Grease, The Movie And David’s Mishap At The Marble Falls Rodeo

The year was 1978. It was July, Rodeo Time in Marble Falls. Shirley, my sister in law was staying with Madeline and me in Austin. The movie “Grease” had just been release. We had a 4 year old Matthew and a 1 year Michael. Shirley was wanting to see John Travolta swiveling his hips, so it was decided that I was a better choice to accompany her to the movie down on Riverside Drive, than to stay home and keep order with those children. We were sitting there enjoying the movie when a theater worker came down the aisle announcing … Continue reading Grease, The Movie And David’s Mishap At The Marble Falls Rodeo

T & S Manufacturing – Jermyn, Texas

Originally posted on May 30, 2017 Anyone that has spent very much time driving around the rural ranching areas of Texas, have probably seen plenty of these Trip Hoppers as well other cattle feeding equipment manufactured by T & S. Of course Jermyn, Texas is a long way from Marble Falls, where I was raised, but just about anyone from here have a special kinship to T & S. The Taylor Family, Charley & Liz along with sons Jimmy Dan & Pat, were residents of Marble Falls up until the early 1970s. Charley was instrumental in forming the Marble Falls … Continue reading T & S Manufacturing – Jermyn, Texas

Marble Falls Rodeo Association – Marble Falls, Texas

Since 1957 the Marble Falls Rodeo has been going strong. Nothing said summer time back in the early days like “The Rodeo”. Seeing Lloyd Woodley’s trucks loaded with stock rolling into town and a grand parade bringing traffic to a halt on Friday afternoon. There was excitement was in the air ! You knew it was time to rodeo when the turntable playing Hank Williams records over load speakers at the rodeo grounds could be heard all over town and then that ever familiar voice of Charley Taylor would come across to announce that things were ready to get underway. … Continue reading Marble Falls Rodeo Association – Marble Falls, Texas

The Car Business

I often talk about all the different cars I drove when I was a kid. I may have shown up to school in a different vehicle just about any day. To say we were in the used car business would be an over statement. Cecil Lewis was an entrepreneur of his own kind back in the day. He dabbled in about anything that made a little money or kept his sons busy. Buying and fixing up used cars was but one of his ventures. In my early days working for Charlie Ulbricht, I watched him do body work out of … Continue reading The Car Business

Before I Became Civilized

Back in high school driving around and drinking beer or even stronger libations was a common practice. Most all the nights run together, one not being different from the other. Occasionally something happened that sets certain nights apart. Getting intoxicated and left up at Roadside without any clothes on, ending up in jail for the night, now that was memorable. A night when a quite a bit older fellow decided I needed to be taken down a notch or two, so we met up in the Lakeland Minimax parking lot and entered into an extended slugfest that could have lasted … Continue reading Before I Became Civilized

A Typical Friday Night Growing Up in Marble Falls in the 1960s

We would drive through town, go up the roadside park up on the hill, south of town, turn around then drive to the far north end of town. Turn around and repeat that same course dozens of times during a Friday or Saturday night. The whole circle would be no more than a couple of miles. Very few cars would speed, mostly just cruising up and down looking cool. Gasoline cost 35 cents per gallon, so for $5.00 you could drive around all night long. Most of us were drinking beer and having a good ol time. There were drugs … Continue reading A Typical Friday Night Growing Up in Marble Falls in the 1960s

Dennis Gerald Skinner – Burnet County Hero

Yesterday a story was floated around here about a young child that was brought before the whole school or at least his class and given licks for taking something that didn’t belong to him. I wasn’t present when it happened but somehow I remember hearing about it. It was sort of a legendary thing around campus, I guess. I knew Dennis in a very minor way, running across him from time to time. The last time, he came and interviewed with me for a job, sometime in the late 1990’s. I remember we met at a job site near US … Continue reading Dennis Gerald Skinner – Burnet County Hero

Bat Guano Mining Around The Area and Blowout, Texas

Bat Guano Mining During The Civil War:https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dkc09 I have never heard of this place or such a thing happening over by Johnson City or Round Mt. or Willow City. Blowout, TexasMore on primitive bat dooky mining and the hazards associated.http://www.texasescapes.com/MichaelBarr/Blowout.htm Blowout Community, a settlement fifteen miles northwest of Johnson City in northwestern Blanco County, dates back to 1854. That year a party of two dozen homesteaders from Kentucky settled on the east side of Comanche Creek near Comanche Spring, about three miles below the creek’s origin. As more settlers moved into the area the small community of Blowout developed upstream … Continue reading Bat Guano Mining Around The Area and Blowout, Texas