Always Watch What You Say Around The Little Ones

I did a job down in Hockley, Texas a long time ago. I was on that project when I heard that Elvis was dead. Funny how we remember those things. When I first started the project I needed someone in the office there onsite to help keep the pipe and other material ordering straight as well as keeping up with time and other office duties. An older fellow dropped by looking for an employment opportunity. He lived in the area and knew his way around. He was a strikingly handsome old fellow. He dressed nicely, but seemed like he constantly … Continue reading Always Watch What You Say Around The Little Ones

The Red CCI Jacket

This story was originally written back in August, 2014. I stopped by my brothers office yesterday. He and his trouble making son Kody were sitting in his office. Of course Kody just had to bring up something about the caps getting handed out that time on the street corners. I don’t like to mention things around Kenny that get him stirred up, you understand. He told a story of being at a Liberty Hill football game a few years back and looked over and a old boy had on a Red Carhart CCI jacket on. He didn’t recognize the guy. … Continue reading The Red CCI Jacket

The Fortune Teller

If a fortune teller tells you something, maybe you should listen. We traveled from Marble Falls to San Antonio for our 1970 senior trip. Whoopee, that was a dandy trip of less than a hundred miles, after putting in 12 hard years. Late in the afternoon we ended up by Breckenridge Park at an amusement park and arcade. Several of us, Madeline included, which is now my wife of over 49 years, decided to go to a fortune teller. When it was my turn she read my palms or something and said ” one day you will write a book”. … Continue reading The Fortune Teller

Señor Kenny

Back when Papa Ted (Madeline’s Dad – Ted Jordan) retired from a long career in the oil patch and came to live in Smithwick he took on the task of keeping our property at the lake mowed and trimmed. He did a great job as long as his health allowed for it. In the very beginning he showed up one day and there was a well tanned fellow with a big bushy black mustache and a nice sombrero there at the lake. Figuring it was some of the hired help, Ted lined him out. He told him how the fallen … Continue reading Señor Kenny

He Got On That Harley And They Rode Away

There were a couple of brothers sitting around visiting a few years ago. I’m not sure how or why it came up, but they were discussing a fellow contractor with whom they had know most of their lives. The younger brother said “did you hear about Ol Dan (not his actual name). I’m not sure his company will be around much longer. It seems he’s gone middle crazy. He bought a new Harley and left his wife. Last time the guys at his shop saw him he was headed out west on that motorcycle with a large breasted blond on … Continue reading He Got On That Harley And They Rode Away

MQ and the Hog Buyer

This story was told to me by Winfield about his dad, MQ. I’m pretty sure that MQ was as crazy as his son, Winfield. There are many stories about him but none that top the following. I had only limited contact with him when I was a kid. The first time I remember seeing MQ was during a hog buying episode when he bought a pen full of hogs from Brown Parker. Trying to load the hogs, something happened causing him to slip down in the loading chute with a big sow on top of him. He literally bit her … Continue reading MQ and the Hog Buyer

Winfield’s Funeral (also Jazzy’s Funeral)

I should let this story be the final one for Winfield, but I will go ahead and tell it now, because there are many other chapters between the one I wrote earlier about him and the end. I’m sure a lot of people wondered what ever happened to him. His family was pretty well off in terms of most of us. His dad had a good job at one of the dams in the area and also had a large hog farm. Winfield left Marble Falls in a Porsche headed to LSU in the fall of 1969. He became a … Continue reading Winfield’s Funeral (also Jazzy’s Funeral)

Winfield’s Trip To Jail

Winfield was a guy a grade ahead of me at Marble Falls High School. He had the reputation of doing wild and crazy things. We ran around together some, but weren’t constant companions in our school days. He was extremely intelligent, but lacking in the common sense department. After high school, he went off to college and became a C.P.A. I saw very little of Winfield throughout the 70s, as he was in Houston, carving out his niche in the accounting world. Sometime in the early 80s, I found out that Winfield was in Austin working for a small local … Continue reading Winfield’s Trip To Jail

Impersonating My Brother

For years Kenny and I sounded amazingly alike on the phone. We both have what I guess is a distinct Smithwick accent. I’m doubtful that Kenny ever took advantage of that. My wife admits to getting us confused a few times. Maybe she or Kenny can tell us if any of those conversations ever went hay-wire. If they did, I never heard about it. On the other hand, I can’t tell you how much confusion I caused by letting different ones think they were talking to Kenny when I was the one they were actually talking to. Our Grannie Ruby … Continue reading Impersonating My Brother

Tommy Houy was a Honda Motorcycle guy all the way.

I think his first one was a 125cc that he had when I first came to Marble Falls, starting the 8th grade. I don’t think he ran all over town on it, but rode it over on his side of town. Then he jumped up to a 350cc. It was metallic blue. That’s the one he wrecked on. During the repairing of it, he switched the color to a metal flake orange. A few years later he went up to a 450cc, then a 750cc. Buy the time he and I became reconnected in the 1990s he was riding a … Continue reading Tommy Houy was a Honda Motorcycle guy all the way.