There are a number of my high school friends who live in Dallas. Two of them, Martin Bowers and Erben Schuldt, join me for lunch from time to time to talk about what it was like to grow up in Galveston, and to discuss our Ball High School friends.
Martin and his brother, Ralph, were excellent students. Martin is a mechanical engineer with an MBA. Ralph is a civil engineer who had an appointment to one of the military academies, but washed out when his entrance medical found he had an astigmatism.
Martin and Ralph's daddy. A.A. Bowers, was a general contractor in Galveston. I had a nice home that I had bought from an estate for a rent house. The neighborhood was so good that I asked Mr. Bowers if he'd add a garage apartment on top of the garage.
Ralph drew an exceptional set of plans. By adding a carport and small storage room to the existing garage, he was able to increase the size of the apartment to about 700 square feet. The result was a two bedroom, one bath garage apartment with plenty of closets, a swell kitchen and a big living-dining room.
One day after they had pealed the roof off of the garage, and framed the addition, Mr. Bowers came to see me. "I don't like the way that framing crew framed the apartment. I'm going to make them tear it down and do it over," he said. "I just wanted you to know what was going on in case you drove by and saw that it had been taken down."
While I never quite got to the bottom of why Mr. Bowers chose to completely tear the unit down rather than correct what he found as errors, nevertheless, A.A. Bowers was like that.
When he built or remodeled anything, it was always as close to perfect as humanly possible. He and his crews did a lot of work for me over the years. I don't recall ever calling them back to correct a mistake.
It's the small town work ethic of citizens like A.A. Bowers that I miss now that we live in Dallas. One more thing. Patty's maiden name was Bowers. They're no kin.
BILL CHERRY, REALTORS
DALLAS - HIGHLAND PARK
Our 45th Year
214 503-8563
The best post I have ever seen on AR. Three generations of my family owned a Mack Truck dealership for 65 years in a small town. We had many customers like your Mr. Bowers. Our biggest customer did every bit of the business he did with us on a hand shake. These were not small deals, (1 to 5 million dollars) all done on a hand shake with no sales order. Those days are gone for ever, I am sorry to say.
Hey, Tom!
I wish you'd write that story as an AR post. It would be good if youngsters were to have it pounded into their heads that business can actually operate this way.
Thanks for contributing.