Category: The Early Days

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

The Mean Streets Of Houston

lewisotr

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

Aging, Amazing Things, The Construction Biz, The Early Days, Thoughts and Musings9 Comments

Espinosa

lewisotr

This is a story I wrote 4 years ago, in Oct. 2017. It tells of a typical love/hate between two men, of which I’m a part of. It’s hard to believe that it’s now been this long since I’ve seen my old friend. I decided to check with his daughter Rose this morning to see how her parents are doing. Remarkably they are still living out that life they have lived for so many years, almost 70 years. I vowed to go see them soon and I will do that. Within just a few months of me starting into the … Continue reading Espinosa

Another Daily Happening, Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, The Early Days, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

We Did Things Much Differently Back Then

lewisotr

This was written back in September 2014. Within a month or so in the beginning of The Angora Chronicles. I grew up around construction equipment and trucks. In the 60s when I was in high school Cecil Lewis ran a fleet of dump trucks. Among other things we had the contract to haul the blasted rock from the Pure Stone Quarry out south of Marble Falls back to the crusher in town. Even as young and as small as I was at 14 or 15, I commonly and single-handey pulled transmissions and replaced clutches in those old dump trucks and … Continue reading We Did Things Much Differently Back Then

The Early Days, The Jollyville Years, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Eating Beans Is The Thing Most Country People Have In Common.

lewisotr

Just about everyone I’m kin to and grew up around depended a lot on pinto beans as their main course many evenings. I remember when we lived down on the creek, out of Jollyville, getting off the school bus and making a long walk home. Before we would get to the front door I’d know there was a pot of beans on the stove. Those beans would be our afternoon snack after a hard day at Pond Springs School. Because we wanted something to eat right then, we would eat the beans that still had a firmness to them. Perhaps … Continue reading Eating Beans Is The Thing Most Country People Have In Common.

Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., The Construction Biz, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Harold & Catherine

lewisotr

Harold and Catherine were some of the first people that moved in at Smithwick Mills, the subdivision my dad had built from our old home place. They had spent most, if not all of their long married life in Houston. With the crime and meanness going on, they felt Smithwick calling. They became very good friends to my parents. In the later part of the 1970s Kenny and I had contracted some work up on Mormon Mill Road, in Marble Falls, installing water and wastewater lines for a development that Mike O’Connor was building. It required a lot of blasting … Continue reading Harold & Catherine

Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, The Construction Biz, The Early Days, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Styrofoam Cup Incident

lewisotr

Back in 1977 I was finishing up a project out west of Houston and had another one going down in Crystal City, Texas. I spent a while on the Houston job that morning lining out the guys there. Paul was the one I was leaving in charge. We drank several cups of coffee. I pulled out about mid morning for south Texas, a good long 5 hour drive. It started to rain and it was a cold wintery day. I got over onto I-10 and was heading to San Antonio. Somewhere along the way it occurred to me in a … Continue reading The Styrofoam Cup Incident

Crazy Times, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., The Early DaysLeave a comment

The Train Locomotive

lewisotr

When were were kids driving around looking for something to get into, a bunch of us ended up out on Fairland Rd. There was a little train locomotive they always left sitting. This one particular night it was parked a long way from anything so we decided to stop and check it out. Someone suggested if we could get it started, perhaps we could take it for a spin. I was pretty savvy with machinery and got it started in the matter of seconds. Luckily I could not figure how to engage it and make it move. I also couldn’t … Continue reading The Train Locomotive

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Smithwick, The Early Days, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Runaway Tractor

lewisotr

We always had a problem with trucks, cars and machinery taking off and rolling away when we parked it at our house. Most of the time it worked out without being a real disaster. We didn’t live on top of a hill exactly, but the ground wasn’t level either. Which was good and bad. Bad if the brakes weren’t set good, but good when the battery was down on a vehicle and you needed to roll it to get it started. Once I started to town, forgot something and came back. Forgetting to set the parking brake and in a … Continue reading The Runaway Tractor

Crazy Times, My Sons, The Early DaysLeave a comment

The Runaway Trailer

lewisotr

Matthew, our first born, was just the age where he wanted to go with me everywhere I went. We left the house early on a Sunday morning and was making the 8 to 10 mile trip to our construction yard where I was going to unhook from the rather heavy built shop-made bumper pull trailer we had on behind. Back then, in the 1970s you could get out and drive around Austin without running across all that many other cars on the road on an early Sunday morning trip. Matthew, about 3 years old, was standing up in the passenger … Continue reading The Runaway Trailer

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, Kenny Lewis, My Friends, Smithwick, The Early Days, Thoughts and Musings1 Comment

The 58 Ford Pickup Takes A Roll Or Two

lewisotr

It’s funny the ideas that young boys can have! Living about 9 miles out of Marble Falls meant a drive home every night on a very crooked stretch of paved country road. It’s common knowledge that deer feed at night by the moon. So on a moonlit night there were more deer along the roadway. We were convinced that on nights when the moon was really bright that driving home without headlights provided an overall better chance of not hitting a deer. With headlights off you could see the silhouette of the deer along beside and in the road. The … Continue reading The 58 Ford Pickup Takes A Roll Or Two