Category: The Early Days

Crazy Times, On The Job, The Early DaysLeave a comment

We Weren’t Made To Feel Welcome In Victoria, Texas

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Back in the late 70’s things were going pretty well for us in the construction business, but had slowed a bit. As things often happen, a miracle job fell out of the sky. A Burnet County fellow, Fritz Heine had gone off to Houston and was doing well contracting with Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. I knew of Fritz but mostly just by name. He was a generation ahead of me, about my Dads age. He had a son named Henry that had finished his senior year of school in Marble Falls, then he came and worked for a year or … Continue reading We Weren’t Made To Feel Welcome In Victoria, Texas

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Smithwick, The Early DaysLeave a comment

1960s Trucking

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Hauling things were much different back when I was young. Many ranchers and cowboys had a set of sideboards they’d put on the back of their pickup and then a horse and sometimes two would be loaded in the back. I can remember how unstable a 1/2 ton truck was with that much weight swaying back and forth and the high center of gravity. Many of the old-timers weren’t very accomplished drivers, either. While we did that some I think of something now that seems much more risky. Hauling a JD 450 loader in the back of a 5 yd. … Continue reading 1960s Trucking

Crazy Times, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Jake the Building Trades Teacher

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I always considered Jake pretty easy going, knowledgeable and a good teacher. But if you got him riled up, you better watch out. Some of the older guys and a few of the younger ones were real hoodlums. They would always try Jake on for size. He swung a hard paddle. But the maddest that I ever saw that man was pretty late in the school year. A couple of little young pretties were dispatched from the school newspaper to do a story on the Building Trades Program. Jake had told us they were coming and we needed to be … Continue reading Jake the Building Trades Teacher

Crazy Times, My Friends, The Early DaysLeave a comment

My Green Thumbs

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This is one of those stories from the early days of Angora, that I wonder why I even told it. Oh, I know……..it really happened. I could be a little foggy on how much help I had when I went to the restroom. Looking down in the comments section , I have had a lot of THUMB debacles in my lifetime. When we were kids, well teenagers, Cec had Kenny and me building a new shop building out from the house in Smithwick. It was a pipe frame, a simple structure. The cross bracing was used sucker rod (the steel … Continue reading My Green Thumbs

Crazy Times, The Early DaysLeave a comment

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

Crazy Times, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Back When I Aspired To Driving A Cattle Truck For A Living

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I had graduated from high school earlier that year and trying to “find myself” is the best way to describe where I was in life. It was already the time of year when the weather was starting to get cooler, so most likely it was November. 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 … Continue reading Back When I Aspired To Driving A Cattle Truck For A Living

Amazing Things, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Then and Now

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I graduated from high school in May 1970. By the fall of 70 I went to work in the underground utility industry. I believe I was earning around $3.00 per hour. Considering the minimum wage back then was $1.60, I was doing pretty well. A top operator was paid $3.75 per hour. By late spring of 1972, I had learned enough about the business, plus what I had picked up being around trucks and machinery my whole life, I subcontracted my first water line installation project in Burnet, Texas. I had a crew of 4 or 5 people including myself. … Continue reading Then and Now

Amazing Things, The Early DaysLeave a comment

A Strange Thing Happened Early This Morning

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I woke up and decided finish watching America’s Got Talent that I had drifted off in middle of last night. What would I do without a DVR? As I watched I bumped the remote control, causing it to change channels. It went to live TV. The following commercial was on. I picked up on it the second it started. I let it play out, then backed it up and recorded it. The reason I went to all that trouble you see, I saw my life playing out. Yes, 47 1/2 years ago my girl friend and I walked in the … Continue reading A Strange Thing Happened Early This Morning

Crazy Times, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Sid and Fay

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When Madeline and I married we moved into a trailer house (we called it a mobile home – but it was a trailer house, I’m pretty sure). It was in Sherwood Shores. Our next door neighbors were Sid and Fay. They were retired. Our place was almost new and was pretty spacious, for a young couple just starting out. Sid and Fay lived in a very small older trailer, but it was immaculate. Everything was pretty and neat. We shared a small pond out back that had ducks swimming around all the time. We would sit out back and visit … Continue reading Sid and Fay