Watch Out What You Ask A Friend To Do

My friend John had recently married a small attractive lady with long blonde hair. She had been a school teacher but had recently become a real estate agent. John knew that I had the ability to find out vehicle ownership with the tap of a few computer keys, just by knowing a license plate number. From that within just a few seconds I could see if that person has a criminal record, and other valuable information as well. He asked me if I’d mind if his wife called me if she was headed out with a client and was nervous … Continue reading Watch Out What You Ask A Friend To Do

The Very Unlucky Little Dog

Several years ago I was taking some folks a lawn mower on a 2 axle. I’m not going to mention names. These people aren’t on Facebook, so there’s no reason that someone should bring this up to them and cause us all to relive that nightmare. These folks raised these little miniature wiener dogs. When I got out of the pickup, there were several of them circling me, as if they were racing, yapping every step. I walked around back and dropped the first ramp, being careful to time it so there wasn’t a dog around to be struck. What … Continue reading The Very Unlucky Little Dog

Never A Broken Bone

Hey folks, can we make this about me for just one minute. As if I don’t have a pretty bad habit of doing just that. I’ve told about everything that has ever happened in my life. Almost. Every near miss. Miraculously I’ve never had a broken bone. In my story about going for the Army draft physical I told about crushing my foot. There we no bone fractures. The bones had what Dr. Allen called radial cracks, I think. There were bones that had longitudinal cracks but nothing fractured, if that makes sense. He bandaged my foot but no cast. … Continue reading Never A Broken Bone

Cadillac Horse Trailers

The Old In-Line Horse Trailers have all but disappeared. When I looked online, I could scarcely find any. I finally found the two photos below. We always called them Cadillac Trailers. Not sure why, but I guess a fancy Cadillac Automobile could pull one without much effort. But then I thought, is it possible that a company named Cadillac Trailers made them? I called my brother to enquire as to his knowledge on the matter, knowing he once had one. He had bought it to pull behind one of those conversation party vans that were really most popular in the … Continue reading Cadillac Horse Trailers

The Smashed Finger

It was a cold February morning in 1971. My dad had leased a truck out to a Trucking Company in San Antonio with me driving it. I would spend all week living in a small rundown motel, The Spur, that was along I-10 on the east side of San Antonio. The trucking yard was just down the frontage road. Most of the time I hauled equipment around San Antonio, but one afternoon I was dispatched to a steel company on north I-35 to load steel beams to go to a new building being built in Houston. I got loaded and … Continue reading The Smashed Finger

The Big Crash

Shortly before Madeline and I married I was working in Burnet and she was living in South Austin with Dixie Lewis and another gal. On Wednesday nights I would drive to Austin to court her, spend the night and head out early the next morning so as to arrive in Burnet by 7:00 AM. Of course courting Madeline meant I’d come to Austin and she, Dixie and I would go to El Matamoros (El Matt’s was what we all called it) and completly stuff ourselves with Mexican Food. Once we would arrive there with Dixie, the place would come alive … Continue reading The Big Crash

On A Quest To Buy A Truck

On the day after Thanksgiving in 1977 Kenny and I went to Cross Plains, Texas to look at a potential truck purchase to haul our equipment with. We started out from Smithwick. We were both there with our families where we were spending the holidays with our mom and dad. Being a 3 hour trip up to the northwest we left early in the morning and arrived in Cross Plains by 8:00 AM. We had seen an ad for this used truck dealer in a magazine. When we got there, they had a sea of trucks on the lot. We … Continue reading On A Quest To Buy A Truck

The 13 Vehicle Accident In Marble Falls

Usually you think of multi-car wrecks happening in Austin or Houston or Dallas. Like a pile up on the freeway. A little known or remembered fact is there was a wreck that happened right in Marble Falls, Texas that involved 13 vehicles back in the spring of 1970. I was involved. It was my senior year and I only went to school in the mornings and worked at a local car dealership in the afternoon. This one afternoon things weren’t to busy at the car lot so I ran home and grabbed a small trailer mounted air compressor and headed … Continue reading The 13 Vehicle Accident In Marble Falls

The Precast Concrete Venture That Exposed Me To A Ponzi Scheme

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 80’s 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

Watch What You Say. You Never Know Who’s Listening

I met a friend for breakfast every morning when were working together. When I got to the restaurant this one morning my friend Gerry wasn’t there yet but I took a seat at our regular table. One table away was a older man, very pleasant sort of fellow and we struck up a conversation about the first one thing and then the other. After a bit Gerry came in an took a seat. We chatted like we did every morning. Nothing real deep. The conversation got around to “did your in laws make it in last night” kind of talk. … Continue reading Watch What You Say. You Never Know Who’s Listening