Category: The Early Days

Crazy Times, Smithwick, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Mind You, I’m Not Bragging

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But I’ll have to say that after going through an old box of papers, I have formed a different opinion of what was normal. These are papers I left behind at Smithwick when I moved on to start the “calmer period in my life”, when I got married, that my mother so carefully archived for me. I look back on my early “growing up years” and think that I was a fairly normal boy. I got into a few things, but nothing much that I was ashamed to admit. The following photograph is a vast array of traffic tickets I … Continue reading Mind You, I’m Not Bragging

Crazy Times, The Early Days2 Comments

The Horse In The Highway

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I was driving my first car, a 1963 Ford Galaxy. Prior to buying that car I had driven whatever vehicle was setting around. In those days there were several to choose from. It looked like a used car lot in front of our house. The year was 1967. I was almost 15. After closing down the Texaco, my first job outside of working for my dad, I drove up and down the street until it appeared everyone had headed home, so I started out for the 9 mile trip to Smithwick. The time was early to be going home, I … Continue reading The Horse In The Highway

Crazy Times, The Early DaysLeave a comment

I Was Just About As Hungry As I Had Ever Been

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I was a 17 year old kid, a growing boy I was. Butch Sayers got me to go with him to Marysville, California to deliver a truck load of Corriente Steers (Mexican Roping Steers). We left Marble Falls in the middle of the afternoon and arrived in Del Rio at the stockyards after dark. The trip had been sprung on me suddenly and I didn’t have a chance to eat before we left. I mentioned to Butch a couple of times that we may want to make a stop and get a bite to eat. All he was thinking about … Continue reading I Was Just About As Hungry As I Had Ever Been

Crazy Times, Meeting New People, The Early DaysLeave a comment

A Trip To Pennsylvania

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The week I graduated from high school, May 1970, I was invited to take a trip up to Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania. There was a slight catch to it, the trip wasn’t going to pay much or maybe nothing at all. But all expenses were paid for. There were 5 of us traveling together. Price Allen “Pat” Taylor, a MF school chum – year older than me, Kenny and Vickey Jackson, and a gal by the name of Martha Rucker.Pat and I were making the trip just to help transfer vehicles, but the other 3 were moving there to be employed … Continue reading A Trip To Pennsylvania

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Kenny Lewis, The Construction Biz, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Cecil Lewis Was Always Resourceful And He Taught Us

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In the early days of our roadbuilding careers, there was a need to haul heavy pieces of equipment, mostly a D-7 Caterpillar Bulldozer, from Smithwick to Jonestown. We didn’t always have trucks that had the horsepower and the gears to get us over all the hills. We knew from experience which ones were going to give us fits, so I’d go along in a pickup and before we’d get to one of those such hills we’d pull over and hook a chain to the front of the truck and I could give just enough of a tug with the pickup … Continue reading Cecil Lewis Was Always Resourceful And He Taught Us

The Early Days, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

I Am Very Fortunate That My Mother Kept So Many Of The Little Keepsakes From My Childhood

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I have so many things now to look back on and to help me recall my childhood, all thanks to my mother. This little wallet is an example of the things she held onto, on my behalf. The remote isn’t really old, but is being used to demonstrate the small size of that wallet. This very small kid size wallet, that my mother name and address in, was from Mexico. As you can see I carried it many a mile. How it survived is beyond me. This was bought in the very early 1960s. I can’t put my hands on … Continue reading I Am Very Fortunate That My Mother Kept So Many Of The Little Keepsakes From My Childhood

Crazy Times, Meeting New People, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Connecting People (it’s like connecting the dots)

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It’s strange how people all around the country are connected and we never realize it. I was reading about the Wolf Family from Georgetown (they owned the land where the Wolf Ranch Shopping Center is located). We did a lot of work around that development and got to know some of that family. Actually I had known Harry Robertson that married into the Wolf family since childhood. His sister had married one of my first cousins, back when I was just a kid, so we would see them every so often. Later Harry operated a Gulf Station at I-35 and … Continue reading Connecting People (it’s like connecting the dots)