Ken’s Pearly Whites

Back in the fast and furious years of the late 1970s we had contracts with Lakeway to build a bunch of new streets. Kenny put a huge culvert pipe on a trailer behind his pickup that was needed to go in the middle of a big draw. When he got out to the project, no one else was around so he was going to unchain it and let it roll off the trailer. When he popped the boomer (the levered device below) the end of the handle hit him directly in the mouth with tremendous force. Over the Motorola 2-way … Continue reading Ken’s Pearly Whites

Chuck Norris definitely wears Kenny Lewis pajamas

Back when Kenny had his place in Mexico, his son Kody brought a friend from Tennessee, Tom Brostowin, to hunt several times. On one trip Tom brought another fellow with him that was a New York Stockbroker type. Kenny dropped the two of them off at a big double stand for the morning hunt and then continued on. Kenny came back by little later to find them both sitting on the ground at the bottom on the stand. When ask why they weren’t up in the stand they told him there was a huge wasp nest in there. Following are … Continue reading Chuck Norris definitely wears Kenny Lewis pajamas

Fast Food (really fast food)

Anyone remember when they built the new hamburger place on William Cannon at Manchaca Rd. Best I can remember it was a Carl’s Jr. They started and worked around the clock to have it in operation in 24 hours and they did it. It was an attempt to set a record for the fastest fast food place to be built. It was in August 9, 1979 or September 26, 1982, I can’t remember which. How do I know it was one of those dates? We lived a few blocks from there. I took my wife to St. David’s one morning … Continue reading Fast Food (really fast food)

Vernon Blizzard

I found out years later it was Blisard. With the temperatures cooling down a little, let me tell you about a Blizzard I once experienced. His name was Vernon Blizzard. He worked with my grandmother Ruby at the State School that was in West Austin in the early 60s. I don’t know what Vernon did at work but away from work he traded in Shetland Ponies. He didn’t just deal in them he was was a major Shetland Pony Trafficker. If you, like many parents of that day wanted your child to have a Shetland Pony you went to Vernon … Continue reading Vernon Blizzard

The Disease

It was in the hot summer time and I was out of school for the summer. I was about 14 or 15 years old and working for my Dad, Cecil Lewis. We were building a road down by Turkey Bend. Just country roads are all we built back then, hauling and spreading out caliche for new subdivision roads. I always ran the loader, loading the five or six dump trucks that hauled the caliche. The trucks were driven mostly by our school age friends, the ones at least sixteen and could get a commercial license. Socks Jackson was the mechanic … Continue reading The Disease

The Highway Patrolman At Paleface Park

Besides racing Shetland’s at Paleface and eating lots of BBQ at the old Paleface Store, I have one other story that connects to Paleface. Kenny and I together with our wives were heading to Luling for our great grandmother Purcell’s birthday celebration on a Sunday morning. I was driving Madeline’s 1974 Pontiac Granville. This incident happened in 1975 or 1976, given the car we were in. Most likely I was exceeding the speed limit. Oh of course I was. They had reduced the speed limit to a maximum of 55 MPH, so almost everyone broke the speed limit. How were … Continue reading The Highway Patrolman At Paleface Park

Winfield and the Wimberley Bank

I thought that the incident with Winfield and the speeding tickets had taught him a lesson. I found out later how clueless I was about what all was going on in that man’s head. If you set and listened to him you would really take him to be just a big talker, but you knew he wanted to make it big one day. He had been around a couple of years by this time and my business was going through a very tumultuous time. My bills were all behind, creditors were beating our door down and Winfield was spending most … Continue reading Winfield and the Wimberley Bank

The Lady With the Beautiful Green Eyes

In the spring of 1969, my dad had a trailer truck that he would send down below San Antonio to pickup carpet grass and deliver around up in the Marble Falls area. There was a man and his wife that built a new house just down off of Haynie Flat Road near Paleface Ranch. The house was right on top of a big bluff overlooking the Pedernales River. It was a very nice, ultra-fancy place for those days. We had the job of hauling a bunch of good topsoil in, to go over the rocks. I got several of my … Continue reading The Lady With the Beautiful Green Eyes

The Hood Wasn’t Fastened And Blew Open At The Most Inopportune Moment

A month before Madeline and I married in 1971, I had a 3 year old Ford Galaxy 500 and I rear ended a Williamson Country Road Maintenance Pickup in Liberty Hill, completely demolishing the front end. It took a couple of months to get it out of the shop. I finally got it out of the body shop on a Friday afternoon. On Saturday we were leaving for the Jordan Christmas Party in Houston. The Jordan Christmas Party was a huge deal. I had made every excuse imaginable about why I didn’t need to go. I didn’t know any of … Continue reading The Hood Wasn’t Fastened And Blew Open At The Most Inopportune Moment