It was at dusk on Sunday evening 12/15/13. As I drove north on I35 nearing Hillsboro, Texas I had an encounter with an apparent drunk driver. In front of me I saw a white S-10 Chevrolet pickup (an older vehicle … Continue reading The Mystery
Back in 1970, not too long after I graduated from high school, I was driving a truck for Nelson Lewis, hauling equipment all over the state. I remember being dispatched to Devine, Texas to haul a Parsons Trencher from there over to Port Lavaca. It was a trip of around 200 miles, maybe more with weaving my way down through the many little south Texas towns. This was before any big highways were built. Those towns were connected with Farm to Market Roads and a few State Highways. I got to Devine late in the afternoon one day, loaded the … Continue reading Hauling A Parsons Ladder Trencher
I wasn’t long out of school, probably had just turned 18. One of my first jobs was driving a haul truck for Nelson Lewis. He had just landed a project in downtown Austin, laying a wastewater line up West Ave. It started down at 7th St and would continue up to about the 24th block on Rio Grande St. Right up in the the middle of UT. The first piece of equipment I hauled to the job was an old White-Oliver Rubber Tired Backhoe. It was a beast, 4 wheel drive and all. It didn’t travel real fast, so the … Continue reading The VW Bus Was Parked In A Bad Spot
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 was driving a 1967 GMC 9500 “B Cab”, I think it was. I don’t think the truck collectors/restoration folks are seeking out these beauties. 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 … Continue reading My Wildest Trucking Story
Not so very long after we bought our place here in Bertram, I went up to a local used tractor dealer and made a deal for a Poppin Johnny Tractor. It was well past being worn out, but I more wanted something to play around with and work on occasionally. It was a John Deere “G”. I had grown up around one like it and loved the sound of it starting up and then listening to its unique sound of that 2 cylinder engine. The fellow I bought it from had done a good job of giving it a new … Continue reading Back in the 90s – When a City Boy Moved to the Country
This happened back in the winter of 1981 – 1982. It was a cold evening. I remember when this happened the same way I mark time for so much of my life. By what vehicle I was driving. It was 3/4 ton Chevrolet long bed, crew cab, a 1982 model. Chevrolet had just started making a 6.2 liter Diesel engine for their pickups. It was advertised to be the greatest advance in power that had ever been. I had to have one. I found one. I didn’t care what color it was or where I had to go to get … Continue reading The Guy Had An Accident. Perhaps You Could Say He Had Two.
I was about 10 years old. LJ was drilling a well for us in Smithwick. He got me off to the side to ask me a few questions. “When your daddy goes fishing, what kind of bait does he use“?I was more than willing to tell him my daddy didn’t use, bait. He used a telephone to fish with. He got me to tell him exactly how it was done and how many fish they would get each time. About that time he reached in his pocket a flashed something, real fast, saying “you see this badge, I’m an undercover … Continue reading An LJ Henderson Memory
My dad Cecil talked LJ Henderson into bringing a track drill, normally used to drill holes for blasting rock, down to Smithwick to drill a water well. That wasn’t the conventional way to drill a water well, but Cecil Lewis … Continue reading Drilling A Water Well
I received a text from a fellow I know this morning. He sent me a picture of one of my business cards. It was a card from sometime prior to 1985. That is when I sold my office on Montopolis Drive and moved on with a new address. So that’s how I knew how old the card was. He found it taped to the wall in a house he had recently purchased. Out of curiosity I ask where the house was, thinking that I may know the person that lived there. As soon as he told me which house it … Continue reading Connecting The Dots After 43 Years
Back when my friend Winfield, the CPA, worked for me we were being courted by one of the big downtown Austin banks. Emory Thompson was the pitch man for The Capitol National Bank that would come by and try to get us bring our business to them. I knew him, his family had owned a big tire business that had sold and he went from being a tire salesman to being a money salesman. We had been doing business with a small local bank in north Austin, aptly named North Austin State Bank. They had done everything I’d ever wanted … Continue reading Capitol National Bank and a Slight Misunderstanding
Angora Chronicles 