After the prosperous years of the 80s came the real estate bust of the late 80s and early 90s. Kenny, Coy and I (of double tailed quarter fame) were teamed up again doing work together. The days of mobile phones had given way to pagers and pay phones. Mobile phones were very expensive in the early days. My average phone bill in the 80s was $1,000 – $1,200 per month. That wasn’t for the whole company, that was just me. I stayed on the phone constantly, conducting business and doing a fair share of BSing. Those costs just weren’t in … Continue reading Cell Phones On The Cheap

Back in 1978, I think it was, my company contracted to excavate for the new Capitol National Bank. It was the largest job that of that type that Lewis Contractors had ever taken on. Considering it was excavating 30′ deep a full block square downtown Austin from 7th to 8th St. between Guadalupe and Lavaca and it was solid limestone rock it had its challenges. The only real way to accomplish a project like that was to blast. If I remember correctly, we did it in around 60 days. Considering the equipment we had to work with in those days, … Continue reading EXCAVATING FOR A NEW BANK BUILDING