Getting Work

Before I made the move to Texas I tried to do a bit of work in Seminole with Lum. He saw I was trying to find work instead of going to school, and gave me a shot at it. I went on five jobs with him, all in Kansas working for the Laughlin Brothers with Lum as the driller (Franks, 75). I did a little of everything during those jobs. There are usually four roughnecks on a well, but when i was young and just starting out, Lum had me on as the fifth one just so I could learn.


"One roughneck's the derrick man; he stands up on the platform about halfway up in the derrick, and when they need another joint of drill pipe, he pushes one out from the stack of it leaning up against the inside of the derrick and hooks the elevators on to let it down the hold. He gets four bits a day extra for his job. Another one is floor man, and he helps the driller on the well floor. Then there's the oiler, and he's got to oil up the Kelly or rotary table that twirls the drill pipe to drill with and the pumps and anything else that needs oiling. The fourth one tends to the drilling mud and keeps it at the right thickness, and when they're changing bits or some big job like that, all four of 'em pitch in and help (Franks, 74). "


All this I knew coming into Texas. I knew I'd have to be patient, because there's only about one way a roughneck can get a job, and that's if you know a driller willing to hire him. You see, a driller usually gets to pick his own roughnecks. They don't want any boys working on the drills, they're gonna pick the biggest and strongest men.


When it comes to appearances I may not look like the best one for the job. Sure I'm tall enough, but I was too skinny didn't have enough muscle to make a good hand yet. I just figure if I get a shot to prove myself, I can start making some money. Roughnecks and drillers follow the boom towns. When the oil strikes everyone moves, it's why I came to Texas in the first place. "The migrations to the oil fields were large and rapid. Sour Lake, hardly a village when oil was discovered there in 1903, had in a few months a population of ten thousand (Boatright, 60)."


Everyday I started hitting up the contractors early in the spring. I would get up early that morning and not come back til late that night. I just wasn't getting a job though. I had to live off the little bit of money i  saved with me, but it was running low. As a last resort  I met up with a contractor who knew Lum, after i spent the last of my money on a long distance phone call so Lum could give me a recommendation, I got a job with the second biggest oil company going. It must have been a pretty good recommendation too, he put me on the next job coming up on the day tour (Franks, 75).


"If you never worked around an oil field, you don't know what that means; the day tour is the tour (pronounced "tower") to work on, and most contractors won't put a man on that shift unless he's had plenty of experience and unless he's their best man (Franks, 75)."

                                                    Rig in the Goodrich field (1941)