what can i say :)
all pastures rented out, renter moveing from house , will find another. colected his check today, he doesnt know it yet . hes waiting for the bank to cclose before he pays me. doesnt know i already got the money from the bank.
so all is well in valley view.
couple days ago i lit a fire to clean fence line , called the sheriff to ley them know i was burning. 10 minutes later i heard sirenes. thought well shit here comes the fire department.
wrong . some guy was shot bye the cops on his motor cycle, heard he stole it. then he ran off in the woods. took a few hours to find him. i heard helicopter looking for him. some say the guy killed somebody in pineer valley, other say he just stole the motor cycle.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
front page story
i put a classified add in the local paper to rent out one of my cabins. lyles cabin :)
before the ad came out in the paper i got a call from ohio, rodger said he was comeing to gainesville for a new job and was looking for a place to stay. couple days later rodger shows up at the farm to check out lyles cabin, as he was looking it over he told me how impressed he was with the way i had rebuilt this old rv into a pretty nice little cabin. he seemed so impressed with my building( which i thought was no big deal) i told him he should go bye and see my brick horsehead at the ranch. he did
it turned out the job rodger had come to fill in gainesville was the editor of the gainesville Daily Register, out local daily newspaper. couple days later he send a repeorter out to interview me and they put the story on the front page of the sunday paper . ill try to attachthe story here, if i can figure how:)
Related Photos
Bricklayer John Groves, above, relaxes in the grass with his Great Pyrenees, Bebé, and Hampshire pig, Oreo. Groves built the brick horse head, below, at E.T. “Ernie” Chrustawka’s Par 3 Ranch near Interstate 35 in Gainesville. The horse head, completed in 1981, is the iconic centerpiece at the ranch entrance. Staff photo by Delania Trigg
Brick Horse Staff photo by Jim Perry
Guest Book
Sign Our Guest Book
January 22, 2012
The Brick Artist
Designs just happened for bricklayer
By Delania Trigg, Register Staff Writer Gainesville Daily Register
Cooke County —
The unassuming artisan also built one of the county’s most recognizable landmarks — the 30-foot brick horse head at the Par 3 Ranch on Interstate 35.
Groves came to Cooke County from Canada in 1981 to complete the project for his friend and ranch owner E.T. “Ernie” Chrustawka.
“When he bought the ranch he said he wanted to build something that would attract attention from the highway,” Groves said.
When he became a bricklayer, Groves said he wasn’t planning to hone his skills for artistic endeavors.
“I wanted to be a bricklayer to make a living,” Groves said. “I’ve been laying bricks all my life. I taught myself. I never had an apprenticeship or anything. I just started doing it myself and I learned the hard way.”
He was living Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta when Chrustawka approached him about building an elaborate entry for his Par 3 Ranch in Texas.
“I was in Canada at the time and Ernie said he’d be back in Edmonton in a few weeks,” he said. Chrustawka asked his friend to come up with a design for the ranch.
“Ernie said, ‘I don’t know what I need but just think about something,’” Groves said. “A couple of days later I woke my wife up in the middle of the night and I said, ‘I know what I’m gonna do.”
Meanwhile, Chrustawka had ideas of his own.
“When Ernie came back to Edmonton, I met him at his place and he was all excited because he had this big plan — this big blue print he’d had drawn up at the university in Denton of this real fancy entryway and he said, ‘Look at this, John. Look what we can build.’ ”
“I looked at his plan and I said, ‘Well, that’s pretty nice ... I guess you wouldn’t be interested in my idea.’ and he said, ‘Well, what is it?’ ”
Groves pulled out his drawing of a horse head. He’d sketched it on the back of a business card.
“I showed him the plan and said, ‘We build this out of brick.’ It was the horse head. He looked at me and said, ‘Can you do that?’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’”
Groves admits he had no idea how he’d build the centerpiece, but Chrustawka had faith in his friend’s vision.
“He took that blueprint from the university, and he tore it in half,” Groves said, laughing softly. “And then we came to Texas and built the horse head.”
Groves started with a steel I-beam armature to support the horse’s neck and facial features.
The 30-foot structure contains approximately 8,000 antique bricks which Groves said were salvaged from a Chicago fire.
He and a team of laborers built the horse head in approximately 20, 12-hour days.
Groves said it’s no accident the horse head resembles a chess piece.
“Ernie’s company at that time was Check Mate Quarter horses,” Groves said.
The entire presentation is designed to resemble a chess board including pawns and a rook.
Groves later duplicated his creation at a Ponca City, Okla., apartment complex.
He said he never intended to stay in Texas but liked the temperate climate. In the early 1990s he and his wife Kathy settled on a rural Cooke County ranch where they turned a weathered 1950s-era barn into a 4,000 square foot dream home.
“It was just an empty barn ... it was falling apart,” Groves said. “When we moved in we had to put plastic tents up because the roof leaked so bad and then we built the house from the inside out.”
Like most things Groves builds, the house is stunning.
It has soaring ceilings, a kitchen trimmed in rough-hewn timber, a massive stone fireplace and a handcrafted wagon wheel chandelier.
Now retired, he leases land to local livestock producers and maintains a small herd of goats.
His pets are a Great Pyrenees named Bebé, and a Hampshire pig named Oreo.
Groves said he doesn’t mind the brutal Texas summers. Working in 100-plus temperatures beats the cruel Canadian winters, he said.
“My son is a journeyman bricklayer [in Canada], and he's working in 20 or 30 degree weather right now,” Groves said. “The heat here is nothing compared to that cold.”
His magnum opus may be the distinctive brick horse head that stands near I-35, although Groves said he built the structure with little more than intuition and hard-won experience.
“There was no plan,” he said. “We just built it as we went along.”
Text Only
Local News
Bricklayer John Groves, above, relaxes in the grass with his Great Pyrenees, Bebé, and Hampshire pig, Oreo. Groves built the brick horse head, below, at E.T. “Ernie” Chrustawka’s Par 3 Ranch near Interstate 35 in Gainesville. The horse head, completed in 1981, is the iconic centerpiece at the ranch entrance.
The Brick Artist
Cooke County resident John Groves learned his craft the hard way — brick by brick.
January 22, 20122 Photos
holly shit i think it worked, but no pics
before the ad came out in the paper i got a call from ohio, rodger said he was comeing to gainesville for a new job and was looking for a place to stay. couple days later rodger shows up at the farm to check out lyles cabin, as he was looking it over he told me how impressed he was with the way i had rebuilt this old rv into a pretty nice little cabin. he seemed so impressed with my building( which i thought was no big deal) i told him he should go bye and see my brick horsehead at the ranch. he did
it turned out the job rodger had come to fill in gainesville was the editor of the gainesville Daily Register, out local daily newspaper. couple days later he send a repeorter out to interview me and they put the story on the front page of the sunday paper . ill try to attachthe story here, if i can figure how:)
Related Photos
Bricklayer John Groves, above, relaxes in the grass with his Great Pyrenees, Bebé, and Hampshire pig, Oreo. Groves built the brick horse head, below, at E.T. “Ernie” Chrustawka’s Par 3 Ranch near Interstate 35 in Gainesville. The horse head, completed in 1981, is the iconic centerpiece at the ranch entrance. Staff photo by Delania Trigg
Brick Horse Staff photo by Jim Perry
Guest Book
Sign Our Guest Book
January 22, 2012
The Brick Artist
Designs just happened for bricklayer
By Delania Trigg, Register Staff Writer Gainesville Daily Register
Cooke County —
The unassuming artisan also built one of the county’s most recognizable landmarks — the 30-foot brick horse head at the Par 3 Ranch on Interstate 35.
Groves came to Cooke County from Canada in 1981 to complete the project for his friend and ranch owner E.T. “Ernie” Chrustawka.
“When he bought the ranch he said he wanted to build something that would attract attention from the highway,” Groves said.
When he became a bricklayer, Groves said he wasn’t planning to hone his skills for artistic endeavors.
“I wanted to be a bricklayer to make a living,” Groves said. “I’ve been laying bricks all my life. I taught myself. I never had an apprenticeship or anything. I just started doing it myself and I learned the hard way.”
He was living Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta when Chrustawka approached him about building an elaborate entry for his Par 3 Ranch in Texas.
“I was in Canada at the time and Ernie said he’d be back in Edmonton in a few weeks,” he said. Chrustawka asked his friend to come up with a design for the ranch.
“Ernie said, ‘I don’t know what I need but just think about something,’” Groves said. “A couple of days later I woke my wife up in the middle of the night and I said, ‘I know what I’m gonna do.”
Meanwhile, Chrustawka had ideas of his own.
“When Ernie came back to Edmonton, I met him at his place and he was all excited because he had this big plan — this big blue print he’d had drawn up at the university in Denton of this real fancy entryway and he said, ‘Look at this, John. Look what we can build.’ ”
“I looked at his plan and I said, ‘Well, that’s pretty nice ... I guess you wouldn’t be interested in my idea.’ and he said, ‘Well, what is it?’ ”
Groves pulled out his drawing of a horse head. He’d sketched it on the back of a business card.
“I showed him the plan and said, ‘We build this out of brick.’ It was the horse head. He looked at me and said, ‘Can you do that?’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’”
Groves admits he had no idea how he’d build the centerpiece, but Chrustawka had faith in his friend’s vision.
“He took that blueprint from the university, and he tore it in half,” Groves said, laughing softly. “And then we came to Texas and built the horse head.”
Groves started with a steel I-beam armature to support the horse’s neck and facial features.
The 30-foot structure contains approximately 8,000 antique bricks which Groves said were salvaged from a Chicago fire.
He and a team of laborers built the horse head in approximately 20, 12-hour days.
Groves said it’s no accident the horse head resembles a chess piece.
“Ernie’s company at that time was Check Mate Quarter horses,” Groves said.
The entire presentation is designed to resemble a chess board including pawns and a rook.
Groves later duplicated his creation at a Ponca City, Okla., apartment complex.
He said he never intended to stay in Texas but liked the temperate climate. In the early 1990s he and his wife Kathy settled on a rural Cooke County ranch where they turned a weathered 1950s-era barn into a 4,000 square foot dream home.
“It was just an empty barn ... it was falling apart,” Groves said. “When we moved in we had to put plastic tents up because the roof leaked so bad and then we built the house from the inside out.”
Like most things Groves builds, the house is stunning.
It has soaring ceilings, a kitchen trimmed in rough-hewn timber, a massive stone fireplace and a handcrafted wagon wheel chandelier.
Now retired, he leases land to local livestock producers and maintains a small herd of goats.
His pets are a Great Pyrenees named Bebé, and a Hampshire pig named Oreo.
Groves said he doesn’t mind the brutal Texas summers. Working in 100-plus temperatures beats the cruel Canadian winters, he said.
“My son is a journeyman bricklayer [in Canada], and he's working in 20 or 30 degree weather right now,” Groves said. “The heat here is nothing compared to that cold.”
His magnum opus may be the distinctive brick horse head that stands near I-35, although Groves said he built the structure with little more than intuition and hard-won experience.
“There was no plan,” he said. “We just built it as we went along.”
Text Only
Local News
Bricklayer John Groves, above, relaxes in the grass with his Great Pyrenees, Bebé, and Hampshire pig, Oreo. Groves built the brick horse head, below, at E.T. “Ernie” Chrustawka’s Par 3 Ranch near Interstate 35 in Gainesville. The horse head, completed in 1981, is the iconic centerpiece at the ranch entrance.
The Brick Artist
Cooke County resident John Groves learned his craft the hard way — brick by brick.
January 22, 20122 Photos
holly shit i think it worked, but no pics
im back
well is been awhile since ive been here, i guess most of a year.
here i am alone again on the farm.
spent 3 of the most peacefull, and exciting years of my life with bernie. sadly she is gone now , liveing with her family in east texas. shes been gone 6 0r 8 months now.
had a ggod ole gal for awhile after that , untill she got a little silly and wanted to fight more than love :) that ended after 6 months or so and now im back here on line doin my thing again. ole forest gump was right, life is like a box of cocolates ,, never know what you gonna get .
had a date friday , had a date saterday , got a date today , just wish i could figure out what in hell theses gals want. just aint no tellin.
had a date at a downtown bar , met for lunch , the lunch was so good i go back there most days to eat :) . no booze , just eat and then leave , sometimes meet people i know ,, nice to see them again.
sometimes see how i used to act when i was a drunk , lol , all seems pretty foolish now. man, i wasted a lot of my life in those bars, but i guess it wasnt really a waste , i enjoyed it back then. kind of funny i dont think about all the lonely hours i spent there by myself ... mostly just remember the good times.
meeting a rental custmer in a couple of hours , sounds like she wants to rent the last 2 pastures i have avalible . that will make a good start for my day
guess i didnt ell you bout the new rental cabin i build over the last few mobths. got tired of spending all my money on goats with not much return so i sold most of the goats and started spending the money on a new cabin , just finished it and got it rented out yesterday. thats another 700 bucks a month income :)
guess i didnt tell you i retired either, the econame kind of went to hell so it was either work for half price or quit. i quit , now makeing enough money off the farm and enjoying the hell out of retirement
ooooooooooooo and i had a day of fame ,,lol,,,,, remember that horsehead i built back in 81 :) the local newspaper did a front page story on it. wow , that was great , i little late for advertiseing, 32 years after the fact , but its never to late for a great ego trip . rodger, i thank you :)
here i am alone again on the farm.
spent 3 of the most peacefull, and exciting years of my life with bernie. sadly she is gone now , liveing with her family in east texas. shes been gone 6 0r 8 months now.
had a ggod ole gal for awhile after that , untill she got a little silly and wanted to fight more than love :) that ended after 6 months or so and now im back here on line doin my thing again. ole forest gump was right, life is like a box of cocolates ,, never know what you gonna get .
had a date friday , had a date saterday , got a date today , just wish i could figure out what in hell theses gals want. just aint no tellin.
had a date at a downtown bar , met for lunch , the lunch was so good i go back there most days to eat :) . no booze , just eat and then leave , sometimes meet people i know ,, nice to see them again.
sometimes see how i used to act when i was a drunk , lol , all seems pretty foolish now. man, i wasted a lot of my life in those bars, but i guess it wasnt really a waste , i enjoyed it back then. kind of funny i dont think about all the lonely hours i spent there by myself ... mostly just remember the good times.
meeting a rental custmer in a couple of hours , sounds like she wants to rent the last 2 pastures i have avalible . that will make a good start for my day
guess i didnt ell you bout the new rental cabin i build over the last few mobths. got tired of spending all my money on goats with not much return so i sold most of the goats and started spending the money on a new cabin , just finished it and got it rented out yesterday. thats another 700 bucks a month income :)
guess i didnt tell you i retired either, the econame kind of went to hell so it was either work for half price or quit. i quit , now makeing enough money off the farm and enjoying the hell out of retirement
ooooooooooooo and i had a day of fame ,,lol,,,,, remember that horsehead i built back in 81 :) the local newspaper did a front page story on it. wow , that was great , i little late for advertiseing, 32 years after the fact , but its never to late for a great ego trip . rodger, i thank you :)
Monday, April 4, 2011
Lost car to the indians
Summer of 1967. I was liveing in a boarding house, the landlady was a kinda tuff ole gal, and I called her Tuffy.
Wayne Hawks, Tonys brother, also lived there. In those days we spent a lot of time chaseing girls out on the Stonyplain indian reserve
I was going with Funny at the time so I wasnt with Wayne when he went out that night to check out the girls at the reserve but he managed to get himself in enough trouble with out me.
He was driveing down one of the dirt roads on the reserve when he came to a big mudhole. He just pushed the peddle to the floor and figured he would go right thro the mudhole. Wrong, there he sat in the mud, no way out .
he had a really nice car, it was an older car but in real good shape, and he kept it polished all the time.
He was by himself and just had to leave the car there and figured he come back the next day and figure a way to get it out. We didnt have money for tow trucks in those days. He had to walk a few miles but finaly got a ride and came home.
The next morning I took him back to get his car. We figured the two of us could figure some way to get it out or get somebody to pull it out.
I was surprised that Wanye knew right where it was, as there were so many dirt roads out there. We came around a bend in the road and i heard Wayne gasp as we saw his car. He figured nobody would steel it cause they couldnt get it out of the mud,and he was right, they didnt steel it, it was sitting there in the middle of the mudhole, completely dimolished.
I guess a bunch of indians came buy and didnt like us out there chaseing their women. All the tires were slashed, all the glass and lights were busted, All the finders caved in, mud all over the roof and hood where they had jumped up and down caveing in the whole car, The inside was slashed and cut to hell.
WE didnt even go out in the mud to look at it, we just left it and got out of there. Wayne never did try to retrive the car, just left it and never heard or seen anymore about it.
Wayne Hawks, Tonys brother, also lived there. In those days we spent a lot of time chaseing girls out on the Stonyplain indian reserve
I was going with Funny at the time so I wasnt with Wayne when he went out that night to check out the girls at the reserve but he managed to get himself in enough trouble with out me.
He was driveing down one of the dirt roads on the reserve when he came to a big mudhole. He just pushed the peddle to the floor and figured he would go right thro the mudhole. Wrong, there he sat in the mud, no way out .
he had a really nice car, it was an older car but in real good shape, and he kept it polished all the time.
He was by himself and just had to leave the car there and figured he come back the next day and figure a way to get it out. We didnt have money for tow trucks in those days. He had to walk a few miles but finaly got a ride and came home.
The next morning I took him back to get his car. We figured the two of us could figure some way to get it out or get somebody to pull it out.
I was surprised that Wanye knew right where it was, as there were so many dirt roads out there. We came around a bend in the road and i heard Wayne gasp as we saw his car. He figured nobody would steel it cause they couldnt get it out of the mud,and he was right, they didnt steel it, it was sitting there in the middle of the mudhole, completely dimolished.
I guess a bunch of indians came buy and didnt like us out there chaseing their women. All the tires were slashed, all the glass and lights were busted, All the finders caved in, mud all over the roof and hood where they had jumped up and down caveing in the whole car, The inside was slashed and cut to hell.
WE didnt even go out in the mud to look at it, we just left it and got out of there. Wayne never did try to retrive the car, just left it and never heard or seen anymore about it.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
My first lady of Texas :)
Must have been 1984. I had gotten divorced and come to Texas to live with God at Parr Three Ranch, where stands my brick horsehead.
I was sitting at a bar in Lindsy, The City Lights, Id had a few beers and there were 2 ladys also sitting at the bar. They also had a few beers and the talk was pretty lose. We talked back and forth for awhile and of course sex was the toppic. I forget what exactly led up to it but suddenly one of the ladys said "Im a chickasaw" the other lady said "Im a chuckasaw". Turned out they were half sisters, had the same mother and diferent fathers.
Well we talked for awhile more, then one said" I dont think you can handel a chickasaw" and the other said "I dont think you can handel a chukisaw"
And my reply was "Well, I dont know much about chickasaws or chuckasaws, but i bet I could handel a couple of fuckin indians" There was dead silence at the bar for about 2 seconds, seemed like forever, Then I started to laugh and everybody laughed with me. Even the two indians. I think that was the second longest 2 seconds in my life, the first longest is a different story. :)
Anyway we got past that and then the party was on. At quitin time I was hooked up with one of them, dont remember if it was the chick or the chuck asaw, but she was in my truck and I was takeing her home to Marryette Oklhoma. I had a bottle of Vodka in the truck and she was drinking it like it was milk, 2 or 3 swallows at a time.
We got to her house and of course into her bed. We did the nasty for awhile and then right in the middle of it she passed clean out. There I was humpin away and she just passed out, I mean all the way out, I even slapped her a couple of times, but nothing, looked like she was dead, I even check to see if she was still breathing, and she was. well then i just rolled off and went to sleep.
I woke up at daylight, finished the nasty and then she got up and went to the bathroom. When she closed the bathroom door I noticed there was a bedroom window that was open. I grabed my pants and dove headfirst out that window, running across the yard pullin my pants up, I reached in my pocket and, No keys . THere was a 6 foot fence and as I was scambleing over it I was hopeing against hope that the keys were in the truck.
They were, I jumped in the truck and gravel was flyin and I was headed for Texas
It was gods ole black pickup, had some kind of big engin in it and went like hell, I laughed and waved at every truck I passed all the way back to the ranch. Proberly still a little drunk and happy as hell. I guess i broke my own rule about drinkin and drivein that time. Stupid, I dont know how a got away with that the few times that I did it.
That was my first lady in Texas, saw her ounce after that and she tryed to get my attention but i acted like i didnt know her , so then she was pissed off and hated me after that
I was sitting at a bar in Lindsy, The City Lights, Id had a few beers and there were 2 ladys also sitting at the bar. They also had a few beers and the talk was pretty lose. We talked back and forth for awhile and of course sex was the toppic. I forget what exactly led up to it but suddenly one of the ladys said "Im a chickasaw" the other lady said "Im a chuckasaw". Turned out they were half sisters, had the same mother and diferent fathers.
Well we talked for awhile more, then one said" I dont think you can handel a chickasaw" and the other said "I dont think you can handel a chukisaw"
And my reply was "Well, I dont know much about chickasaws or chuckasaws, but i bet I could handel a couple of fuckin indians" There was dead silence at the bar for about 2 seconds, seemed like forever, Then I started to laugh and everybody laughed with me. Even the two indians. I think that was the second longest 2 seconds in my life, the first longest is a different story. :)
Anyway we got past that and then the party was on. At quitin time I was hooked up with one of them, dont remember if it was the chick or the chuck asaw, but she was in my truck and I was takeing her home to Marryette Oklhoma. I had a bottle of Vodka in the truck and she was drinking it like it was milk, 2 or 3 swallows at a time.
We got to her house and of course into her bed. We did the nasty for awhile and then right in the middle of it she passed clean out. There I was humpin away and she just passed out, I mean all the way out, I even slapped her a couple of times, but nothing, looked like she was dead, I even check to see if she was still breathing, and she was. well then i just rolled off and went to sleep.
I woke up at daylight, finished the nasty and then she got up and went to the bathroom. When she closed the bathroom door I noticed there was a bedroom window that was open. I grabed my pants and dove headfirst out that window, running across the yard pullin my pants up, I reached in my pocket and, No keys . THere was a 6 foot fence and as I was scambleing over it I was hopeing against hope that the keys were in the truck.
They were, I jumped in the truck and gravel was flyin and I was headed for Texas
It was gods ole black pickup, had some kind of big engin in it and went like hell, I laughed and waved at every truck I passed all the way back to the ranch. Proberly still a little drunk and happy as hell. I guess i broke my own rule about drinkin and drivein that time. Stupid, I dont know how a got away with that the few times that I did it.
That was my first lady in Texas, saw her ounce after that and she tryed to get my attention but i acted like i didnt know her , so then she was pissed off and hated me after that
Friday, April 1, 2011
My first finance
The winter of 1966 I worked for United Exploreation, as a drillers helper on a sismic drilling crew in the oil fields of The Nortwest Teritorries.
I was in a bushcamp for three months, getting paid $1.35 an hour, working lots of hours and no place to spend the money.
I was going to be 21 in the spring and i was planing to buy a brandnew car because ii would be of age to get financeing. lol, little did i know.
I got out of camp at the end of may and didnt turn 21 until the 18th of april. I had a pocket full of cash when i got out of camp but by the time my birthday came around i was close to broke. :)
ON my birthday I prodly walked into a car lot and anouced that I wanted that new blue chevy out front. Nobody laughed out load but Im sure there were chucles behind my back. :) Even I, laugh now when i think about it.
It didnt take the salesman long to put me strait about buying cars, and soon sold me a 59 chevy for $200.oo down and financed $300.00.
Im sure the car was only worth $200.00 to start with but I was happy to have a car and proud to owe the finance company money. lol It was a sart to good credit, it only took me till i was in my 60s to get good credit at the bank. :)
If anybody is reading this and knows how iI can get spellcheck working please let me know. anybody like my daughter :) love u jenn
I was in a bushcamp for three months, getting paid $1.35 an hour, working lots of hours and no place to spend the money.
I was going to be 21 in the spring and i was planing to buy a brandnew car because ii would be of age to get financeing. lol, little did i know.
I got out of camp at the end of may and didnt turn 21 until the 18th of april. I had a pocket full of cash when i got out of camp but by the time my birthday came around i was close to broke. :)
ON my birthday I prodly walked into a car lot and anouced that I wanted that new blue chevy out front. Nobody laughed out load but Im sure there were chucles behind my back. :) Even I, laugh now when i think about it.
It didnt take the salesman long to put me strait about buying cars, and soon sold me a 59 chevy for $200.oo down and financed $300.00.
Im sure the car was only worth $200.00 to start with but I was happy to have a car and proud to owe the finance company money. lol It was a sart to good credit, it only took me till i was in my 60s to get good credit at the bank. :)
If anybody is reading this and knows how iI can get spellcheck working please let me know. anybody like my daughter :) love u jenn
Funny saved me from jail
1967. Not long after i had met my first wife ,Lavern Louise Anderson ,aka Funny :), I got in some trouble with the law.
MY buddies, Willy, Tony and I were driveing around drinking beer in my car. I did a lot of stupid things in those days, espesialy while drinking beer. I dont remember how it all started but we were heading home down a dusty gravel road when I started doing spinouts at every intersection. I stepped on the gas and the tires would spin in the gravel and the car would spin all the way around in a cloud of dust, then to the next intersection and do the same thing. After I did that 3 times when the car came to a stop I could just barely see the red lights of a copcar behind us. I stepped on the gas and kept it to the floor, came to the next intersection . which was home, tried to make the turn, spun out again and went through the landlords picket fence, through her yard and gardens, through the back picket fence, and back onto the street. There was so much dust I couldnt even see where in hell I was going. Back on the street I made a couple more turns and spun out again and this time the car stalled. because of all the dust we couldnt see the cops and they couldnt see us. I yelled"get out and run, Ill say the car was stolen"
WE bailed out of the car and each one of us ran in a different direction.
I was running full tilt down a back alley when "BANG" I ran smackdab into the front end of a copcar. They were comeing down the ally looking for us with their lights out :)
They hooked me up in handcuffs and off i went to jail. I latter found out that Tony dived into a rubarb patch and laid there as the search lights went over him and latter walked home. I dont remmber where Willy went but he did not get caught.
I was charged with dangerous driveing, and littering the streets with glass as we had thrown a chase of beer out the window when the cops were right behind us. The cops said they saw the beer come out the pasenger window so if i told them who the passenger was they would charge him with littering instead of me.
Tony and willy were both younger than me and I was 21 so i figured if I squealed I would get charged with contributeing to juviniles so I just said the pasengers were hhitchhikers and i didnt know them. They never presured me so it worked.
I went to court and was sentenced to a $300 fine or 4 months in jail. I didnt have any money so just figured I would have to do the time.
I called Funny, more to let her know what happened, cuz I knew dam well she didnt have any money. She said she would try to do something and even tho I was pretty sure she wouldnt be able to come up with the money, there was a thred of hope and i hung onto it for dear life.
I hoped against hope somebody would come and tell me my fine had been paid. Every time a guard came into the holding sell i would look into his eyes and hope he was comeing for me. It would soon be timed to be shipped off to Fort Saskatuwan Jail if nobody showed up with the money.
Finally they called my name to load on the paty wagon for transport. At this point I lost all hope. I knew there was no way out. I was cuffed to the other prisoners and loaded on the patty wagon. Fort saskatuwan was about 50 miles away and I knew nobody would be comeing for me there. WE arived at the jail,was in the holding tank for about 20 minutes when somebody called my name, "Groves, your fine has been paid"
I had been working for a drywall company at the time and i guess I was pretty good at my job. MY boss had come to bail me out in Edmonton, but had gotten to the Edmonton jail just after the patty wagon had left for Fort Saskatuwan. He told me he had already come that far so he just followed the patty wagon to the fort jail and picked me up there. I hadnt thought of him as i hadnt worked for him very long and didnt figure he would do it.
But, FUNNY had called him, He said she sure must have loved me cuz she was crying and so upset that I was in jail. He latter told me if it wasnt for her he never would have paid the fine.
Sadly I just worked for him long after that enough to get the money paid back and then quit and went on to some other job. Like most things I did in my life I never did get real good at it and i think he was ready to fire my ass anyway.
p.s. I also lost my drivers lience for 6 months. :(
MY buddies, Willy, Tony and I were driveing around drinking beer in my car. I did a lot of stupid things in those days, espesialy while drinking beer. I dont remember how it all started but we were heading home down a dusty gravel road when I started doing spinouts at every intersection. I stepped on the gas and the tires would spin in the gravel and the car would spin all the way around in a cloud of dust, then to the next intersection and do the same thing. After I did that 3 times when the car came to a stop I could just barely see the red lights of a copcar behind us. I stepped on the gas and kept it to the floor, came to the next intersection . which was home, tried to make the turn, spun out again and went through the landlords picket fence, through her yard and gardens, through the back picket fence, and back onto the street. There was so much dust I couldnt even see where in hell I was going. Back on the street I made a couple more turns and spun out again and this time the car stalled. because of all the dust we couldnt see the cops and they couldnt see us. I yelled"get out and run, Ill say the car was stolen"
WE bailed out of the car and each one of us ran in a different direction.
I was running full tilt down a back alley when "BANG" I ran smackdab into the front end of a copcar. They were comeing down the ally looking for us with their lights out :)
They hooked me up in handcuffs and off i went to jail. I latter found out that Tony dived into a rubarb patch and laid there as the search lights went over him and latter walked home. I dont remmber where Willy went but he did not get caught.
I was charged with dangerous driveing, and littering the streets with glass as we had thrown a chase of beer out the window when the cops were right behind us. The cops said they saw the beer come out the pasenger window so if i told them who the passenger was they would charge him with littering instead of me.
Tony and willy were both younger than me and I was 21 so i figured if I squealed I would get charged with contributeing to juviniles so I just said the pasengers were hhitchhikers and i didnt know them. They never presured me so it worked.
I went to court and was sentenced to a $300 fine or 4 months in jail. I didnt have any money so just figured I would have to do the time.
I called Funny, more to let her know what happened, cuz I knew dam well she didnt have any money. She said she would try to do something and even tho I was pretty sure she wouldnt be able to come up with the money, there was a thred of hope and i hung onto it for dear life.
I hoped against hope somebody would come and tell me my fine had been paid. Every time a guard came into the holding sell i would look into his eyes and hope he was comeing for me. It would soon be timed to be shipped off to Fort Saskatuwan Jail if nobody showed up with the money.
Finally they called my name to load on the paty wagon for transport. At this point I lost all hope. I knew there was no way out. I was cuffed to the other prisoners and loaded on the patty wagon. Fort saskatuwan was about 50 miles away and I knew nobody would be comeing for me there. WE arived at the jail,was in the holding tank for about 20 minutes when somebody called my name, "Groves, your fine has been paid"
I had been working for a drywall company at the time and i guess I was pretty good at my job. MY boss had come to bail me out in Edmonton, but had gotten to the Edmonton jail just after the patty wagon had left for Fort Saskatuwan. He told me he had already come that far so he just followed the patty wagon to the fort jail and picked me up there. I hadnt thought of him as i hadnt worked for him very long and didnt figure he would do it.
But, FUNNY had called him, He said she sure must have loved me cuz she was crying and so upset that I was in jail. He latter told me if it wasnt for her he never would have paid the fine.
Sadly I just worked for him long after that enough to get the money paid back and then quit and went on to some other job. Like most things I did in my life I never did get real good at it and i think he was ready to fire my ass anyway.
p.s. I also lost my drivers lience for 6 months. :(
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