The Boy They Called Possum

I’m not exactly sure how the name came about, but it probably had something to do with a nose longer than normal and eyes set a little too close together. George Jones, the famous country singer got tagged with the same nickname. If you look at a picture of him, there could be a small similarity to the nocturnal marsupial. I guess you could say the same for the short skinny kid that started to school in Marble Falls at the beginning of his 8th grade year. For whatever reason I never took offense to being called that, almost immediately … Continue reading The Boy They Called Possum

Learning How To Dance

I never did really learn how to dance when I was younger. It just always seemed like something odd to be doing. I was kind of shy about getting up in front of a bunch of people and jigging around. Besides forever so long the girls were all taller than me, and I figured that would really cause me to stand out. Anyway along about the mid 1980s my wife said we needed to go take dancing lessons. I went along with it, anything to make the little woman happy. She signed us up for private lessons one morning a … Continue reading Learning How To Dance

MARBLE FALLS the little city – with the BIG FUTURE.

Was There Any Way We Would Have Believed Our Little Ol Marble Falls Would Be What It is Now? The Chamber of Commerce slogan was MARBLE FALLS the little city – with the BIG FUTURE. The little flagstone building was the Chamber of Commerce, Welcome Center. Junior Bowles Gulf Station was where the rancher types congregated in the 60s & 70s. The Town has really grown in 150 years. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth704120/?q=marble Continue reading MARBLE FALLS the little city – with the BIG FUTURE.

Left To Sweat It Out

I was a sophomore in high school and still small for my age. All the big boys liked to pick on me, but I’m sure I provoked a lot of it. I was in the building trades program where we learned about carpentry and actually built a house during the school year. It was a rowdy class. Our teacher was Robert Woodard, but we called him Jake. Our shop/classroom was in the old bus barn. It was just a big tin building with no insulation. The temperatures in that building could be extreme, both directions. We had caused enough trouble … Continue reading Left To Sweat It Out

Jake The Building Trades Teacher

Robert Woodard was his name but his first year teaching Building Trades, the year before I was old enough to take it, some of the boys starting calling him Jake and it stuck. “Hey Jake what are we doing next?” or Hey Jake can we take a break?” I always considered Jake pretty easy going, very knowledgeable and an all round 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 … Continue reading Jake The Building Trades Teacher

Ever Wonder How A Mosquito Bite Works?

I got bit twice the other day. One on each leg down right above the kneecap. One puffed up real big while the other one did little more than left a red mark and was gone in a day or so. Trying to figure out what the reason was I did a little looking around. It seems Mrs. Mosquito lights on you and spits some salvia on you to deaden the spot, so you don’t swat her immediately, the she goes to work trying to jab into you. As she moves around she spits more salvia on your skin and … Continue reading Ever Wonder How A Mosquito Bite Works?

Rice Culture in Colorado County

Marker erected: Intersection of Main & Commerce Streets, Eagle Lake Marker Text:The rice industry did not spread into the coastal plains region west of Houston until the very end of the 19th century. In 1898, Captain William Dunovant (1845-1902), a local plantation owner and entrepreneur, planted 40 acres of rice at the southeast corner of Eagle Lake (2.5 miles south) as an experiment, using convict labor from a nearby prison farm to construct levees and harvest the new crop. The small tract produced such encouraging results that in 1899 Dunvovant built a pumping plant on the lake and irrigated 250-300 … Continue reading Rice Culture in Colorado County

Pulling A Tooth

Sofia is getting to the age where she is starting to lose teeth. She came over the other night and wanted me to pull her loose tooth, her first. I sent her to get a handkerchief from my chest of drawers to aid in getting a grip. She pointed to the tooth. I worked and worked with the tooth and it wouldn’t come out. It was bleeding a little but would not come out. I finally told her we needed to wait and give it a little more time. She went on her way. She got over to her house, … Continue reading Pulling A Tooth

A Good Deed, That May Never Go Away

This story goes back several years. It all started when an old gal I know needed some help. She desperately needed some help. She lives in a very decrepit old house. I got word that the City (an unnamed city) was going to condemn her home that had been in her family for many decades. There was junk piled up higher than an Elephant’s Eye. (I finally found a way to incorporate that line in a story. It was included in a nasty letter I received from a homeowner years ago that we had installed a wastewater line adjacent to … Continue reading A Good Deed, That May Never Go Away

Tommy Houy was a Honda Motorcycle guy all the way

I think his first motorcycle was a 125cc that he had when I first came to school in Marble Falls. That was starting in 8th grade. I don’t think he ran all over on it, but rode it over on his side of town. Then he jumped up to a 350cc. It was metallic blue. That’s the one he wrecked on. (More on that below) During the repairing of it, he switched the color to a metal flake orange. A few years later he went up to a 450cc, then eventually a 750cc. Buy the time he and I became … Continue reading Tommy Houy was a Honda Motorcycle guy all the way