Lloyd worked as a wrecker driver for Paul Lezina, who was a faithful Holmes tower in New Orleans. In fact, Paul was the one who finally convinced the City of New Orleans to purchase a handful of Holmes wreckers to quickly clear double parked cars [...]

Jimmy and his wife Mary came from the sand hills of Monahans, Texas, where he was a “non-permitted” tower. But they both rose to the level of national prominence by who they were and what they did. Mary was very active as the semi-permanent treasurer [...]

As previously reported, long before the Dover acquisition, the Ernest Holmes Company tiptoed around the idea of promoting a “first responder” status for T & R. Bill Jackson sold us on air bags not only for uprighting a heavy trailer but also for shoring an [...]

Before hydraulic wreckers the wrecker crane assembly on HD Holmes mechanical wreckers mounted directly to the truck frame as did the body, if there was one. However, most hydraulic designs now include a continuous sub frame that sits directly on top of the truck frame [...]

I introduced readers to aviation on Valentine’s Day and later told you about flying commercial airliners upside down just like Captain Whittaker. Well, to round this all out, the following is a story about how I came to be called “Cap-m’ Jack” by family and [...]

Heavy-duty wreckers can be called on to do much more than just recovery and towing, and the difference between total and partial performance can often be measured by the extent of upfitting. For example, a hydraulic-driven electric generator can make a big difference at the [...]

In the beginning, John Hawkins (aka the “Hawk”) told me of a theory that a single person could encircle the world through “seven circles of friends.” So the first sponsors of Friends of Towing (FOT) came from seven countries around the world, which were America, [...]

More about how T & R varies from one country to another. Our daughter is the smart one of the family and we suspect an accidental switch in the maternity ward following her birth. Anyway, she won a Fulbright Scholarship and studied in Germany and [...]

In a couple of weeks several of us are carpooling to West Texas for the annual Cowboy Poets Convention. One of the stars is the son of a couple who are making the trip with us, so the occasion is special to us all. We [...]

My dad had a complete set of tools that I inherited when he passed. And I have another set that I used to build a hot rod or two back in the late 40s and early 50s. So, given the fact that I can’t throw [...]