Category: My Friends

Funny Happenings, My Friends, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Austin Radio People & My Friend Sonny

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Bob Cole and Sammy Allred where the duo that probably stayed together the longest, at least to my memory. Of course there was Jim W W Travis at KVET for a long time. Tom Allen was a fixture. There were many that came through there over the years. Jerry Gee. Penny Reeves. Arlie Duff was at KOKE and moved to KVET for a while before he retired or moved on. The list is pretty long. A lessor known and remembered DJ at KVET was Sonny Butler. He was a night man a lot of the time and filled in in … Continue reading Austin Radio People & My Friend Sonny

Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, My Friends, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

A Lincoln Town Car Sedan With Dual Tires On All Four Wheels

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My friend and colleague Gerry I got to the restaurant at the same time one morning. This took place south of Dallas at the town of Waxahachie. As we were walking in I saw a strange sight. A new Lincoln Continental was parked front and center. It looked like any other car of that make, except it was equipped with dual tires all the way around. Each tire was only approximately half the width of a normal car tire. It was the strangest thing I’d seen in a while. We stood there discussing it for a bit, trying to figure … Continue reading A Lincoln Town Car Sedan With Dual Tires On All Four Wheels

Amazing Things, Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, My Friends, The Jollyville Years, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The “55” Chevrolet 3/4 Ton Pickup With Sideboards

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Cecil picked up this slightly used Texas Highway Department Pickup at a sale somewhere. That was along about 1961, so the old truck had a lot of good left it it. It was Highway Department Yellow, with the state emblem sanded off of each front door, making it not very attractive. To class it up a bit he had a fellow paint it for him. Cec never did have much of an eye for colors so he went and picked out a color I’d never seen a vehicle painted before or since. I guess it would be something between a … Continue reading The “55” Chevrolet 3/4 Ton Pickup With Sideboards

Amazing Things, My Friends, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and Musings2 Comments

I Feel Like My Life Is One Big Bundle Of Surprises

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Yes I’m always surprised at what pops up around every corner, or so it seems. Some of those unexpected “surprises” are not good but most of the time they are something to enjoy. Having this forum I get to share much of this, the good and the bad with many of my friends. I would love to tell you something that happened a couple of days ago. It involves one person that many in Marble Falls knows and that I’ve call a friend for well over a half century, probably around 55 years. This fellow is a few years older … Continue reading I Feel Like My Life Is One Big Bundle Of Surprises

Amazing Things, My Friends, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Sometimes It Pays To Procrastinate

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This is one of those stories that happen and you ask yourself, what just happened? Last night a lady asked me if I had one of the Centennial Edition of Marble Falls History, published by The Highlander, that I may be willing to part with. It is a great record of the Marble Falls so many of us hold so dear to our hearts. I told this lady, whom I supposed would be using it to do research for a book she is writing, that I would look and see, but I was pretty sure I had a copy I’d … Continue reading Sometimes It Pays To Procrastinate

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, My Friends, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and Musings, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Pete and the Boulder Busters

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Times have changed a lot in the 50 years that I’ve been in the construction business. The only economical way to excavate rock for installing underground utilities in the first 10 years was blasting with dynamite. It tapered off over the next decades to where that method is rarely even used today. We blasted up and down streets in very congested areas. In my first 4 or 5 years there wasn’t even a city permit required in Austin to transport and use explosives. Anyone dealing with the City of Austin now, would find that hard to believe. Now you need … Continue reading Pete and the Boulder Busters

Crazy Times, Kenny Lewis, My Friends, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Double Tailed Quarters

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There was a time in the 80s when times were really good in the construction business. I was flying high, as was Kenny and our friend Coy. We all had our own businesses but we worked together at times, hiring each other’s companies to help out on projects. Kenny & Coy had a lot more in common with each other than with me. During that phase of their lives they each were without the benefit of a wife at the time or at least they acted like it. They worked hard and partied hard as the old saying goes. Now … Continue reading The Double Tailed Quarters

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, My Friends, The Early Days, Thoughts and Musings3 Comments

The Mean Streets Of Houston

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As a boy going up in the small central Texas town of Marble Falls, I dreamed of getting out of high school and finding a vocation without ever needing to go on to college or any other formal education. I grew up in a family where operating equipment and driving trucks came at an early age. I thought a career as a truck driver and maybe even owning a fleet of trucks one day was in my future. I was a high school senior, but not yet eighteen. At that time, you could get your drivers license at 14 and … Continue reading The Mean Streets Of Houston

Amazing Things, My Friends, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

My Big Surprise (from Nov. 2014)

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I had a very pleasant surprise this evening. I got a text from a very dedicated employee, Chris Chapman and his wife Jeni. Jeni is the daughter of Madeline’s brother David. Chris has worked for the company almost his entire adult life, just short of 20 years. They had left a box by our back door here in Bertram. When I went out and retrieved and opened it, there were 5 copies of The Angora Chronicles, volume one. It has 67 stories, mostly some of the first stories I submitted. It is so professionally done. When Chris heard about my … Continue reading My Big Surprise (from Nov. 2014)

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., My Friends, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

I Just Had A Winfield Scott Memory Pop Up In My Head

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Not long before Winfield’s death, I was in Houston and met him for lunch near his downtown office. He had not yet been disbarred for getting busted with drugs. He was making plans to come to Austin and open a practice. The rules about Attorney’s had changed allowing television advertising. Houston was saturated with those commercials but it hadn’t so much made it’s way to Austin. He was sure that him investing in a great advertising campaign would put him on the map post haste. He certainly had the line of BS to go a long way. Maybe had things … Continue reading I Just Had A Winfield Scott Memory Pop Up In My Head