Category: Crazy Times

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Smithwick1 Comment

Cec and the CB Radio Craze

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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

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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

Crazy Times, Kenny LewisLeave a comment

Making A Trip Down I-35 With Kenny Lewis

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I made a lame attempt at telling this story just after it happened. I don’t think I did justice to it, possible for fear that something might come along a bite my brother in the rear end and I didn’t need to be on a witness stand trying to explain myself. But since a couple of years or more has passed, I’m going to make another run at it. Kenny asked if I’d like to ride with him up south of Dallas to look at a piece of machinery that he was contemplating buying. I thought we would enjoy the … Continue reading Making A Trip Down I-35 With Kenny Lewis

Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, Kenny Lewis, On The Job, The Construction Biz, The Early Days3 Comments

Tumbleweed Hill

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Kenny had only been out of the Army for a short time. He was working for the company. I had a 1976 Chevy 4 Wheel Drive Pickup that I handed down to him. We had a project installing a new waterline that extended from near Mesa Dr, along Far West Blvd. The line would end near FM 2222 and Bull Creek Rd. This was Kenny’s project to oversee. We were for the first time living a role reversal, where I was his boss. I made an early morning drive by to check the progress and didn’t see Kenny anywhere, even … Continue reading Tumbleweed Hill

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Smithwick, The Early Days4 Comments

Ingrown Toenails

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As a teenager I was plagued with ingrown toenails. They came and went. One day as I complained about the pain, probably using it as an excuse to get out of work, my dad had heard enough. “Come here boy, I am gonna fix those toes of your” As I set in the kitchen floor, he brought out a syringe that we had recently used while castrating hogs. It had the largest and coarsest needle you can even imagine. He had the same medicine we had used for deadening the hogs. He loaded that syringe full of it and as … Continue reading Ingrown Toenails

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

What Didn’t Kill Us, Made Us Stronger

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Was online texting back and forth this morning with my little sister/cousin Jan Beaver. We grew up to be parents that jerked our kids up and hauled them to the doctor every time they had a snotty nose. I guess we were making up for the lack of us going to the doctor when we were kids. Jan told of climbing up on the cabinet next to the stove top where Bonnie Gay was making Mustang Grape Jelly and turned the pan over, spilling it all over her arms. She grabbed her up and ran cold water on it and … Continue reading What Didn’t Kill Us, Made Us Stronger

Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, On The Job, The Construction Biz, The Early DaysLeave a comment

The VW Bus Was Parked In A Bad Spot

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I wasn’t long out of school, probably had just turned 18. One of my first jobs was driving a haul truck for Nelson Lewis, a cousin in the utility business. He had just landed a project in downtown Austin, laying a wastewater line up West Ave. It started down at 7th St and would continue up to about the 24th block on Rio Grande St. Right up in the middle of the University of Texas Campus. The first piece of equipment I hauled to the job was an old White-Oliver Rubber Tired Backhoe. It was a beast, 4 wheel drive … Continue reading The VW Bus Was Parked In A Bad Spot

Aging, Crazy Times, Thoughts and Musings7 Comments

It Set There All Day

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When Kenny had a ranch in Mexico and was going back and forth a lot, so he bought a helicopter. He also used it to look at projects around the state. It was pretty handy. I had a lease agreement with him, so when I’d need to get around to take care of business it was at my disposal. To make sure I was as cool as my brother I built a helipad at my house. The pilot would fly in, grab me and we could leave Bertram and be in Arlington, Tx in an hour and twenty minutes. One … Continue reading It Set There All Day

Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, The Construction BizLeave a comment

Harold wasn’t known as a man with a stellar reputation

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Sometime in the later 1970s Harold showed up in Austin as an underground utility contractor. There have been a bunch of them that have come and gone in Austin over the past almost 50 years that I’ve been around. But none like Harold, that would cause you to feel like you needed a bath, from just having a conversation with him. Okay that last sentence is a little bit of a lie. There have been several others that gave me that feeling. Harold had a gift of gab and you knew he was a bullshit artist the second he started … Continue reading Harold wasn’t known as a man with a stellar reputation

Crazy Times, Thoughts and Musings5 Comments

Sam From Sales

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We were talking a day or so back about Radio Personalities and the chemistry some have together. I found this (and many more) YouTube clips of an afternoon skit that Hal Jay (the in-studio DJ) and Dick Siegel (helicopter pilot flying around doing traffic reports) and one of the news guys that would pose as Sam From Sales. At an appointed time, “Sam” would come in and spend a few minutes telling a story about something going in his life. In the background you could always hear the whirrrr of Dick’s helicopter, and the almost constant distinctive laughs of both … Continue reading Sam From Sales