Grandma May

She was Judy Maybelle Clark Linebarger. She was my Great Grandmother. When I was a kid she lived with her daughters. It seems like she kind of moved with the seasons. It wasn’t because she wasn’t happy one place, but rather because she enjoyed all of her girls (all 4) and choose to spend her later years with each. At least that’s the way it seemed. The time I remember her the most was when she was staying with my grandmother Ruby in her home in north central Austin. Grandma May was a lady that never complained and was always … Continue reading Grandma May

Long Distance Calls

The younger folks probably have a hard time grasping that a call from Marble Falls and Burnet was long distance, and it cost money. In the early to mid 1960s we would listen to the radio station out of Burnet. Big Jimmy Palmer got in a habit of calling up to the radio station for contests they were running and to request songs to be played. He got carried away with it and ran up a pretty good phone bill, at least for those times. I’ll tell you for sure that Hannah Cox, his momma laid into him. I don’t … Continue reading Long Distance Calls

What Do You Mean, Diving For Pearls?

Who knew the Highland Lakes where teaming with mussels with pearls contained within. From the Burnet Bulletin/Marble Falls Messenger – May 23, 1989 While I didn’t find anything about Mr. Casey, I did find where Mr. Norman passed on in 2019. His obit reads like “someone I would have liked to have known”. Continue reading What Do You Mean, Diving For Pearls?

Connecting The Dots

This past weekend was a slow one. Several times I’ve been talking with or chatting on messenger with someone and we start thinking we are kinfolks, because we have the name Lewis or Boultinghouse in our lineage. For me, of course, I carry the Lewis name around with me in my billfold right there on my drivers license. My mother was a Boultinghouse, so there you go. There aren’t all that many Boultinghouse’s in the world, or in Texas. And for the most part that is the world to me. Lewis is a name that is far reaching. There may … Continue reading Connecting The Dots

The Colorful Characters Of My Youth

This Doesn’t Need To Be A Competition between the towns, you know. Even though most everything escalated into a rivalry of some degree back in my growing up years when it came to Burnet and Marble Falls. I was sitting around thinking about some of the real characters that were in Marble Falls when I was growing up. I just don’t think they make characters nowadays, like they used to. Did Burnet have any of these people that left a mark on the town like Marble Falls did? Or did they all end up in the south part of the … Continue reading The Colorful Characters Of My Youth

John Kemper’s Corvette

Don’t remember if it was our Junior or Senior year of high school but John Kemper bought a “59” Corvette. He decided it needed a new paint job. A Pearl White was the color was selected. A very difficult 2 part epoxy paint was used. He made arraignments to use the old building at Main and 2nd (currently a Title Co) as a makeshift paint shop. With nothing other than a bunch of teenagers (about a 1/2 dozen of us) the car was stripped down, sanded and painted in a very dimly lighted room. I had painted a few cars … Continue reading John Kemper’s Corvette

The History of the Roper Hotel

At the Northeast Corner of US 281 & Third St. – Marble Falls The Roper Hotel is located at 707 Third Street in the city of Marble Falls, county of Burnet, in the U.S. State of Texas. It was erected circa 1888. The hotel was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1981, and added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Burnet County, Texas on January 8, 1980. The two-story structure was originally built by George and Elizabeth Roper. The building changed hands and names in 1926 and 1963, and is currently occupied by a medical clinic. … Continue reading The History of the Roper Hotel

The Quandary

I was late to the party on watching Breaking Bad. I started watching it after the series ended. Then I binge watched the whole thing in a matter of a few days. I can’t for the life of me tell you what sucked me into that show. It’s certainly in no way connected to my real life. Far from it. The premise is nothing that I should have enjoyed. Someone recommended it and my wife and I decided to watch it, probably close to 9 or 10 years ago. The spin-off, Better Call Saul, never struck me as something I’d … Continue reading The Quandary

Trying To Figure Out The History Of US 281 Running Through Burnet County.

I referenced several sources including newspapers, other written sources and maps to ascertain the history of the main highway that now takes us from Wichita Falls to Brownsville. I am only speaking to the stretch as it extends through Burnet County, as it gets much more complicated trying to talk about the entire stretch as it goes from Canada to Mexico. Very early photo of the roads leading into Marble Falls. They appear to be more like cattle trails than roads. Below is a 1919 map. It doesn’t show an actual road extending from Blanco to Lampasas. (Probably just trails … Continue reading Trying To Figure Out The History Of US 281 Running Through Burnet County.