Category: Crazy Times

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

Crazy Times, Kenny Lewis, On The Job, The Construction Biz, The Early DaysLeave a comment

The Contractor That Did It All

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One time we ventured off to Laredo to bid on a project, a new water line. This was way back in the late 70’s. The bids were turned in the late afternoon. We had to stay over until that night when the bids were opened and read at the city council meeting. I figured that was a ploy to get more hotel tax revenue. My brother, Kenny was with me for this trip. We got to the council meeting and saw where not only our bid was going to be opened that night but probably 6 or 8 other bids … Continue reading The Contractor That Did It All

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

Hauling A Parsons Ladder Trencher

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Back in 1970, not too long after I graduated from high school, I was driving a truck for Nelson Lewis, hauling equipment. 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 machine and chained it … Continue reading Hauling A Parsons Ladder Trencher

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, The Early Days1 Comment

A Trip Up Sheffield Hill

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I had been waiting almost 47 years to retrace some tracks that I made in what seems like a different lifetime. My wife and I made a trip out to Big Bend about 3 years ago, so it was a prefect time see what the big deal with Sheffield Hill was. (also called Lancaster Hill) Driving A Cattle Truck Soon after graduating from high school, I was still 17 years old, I got hired on as a relief driver, driving a cattle truck for the Wenmohs Ranch. I was a team driver with Wallace Herbert. I guess you could say … Continue reading A Trip Up Sheffield Hill

Crazy Times, My Friends, The Early Days, The Jollyville YearsLeave a comment

Beer Company Sponsorships

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Back in the 50s and on into to 60s the different beer companies would hire bands to promote their product. A local Austin band, Jesse James and All The Boys was one that Pearl Beer Sponsored. Pearl also had another band, Adolph Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers that was more widely recognized than the James band. I used to hear radio promotions for Adolph Hofner, mostly playing in San Antonio, on up into the 70s. I mention Jesse (William Howard “Jesse”) James because he used to come to our house “On The Creek” just out of Jollyville. He was a … Continue reading Beer Company Sponsorships