What's in that cup?

This morning I looked at my coffee cup, my mind was flooded with memories.  Funny how one thing can key so many thoughts. Awhile back I was grieving for my Dodge City cup. I was advised to keep it, so I did.

It now hangs to the left of the range along with Mt. Rushmore. But the cup that brought back the memories I found in our 'STUFF' last summer. Cups I had made for my customers.

These are the ones used now, we both use the 'Darnell's Construction Co' cups.

At one time we collected cups at every stop, until we had boxes of them. We still carry about 15 cups, we never have that many coffee drinkers.
Each of you could write a book about the incidences on your jobs. The same with construction. Just yesterday Sherry and I were talking about the first small house I built. I bought a small very cheap lot, not telling Sherry. Grandson Corey and I were over cleaning the lot that had a small shack on it, he found a small gold colored bell.  I told him this house was our secret, he could not tell anyone.  That night Sherry asked him where he got the bell, he said, "It's a secret, I cannot tell anyone." And he didn't tell her, no matter how much she cajoled him. Corey was an amazing little kid.
Of course Sherry learned of the little house and was very happy. I knew I would easily get my money back so I went to a friend and borrowed $20K on a hand shake.  I kept my hours on the house and an accurate cost of materials.  When the house was finished, to figure the asking price I paid myself $10 an hour, plus gas and expenses. I sold the house for $32,000, to a sweet widow lady. I had completely built the house by myself. I now had over $10k as a nest egg.

After the closing, the lady asked me what was wrong with the house. I was shocked at the question. She explained it was so cheap, there must be something wrong. I smiled real big and said lady, I made $10 an hour on this house, it is solid as a rock.

As a builder, I preferred speculative building. Build the house I liked and sell it. There was an agreement after I decided to make it a life's work. WE owed $20k on a house worth $50K. Sherry hated that debt and make extra payments from her job to try to pay it off.  She asked one day on our walks, "Can you build us a house and get us out of debt? I jumped on that and said, "SURE!"
  Sherry agreed with one stipulation, "Honey don't ever go in debt more than we can pay."   "No problem," says I.
I am smiling now at how naive I was. Unless you are rich, NO ONE can build a house without some debt!  But I did not tell her of my 'education' until later and we were on solid footing.

Nite Shipslog
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1925 Ford Torpedo

1929 Studebaker