Category: Crazy Times

Crazy Times, My FriendsLeave a comment

Once Upon A Time In Vegas

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We were in Vegas with a fairly large group. One in our party drank too much walked into hallway just like he came into the world, thinking he was walking into the bathroom. The door shut behind him. Then people started getting off the elevator. He made a run for the stairwell to hide. Then he realized he didn’t remember what room he was in, once the hallway crowd cleared. So no way he could bang on doors to wake his wife up. He finally found a house phone, and called the front desk. I guess since it was Vegas, … Continue reading Once Upon A Time In Vegas

Aging, Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, No Place Like BertramLeave a comment

Pecan Pralines, the sugary kind not the gooey ones.

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I used to go to church with an elderly lady, that shall remain nameless. She “played” a big role in the church and was a very long term member. She became widowed along the way a few years after we moved to Bertram. With losing her husband, the level of cantankerousness got worse and worse. For whatever reason when she would get mad and quit the church, I would be able to go spend a little time with her and get her to come back. I’m not sure how that job fell to me, other than there wasn’t anyone else … Continue reading Pecan Pralines, the sugary kind not the gooey ones.

Crazy Times, The Jollyville YearsLeave a comment

The Christmas Crayon Set

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As a young boy I loved to color. My mother knew to always get me a couple of coloring books and a fresh box of crayons. I had a bad habit of pressing down way too hard, using up the crayons much faster that I should have. Being rambunctious, I broke most of them in half. I’m sure I ate a few of them along the way. It was Christmas Eve night, most likely when I was 6 years old. When I unwrapped my presents I had a huge set of colors and it came in clear plastic carousal that … Continue reading The Christmas Crayon Set

Crazy Times, Meeting New People, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Hood Blew Open

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A month before Madeline and I married in 1971, I had a 1968 Ford Galaxy 500 that I rear ended a Williamson Country Road Maintenance Pickup in Liberty Hill, completely demolishing the front end. It took a couple of months to get it the repairs done. I finally got it out of the body shop on a Friday afternoon, just before leaving on Saturday morning for the Jordan Christmas Party in Houston. The Jordan Family Christmas Party was the highlight every year for Madeline’s whole family, when they got to see all their cousins, aunts and uncles on her dads … Continue reading The Hood Blew Open

Crazy Times, The Construction BizLeave a comment

Not Being Easily Embarrassed

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My wife swears she has only seen me embarrassed one time. It was 20 something years ago, when I was out in the sun a lot and my skin was very dark. As suntanned as I was, my face lit up like Santa’s suit. It so happened that one day in our office I barged in on an office worker nursing her new born son, even after Madeline told me not to go in that room. I thought she meant that I would wake up a sleeping baby, “so don’t go in there”. Well that wasn’t the only reason for … Continue reading Not Being Easily Embarrassed

Crazy Times, The Construction Biz, The Early Days1 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, The Early Days, The Jollyville Years, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Car Sickness

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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, 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