Category: Crazy Times

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Smithwick, The Early Days3 Comments

Cec And The Soldier

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Cecil was my Dad. My brother and I called him Cec. No one else did. It was our name for him. He was from the old school as they say. He had a very rough exterior. Come to think of it he had a rough interior too. He was in the construction and trucking businesses. He worked hard his whole life. I always thought he was the toughest man I knew. He never backed away from anything or anybody. Once when I was about 13 or 14, my friend Billy Gene Henry and I accompanied Cec on a trip to … Continue reading Cec And The Soldier

Crazy Times, Grandchildren4 Comments

Don’t Do It

lewisotr

I had told him several times to not do it. But I guess he couldn’t help himself. Tyler was living with his family in San Antonio. He was probably around 5 years old. When I would go down there to check on jobs, I’d often bring my oldest grandson back home to Bertram with me. I bought him one of the wooden rubber band guns when we left San Antonio. The revolver type, that held multiple rubber bands. Several times he pointed it at me, in a playful teasing way. Each time I’d tell him “you had better not shoot … Continue reading Don’t Do It

Crazy Times, My Friends, On The Job, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Dink Wrote Me A Check

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George Lester McDuff was a fiery little fellow. Everyone called him Dink and he always had a story to tell. He had the ability to make me laugh. He could make anyone laugh. I first met Dink in 1963, when I was just a kid. He and my dad worked for the same utility construction company. Dink ran the roadboring division. Roadboring is where a horizontal hole is drilled under a roadway or railroad track a then pipe is installed. It was dirty work with mud knee deep and oil and grease everywhere. But everyday Dink showed up in starched … Continue reading Dink Wrote Me A Check

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, My Friends, The Early DaysLeave a comment

I Would Be Considered Dink’s Stalker In Today’s Terms

lewisotr

Dink McDuff was one of my best friends in my earliest days in the contracting business. I had know him since about 1963 or 64. He and my Dad had worked for the same company, doing underground utility construction. I thought he was the funniest person I’d ever met. Being about 12 years old upon our first encounter, it didn’t take much to impress me. After going into business at 19 years old our paths crossed and it didn’t take long for us to have some sort of a partnership. It wasn’t an enduring sort of deal, so within a … Continue reading I Would Be Considered Dink’s Stalker In Today’s Terms

Crazy Times, On The Job, The Construction Biz1 Comment

Hiring The New Office Guy

lewisotr

Many years ago I had lost my office person to a better opportunity in Houston for him. I knew of this young man that I thought would be a perfect replacement. This fellow was very good with radio’s. In fact he had been trained in electronic repair. He was a HAM Radio Operator. That would come in handy, because back then when most all of our dispatching was done with 2-way radios. We had just started using computers in the business and Joe was already getting into computers himself. This fellow was very orderly and organized like no one I’d … Continue reading Hiring The New Office Guy

Construction, Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, The Construction Biz2 Comments

I Could Never Pass Up Tools Laying In The Road

lewisotr

It always amazed me how often I used to find tools, like wrenches, hammers, screw drivers and the like laying on the road when I was traveling from place to place. I always accused my careless mechanic Paul of being the one that lost most of them. Almost any day I could drive out of the yard and find something Paul had left laying under the hood or on the bumper that would fall off. Of course he wasn’t too worried about it as long as I had charge accounts at all the parts houses in Austin. Paul’s carelessness fed … Continue reading I Could Never Pass Up Tools Laying In The Road

Crazy Times, Meeting New People, Thoughts and Musings3 Comments

The Strange Encounter With Heiko

lewisotr

 When we first bought our home in Corpus Christi back in 2012 we did a minor makeover job to it. This mostly was done before we moved in. We hired a contractor to do the remodeling and painting. We also found a pool contractor to build what I called the largest hot tub or smallest swimming pool in Corpus.  I couldn’t find a good and affordable landscape company so I was glad when Madeline handed me a business card that a fellow had stopped by and given her. Madeline had been out in the front yard, when this very large … Continue reading The Strange Encounter With Heiko

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Smithwick1 Comment

Cec and the CB Radio Craze

lewisotr

Back in the early 1970s CB Radios were the biggest thing going. No one got into CB’s more than Cecil Lewis. It didn’t matter what it took in the way of equipment to have the latest and greatest he would buy it. He was on a buying frenzy like I had never seen Cec go on before. He was a mostly a very frugal person. Not stingy at all. He would give a stranger anything he had and a friend, well the sky was the limit. But the CB Age saw him putting up a tall tower at his house. … Continue reading Cec and the CB Radio Craze

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, My Friends, Smithwick, The Early Days5 Comments

J.P. and the Tires

lewisotr

The junk yard as we called it, was a five acre field up the hill that we didn’t cultivate and out of sight of our house. It was on our land, but was operated by Hugh Hampton. He would bring wrecked cars in and strip them down for usable car parts then scrap the remaining pieces. One day a 63 (may have been a 64) Chevy Impala was brought in that had been in a wreck and was pretty much totaled. It had belong to a schoolmate, Jerry Ford. It had a really nice set of wide ovals on the … Continue reading J.P. and the Tires