Category: Uncategorized

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, My Friends, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and Musings, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Pete and the Boulder Busters

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Times have changed a lot in the 50 years that I’ve been in the construction business. The only economical way to excavate rock for installing underground utilities in the first 10 years was blasting with dynamite. It tapered off over the next decades to where that method is rarely even used today. We blasted up and down streets in very congested areas. In my first 4 or 5 years there wasn’t even a city permit required in Austin to transport and use explosives. Anyone dealing with the City of Austin now, would find that hard to believe. Now you need … Continue reading Pete and the Boulder Busters

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A Year Long Wait, For Nothing

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It just occurred to me that I seldom order anything that I can’t get next day shipping. If I buy something I want to touch and feel in right then and there or at least the next day. People ask why I don’t order new cars or trucks, so I can get them exactly like I want them. I always think, what if I order it and it takes 2 or 3 months to get it, and then it isn’t exactly what I want. That could happen, easily. I can order a pizza for delivery and I’m pacing the floor, … Continue reading A Year Long Wait, For Nothing

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Something I Will Always Regret

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Back in 1985 I had the opportunity to sell a 50% stake in my construction company to a well established building contractor. It was a transaction that was mutually beneficial to both parties. For me it would allow me to bid whatever size project I desired and have the financial backing to really excel. I had had many years of struggles, with the ups and downs of the economy and me not always making the wisest decisions when it came to the business and financial end of things. By merging with this other company I would still have my own … Continue reading Something I Will Always Regret

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My Friend & Classmate Gary

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I wrote one time about the summer before I was going on to the 4th grade and losing a friend/classmate to a train crash at US 183 where MOPAC now intersects. There were nothing but warning lights and some said even they weren’t working. He and his father was going into Austin, from Jollyville where we lived and went to school. It was early on a Saturday morning. We were out for summer vacation, but word reached us soon. We had just finished 3rd grade. It was strange returning to school when summer was over. It was our first time … Continue reading My Friend & Classmate Gary

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, The Early Days, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Cecil and Brackenridge Hospital

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One night in 1963 my Dad, Cecil Lewis fell sick. We lived out on Bull Creek. This wasn’t the first time he had been deathly ill from the same cause. He had a long history of stomach ulcers since soon after he and momma married in 1948. The doctor told him he would need to stop drinking and watch what he ate. When he felt his ulcer acting up he went on a diet of soda crackers, sweet cows milk and raw eggs. Usually a few days of consuming those three things he would improve and go back to eating … Continue reading Cecil and Brackenridge Hospital

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Wilson’s Story

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Wilson was a child born probably in the early 1960s. There were siblings I remember hearing, but I’m unsure how they faired in life. Wilson ended up at the Austin State School. A ward of the state. My Granny Ruby worked there for many years in 60s and 70s and maybe even a little in the early 80s. She took a special interest in Wilson. No one every came to see him, so see took him under her wing. It was easy to tell that Wilson never really developed physically or mentally, but he had a sweet disposition about him. … Continue reading Wilson’s Story

Kenny Lewis, Thoughts and Musings, Uncategorized1 Comment

A Bank Just For Women

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One day in the 80s Kenny was driving and I was the passenger. That’s generally the way we have always have traveled. Who needs to listen to a bunch of belly-aching about my driving? Not me. So I didn’t have to watch the road and see what he was about the crash into, I decided to read the newspaper. There was a story that I found intriguing. It was about this new bank they were opening in Austin and they were only going to have women customers. Relating the story to Kenny got him all stirred up. “This Women’s Lib … Continue reading A Bank Just For Women

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Let me tell y’all what happen to me one time

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Several years ago we decided to give our house a makeover. We hired a fellow from Liberty Hill to do it. It just seemed so much easier than finding people and going through all of the logistics of messing with several different trades. Just before that time, Madeline’s dad that was living in a house we owned over at Smithwick passed away. So rather than being jostled around for a month or so, we took up residence over there. One day I came in early and found out that the hot water heater had gave up the ghost. Rather than … Continue reading Let me tell y’all what happen to me one time

Marble Falls and the Area Around it., UncategorizedLeave a comment

Grease, The Movie And David’s Mishap At The Marble Falls Rodeo

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The year was 1978. It was July, Rodeo Time in Marble Falls. Shirley, my sister in law was staying with Madeline and me in Austin. The movie “Grease” had just been release. We had a 4 year old Matthew and a 1 year Michael. Shirley was wanting to see John Travolta swiveling his hips, so it was decided that I was a better choice to accompany her to the movie down on Riverside Drive, than to stay home and keep order with those children. We were sitting there enjoying the movie when a theater worker came down the aisle announcing … Continue reading Grease, The Movie And David’s Mishap At The Marble Falls Rodeo

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It Worked Every Time I Heard My Old Friend Dink Say it.

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When paying out at a coffee shop. Dink: Hey Baby, did you know they aren’t making those wooden toothpicks any longer. Sweet Innocent Cashier: Oh really !! Dink: If they make em any longer, they won’t fit in that little dispenser you got here. Yes, Ida Baylor & Dan Smith he would say that and many other things.Of course many of the things he’s say to the waitresses would have gotten nearly any other guy slapped, but not Dink. They’d giggle and just go with it. Continue reading It Worked Every Time I Heard My Old Friend Dink Say it.