Category: Crazy Times

Crazy Times, The Construction Biz, The Early DaysLeave a comment

My Crooked Nose

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I earned my crooked nose. It took me a long time to learn what to do to keep from getting punched in the nose. It was mostly all about keeping my mouth shut at the right time. Back in the mid 70s we were doing a project on the east side of Houston. At I-10 and Federal Rd. to be exact. The job keep me later than usual so well after dark I found myself standing at a pay phone outside of Jim’s Coffee Shop on Federal Rd. Probably letting Madeline know to not wait dinner on me. At the … Continue reading My Crooked Nose

Crazy Times, The Construction Biz1 Comment

Cell Phones On The Cheap

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After the prosperous years of the 80s came the real estate bust of the late 80s and early 90s. Kenny, Coy and I (of double tailed quarter fame) were teamed up again doing work together. The days of mobile phones had given way to pagers and pay phones.Mobile phones were very expensive in the early days. My average phone bill in the 80s was $1,000 – $1,200 per month. That wasn’t for the whole company, that was just me. I stayed on the phone constantly, conducting business and doing a fair share of BSing. Those costs just weren’t in the … Continue reading Cell Phones On The Cheap

Crazy Times, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., The Early DaysLeave a comment

The Teacher’s Pet

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I wasn’t the most well behaved student in Mrs. Corkers 8th grade class. That year was the first and only time I ever had to change schools. I must have tried hard to fit in. I certainly got my share of attention, for a new kid. She was considered a good teacher, but was very stern. English was my most difficult subject. I didn’t like it, I didn’t understand it. Mrs.Corker didn’t take to students that failed to excel in English. It was obvious that the two of us were going nowhere, fast. One day during class, she was talking … Continue reading The Teacher’s Pet

Crazy Times, The Early Days, The Jollyville Years, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Car Sickness

lewisotr

It doesn’t seem like kids get car sick as much now as they used to. For nine years, from age 4 until I was 13 we maintained a Friday afternoon family ritual. When school would get out on Friday afternoon we would leave Jollyville and head to Smithwick. The road for some of the way was still unpaved, just a gravel road from Lago Vista to Smithwick. That stretch of road became RM 1431 and was paved, starting in 1958. The road from Whitestone to Smithwick was even more crooked back then than it is now. A way more crooked. … Continue reading Car Sickness

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, The Early Days1 Comment

My Wildest Trucking Story

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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

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, My Sons1 Comment

We Raised A House Full Of Pretty Good Boys

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Raising five sons, we had relatively few major “situations” with any of them. Well excluding automobile mishaps. But even with those, they just tore up cars and never got hurt or hurt anyone else, so except for the high insurance premiums for many years we came out fairly well unscathed. We didn’t have any bad bouts of them drinking or drugging and getting too much out of hand. Of course they now tell us that there was a lot we didn’t know about. Of course there were things that I knew they did that I never even brought up to … Continue reading We Raised A House Full Of Pretty Good Boys

Crazy Times, My Sons, The Early Days, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

It Was Perhaps The Worst Purchase I Ever Made

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It all came about because 38 years ago today, September 27, 1982 we welcomed our twins sons into our lives. We knew things would change so in an attempt to get things in order, in went down to the dealership and bought a new GMC Suburban. It was a beautiful thing. It had been the sales managers demonstrator so I was able to strike a good deal on it. It was a medium blue on the top and bottom with the center portion a dark midnight blue. Part of the paint scheme in those days was to have some wide … Continue reading It Was Perhaps The Worst Purchase I Ever Made

Crazy Times, My Friends, The Construction Biz, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Loaning Out My Jeep

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There was a fellow, seemed like a nice guy that worked for one of my competitors. I’d see him at bid openings, but never really knew him. After working for that other company for a while, he decided to go in business. Bob knew I had started out on a shoestring so he came to me to get some advise. I gave him all the pointers I could think of. I felt it a compliment that the guy came to me. So we became kind of buddy’s. I wasn’t really looking for additional competition, but I was okay that his … Continue reading Loaning Out My Jeep

Crazy Times, Thoughts and Musings2 Comments

Riding Up On The Back Of An Elephant

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Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying anything disparaging about the fairer sex in what I’m fixing to write but you tell me there aren’t differences is in the two sexes. Back in the spring of 2004, I think it was, we were over in Africa. One day we decide it would be a great idea to go on an elephant back tour through the wilds of Zimbabwe. We got on, with me sitting behind my wife. We all took off, a long line of the elephants with people on their backs. We weren’t out of sight of stable, if … Continue reading Riding Up On The Back Of An Elephant

Crazy Times, On The Job, The Construction Biz, The Early Days2 Comments

Eavesdropping Through The Motel Wall

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Back in the late 70s, we decided to bid on a project for the City of Laredo. I usually traveled to these out of town destinations alone, while Kenny kept an eye on things back at home. But this time he accompanied me on the long road south. We left really early in the morning so we could look at the job site conditions and see what kind of productions we could expect. We checked into a Holiday Inn Motel in Laredo to finish up on a bid that would be turned in later that afternoon. We were staying over … Continue reading Eavesdropping Through The Motel Wall