The Reckon Yard Podcast Oct 5, 2025

Wonder what the poor people are doing today? |S:03E.67

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Car

Porsche 914

The Porsche 914 is a sporty car made by the German company Porsche between 1969 and 1976. It's known for being fun to drive and is often seen as a more affordable way to own a Porsche.

Concept

pickup truck

A pickup truck is a type of vehicle that has a separate open area in the back for carrying things. They are great for hauling items and are often used for work or outdoor activities.

Car

GMT800

The GMT800 is a type of truck made by General Motors between 1999 and 2005. These trucks are known for being strong and reliable, and they come in different sizes and styles.

Term

Z71

Z71 is a special package for trucks made by General Motors that helps them drive better on rough roads. It adds features that make the truck tougher and more capable off-road.

Term

four-wheel drive

Four-wheel drive means that all four wheels of a vehicle can move at the same time, which helps the vehicle grip the road better, especially in bad weather or off-road.

Term

six L80

The six L80 is a type of automatic transmission made by GM. It's popular because it's strong and not too expensive to buy or fix.

Concept

extended cab

An extended cab is a type of truck that has extra space behind the front seats. It usually has small doors that make it easier to get in and out.

Concept

suicide doors

Suicide doors are doors that open the opposite way from normal doors, which can make it easier to get in and out of the back seats.

Car

2005 Z71

The 2005 Z71 is a version of the Chevrolet Silverado truck that has special features for off-road driving. It's built to handle rough terrain better than regular trucks.

Part

rear differential

The rear differential is a part of the truck that helps the back wheels turn at different speeds. If it's making noise, it could mean there's a problem that needs fixing.

Car

The Lotus Carlton is a very fast and sporty version of a regular car called the Vauxhall Carlton, made in the early 1990s. It's special because it was one of the quickest cars you could buy back then.

Car

Volkswagen Beetles

The Volkswagen Beetle is a small car that has a very unique round shape and has been around since the 1930s. It's famous for being easy to drive and has a lot of fans because of its fun design.

Car

Porsche 928

The Porsche 928 is a fancy sports car made by Porsche from 1978 to 1995, known for being powerful and comfortable to drive. It's different from the more famous Porsche 911 and has a special place in car history.

Car

1941 Ford pickup

The 1941 Ford pickup is an old truck that many people admire for its unique look and strong construction. It's a popular choice among classic car enthusiasts.

Car

Chrysler 300

The Chrysler 300 is a large car that looks fancy and has a lot of space inside. It's known for its strong engines and unique style, making it a popular choice for people who want a comfortable ride.

Car

Chevrolet Monte Carlo

The Chevrolet Monte Carlo is a car that many people loved for its looks and comfort. However, it doesn't have the safety features that newer cars have, which can make it dangerous in accidents.

Term

chrome bumper

A chrome bumper is a shiny metal part at the front or back of a car. It looks nice but doesn't protect you very well in a crash like newer bumpers do.

Term

bench seats

Bench seats are long seats in cars that can fit several people. They aren't as safe as the newer seats that hold you in place better during an accident.

Term

headrests

Headrests are parts of car seats that help support your head and neck. They are important for safety in case of an accident, but older cars often didn't have them.

Term

side bolsters

Side bolsters are parts of car seats that help hold you in place while you sit. They make the seat more comfortable and safer, especially during accidents.

LIVE

3-steel crack-iron, and 5-yard-cars, Suns and a Greek style, is beaten fast. Are you really digging for peace? Or is that just a lie? Tell me, help me sleep. Sure that you're here. Welcome to the wreck of your heart. I have Jerry Wayne Longmer. Y'all, presumably still y'all.

I want to welcome here in the Church of Internal Combustion. We just asked that you show up with an open heart, and speaking of open hearts, my God, would you look at this? I just put this up here for a visual representation for y'all. You know, we come to you last week, and we made a post-face book about it. Our post office got robbed and somebody stole what was maybe 2550 Hot Wheels cars that somebody had sent. For our driven dreams.org, Dave Given,

or Raisin die-cast cars for kids who just ain't got a lot going for them. And holy cow, did you guys show out? Look at all this. This is all boxes of Hot Wheels die-casts that showed in mass, and I'm a post office tells me there's 10 more coming. 10 more coming. We were already at 914 cars. And at the end, when we get to our testimonials, we're going to wrap these.

We're going to wrap them quick. Get the names out there. Otherwise, we'll be here all night trying to go through all this mess. And we're going to try to get you updated camp by the end of the night. And the meantime, I might have to do something about this, so I can do my show, but I just, I had to let you guys see it.

My heart is so my cup run it way the hell over. My cup run it way the hell over. Why? Why? Why? Why? So many people out there waste their energy arguing about politics and who's doing what and all this kind of stuff. All we're trading in over here is we trading in hopes and smiles, baby. That's it. We traffic in hopes and smiles here at the wrecking yard. And y'all really showed out. God, God bless every dagum one of you. Let me figure out something to do with all this.

That's a little better. Got me some breathing room now. I, uh, my goodness. That's a stack of cars. Even I stack them all up over here. They're still coming up the wrecking yard sign. We got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.

Is that it? We got twelve packages just right there for us to go through. So I got my crap everywhere here. How the hell are y'all doing? Gosh, that puts us.

I haven't been waiting to show y'all that stack of boxes all week. I've been just piled up in the garage and then a dagum post office heads up and said, boy, we got, we got to mess more of it coming.

Boy, dagum.

I hope you splendid bunch of people are doing okay today. I, uh, it's Sunday morning for me. I, you know, I record the thing last week in the morning. And it was kind of nice out here. I enjoyed being out here and the lights a little different garage and I'm, I'm a different self in the morning.

Jerry Wayne at, uh, six, seven in the evening is a, is a different guy. He's already, he's already experienced most of what the day has to offer a little tired, uh, often times a little too expensive, stuck off in his own head, trying to figure out tomorrow out, which is ridiculous. We, we waste more time trying to figure out tomorrow.

And then you should plan. I mean, you should pay your bills. You should be prep for things. But my God, the amount of energy we spend into trying to predict what's going to happen tomorrow and how tomorrow is going to go.

That I think we waste a lot of our present doing that.

I, uh, see, well, I just started recording out here again in the morning this week. And

I'm, I'm in a positively just a splendid move. I got up and took a shower and did some yoga out here. I hadn't been working. I hadn't been in the gym in very two weeks.

I tore up my hips. Just really been aggravating. It's just really been a lot of pain. And, uh, but did start going to chiropractor last week. Shout out to Dr. Hill, the joint on West Little York.

Uh, because she has fixed my shit up. Apparently, it's my hamstring is the problem. And, uh, we're working to piss out of it. But, woo, she's got me feeling a little better every day.

Enough so that I'm playing on going to the gym in the morning. She's giving me the okay to go ahead and get their bus weights. I'm going to go to the gym in the morning, get myself feeling right. But I feel pretty good. I got, I did some stretches, did some yoga.

Uh,

goofed off of my youngest son, my youngest, uh, in living room for a little bit for a come out here. Did some writing this morning.

It's been, uh, it's been a good week. Love it. Just kind of, uh, absorbing all the events of the last two weeks and kind of planning.

Next steps.

I'm selling my Mazda decided that I'm going to replace my Mazda with a pickup. I miss having to pick up and when it comes time, start doing stuff with a Volkswagen, having to pick up, she's going to make going and getting parts cars and stuff like that so much easier.

And borrowing equipment from people and stuff like that. And I don't want crazy. I want to have time to pick up. Uh, I don't want many truck.

I want something a little better seating to sit a little more upright and take a little pressure off his hip because my doc is pretty sure I damaged it. Uh,

back when I fell off the roof and limped around on it for months while my left hip was healing. So she said that's generally pretty, uh, sorry, I was a little water.

That's pretty common occurrence. She hurts something and then you limp around on the good something and then, you know, what you do is you do a detrimental amounts of damage to the good something every day.

And later on after you batting something feels good. Now you good something feels bad. It's a real common story. I've been told a thousand times. I ain't going to waste you energy telling it again.

But I want something that sits a little more upright. I miss having my little pickup and uh, I've decided to go back to the best vehicle I've ever owned in my life.

And, uh, so I am on the hunt for a 1999 to 2005 General Motor GMT 800 half ton with a 5.3. I don't want six liter.

And, uh, which not many of them would six liter unless they were older that way.

And, uh, I'm here there about it. I would prefer it be a Z71. Just because I really like that setup. And I know that we're talking about moving in the next couple years and probably wherever we move is going to have snow and ice and I prefer to have a full drive.

And the four wheel drive and that truck worked like clockwork. It was it was easy to use four wheel drive. You don't have to lock no hubs, blah, blah, blah. Push a button. Buggity, Buggity. Best four wheel drive or a rat. When the four wheel drives top working. I took the selector switch button off, cleaned it up, put it back on.

Buggity, Buggity. Start working again.

I always liked working on that truck. That truck was easy to work on. I've told you the whole story about how GM spent a decade designing that truck to make it easy to work like that was their whole thing.

And as much as I despise an automatic transmission, it's got a six L80, which is honestly probably the cheapest transmission you can get built these days. That's left.

And plenty of parts left for six L80s, plenty of torque converters, plenty of pumps for six L80, plenty of cores for six L80s.

And I want the extended cab because I hate it for I don't like a four door truck. I just don't care for it. I don't like the way they look.

I don't like having to open that door walk all the way around that so 50 to get off in that extended cab. I like that. That was my favorite four door truck they ever made was those years.

Even if it was just a three door, but with those little hidden suicide doors, that's the best way anybody's ever done it rip open it and you had this open compartment into your freaking cab.

So that's why I'm going back to I have reached the old man phase of my life or for my daily driver, I've decided I'm going back in time to a vehicle that always held up by me.

So I'm looking one of those, you know, 130, 180,000 miles probably is in my price range. I don't know what they run where you live, but here in Texas, you can pick them up from about four to five grand.

On the nicer end, six seven.

I've seen a few people asking for eight and 10, but God, they were beautiful trucks had 15, 20,000 miles.

Now, I don't need anything. I just want something that's got a clean interior and a pretty clean body. I know it's going to have, it's a work truck.

So I know it's going to have some dings and dents, I ain't worried about that, but I just don't want a bunch of body panels swapped out and that kind of stuff.

I want something that's got its original body and interior and decent enough shape that I can, you know, go get the C3 opposed, but I want the dash altogether, that kind of stuff.

Now, I don't want to spend a lot of time on that.

So we'll look, but a fan wrenched out to me, said he's looking for a car for his daughter, and he has a 2005 Z71 up there in East Texas.

And say you might be willing to swap something like that. So I hate him up, said, are you serious?

Because Tuesday, my sister's truck broke down again, that Ford, that Ford, the rear differentials chatter in a way, making all kind of racket.

So, and she's up in East Texas, and we're going to have her come down because next weekend, when I get back Louisville on Sunday night, I got tickets for me and Mama.

I'm going to go see Paul Carlton, and I'm terribly excited about that.

He's doing a series of shows called As Acoustic Set, and he happens to be doing one here at the Heights Theatre, not too far from us.

And I jumped on there and snatched us some tickets, and me and Mama are going to go listen to Paul Carlton, me and Ms. Rachel.

We're going to have this good time. We're going to be little dancing, little drinking, little loving, and it's a good-ass music.

And I'm real excited about that. I don't get, I don't get to take her out on date too often.

So, but in order to have babysitter, I got to go get the babysitter from East Texas.

And we just won't come down in October anyway, she usually does.

And so, I'm going to drive up to East Texas Tuesday, and I can't get up there any sooner.

I've just got too much going on. I was trying to get there sooner.

I haven't told y'all this, but Uncle Bobby's daughter, Shiny.

I did tell. They've given her, well, as of this past Thursday, they've given her three to five days.

She's at home now under hospice care, and it's just bad.

And I'm going to try to get up there in time to go say goodbye to my little cousin.

I wasn't going to go for selfish reasons.

Because after watching my mom pass away liver failure, that's what's happening, Shiny.

It's just, it's real ugly, and I know it's going to be ugly.

And I know it's going to put me, I know it's going to affect me.

But her daddy's gone.

And I'm about the next best thing.

And I need to go see that baby if I can't.

So, I'm trying to get up there in time to do that.

And I'm going to pick my sister up.

And then if a boy's serious, I'm going to run over there where he lives, close to Lake Tyler,

which we're going to be talking about today.

And let him check out the car and check out that little pickup.

If he's serious, you know, sometimes people just talk and talk.

But I would do that swapping heartbeat just because that solves my problem.

That's exactly why I'm selling the car because I'm going to go by another truck.

And I found several that I've been looking at.

So, I'm going to go make that trip and then come back.

And then I'm going to take, then Thursday, I fly out to Louisville, Kentucky.

It's one of my favorite places to go.

I love going in October. It's one of my favorite times to go.

So, I'm going to go up there to Louisville and do a show in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mr. G's. And I formed there last year.

I had a great time with those folks.

So, I'm really looking forward to it.

And a bunch of my usual suspects, my buddy Jim Lavender, my buddy Greg Roshan.

And maybe even on Mikey Brown, on Mikey Brown said he's getting his cast off Friday.

Mikey Brown might be out to see me.

And that would be super cool.

I just love on Mikey.

And they give me a chance to pick his brain in real time about Mama's Volkswagen.

Mikey did not get selected for the Hot Wheels contest this year.

And he built one of the most interesting builds I've seen in a decade.

It's called Chilly Willie.

Go look up a paper to pavement YouTube if you're not familiar with Mikey Brown.

And look at this cool little thing he built out of old scrap Willis body.

It's just the neatest build I have seen in eons.

And I'm just.

I'm beyond forward that he didn't make it through because I can't imagine what beating, you know.

But so anyway, hopefully we can see all Mikey Brown.

It's going to be a good show.

If you're anywhere new or Louisville as close as I'm going to be for a little while.

So I hope you come out.

I have good, I love seeing the wrecking yard people shows for sure.

And that's a fun place to perform.

I'm excited about it.

I'm excited to go to Louisville, man.

I think we're going to try to do a little meet and greet.

Maybe throw something together somewhere.

Maybe down at Evan Williams or something.

I don't know.

We'll figure something out.

We.

So I got a busy week ahead of me.

Busy week.

And I'm also I'm trying next week.

If I could work it out Wednesday to have my old buddy Marzy Montezari stop by the wrecking yard.

I'm Marzy Montezari.

If you don't know who he is, you can Google him.

But he's incredible metal guitarist.

He's incredible guitarist musician period.

And Marzy has played with Pantera and super joint ritual.

And then him and Phil Anselmo had a band.

Phil and the illegals.

And Marzy is an interesting soul.

But the one thing me and Marzy haven't common is we both grew up with the Vargas family right there in A-Leaf.

And that's how we've known each other.

I've known Marzy since I was about 14, 15 years old.

And I want to do an episode about Big Mike Vargas.

I've told you all a few stories, babe.

But I really want to dig off into the legend and the legacy of Big Mike.

And not too many better people to help me do that than Marzy Montezari.

Because he knew the man for a long time as well.

And I think that'll be a cool episode.

So I'm trying to line that up for next week.

We'll see how it goes.

You may just have to ride another one and get Marzy the week after since it's so busy.

Now come back from Louisville.

We're going to do our big day of giving for the driven dreams.org.

And I'm just so excited about that.

We're still trying to figure out how we're going to make all this happen.

But we got busy weekend next weekend.

I haven't just blown away, but what you guys done here, y'all are just...

This just adds, October is my favorite month.

I love October.

I don't know why.

I don't have an answer to that.

But October feels like the month where nostalgia, where the past, the present, the future,

all come to fruition.

October feels like it's right.

It's before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It's for all the stress that can come with that.

But also October is its own thing.

You know, we got some Halloween at the end.

We got a fun little celebration at the end of the month.

And everybody likes to be spooky.

And the weather takes a turn.

Even here in Houston, Texas, the weather takes a little bit of a turn.

We start getting a little drier, a little cooler days.

I mean, I have to be too hopeful every once in a while you put a hoodie on.

You know, it's real nice.

So just psyched to be here at the beginning of October.

My favorite month.

And about to do this big, fun thing without these out-wheel cars.

And you guys have just really come through for that over the course of the last year.

And that's exciting to me.

It's exciting to me to see people doing good for other people.

Just for no reason other than to do it.

And day I'm going to take y'all to one of my happy places.

I mean, there's some ups and downs as there always is.

But this was a place that was fundamental in me finding my interest

in becoming the person I became.

I believe anyways.

And I think there's a good lesson about the lure of nostalgia.

Because I recently found out what this place became.

And sometimes I can be unsettling.

You know, I've talked about that.

You guys talked to me about it in your comments.

But sometimes it's okay.

It's just okay.

Whew.

Oh, I said a lot.

17 minutes.

Tyler, Texas.

There's Lake.

Lake Tyler.

I don't know much about the history of Lake.

Pretty sure it's man-made.

Most lakes in Texas are.

Well, that's a little louder.

And I thought that was going to be.

No, not too much on that right now.

Yeah.

A little bit on that later.

That's a little noisy.

I don't even take a wire wheel to some of it.

It's so rough on the front of this blade.

Yeah.

I like Tyler's big old lake.

Right.

It's big old lake kind of has a weird shape.

It's like most damn formed lakes.

And there was like most lakes.

There's a wealthy side.

And then there's a not-so-wealthy side.

There was a lot of people living there.

Never been cheap.

But it was a lot cheaper back in the 80s.

There was more options.

When you get outside of White House,

you can catch a little road called Macarole Road.

And you take Macarole Road and it runs up

on the west side of Lake Tyler.

And if you go out there now, there's a place

where the builders RV park.

But in the 1980s,

Macarole Road just run up.

And there was a little old service road.

And it just run out on this little,

like almost like a little tiny peninsula out

off into the west side of Lake Tyler.

About halfway up the lake.

Right across the lake from the petroleum club

where the wealthy side was.

And then north of the petroleum club,

we had all these big houses.

And one of them,

my papal was just sure it was owned by the mafia.

Real mafiaoso.

Real mafiaoso lake house.

He was just sure it was mafiaoso.

Because their time he looked across there was binoculars.

They was out there in black suits and formal affairs.

And he was just sure they were real live Italian mafiaoso.

Probably out of the Dallas families.

Had a national spot on Lake Tyler.

Now that I'm older,

first I think there's better lakes

that the mafiaoso could have put a house on.

But I could be around.

If you if you was in the mob

and you lived on Lake Tyler, reach out to me.

Let me know.

I bet nobody reaches out to me.

Probably.

Mafioso don't like to talk about me

I like saying mafiaoso because years ago,

there was a video of Randy Travis.

And I'm not making fun of Randy.

But Randy was on one.

Randy Travis was on one.

And you can find this video.

I don't remember all the details.

I just know when they when they pulled him over,

he was buck naked.

And there's this poor little Texas state trooper

or Texas cop.

You can tell he did not want to arrest

Randy Travis for being buck naked

in the middle of nowhere

and raging drunk out of his mind.

But boy, he was on one.

And Randy Travis sat in the back of that cop car

and just told that cop

for the first class piece of shit he was

and how he knew real mafiaoso's

and he could make a phone call.

He'd be gone tomorrow.

Randy was on one.

And I'm not making fun of Randy.

Love Randy Travis is revered,

especially here in my state.

What I will tell you is

if you ever been on one of them benders like that,

maybe you didn't end up naked in a cop car,

you understand how Randy's filling in the moment.

Right?

And Randy was on one.

And he was filling something in the moment.

And it's just one of the funniest things

ever seen in my life.

But that's about where we was,

wrapped our off macro road road.

I told you before back then

that you could get a lake lot.

You could get a what they call a 99 year lease

on that lake lot.

You couldn't buy it,

but you could get a 99 year lease on it.

And it wasn't too bad.

It was pretty low monthly calls.

And some people in my family's bracket

could afford to have them on them little spots up there.

They did some wheeling and dealing.

Pepple had done some wheeling and dealing

and got him this little lake lot inside.

He's going to have a spot to go out to the lake.

When we go out there,

Pepple, when he was younger,

was Pepple Clark,

you know, he was president of the boat club

and this and that.

And he had boats his whole life.

He liked being out there.

And they got that little spot.

So when you went up there on service road,

it was like a cliff.

So where the where the water met,

there was like a little bit of shoreline,

maybe like three or four foot,

a sandy shoreline,

and then red dirt clips.

And those clips were probably about eight,

10 foot high.

They seemed like 30 when I was a kid.

And they went all around kind of that little area

of the peninsula we were on.

And people out there at the lake,

they would have pontoon boats.

And in some of them look like the pontoon boats you got now,

I'll be it much smaller.

But most of the pontoon boats were homemade.

They were usually just square in shape,

a rectangular in shape.

And underneath them,

they had styrofoam pontoons.

These great big giant styrofoam pontoons.

And that's what kept them afloat.

They'd be lined up in a row.

There's like a pontoon boat's pontoon.

And there was a lot of them out there.

And in that particular section,

there was a lot of them sinking.

They'd fallen into this repair.

People couldn't afford to keep them up.

There's a lot of broke piers out there.

You had a few piers,

you could tell people redone them,

made them nice.

Our particular pier was one of the scariest

that I've ever been on.

Because it just kind of started off on top of that cliff

and then just kind of wondered

and went down to water level.

And I don't think it was ADA compliant.

All right.

It was about three foot wide in places,

two foot wide in other places

where Pepple didn't have long enough boards to fill it in.

And they'd go down there and cobble,

you know, old used womanized lumber

and filled in the broken parts of it.

And as more parts broke,

they'd have to replace boards.

It wasn't common for somebody to step through the pier

to get hurt.

I ain't grainy done it about half a dozen times.

I don't want to hurt

a diet pill fueled manic.

Got to get stuff done today up and down the piers.

And it had a little

there's more of a square shape.

It's just wood framed

and towards the back of that thing

there was a hole

and that hole was a little outboard 30 horse,

a little small engine, outboard engine.

Pepple had him a captain's chair

a little set up there where he can

drive that barge around the lake.

Now the other problem with the pontons was

Lake Tyler started getting eaten up

but I think it's called Hydrofillia.

Hydrofillia?

Something like that.

It's a type of plant

that's supposed to clean the lake water.

And they brought this,

they brought this shit,

the Army Corps engineer brought it in

from South America or somewhere

I've probably should've done some research on this.

And they started putting Texas Lake

started with help clean the water.

They didn't lose the end of two.

And then they found out,

oh shit, this plant's invasive.

And what it does is eventually

it'll just choke a lake out.

And there's been several that have been

choked out by it over the years.

So then they say,

well I know how we're going curb this Hydrofillia.

They got this animal down there in South America

where the shit they get all this stuff.

Called a Nutra.

Kind of looks like a fat beaver

without a tail,

without the big wide tail.

Got big old teeth though.

And then Nutra can eat just about anything.

One of them things in Nutra like to eat

is they like to eat that Hydrofillia.

So we're going to go get us a couple of them Nutra.

We're going to bring them put them in the lakes.

And then Nutra will keep the Hydrofillia.

Chop down.

Well what they didn't plan on was the Nutra

really like eating Styrofoam Pantunes.

Apparently that's a bit of a delicacy in South America.

So the Nutra went to eat everybody's Pantunes.

So about half of them boats out there were sunk

because the Nutra didn't got up there

and ate the damn Pantunes out.

And I suspect they were probably eating the Pantunes

because the little water beetles and stuff

would get up into Pantunes.

They probably just chasing bugs.

I think, or, or shit, hell, I don't know.

It could just be an animal like to taste the Styrofoam.

I mean, hell, I don't know everything about animals

don't claim to.

I'm looking at my screen up there

and it's got to be framed.

And one of those little frameworks right here

I keep thinking I got something on my shirt

and trying to wipe it off.

And we see them Nutra out there.

Most people shoot them on the side.

You know, because they were just the nuisance.

I've had several encounters of Nutra in my life.

They're, they can be unfriendly.

Anyway, this was the old part of the lake

as I'm trying to tell you.

Next to their lot, there was a big old red barge,

big fancy number, wood frame one.

They had sunk and was collapsing into the lake.

And then there was, I've told you all,

there was a little cove over there.

That was about two foot deep.

And that cove was real sneaky,

but it's also a real good-ass fish.

That was a good old-placed fish off of that cove.

Place for what nice when they first got it.

First thing they did is they fixed some of the wood

on the barge and pat off drug up a wrecking yard engine

for it, power it.

And they got out there in the me and my dad.

Some of them helped pat off changing pontoons out

on as it was waterlogged and get some fresh pontoons under it.

Fresh pontoons were easy to come back

because every time they had a storm on Lake Tyler,

at least four of them barges broke apart

and the pontoons just floated all over the lake.

And that little cove was the hell of a pontoon catching cove.

So it wasn't hard to come across the fresh pontoons out there

once I was star of foam pontoons.

You know, my people make do what you got types of folk.

But at the same time, pat off done some wheeling and dealing

and Mr. Young got him a little fifth wheel RV.

Wasn't new.

He was very old.

And by him and Granny had fixed it up.

And they not in the beginning,

but eventually they drug it up there in the lake.

They parked it up on top of the hill right there in front of their lot.

Pat Paul ran him a power pole.

He got it all set up so he could have some power to his RV.

But years, years, years of people building pears

and stuff out there in this area,

you know, since it first become a lake,

had left what happened to people

who used to use a lot of drill piped,

a lot of old piped that had fence piped laying around.

They used it to build these pears thinking,

well, that'll last a long time,

but they'll, water's undefeated.

Water would eat that stuff up.

So what you had is a bunch of out there in our little swimming area

in between them two barges.

And off the back of our barge was you had these,

these stubs stuck up out of bottom lake.

And sometimes they come above the top of the water you could see them,

but sometimes they didn't.

And they rusted and broke off,

so they'd be sharp.

They'd do a number on you.

I landed on one one time and cut myself up pretty good.

Well, that's a tetanus shot right there, buddy.

You screw around and have a lock job dangling around on one of them things.

So the meme would get out there and then pat Paul on.

My daddy, Granny, all of them.

Yeah, I was telling y'all about the shop last week

and I feel bad I left that.

But ain't Janet.

And I spent some time on the phone with my aunt Janet this week

talking to her about Shiny.

And she had watched the record yard.

She remembered working on Papa O' Wiley's house

with my daddy and Aunt Barbara.

And she remembered.

She said her and Aunt Barbara had to do the roof on that little house.

She said, well, we got that tower all over us and burned our butts.

And she helped build the record yard.

She also told me it was not used steel.

So I learned some new stuff about the record yard shop.

Papa ordered that as a kit.

That was a kit that come in a kit.

And they drop out there and had all the the framing wood

and had all the steel.

And the reason I still got holes in it is because

people been shooting holes in it for 75 years, apparently.

Little Bobby's favorite thing to do is take his pistol out there and shoot holes in the shop.

So all the little holes in the shop, apparently gunshot holes and BB holes.

Who knows what else.

Maybe some from time and rust.

But they all got out there.

They all got out there and they didn't my family didn't do life jackets.

They didn't ski belts.

Some of y'all praying old enough to remember that.

But back in the 70s people went skiing.

You get your thing called a ski belt.

And it was like a hard foam thick fat belt flotation device.

You put around your waist.

It's not the safest thing in the world.

I could tell you if somebody has gone in the water with a ski belt on and ended up upside down,

it'll just float you upside down as good as it'll float you upside right.

Especially when you're a little scrawny ass kid.

You got to strap down to tie.

But they got out there in their ski belts and their boat shoes.

And you know nobody made no aqua shoes back then.

And we all swimming in boat shoes all the time because there was fishing lures.

And you know people have been fishing out there for years.

They get out there and they find these stubs.

And then granny take a milk jug or old press down jug or whatever they had laying around.

And a lot of antifreeze jugs.

And they take a piece of cable rope and tie it to that dagum stob and tie it to that jug.

So you knew where that stob was.

Because we like to jump off the pier and jump off the barge in the water.

You want land on one of the stubs.

You also then want back up and catch one with your foot while you're swimming.

So they got out there and I remember when you were swimming out there you just stay away from the stubs.

Because that's where that's where the most rusty pipes was.

And every season for summer and for the kids and us got out there and got swimming.

They would go out there and check for trot lines.

Because trot lines at the time was illegal in Texas.

So nobody marked them.

And people were running trot lines and jug lines all over the place.

And if they saw the game more than anywhere over there by the trot lines, they just let it go.

You know, forget about it.

Then we'll fish and drag that jug line off up into your pier area and get it tangled around the pier.

Eventually something come eat the fish and now you just got a little light chain full of rusty hooks on it.

Hung up under your pier that you don't know what in there last year.

So they had to go out there and check and move your arms real slow in the water.

Try to find stuff like that and get it all out of there.

I was a, I like to wear, I want to be, I like to dive.

I like to put a, a mask on and flippers on and swim down there and look at the bottom of the lake.

Mostly just moss and sand.

But you watch them fish.

There's a lot of brim and Lake Tyler and then and brim ain't too scared of you.

They swim right up to you look at them.

You almost reach out and touch them.

You know, you go out there.

You see all kinds of stuff.

I seen an alligator gar one time underwater scared to crap out.

That, I would say you're just scary looking out of the water but in the water they're much more formidable looking.

They are much more terrifying.

Alligator gar are scared to piss out of you in the water.

I don't remember no alligators out in Lake Tyler.

Lots of turtles, lots of snapping turtles.

I really like turtles when I was a kid.

I was fascinated with turtles.

I had a lot of turtle pets spend a lot of time catching turtles and releasing them and I just like turtles.

I had it in my head that when I was a kid that when I grew up I was going to be what.

I had invented a job for myself.

It was test tube dinologist and I was going to study turtles.

I'm not 100% sure test tube dinology exists.

Oh no, I think I've met somebody.

You know, maybe it exists, maybe don't.

But I had decided that's what I was going to do.

I was going to grow up and I was going to be the master of study and turtles.

That's basically how I was going to be the jack or stove of East Texas when it come to turtle.

Those of you sitting here watching this show know that did not pan out.

Turns out I did not end up becoming turtle researcher but boy I spent most.

So when we was up there at the lake we'd go up there and we'd be up there for a month easy.

You know, we'd stay with Granny a month or two in East Texas and at least a month of that we'd spend at the lake at some point.

And I would get my mask and my flipper zone and boy I would just I would swim for hours.

I'm a water baby. I always have been.

I love swimming.

I love being underwater.

I love being in water.

And I would swim down underneath the barges and look at the fish and then like where them stubs was I'd grab that rope,

pull myself down and look at that rusty stub under water.

All the little organized.

You could see there's there's all kind of little organisms that live in the lake waters.

There's little jelly looking things and there's a lot of fascinating stuff looking.

And there's the little freshwater clam muscles that live down there and we love picking them up and tapping them,

getting them to open the shell.

Hours doing that hours but also they figured out me and Ricky both love doing that.

Ricky would come up with.

So what happens eventually Nanny bought that old broke down barge beside us.

She had that hauled off and she bought her and then Nanny had some money.

She bought her a new nice barge had a second had a second floor.

You could climb up a ladder get on the top of it and jump off.

It was cool.

And Nanny rebuilt her pier and fixed her little area up over there.

Man sometimes for a week or two Ricky and Tony would be up there meeting Kimberly.

Sometimes our little cousin Candida would be up there.

Man James daughter.

We would just we would just swim for hours hours.

The girls go do what they want to do.

But me and Ricky had had a mask on.

And me and Ricky got real good at finding fishing lures and them trot lines and untangling them and getting them away from there and everything.

Then they had they had the the kid labor working for them to clean the area up.

Peppa was always mad at granny.

He's always showing up.

He pulled up in that old bread truck.

We'd be swimming too far out like June.

You go get them kids drown.

Repeat June.

Get them babies back in here.

You going drown one of them babies.

We never you know.

There's always words about us.

I always worry.

He is going to get us drowned.

He he fussed a lot about that sort of thing.

We and Ricky found out there was a empty boat out there that we found and didn't have an engine on it drifted up in the cold.

There's just little fiberglass boat.

And being Ricky decided we was going to paddle it across the lake to the petroleum club one day.

And we got about halfway there to start taking on water.

And then we panicked and we started trying to paddle it back and it just tickled more water

and at one point we was out of the boat swimming beside it trying to, I don't know why we

was trying to drag.

Well we found it.

It was our boat by God.

I don't know why we said, and then that boat just sank all together and being Ricky had

to swim halfway back across that lake and we were exhausted the time we got back.

And Peppa found out what we did, boy he had a fit.

Oh y'all like to drown out there.

Oh shit.

I loved it.

I would like to, so we'll get more into it, but around the way there there was a fishing

pier.

We'll pop your fishing pier, folks come to, and once I go there early in the morning with

my mask and swim around down the bottom of that fishing pier and boy you find out

all kind of lures and pocket knives, all kind of neat stuff, you know sunglasses and cool

stuff and me and Ricky had this little collection going to our treasures.

Sometimes there was people down there at the fishing pier.

They said, boy you find, you show them you find this old buck knife.

Hey son, I can give you a dollar for that buck.

That's good money right there.

I thought I might get rich finding pocket knives.

Dollar for a buck knife.

Boy you couldn't tell me nothing.

I go in that store and get all the bubble gum.

I wanted after that.

Couldn't tell me nothing.

Entrepreneur, sir.

It's always been part of my spirit, taking old and selling it.

It's in her blood.

Pick up the shit out of me talking to Janet because her little grandson, my cousin candy's oldest boy.

His name is Draven.

He's just, from what I can tell he's always just been a good kid but he didn't grow up in the record yard

but said he's 21 years old now.

He spends all his time working on an old pickup and his favorite thing in the world to do is go to you

pull it and pull parts, work on that pickup.

My God it's just in our blood.

It's just genetic.

There's just a marker.

I want my blood to be studied by science to find out what the junk marker is.

Take my DNA apart.

See if you can figure out what the junk marker for DNA is because I suspect it goes back to ancient man.

I suspect it goes all the way back to Scotland and such.

The junker marker.

Love go right around Lake Papal when he's driving at barge.

He just looks so happy.

A little flowery welding hat and used to go into that.

And Janet told me the funniest story about him.

It is so on brand for Papal when I was over home with her.

She said one day that he was on that old rady ass barge.

And they was just to go through the lake.

And Papal was sitting in his captain's chair and Janet was sitting in a lawn chair beside him.

And she said he just looked over at her grandson.

What do you think the poor people are doing today?

And Janet said, why don't they ride on this barge and you damn right?

What do you think the poor people are doing today?

That's so on brand for Papal.

That tickled me shit out of me when I heard that.

God it was such a fun place.

Learned to fish there.

Papal was always, so after he got out there at night man.

He was just, just, just Papal was sitting on that barge.

Even after we already went to bed.

And he had his little, uh, had a little, uh, BB gun.

One of the most spring loaded little daisy rifle.

And, and had him, uh, his, his police scanner.

Right, that was Papal's tick talk.

Basically was just Papal sit there and doom scroll the police scanner.

He had to know what was going on everywhere around the lake.

Papal was going on, he knew all the channels.

And his binoculars, you know, so he could go ahead and mind everybody else's business.

And he was always so at peace he's sitting out there.

Them sleeves rolled up this chair.

Listen to that police scanner.

He had, uh, had a friend, uh, everybody called Blackie.

His name was James Black.

He was, he was Lake Patrol back in them days.

Everyone's while Blackie come pull his boat up to the bar to disembark.

Climb up there and sit with Papal.

And they drink some cold bush beer.

That would be cold beer.

That's back when the Lake Patrol was more liable to sit down and have beer with.

He didn't shoot at you.

And, you know what, Papal was always doing something little outside the lines.

No Blackie getting grief about it.

Boy, Bobby, you know, you can't be doing that.

Now, you know, I might tend, I don't see it right now.

But, you know, you can't just leave that fifth wheel out here.

This ain't a camping design.

You can't leave that fifth wheel here all the time.

You know, it's starting to look like a residence up there.

And you know, we can't have that.

You know, there's some rules about what you can do.

And Papal was always pushing them rules.

He'd leave that RV up there a year alone, you know.

You weren't supposed to do that, you know.

They'd get on to him enough.

He'd go up there and hook it up, drag it back to wrecking the yard.

They'd clean it out, spruce it up.

More months later, they'd drag it right back out there.

They'd back one time.

When the bar just pontoons finally got started getting bad and pontoons started getting harder to come back

because they started moving away from them.

I'm all excited to get the fellas out there, Dad and Uncle Toby and Uncle Bobby all of them.

They drove steel drill pipe into the lake floor all around the barge by eight of them.

And then they run four across the front and back.

They took them, they built them a little frame, they took them come along.

And they run the chain all up under the bottom of that barge in between them pontoons

and they just lifted that barge up with them come along.

They took them pontoons out underneath the barge.

And then they took some more drill pipe and welded the frame underneath that barge

and set that barge back down.

Then they had a permanent lake pier in the shape of the barge.

In fact, Nanny ended up doing it with her barge too.

They ended up doing it with both of them.

One of the funniest things I remember is Uncle Toby was married by Aunt Laurie.

He was down there in the water.

He was welding one of them things.

And Janet come to bring him a beer and he set that down.

He was building lead on the barge and when Janet bring the beer she kicked the weld

and lead off in the water right beside him.

Well, he back come out of that water house.

So he thought his pecker was going to explode.

I can piss out of you.

They raised that up.

It was a little permanent barge after that.

Boy, they didn't like that out the lake.

You're going to tear that down.

You're going to be able to have a cup of cold beer or a blackie.

I feel it necessary to point out because the name of James Black was not a black fella.

I think they just called him blackie because of his last name.

He's a good sized fellow, but he'd come over half a cup of beer to pop on and probably go away for a little while.

I don't know when it finally come to a head.

It was years after I stopped spending time with him.

I was a teenager living my own life.

I wonder what the poor people are doing today.

That's about the Bobby Clark thing, everybody ever said.

That's so funny to me.

Yeah, the old fifth wheel.

Boy, a leak like a sieve.

That was one of Granny's favorite Dexter trim projects.

I call her Dexter trim.

She was always on the dyke pills, just speeding out of her gourd.

Boy, she decided that there was a leak or something.

She'd get up there and she had this coat and tar stuff.

She would slap that on there with a mop on top of that fifth wheel.

She'd get up on that fifth wheel and slap that stuff on there with a mop.

It'd be about a month later, boy.

She decided she needed to do it again.

That was one of her projects, her Dexter trim projects.

It was cool.

Everyone saw some pink costumes come out.

Pitocosa girls would swim in their skirts, which was kind of a wild thing.

Pitocoses had a lot of rules about what women was allowed to wear.

They would come out there and swim in their denim skirts out there at the lake.

But as long as they had them denim skirts on, as boys couldn't be lusting after their calves or what happened.

Whatever it was, the church was worried we was going to get into about them legs.

A lot of memories, Uncle Bobby out there, Uncle Bobby.

I primary remember that time period when he was dating that guy, Shelley, ended up killing herself.

I just remember several nights, him, Shelley, and my mom, daddy, down there on the bars, playing cards, laughing, cutting up, having a good time.

For everything, it just got so weird.

There was a peer right over yonder.

I'm just gonna tell you all something.

I'm worst fisherman in my family.

I am the worst angler in the Longmire and probably McBride family's combined.

I am the worst one.

I love it.

I love fishing.

I enjoy fishing, but I just not worth the damn at it.

There's never I've been.

All my cousins can outfish me any one of them on any given day.

A Ricky especially.

Ricky's a fish and something 50.

Ricky could find bass in a two foot mud hole.

He could find a bass in there.

Ricky's a fish and something 50, man.

I'd be down there and fish.

I'd never would catch nothing, boy.

Have all the cards.

Well, you use the wrong stuff.

You know, he knew how to do all that stuff.

He didn't care to do it.

He said, we're gonna fix you up, man.

He run down that bait shop.

He come back.

He's a little bit old tiny hooks.

He said, this is a brim hook.

Most of what we got around these barges is brim.

They got a little bit old mouth.

You don't need a lot of bait.

You don't need a big old lure.

And he set me up for brim hook.

A little split sink later.

Wait.

A little split sinker.

Sorry.

A little bobber.

And he said, you put anything on that hook.

I'm going to eat a piece of bread, piece of corn, whatever.

Well, I call it a lot of bread in my piece of corn.

Brain fishing with corn is about the simplest, easiest fishing there is.

You can't catch a brim of corn.

You just quit fishing.

Because I can catch a brim of corn.

I mean, Ricky, we sit on that dock, boy.

We eat with fishing.

We can catch a brim and just reel a boy.

It has a five-gown bucket full of them.

And then we jump back into the lake.

We try to see who catches the most.

Who catches the biggest ones.

Well, wow, the brim was so, you know, if there was food in the water,

we'd just sprinkle a little bit of corn out of the water.

The brim would just be churning that water up.

And granted, do that every once in a while, keep them around.

I would get under there with my mask.

And Ricky would cast his line in with his corn on it.

And I would jack, because still watch the brim,

hit that thing and Ricky would fight the fish and break it in.

And then I could get out of the water and Ricky would get his mask on.

I don't think he'd catch the fish.

And he'd watch the fish.

We were studying, researching, science, science.

What he was doing, science.

Just so many good bimbs.

I told you, I bought the raft, me and Ricky built one time.

Got a picture in the newspaper about it.

Built it out of old pontoons and scrap wood and carpet.

Diamond in the roof.

I could still smell what that lake water smell like back in.

It had just kind of an earthy smell.

Every once in a while the lake would turn over.

And I honestly, to this day, still don't even know what that means.

But when it turned over, water would get colder.

And a bunch of stuff would float up, that kind of stuff.

You know, water was a little dirty or what not.

We had inflatable rafts.

Well, we'd just play out there too.

We sunburnt like lobsters.

You know, nobody's talking about those skiing kinsks or back to you.

Not that we was here and know how.

I'd be out there for a lot of the summer, you know, because they were just during the week.

We'd just stay out there and pop all the drive in from work.

He would just drive out there in the White House and meet us, you know.

We'd just stay out the lake all day long.

All there was to do was go fishing and swimming.

Go fishing and swimming and eat little Debbie Brownies and drink Shasta Cola.

That's all there was to do, you know.

Eventually they got a little TV and a BCR set up there.

So you can watch a little movie in the RV every once in a while.

You play cards with Granny, Granny like playing cards.

She like playing battle, all the fun and kid games.

She probably didn't like playing it.

She just did it to entertain us.

Well, always celebrating Fourth of July out there.

We blew fireworks off that pier to one o'clock in the morning.

Just like that whole sky above Lake Tyler in the fireworks.

Round off that peninsula that's a little old, it's like an old road run around there.

And there was on top of the hill, there was a little bait shop.

And at bait shop at the time, it was old and red headed lady and her husband was running.

And off the boat shop, there was a little boat launch.

Off the bait shop, there was a little boat launch there.

And there was a big old red fishing pier but way out in the water.

You could pay a dollar, you could go out there and fish all day off the fishing pier.

And they fed the fish out there and there was always good catch some camp fish

and all kind of good stuff off that fishing pier.

Because I was like a resident, I had my old bicycle and I would ride down there hanging out at the bait shop.

Boy if I had a little spending money, I'd go down the bait shop, get me a tin bar, get me some bubble gum.

Look at all the fishing tackle they had in there.

Look at all them live baits, they had big old minotanks and the frozen shrimp they had it all.

Big old refrigerator, full of worms, biggest earthworms you ever seen.

You didn't need to buy no worms like Tyler because you just go out there in the woods

or the pine needles was real thick on the ground and leaves the thick on the ground

and drag them back with a wreck and boy you have all the worms you ever needed to fish for any kind of fish.

Big old, big old night crawler earthworms.

But I just like going down to that bait shop and then people was always nice to me and they knew pop on the ground in.

They had two, I said a twins, two red headed twins that was about a year older than me.

I knew those about a year older because my teenage years they were the first girls I've seen that grew boobs.

They developed quick and they had freckles and braces and glasses

you know the older people like old them, they didn't think they was pretty little girls.

But them girls was always nice to me, I like hanging out with them.

I thought they was pretty, I thought they was nice to hang out with.

They would go ride bikes with me sometimes.

You know they stuck out there too, living for a friend.

The year I was about 13 summer I turned 13 I think.

He was out there at the lake and it was during the middle of the week maybe a Wednesday and I've been hanging out with those two little gals.

One of them girls took me behind the metal tank outside of her parents and she kissed me.

Like just pulled me close and kissed me on the mouth.

Boy I must have turned about nine shades of red.

I don't even remember if I said anything, I just ran and got on my bike and rode all the way back to the RV, the 5th wheel.

And then locked myself and went in the 5th wheel and hid from him the rest of the day.

I was quite the ladies man knew how to get their attention.

I'll run away screaming.

I didn't know what to do and she got it.

I was a little pity call for the boy.

I figured I was already going to hell about that.

I didn't want to go to hell any further for any more of my half and if she kissed me.

I didn't really even know what was supposed to happen after that.

And then I worried about how I was going to avoid them little girls after that.

Turns out I didn't have to worry about that.

Because apparently guys that run away when you kiss them ain't what they was looking for.

They avoided me after that.

Oh shit.

I rode my bike down to that base shop one time.

That's about that same summer.

And James Black was down there and they was pulling a car up the boat range.

Somebody had sunk a Volkswagen out in the lake.

The Volkswagen had a body and apparently it was like a...

When I was a kid everything was a drug deal gone bad.

Drug deal gone bad.

That's how they ended up in the lake dead.

Drug deal gone bad.

They found somebody in the car is always drug deal gone bad like Tyler.

These Texas.

Drug deal gone bad.

I may ask what all the adults are saying.

I don't know the drug deal gone bad.

They're pulling this Volkswagen beetle which they do float for a while but eventually they sink.

Especially if they got enough holes in them.

They're pulling this little Volkswagen beetle that's been at the bottom of Lake Tyler.

And I never saw the body but I knew they was all talking about.

There was somebody in the car.

I tell you what struck me the funniest that day as a kid was when them when them sheriff opened the doors at Volkswagen.

The biggest catfish ever seen in your world was come flopping out of that car.

There's so many fish just flopping out of that car.

Big old catfish and they're just kicking them down the boat ramp.

But I was so mad because I wanted to go get one of them big fish and take it back and tell everybody I caught it.

I had never seen catfish that size before.

They did down on me too.

I was sitting down to ride this episode.

The old fish was in there eating that dead dude in that car.

Oh, it's just got a girl's.

But, you know, fish gone fish.

Let's wrap this up right here.

We got a bunch of shit to unwrap.

I want to do some testimonials.

I had some wonderful ones.

Some testimonials if you will.

We had some wonderful testimonials from last week.

And I so enjoyed taking you guys on that journey with me.

And even more enjoyed reading what you all had to say about it.

It just warmed the cockles in my heart.

Our old buddy, Gene Bond.

Thanks for another good one, J.W.

I get wanting a project card to build up for nostalgic purposes if nothing else.

It's been a faint wish of mine for a while.

But I'm afraid my health may not allowed anymore.

Back when I was younger, more able,

I didn't have the resources or facilities to pull it off.

Now I have those, but not the physical ability.

Don't get me wrong.

I still do all my own vehicle maintenance repair.

But I'm not sure I could pull off a restoration like that,

like what I would like.

Oh well, we have to play the cards or a dealt.

No regret.

I've earned all these aches and pains.

I've enjoyed it all.

Maybe not every little banging bruise, but the adventure it led up to.

Take it easy.

I hope to catch you.

Up.

And Louisville.

Edit.

She who must be obeyed, consented.

So tickets are ordered.

Can't wait to meet me.

Well, that's fair.

I love meat, rickie art people.

I'm so excited to meet you in Louisville too, Gene Bond.

And you know what?

I love what you had to say here because you encapsulated a lot in that.

You said a lot there.

We play the cards or dealt.

And I ain't 100% sure I got this restoration left to me,

but I'm going to take a hammer start beating on that car,

see what I come up with.

But I like what you said there.

You laid out a lot in very few words.

And I'm looking forward to meeting you as well, sir.

That's going to be Louisville's one of my favorite places to be.

That's fantastic.

That show is shaping up to be just a fantastic show.

Let's see.

At Samuel Baum, 2258, the amount of peace you have

when talking about this place is astounding now.

From the less hell episode earlier this season to now is night and day.

I'm so happy to see it.

Above, I've turned a corner.

And it's a good corner.

It's not a corner of...

Sorry, I thought my gate was open.

It's not a corner.

It's not the corner I thought it was.

Turns out it's better.

I let go of a lot of shit weeks ago.

And I've been dealing with it in processing with it,

but I'm in a real good place that I'm enjoying being right now.

I have some peace.

I have some peace about some things that I didn't have some peace about.

And I got some peace about them.

And by God, I'm just going to enjoy every minute of it,

because I know how fleeting peace is.

At David Becker, there's a difference when you say father or dad.

I lost my dad when I was 20.

I still call him pop or the old bastard that beat my ass.

There is a difference.

It's the same man, but it usually has to do with how I'm feeling towards him.

When I refer to him as my father,

it's usually a little colder and it's a little aggravated.

I said some things about my dad last week,

and I was a little emotional.

And I don't want you to get the wrong idea.

I don't have any animosity towards my father.

I don't believe.

I mean, there's probably some, you know,

and he's probably got something towards me.

But he showed up for me most of my life.

He showed up enough.

Okay.

He doesn't have to show up now.

I don't need him to show up now.

Would I like him to?

Sure.

But I don't need him to anymore.

He's got his own life.

I've got my own life.

And that's okay.

I ain't mad about it.

I did the feelings of anger that I used to sit on in the resentments.

I've let that go.

Because it's just ain't no good energy in pursuing it.

And it was that realization that helped me.

But he showed up plenty for me in my life.

He showed up plenty.

He did enough.

He mad at it.

He don't need to show up now.

It's okay.

But sometimes when I'm feeling differently about him,

I prefer to either dad or father.

That's about the best way I can explain that.

All right.

Let's open some freaking box.

Y'all ready to see some hot wheels?

All right.

So standing count right now.

We use that.

I got penciled paper by God.

We're going to do some math here.

We are sitting on 914 cars here in the wrecking yard.

914 cars as of October, whatever the shit it is.

I don't have a clue what the date is.

Oh, I got my daggum magic box with all these.

October 5th.

October 5th, we are at 19 cars.

Five days, I'll be in the Louisville, Kentucky.

Spread my own version of the Ha Ha with a little optimism sprinkled in.

Because by God, you know what I am.

I'm a dealer of hope.

All right.

Let's just say who this is from.

S&E hobbies and collectibles.

West Plum, Dezeta, Texas.

Ship to the wrecking yard podcast.

Let's take a look.

Boop, boop, boop.

Got to free them blade.

Nope.

Now go cutting toward me again.

Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.

What do we get from Southeast hobbies in Dezeta?

I don't, okay.

This might not be Hot Wheels.

I don't know what these are.

S&E hobbies and collectibles.

Die cast novelty earrings, dolls, crochet toys, freshies, jewelry.

Use code.

I need more for a 10% discount.

Let's see what we're looking at here.

Oh, they are Hot Wheels.

Excellent.

They're just package kind of strange.

Oh, they did not want these to get banged up.

Ooh, doggy.

Look at here.

HW Race Day.

HW Formula Sower.

These are all special feature ones.

Boy, that'll be a fun surprise for the kids.

I need to be an empty box.

Give me just a sketch here.

I got a box I've already been filling up with Lucy's.

That's something I can be selling cigarettes around the corner now.

I got a box of Lucy's.

Who needs Lucy?

Lucy Hot Wheels?

You need Lucy Hot Wheels.

I got Lucy Hot Wheels.

Let's see.

Let's get all these out of here.

All right.

So we know what does it say.

That's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

19, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Hot Wheels.

Thank you so much.

I don't see no letter in here.

So I'm guessing those might have just come from the good people at SNE hobbies and collectibles.

Thank you so much.

You just, you just brought a bunch of smiles.

Some babies.

I don't forgot how many it was.

One, two, three, four, five, six, 12, 14 smiles.

That's 14 more smiles for babies.

Let's add that to our tally.

Things are up to 928 Hot Wheels.

Thanks to S&E hobbies and collectibles right out there in day Z of Texas.

And they have a Facebook page.

Sand e hobbies.

Go to sand e hobbies or S&E hobbies.

That's what it is.

Or you can go to www.s&e hobbies.com.

And they got a phone number 772-521-1771.

Thank you so much.

Oh, wait, there's a note on it.

Nope, that's all in Spanish.

I don't know what that means.

Something about Pierre Guintas.

All right.

Let's look at here.

Try to go through these quick.

Oh, there we go.

We got a big bag.

Is there a note?

No, dad, good no.

Why ain't there ever a note?

All right.

God dang, look at here.

Just that bag.

Just chock full of Hot Wheels.

That gum I wish they'd put a note.

So I know who sent these things.

One of you kind, blessed souls.

From either here or Facebook.

Wretched out and sent these cars.

And I don't know who you are.

But I'm gonna tell you how many cars are in the box.

Maybe you know you did.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Ten, eleven, twelve.

Oh, these are such cool ones too.

These are all the classic series.

First, twelve.

13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

Damn, that's cool looking.

Ha, ha, what's that called?

1941 Ford pickup.

That's pretty neat.

And a lost count.

That's what I get.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Eleven, twelve, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 23, 24.

Twenty-four smiles right there.

Twenty-four smiles for babies.

Twenty-four.

Oh, that's crazy looking.

Look at the Chrysler 300 with the big wheels.

Twenty-four smiles for babies right there.

courtesy of anonymous.

We don't know who sent it because we had no letter.

But I'll try to do some sleuth and then figure out who sent us.

All these great hot wheels.

Twenty-four smiles for babies.

God, I love y'all.

So we'll add a twenty-four to our count.

That puts us at nine.

Nine twenty-eight plus twenty-four puts us at nine.

Forty-two.

Nine hundred and forty-two smiles for babies is where we're sitting.

Next box, let's do it again.

Boom, boom, boom.

No, don't even need to free them now.

When I got it.

Oh, I never seen boxes like this.

And no dad gum litter.

Who's gonna say it's from?

Amazon fulfillment services.

And these say they got fifteen vehicles each in them.

Let's just pop one so I can make sure because it also says stunt tracks on it.

I can't tell for sure.

I've never seen a box like this before.

Oh, car packs, that's neat right there.

So these are little five packs of cars.

And each one of these boxes got fifteen cars in it.

So that's fifteen, thirty, forty-five, sixty, sixty smiles for babies right there.

That's sixty smiles.

Let's set them up there for now.

That's sixty smiles.

Once again from an unknown participant in the program will add sixty to nine forty-two.

And we just right there, we just did it.

We just broke a thousand smiles for babies.

That puts us at solid one thousand and two smiles for babies by God.

Let's keep going.

This is so exciting.

Sorry, I know it's tedious, but I appreciate y'all hanging in there.

And I'll close this thing strong, I promise.

But I just wanted to share the joy with y'all, the joy I get from seeing this.

There's just so much ugly in the world.

We're especially right now.

And a lot of people focusing on the ugly.

And by God then just some people come together to focus on the pretty.

And what we're doing here is it just feels good.

Oh, I got a letter finally.

I hope this for place helps for place what was lost.

All the best, we sincerely appreciate what you're doing and are happy to be a part of it.

With much love, 182 garage, Stephen Lindsay Lilly Luke Archer from Pennsylvania would love.

God bless the Archer family.

It's from toy world.

eBay.

Oh, they've ordered these off eBay.

Nice.

And it is 72 cars.

72 cars.

72 smiles for babies right here in this box.

And I'm just going to pull the.

Oh, I love it.

They use this paper because that's why I use to start my charcoal, my charcoal chimney with.

That's best.

That's best charcoal chimney.

You don't get a newspaper no more.

But that paper you wide one them up putting that charcoal chimney bush will start that charcoal every time.

Yeah.

Who will love bubble wrap?

I'll play that later.

Oh, they're right there.

72 cars.

72 smiles for babies come all the way from Memphis, Tennessee.

These cars did from as a gesture of our good people, the archers out in Pennsylvania.

I love you.

God bless you.

72 smiles.

72 smiles for babies.

Who don't want to see babies with 72 smiles?

72.

1000.

74 smiles.

Woo!

We're bringing them home today.

Y'all have already more than made up for what was stolen from the post office.

Oh, we got a letter.

Driven dreams donation with Pixie Dust and Best Wishes.

Thank you, Jay and Rach from Martha Kelly.

Martha Kelly is one of my favorite favorite people.

I just love Martha Kelly out in California.

And then she just wretched out and sent us some hot wheels.

And just God bless that sweet lady.

She's done a lot of nice things for me and Rachel over the years as she has followed some of my work.

One, two, three, four, five.

Five more smiles for babies.

Five more smiles for babies right there.

Oh, that's good.

I'll play that later.

All right.

So, that puts us 1,079 smiles.

Ten pack.

Two ten packs right here.

Look at that.

20 more smiles for babies.

20 more.

No note.

Damn it.

Where'd it come from?

Amazon fulfillment, probably.

Amazon services, Harlem Road, Richmond, Texas.

Well, that comes.

That might be somebody close to me.

20 more smiles.

20 more smiles for babies.

That puts us at a whopping 1,099 smiles.

1,099.

Whoo!

This box almost looks homemade.

No note.

Where did that come from?

Amazon services, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

No note there.

Sold as one unit.

We'll go here.

30 hot wheelcars mixed.

Ain't no note.

Wow, God, boy.

That's 30 hot wheelcars.

All right.

Man, we're running out of room.

Well, that was 30.

Now we are at 1,129 smiles for babies.

God, I can't believe you all.

I just wanted to bust 1,000.

But we flew by 1,000.

We're going to fly.

We're just going to keep on going.

Oh, it's multi-packs here.

Boom!

Oh!

Amazon services.

Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Oh, yeah, here.

24 car packs.

Sortment.

24 car packs.

That means 24 car packs right there.

48 smiles.

48 smiles for babies.

We're just going.

We're just going to stack them.

We got 2,000 smiles.

48.

Let's add 48 to the number.

Boom, boom.

No note with that one, unfortunately.

So that puts us at...

Damn, I ain't worth a damn amount.

I'm 87.

Oh, 67.

1177.

All right.

We're 1177 smiles for babies if my math is correct.

I won't assure you that it is.

I'm going to do these biggest boxes.

Blast.

Because it's probably just going to put them right back there

to find a place to store all this.

Oh, my God.

Look at that.

Boom!

50 pack.

Holy hell, another 50 pack.

That gummit, no note.

Well, I wish it had zoomed in, no.

Sam Marcus Texas, Amazon fulfillment services.

100 more.

We got 250 packs.

That's another 100...

Another 100 cars for babies right there.

Another 100 smiles.

Just throw another...

I can add that math.

That math is easy, baby.

That's 1277 smiles for babies we done raised here

at the Rick and Yard podcast.

By God, we're going to do some good this year.

And it's all thanks to y'all.

It's all thanks to y'all sharing the post

and buying the cars, reaching out,

to be a part of this.

And whoo, that's a big dagum

by all these last boxes.

They're huge.

Whoa!

Oh, these are actual hot-willed tracks.

Look at that.

Track creators with the cars in them.

Now, that's neat.

Man, we got four of them in there.

All right, so that's four tracks

that will give out some of these organizations

for hot-wills creators' tracks.

That's big smiles right there.

That's big old smiles.

That gives you something to do with them.

Four hot-wills creators' tracks right there in that box.

Look at that.

Look at all the stuff you could do with that.

Look at all that.

Oh, you could just go plum crazy, man.

Get down the floor with your sibling,

whatever you got, if you got one.

That game.

Out of room.

I done out hot-willed myself.

All right.

Let me see.

Look.

Put these on the table for now.

And then we'll just stack these on top of each other.

Let's go, let's go.

We'll get into the end here.

Wow!

And I wish there was a note in this box.

I know who sent all these.

There's four more track creator sets in this box.

Four more.

These, they come with some cars in them.

Oh, I found a note.

I found a note.

Gosh dang it.

God bless you, Jerry Wayne, from Nathan Huey.

Nathan Huey sent us four hot-wills toy car tracks

sets, triple-loop packs.

Track building components with three loops and speed snap.

Boy, oh Nathan Huey.

God bless you son.

God bless you for that.

That's going to be some big smiles right there.

That's going to be some big smiles.

All right.

Let's get this last one.

I think based on its size, it may be some more tracks.

What did that put us at?

That's eight hot-wills creator track series.

Those would be real good ones.

Let's see what's in this last box here.

Whew.

I'm sweating.

Listen, work.

Opening up all this goodness y'all done.

Four more.

Four more track sets.

Look at that.

That's a...

Nathan Huey again.

I think Nathan Huey must send all these tracks sets.

God bless you, sir.

This is just sweet.

This is a beautiful thing.

God, that's a beautiful thing.

Look what y'all done here, man.

Look at the amount of joy that y'all help that we create.

I mean, I didn't do nothing.

I just talked about it.

Y'all did all this great and all this joy

that we're going to share with these babies.

God, now we got 12 track sets.

12 track sets.

That's just amazing.

God bless the goodness of your hearts.

I'm overwhelmed.

We are sitting at 1277 die-cast cars.

1277 smiles we're going to deliver.

And there's more boxes on the way.

And 12 creator track sets.

Give out these babies.

God bless the goodness of your hearts.

I just...

I'm just...

It's overwhelming.

I just wanted to be a part of this thing.

And then...

You man, y'all just...

Y'all just light me up with goodness.

That's all.

I told you my favorite month.

This is all...

You just light me up with goodness.

In the current world, it's hard to find.

But by God here, y'all just send it right to my house.

And we can make some smiles.

Let's wrap this thing up for tonight.

I was riding this episode when I was thinking about late Tyler.

I was thinking about the lure of nostalgia.

I was thinking how we often cling to the past sometimes.

And it makes it hard for us to appreciate what's happened now.

I know I'm guilty of it for sure.

I know if you drive out there in Macarole Road down,

the Anglicino broke down old barges

and jugs and the water marking where pole stubs are.

You're going to see nice manicured parking lots

and little cabins for people to rent.

I think the bake shop and the fish appear still there

but probably redone.

I looked at it from a satellite image.

It's hard to tell.

I mean, if I end up out there in White House,

I try to drive out there off Macarole Road

and visit the old bake shop at the Boulder's RV Park

just to see if it still smells like the bake shop.

Just to see what that little part of the lake looks like now.

But I didn't need it to stay the way it was forever.

I wasn't going back there.

It's okay for some things to change.

It's okay for people to find better ways to enjoy it.

And they're probably not putting a bunch of styrofoam in the water now.

The styrofoam is a funny thing.

When it's gentle, it's a bomb.

It softens the edges of memory.

It makes the past glow a little warmer than it really was.

It's sounding your mountains laughter in the kitchen.

It's a feel of papa's callus hand on my shoulder.

So we certain old cars smelled the first time you drove it.

Those are good things to hold on to.

They anchor us.

They remind us that joy was real.

And so were the people who gave that joy to us.

But the stout has teeth too.

If you clutch it too tight, it stops being memory and it starts becoming a weapon.

Suddenly you're not just remembering your comparing.

You're measuring the present against some better time that never fully existed.

And that's when the stout turns into an act of war against the present.

You find yourself fighting today for not being yesterday.

It reminds me of the way folks sometimes talk about cars.

They don't build them like I used to.

And that's true in one sense.

Nobody's putting chrome bumpers big as a church pulpit on a sedan anymore.

You don't get opera windows, crushed velvet interiors,

or steel wheels big enough to steer a boat.

There's a beauty in that lost art.

The shine, the curves, the sense of weight and permanence it had.

But here's the truth.

Most of us wouldn't survive a modern wreck in a 72 Monte Carlo.

That chrome bumper everybody brags on.

It didn't absorb a lick energy.

It sent it straight through to your chest.

Those bench seats we love to stretch out on.

No headrests.

No side bolsters.

Nothing to keep you from snapping like a twig in a collision.

They were gorgeous machines no doubt.

But airbags and crumple zones are what keep families alive today.

I was growing up people dieting car wrecks all the time.

It is way less common now.

That's the balance with nostalgia.

Admire the chrome but respect the airbag.

Honor what came before but don't pretend it was all better.

Every era has its miracles and its blind spots.

The trick is carrying memory like a compass instead of a sword.

Let it point you home when you're lost.

Let it remind you of the hands that steadied you when you was young.

But don't drag it out to beat today in the shape.

I didn't read a lot of Alan Watts lately.

Alan Watts said we don't really experience the past.

We only experience memory in the present.

The same goes for the future.

It's just our mind's best guess at a road that ain't been paved yet.

The only thing we ever truly stand inside of is the eternal now.

The nostalgia then is like a mile marker.

It tells you how far you can.

But it ain't the place you live.

You can pull over, admire the scenery,

maybe even snap a picture in your head.

But if you want to stay alive and awake,

you've got to put the truck back in gear and drive in the lane you're in now.

That's the work.

To indulge in the sweetness of memory

without letting it steal the sharpness of the present moment.

Whether you're dreaming of the future

or stuck in the past

or just enjoying right now as best as you can,

I'm rooting for you.

I get your comments, your letters, your emails.

I don't...

There's not enough hours and day for me to respond to them all as much as I'd like to.

But they usually guide me on what I'm going to talk about every week.

So many of you are tackling big things,

recovery, starting businesses, having children,

taking kids to college for the first time,

taking care of ill loved ones,

grieving the loss of loved ones,

fixing your own health,

fixing your own financial situation.

I don't know if you all got someone around to tell you

that you're going to be fine and you're enough.

So I'll tell you, you're going to be fine.

You are enough.

One of the things that makes my world beautiful is your presence.

I'm J.W., I love you.

Oh, I can't believe y'all.

1,200, say, say, my, what was that?

Ha!

We're going to take Cadillac and the Mazda deliver all these daggums.

I hope that old boy changed me that truck this week.

Then I got to wait and load all these daggums,

things up, daggums some more.

It would be fun, you say, a Mazda pulling a trailer full of hot wheels.

Oh, she got to love y'all.

This has been the best experiment of my life

and one of the best experiences of my life.

Please keep talking to me in the comments.

You renew me day by day.

I'm just take a pink this morning.

God bless y'all.

God bless you.

Have a good day.

God bless me.

God bless you.

Is that you out there?

You know what them big boxes were?

were those big boxes they were Hot Wheels creator track sets 12 of them from

one dude yeah we got 1277 Hot Wheels right now I opened every day I got one of

here

I'm

Yeah, I'm wrapped up. I'm about to come in there. I sure do. Love you pretty girl.

Yeah, I just got to shut everything down and go edit.

About this episode

Jerry Wayne Longmer shares heartfelt reflections on nostalgia, community support, and personal growth while discussing the overwhelming response to a recent donation drive for Hot Wheels cars. After a robbery at their post office, the podcast hosts received an outpouring of support, resulting in over 1,200 cars donated for children in need. Longmer also shares personal anecdotes about his family, the significance of Lake Tyler, and the balance between cherishing memories and living in the present. The episode emphasizes the power of kindness and connection in a world often focused on negativity.

bench seats chrome bumper extended cab four wheel drive headrest pickup truck rear differential side bolsters six L80 suicide doors

Chevrolet Monte Carlo Chevrolet Silverado Chrysler 300 Lotus Carlton Porsche 914 Porsche 928 Volkswagen Beetle

Original notes

JW takes us back to the cheap seats side of Lake Tyler in the 1980s, where summers were long, lessons were everywhere, and the shoreline was full of stories. From the awkward rites of teenage romance to the quiet wisdom of turtles and fishing lines, it was a place where memories got made on a budget and lasted a lifetime.

The Reckon Yard Podcast

Jerry Wayne Longmire

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