How much fun would this be to see!!!! I asked Howdy Fowler of Marathon, Texas about it and he said they haven’t put it on in several years. He said it was a really fun thing. Too bad it’s been … Continue reading Mule Rodeo and Donkey Races at Fort Davis
The 1980s found me on a reading binge. I would read 1 to 2 books per week. I had a hard time passing up a BookStop location without pulling in. The one in Lincoln Village was where I went the most often. That was at I-35 & 290. For me the Bookstop’s were so much easier to get to than all the mall book stores. Besides that, I really appreciated the layout and selection that BookStop offered. By the time they were taken over by Barnes and Noble and their stores started to disappear, my reading had diminished. Then it … Continue reading BookStop – with home grown roots in Travis County.
G&L VBJ – The Next Chapter G&L was a great office supply store in downtown Austin for many years – Just across the Congress Ave Bridge, south of the River. The initials G & L were two brothers. Gunnar and Louis Johnson. G&L Stationers teamed up with VBJ (Von Beckman, Jones) to form G&L VBJ and moved across into a new store building south of Riverside on the east side of So. Congress – in the early 80s. Below is a blurb from the Chronicle. Below is my own story about G&L The Strange Things We Remember It’s been almost … Continue reading Von Boeckmann-Jones Co. Building in 1950
Kenny always had a lot of company pride. He liked for all of his machines to be looking nice and clean. Everything needed to be ship-shape in Kenny Lewis’ world. He enjoyed having his company name on jackets and caps. He spent a lot of advertising bucks and it paid off for him. You would see people wearing them often, putting the CCI name out in the public. Kenny and I had an arraignment for about a decade that lasted until 2003. We pooled resources and CCI was the name that was in the forefront of the business. I still … Continue reading It Wasn’t Me
Udo Haufler was a trader at heart. He was born and raised in the Twin Sisters area Blanco County. He started buying and selling used vehicles after the war and settling in Austin. This is a car lot he was operating in 1953 in downtown Austin. I’ve never been clear what the actual address was. But I think it was possibly in the 2nd or 3rd block and a few blocks east of Congress Ave. He traveled far and wide buying the best quality used vehicles he could find. Those travels took him to the Lincoln Mercury Dealership in Conroe … Continue reading Haufler Motors
November 26, 2016 Madeline and I attended a birthday party for a friend. A friend that was our neighbor for about a decade in the 70s and 80s. Yes a 40 year friendship. This lady watched us go from a family with one little boy, to a house with 5 boys playing in the yard. To say those were transformative years for Madeline and me would be an understatement. Esther Haufler turned 100 today and we were there to help her celebrate the joyous occasion with many of her friends and relatives. Continue reading A Happening We Seldom Get To Enjoy During A Lifetime
I have had the great fortune to meet many people in my lifetime. None probably made a greater impact on me than Udo Haufler. Udo was my neighbor, my friend and my mentor. The first day of 1977, Madeline and I moved into a house on a very quite, secluded south Austin street. Albert Road was like being in another place altogether. It wasn’t like living in Austin. Directly across the street was a large 2 story house, with a horse stable in the back. Esther and Udo Haufler were the elderly couple that lived there. (of course now that … Continue reading My Friend Udo
In just over 100 years the highways around Austin changed numbers several times. This is a look back to see how much things changed. 1917 Map of Austin 1936 Map of Austin and Central Texas 1936 Map of Austin and Central Texas 1942 Map of Austin 1950 Map of Austin 1954 Map of Austin 1960 Map of Austin 1973 Map of Austin and Central Texas Continue reading Highways In and Out of Austin Throughout the Years.
It always amazed me how often I used to find tools, like wrenches, hammers, screw drivers and the like laying on the road when I was traveling from place to place. I always accused my careless mechanic of being the … Continue reading I Could Never Pass Up Tools Laying In The Road
Back a few years ago Kenny had a ranch in Mexico. It was just a little ways out of Ciudad Acuna, the Mexico counterpart to Del Rio, Texas. There was a large group of guys there one weekend to hunt. A couple of high powered attorney’s, a banker and a few other business men. A very diverse group at that, in age and demeanor. Kenny had a full staff that worked the kitchen and lodge, but he decided that a trip into town on Saturday night would liven things up, as if it needed to be livened up. So he … Continue reading Kenny Lewis; Driving In Mexico
Angora Chronicles 