The Morning I Vapor Locked And Thought I Was Dying

I’ve only had this happen once and that was aplenty, thank you very much. The reason I referred to a vapor lock, that is an old term we seldom hear any longer. When I was a kid, It was a common occurrence. That’s when a gasoline line on an old vehicle would become too hot, usually because it wasn’t insulated from the heat of the exhaust. The gasoline would turn into vapor, stopping the flow of liquified gas. The engine would die and leave you stranded. There were a couple of remedies. You could sit for awhile until it cooled … Continue reading The Morning I Vapor Locked And Thought I Was Dying

It Wasn’t Me

Kenny always had a lot of company pride. He liked for all of his machines to be looking nice and clean. Everything needed to be ship-shape in Kenny Lewis’ world. He enjoyed having his company name on jackets and caps. He spent a lot of advertising bucks and it paid off for him. You would see people wearing them often, putting the CCI name out in the public. Kenny and I had an arraignment for about a decade that lasted until 2003. We pooled resources and CCI was the name that was in the forefront of the business. I still … Continue reading It Wasn’t Me

I Always Wanted To Do The Right Things, But Circumstances Can Get In The Way

Back in the early part of the 1970s we had a project relocating a water line on South 1st Street where a big “S” in Williamson Creek. (as shown in the photo below). Three new bridges were be built. We were on the tail end of that job, cleaning up and pressure testing. The City of Austin had a crew that performed the pressure tests and they came out twice and each time the line failed. The General Contractor that was building the bridges had already started work and it was imperative that we get that line approved or it … Continue reading I Always Wanted To Do The Right Things, But Circumstances Can Get In The Way

Things Can Move Slowly At Times

Trying to work out a little issue with the IRS. I finally got assigned a Tax Payer Advocate to help me figure things out. That was back about this time last year. I can’t call or email her. That just the way things are done. I have to either fax her question and she gets back to me or I can call her, and leave a voice message on her direct number. She has been very good all year about giving me updates on the progress. Of course that’s only one a month, and I need to strive to grab … Continue reading Things Can Move Slowly At Times

Trucking Back In The 1960s

Hauling things were much different back when I was young. Many ranchers and cowboys had a set of sideboards they’d put on the back of their pickup and then a horse and sometimes two would be loaded in the back. I can remember how unstable a 1/2 ton truck was with that much weight swaying back and forth and the high center of gravity. Many of the old-timers weren’t very accomplished drivers, either. While we did that some I think of something now that seems much more risky. Hauling a JD 450 loader in the back of a 5 yd. … Continue reading Trucking Back In The 1960s

Throwing A D-7 Dozer Off Of The Trailer

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 the truck … Continue reading Throwing A D-7 Dozer Off Of The Trailer

My First Day to Attend School in Marble Falls.

I went to school in a small 3 room school at Jollyville for my first 7 years. Starting the 8th grade in Marble Falls was the first and only time I ever switched schools. I had it pretty good over a lot of kids moving to a new school. I already knew a lot of the kids there. I had been around MF almost every weekend and summer for my whole life. Running around with Glenn Lewis gave me the chance to meet a bunch of people and be exposed to a lot of situations.Jimmy Frasier was the one person … Continue reading My First Day to Attend School in Marble Falls.

Trading Stamps

I remember my mother with a wet sponge mopping the backs of those trading stamps and carefully putting them in books. I really only remember my mother collecting S&H Green and Texas Gold. I read on Wikipedia that Texas Gold was primarily a HEB thing. Is that the way you remember it? What kind of things did your mother buy with stamps? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_stamp Continue reading Trading Stamps