Category: Another Daily Happening

Amazing Things, Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, The Construction Biz2 Comments

Another Rock Blasting Story

lewisotr

During the first 15 years of my contracting career most trenches in rock were blasted, before good productive and dependable rock trenchers were developed. We had one crew that their primary job was drilling and shooting (term we used for blasting) rock. We were building a new subdivision right behind the Bannockburn Baptist Church, before it was built, on Brodie at McCarty Lane in southwest Austin. All was going real good on that project. Don the crew foreman and our ace blaster was short handed, so he hired an old hippie that happened by. The old hippie’s only job was … Continue reading Another Rock Blasting Story

Another Daily Happening, Kenny Lewis, The Early DaysLeave a comment

The Smithwick Battle Royale

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I’ve told many stories about how small I was as a kid and how it made me ripe for being picked on. No one was harder on me than brother Kenny. But I’ll have to say that he was always the first to come to my defense, a brotherly thing. As I began to grow, it was only a natural progression that one day I would have to say no más to being Kenny’s whipping boy. It was just before Kenny left for the Army and I had finished school. We were over at Nonie’s house, right beside the highway. … Continue reading The Smithwick Battle Royale

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, Kenny Lewis, Smithwick, The Early Days2 Comments

Throwing A D-7 Dozer Off Of The Trailer

lewisotr

Kenny and I went down to Turkey Bend and loaded a D-7 Cat Dozer and was headed back to Smithwick. The road was not paved back then, which was probably in 1968. The bar-ditch was usually wet from the springs that flowed out of the rock outcroppings. It was fairly clean without cedar brush back then. Kenny was driving too fast and got too close to the ditch as he came into the corner. This caused the truck and trailer to slam into a 4′ high vertical bank on the right side with great force. This resulted in truck and … Continue reading Throwing A D-7 Dozer Off Of The Trailer

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, Kenny Lewis, Smithwick, The Early Days1 Comment

The Adventures Of Driving Under-Powered Trucks

lewisotr

The 60s were a different time than now when it comes to the horse power of trucks. Today our trucks operate with 500 to 600 horsepower. Back then the common range was 180 to 250 HP. We still hauled equally heavy loads over the same roads as today. Trucks were used much longer and maintained must less than by today’s standards. It was common for when we were hauling a heavy dozer in hillier areas for me to go ahead in a pickup to assist. When we knew there was a grade too steep coming up, Kenny would pull over, … Continue reading The Adventures Of Driving Under-Powered Trucks

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., My Friends, The Early Days, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

We Were A Couple Of Night Owls

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No one else that I know has his first car 50 years later. Much less all the paper work that came with it. If I could write about all the things that happened, just when it was the two of us in that Blue “68” Roadrunner, it would fill several books. Some things would be worth telling, yet others we may not want to admit. We drove the streets of Marble Falls and the roads all around Burnet County almost nightly for a few years, almost always in that Roadrunner. Many times our adventures wouldn’t start until we had each … Continue reading We Were A Couple Of Night Owls

Another Daily Happening, Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., The Early Days, Thoughts and Musings2 Comments

The Wreck At The South End Of The Marble Falls Bridge

lewisotr

Early one Sunday morning with it raining and the road slick, I had taken Kenny out to the Pure Stone Quarry to pick up a dump truck. I would have been 14 or 15 years old. For whatever reason they thought a 14 year old had any business back in those days. It was just becoming light and as I came down the hill and that old “63” short wheelbased, step-side Chevrolet pickup spun out and smacked the guardrail right on the end of the bridge. I was more than likely going too fast for the conditions. Let me back … Continue reading The Wreck At The South End Of The Marble Falls Bridge

Aging, Another Daily Happening, Thoughts and Musings2 Comments

My Morning Trip To The Doctor

lewisotr

I bring you this soliloquy this fine morning reminding us all to do the right thing and don’t take shortcuts in life. These shortcuts come with there own set of problems. My point at hand started when I drove over to Marble Town this morning for a doctor appointment. Out of all my doctors I go see, this is one I don’t really mind going to. This little gal is a cute as a bug in a rug, and she can out talk me. Besides that the things she does, I can see the results within a couple of days. … Continue reading My Morning Trip To The Doctor

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, Kenny Lewis, My FriendsLeave a comment

The Bet

lewisotr

I need some of my friends on here to help me. I’m having a little trouble collecting a bet out of my brother. He has just locked completely down and won’t even discuss paying me. I’m thinking there may have to be some public shaming needed to get him to turn loose of that money. Here’s what happened. I was telling him about the story I told on here a couple weeks ago about this hunting trip we took up to Utah back in about 1984 or 85. When I got to the part about how he, Coy Foust and … Continue reading The Bet

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, The Early Days2 Comments

My Wildest Trucking Story

lewisotr

I was driving a truck for Nelson Lewis hauling equipment around the state, in the later part of 1970. I was 18 years old. I had worked on a job-site in Burnet all day, but needed to be in Port Lavaca the following morning. There was an Inley Excavator (or a Trackhoe as we called them) there that needed to go up to Lake Jackson, further up the coast toward Galveston. Having a chance to have my old buddy Tommy Houy go along, I decided to wait around until he got off work at the Exxon Station at 11:00 PM. … Continue reading My Wildest Trucking Story