Category: Crazy Times

Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, The Construction Biz, The Early Days, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Styrofoam Cup Incident

lewisotr

Back in 1977 I was finishing up a project out west of Houston and had another one going down in Crystal City, Texas. I spent a while on the Houston job that morning lining out the guys there. Paul was the one I was leaving in charge. We drank several cups of coffee. I pulled out about mid morning for south Texas, a good long 5 hour drive. It started to rain and it was a cold wintery day. I got over onto I-10 and was heading to San Antonio. Somewhere along the way it occurred to me in a … Continue reading The Styrofoam Cup Incident

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, My Friends, Smithwick, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Drilling A Water Well

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Cec 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 and LJ Henderson weren’t your conventional guys either. After going down close to 100′, they hit water. When drilling with a track drill, the operator would stand right next to the hole being drilled,so all of the dust and rock cuttings being blown from the hole come out and cover the driller. Very few jobs could be dirtier. When the drill bit … Continue reading Drilling A Water Well

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

The Train Locomotive

lewisotr

When were were kids driving around looking for something to get into, a bunch of us ended up out on Fairland Rd. There was a little train locomotive they always left sitting. This one particular night it was parked a long way from anything so we decided to stop and check it out. Someone suggested if we could get it started, perhaps we could take it for a spin. I was pretty savvy with machinery and got it started in the matter of seconds. Luckily I could not figure how to engage it and make it move. I also couldn’t … Continue reading The Train Locomotive

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Smithwick, The Early Days, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Runaway Tractor

lewisotr

We always had a problem with trucks, cars and machinery taking off and rolling away when we parked it at our house. Most of the time it worked out without being a real disaster. We didn’t live on top of a hill exactly, but the ground wasn’t level either. Which was good and bad. Bad if the brakes weren’t set good, but good when the battery was down on a vehicle and you needed to roll it to get it started. Once I started to town, forgot something and came back. Forgetting to set the parking brake and in a … Continue reading The Runaway Tractor

Crazy Times, My Sons, The Early DaysLeave a comment

The Runaway Trailer

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Matthew, our first born, was just the age where he wanted to go with me everywhere I went. We left the house early on a Sunday morning and was making the 8 to 10 mile trip to our construction yard where I was going to unhook from the rather heavy built shop-made bumper pull trailer we had on behind. Back then, in the 1970s you could get out and drive around Austin without running across all that many other cars on the road on an early Sunday morning trip. Matthew, about 3 years old, was standing up in the passenger … Continue reading The Runaway Trailer

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, Kenny Lewis, My Friends, Smithwick, The Early Days, Thoughts and Musings1 Comment

The 58 Ford Pickup Takes A Roll Or Two

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It’s funny the ideas that young boys can have! Living about 9 miles out of Marble Falls meant a drive home every night on a very crooked stretch of paved country road. It’s common knowledge that deer feed at night by the moon. So on a moonlit night there were more deer along the roadway. We were convinced that on nights when the moon was really bright that driving home without headlights provided an overall better chance of not hitting a deer. With headlights off you could see the silhouette of the deer along beside and in the road. The … Continue reading The 58 Ford Pickup Takes A Roll Or Two

Crazy Times, Meeting New People, Thoughts and Musings3 Comments

The PreCast Concrete Venture That Exposed Me To A Ponzi Scheme

lewisotr

The year was 1991. I had spent 20 years digging ditches and I thought enough is enough. The economy was in the crapper. The great real estate boom of the 80s was over and all the big water and wastewater lines had been constructed to the far reaches of the city and beyond in Austin. The future didn’t look so swell for our business. I needed a break. I thought it was time for some new scenery, so to speak. I had two groups of employees by that time. The old and the new. It was time for the old … Continue reading The PreCast Concrete Venture That Exposed Me To A Ponzi Scheme

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, Old Dog - New TrickLeave a comment

Hanging Upside Down

lewisotr

I have had problems with ruptured discs in my neck for much of my adult life. In fact about the only serious surgeries I’ve ever had, have been on my neck. Three of them, starting in 1985, again on 2005 with I hope the last one in 2010. Now most of the vertebra in my neck region are fused together do using plates and screws and even one is wired together with what looks like bailing wire twisted together. That one freaked me out the first time I saw an X-ray of it. The doctor assured me it was good … Continue reading Hanging Upside Down

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, The Early Days, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Cecil and Brackenridge Hospital

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One night in 1963 my Dad, Cecil Lewis fell sick. We lived out on Bull Creek. This wasn’t the first time he had been deathly ill from the same cause. He had a long history of stomach ulcers since soon after he and momma married in 1948. The doctor told him he would need to stop drinking and watch what he ate. When he felt his ulcer acting up he went on a diet of soda crackers, sweet cows milk and raw eggs. Usually a few days of consuming those three things he would improve and go back to eating … Continue reading Cecil and Brackenridge Hospital

Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, On The Job, The Construction Biz3 Comments

Glenn and the Hat

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If you grew up in Marble Falls, you knew Glenn. If you ever passed through Marble Falls you may have encountered Glenn Lewis. His was a real cowboy, doing ranch work most of his life. You always hear it said, that ol boy was born a hundred years too late. In Glenn’s case, there was never a truer cliché ever used. He was rugged, both inside and out. As a young man you would seldom see him that he wasn’t riding a horse or didn’t have one in a trailer behind an old pickup. He was 5 years older than … Continue reading Glenn and the Hat