Reflecting Back On Cecil Lewis

This is something I wrote about my Dad, Cecil Lewis, not long after The Angora Chronicles was inaugurated. While Cecil Lewis wasn’t a perfect man, he did something for Kenny and Me both. He taught us about hard work and keeping to our word. If a man is paying you, then give him a days worth of work. If you tell a man something, you damn well better stick to your word. Those lessons were never forgotten. He gave us every opportunity to learn how to operate every kind of machine there was. He taught us how to work on … Continue reading Reflecting Back On Cecil Lewis

The Ugly Phone Call

I was sitting in the office one morning a few years ago and had received several solicitation calls. I was busy and was fed up with all nonsense calls when the phone rang again. It was an area code I didn’t recognize at all. I picked that phone and the guy said “Hello Ron, This is Dave out here in New Jersey, how is everything going down in Texas?”. I launched into a complete tirade about how sick I was of getting these $:;@/”:?!)$ phone calls, and to never call here again. He had sounded just like the several other … Continue reading The Ugly Phone Call

The GMC Toro-Flow

Back in about 1967 Cecil Lewis, my dad, went off somewhere, probably Austin or San Antonio and bought a 1964 GMC truck. That GMC had perhaps the weakest engine ever put in a truck. It was a single axle with a winch that he paired up with a single axle float type trailer that he had recently purchased. Now here’s the deal, that float trailer was an oil field float. You knew that because it had a rolling tail bar on it and it was built extra heavy duty. Anything going into the oil field needed to be built strong. … Continue reading The GMC Toro-Flow

The Very Worst Vehicle Purchase I Ever Made

General Motors had 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 it. I just needed to hear the roar of that big diesel engine and feel the power when I stepped down on it. There was one other thing. It had to have all the features available, but had to have rubber floor mats instead of carpet. That was a pretty … Continue reading The Very Worst Vehicle Purchase I Ever Made

The Story That Really Shouldn’t Be Told

There was a guy once that left Houston, where he currently was working, to go with his wife and a son to Augusta, Ga. to visit another son that was there training with the US Army. This absolute idiot of a guy decided to go on the Atkins Diet while traveling. Not the brightest move I’d say. If a person eats only meat, cheese and eggs for several days, his regularity is not exactly in check if you know what I mean. The Atkins Diet Plan instructs you to take Psyllium Fiber to help with the above condition. The time … Continue reading The Story That Really Shouldn’t Be Told

My Ol’ Daddy Didn’t Live A Good Clean Life

No apologies for that, as I can almost guarantee you what he would have said if someone offered their opinion on the matter. He smoked his whole life from about age 9. He drank heavily except for about a decade and half, which was from when I was born until I became a teenager. But before that time he was hell on wheels and after that time he became legendary around Smithwick and beyond. Cecil Lewis lived his life throwing caution to the wind. He didn’t spend a lot of his time contemplating his next move. He just got a … Continue reading My Ol’ Daddy Didn’t Live A Good Clean Life

It Can Get Hot In May

Looks like we have a fairly nice week coming up. Well after today it shouldn’t be just oppressively hot. Of course today’s 96° won’t be bad after those 100°+ stuff the past few of days. I remember back in the early 80s, I bid a wastewater project in Laredo, right down along the Rio Grande River. My old bookkeeper Woody went down with me to look at it. He dumped me out up on the upper end and drove about five miles down the river to a predetermined location where I’d be coming up out of the bottoms. I headed … Continue reading It Can Get Hot In May

A Lincoln Town Car Sedan With Dual Tires On All Four Wheels

My friend and colleague Gerry I got to the restaurant at the same time one morning. This took place south of Dallas at the town of Waxahachie. As we were walking in I saw a strange sight. A new Lincoln Continental was parked front and center. It looked like any other car of that make, except it was equipped with dual tires all the way around. Each tire was only approximately half the width of a normal car tire. It was the strangest thing I’d seen in a while. We stood there discussing it for a bit, trying to figure … Continue reading A Lincoln Town Car Sedan With Dual Tires On All Four Wheels

Rolling Back The Odometer

I told in an earlier story about working during my senior year of high school at an Auto Dealership. I was in the Distributive Education Program, allowing me to spend the afternoon actually working on a job where I made money, instead of sitting in a classroom wasting my time. At least that’s the way it felt. For my job I moved cars around from place to place, cleaned up cars, took out the trash and vacuumed the floors in the offices. I did pretty much anything that was needed to be done. I even drove cars around town to … Continue reading Rolling Back The Odometer

Call Me Clueless

Let me tell you something that I even find hard to believe and I was at the center of it. A few years back my wife and a couple of my sons were talking about The Eagles. I simply had no idea who or what they were talking about. It was like “you’ve got to be kidding, you don’t know who The Eagles are ?”. I could honestly say that I had never heard of The Eagles. After them explaining to me that they were one of the most popular bands of the 70s and again in the 90s I … Continue reading Call Me Clueless