. None probably made a greater impact on me than Udo Haufler. Udo was my neighbor, my friend and my mentor. The first day of 1977, Madeline and I moved into a house on a very quite, secluded south Austin street. Albert Road was like being in another place altogether. It wasn’t like living in Austin. Directly across the street was a large 2 story house, with a horse stable in the back. Esther and Udo Haufler were the elderly couple that lived there. (of course now that … Continue reading My Friend Udo
I have over time written several stories about Charlie and Minnie. That couple has always been a curiosity of mine. They claimed to no have living relatives. But I remember when Minnie died, Charlie had my mother contact some people, perhaps a sister of Minnie’s to let her know of the passing. There were some people, a couple of ladies and a teen daughter, not much older than me, showed up from Oklahoma to attended the funeral. I could remember that Mrs. Redd, Minnie’s Mother, it was told was with them when they first came to our family part of … Continue reading My Quest To Find Out More About The Life Of Charlie And Minnie
Kenny reminded me of something yesterday that I had forgotten. I wrote about Minnie and Charlie Campbell and her dying. Charlie would always tell us that Minnie kept up with their money and he didn’t know where she kept it or how much they had. I guess they thought, as we all did that she would outlive him. Charlie wasn’t in a shape to do much looking so the first one and the other looked but never found any money. We were all pretty sure they didn’t have two dimes to rub together, so when nothing turned up, no one … Continue reading Minnie’s Stash (originally written Nov. 30, 2014)
How many homes around Austin were Sears Kit Homes? I would think there are many. Click on the first link below to check out the history of these very fine homes. Then click the second link to see groupings of homes sold in various years from 1908-1940. By comparing the homes in these catalogs, you may find some in your neighborhood that are Sears Homes. You may be living in one and not realize it. http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/ http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/byimage.htm Continue reading Sears Modern Homes
Some History Of The Cowboy Hat The first known felt hats were narrow-brimmed affairs worn by ancient Greeks and their gods. J.B. Stetson fashioned the prototype of the cowboy hat to entertain his hunting companions back in the 1860s. By then, wide brims and tall crowns were already the signature look of cattlemen and horsemen from Texas to California. Spanish vaqueros wore sombreros with massive brims and crowns long before Stetson came along. ”Sombrero” is derived from the Spanish word for “shade” or “shadow;” a felt or straw sombrero protected its wearer from a relentless sun. The wide-brimmed and high-crowned … Continue reading What Do You Mean It All Started As A Joke ?
We had just finished getting the entire length of the boulevard built from bottom to top, the base was laid and tested, the curbs were all in, all we needed to do was put the asphalt down when the Memorial Day Flood of 1981 hit Austin. During the course of that one night and day, the torrents of water that came down, coupled with the extreme steep grades, we saw 3500 tons of limestone flex-base disappear from that hill. To give you an idea of how much that is, it took 150 large 18 wheeler loads to replace it. In … Continue reading More About Jester Blvd.
Angora Chronicles 