We convened down at the Rig #8 this past Friday for our weekly alcohol-fueled sojourn down memory lane. This time the subject came up concerning some of the more wealthy members of our little oil patch fraternity and how they got that way. There were the usual yarns about old so-and-so and how he drilled […]
Oil Patch Tales: The Doodlebugger
By Bobby Weaver I was late getting down to the Rig #8 last Thursday but as soon I got there and my eyes adjusted to the dim interior I spotted all the regulars gathered at a corner table in what appeared to be a somewhat somber mood. I got my usual long neck and joined […]
Man of Few Words
A while back as I was hanging out at my favorite combination oil-patch-educational-institution-and-drinking-emporium, otherwise known as the Rig #8, when I met this fount of information in the person of an old-time cable tool man. As the evening wore on, the subject of the nature of those old time cable tool drillers came up. He […]
Oilfield Trash: A Personal Reminiscence
by Bobby Weaver During the 1950s and ’60s I was a part of the hard working, hard drinking group of oilfield of hands in the Permian Basin who were generally referred to as “oilfield trash” by outsiders. In those days Odessa had the reputation as the rough and ready working man’s town while Midland, only […]
Law of Gravity
A while back I was down at my favorite watering hole, The Rig # 8, where I gather some of the best material for my column. That particular day a couple of old roughnecks were down at the end of the bar bragging about how smart their drillers were. They were safely snugged down behind […]
Oil Patch Tales: Bait and Switch
by Bobby Weaver Some people, usually of the male gender, just plain like to fight. That is especially true of oil field hands. Now myself, I never was much of a hand at fisticuffs. For one thing I was a tad small for the activity and besides my threshold for pain was always […]
Company Town
There are stories aplenty of “company towns” built by oil companies in oil’s early 20th century heyday, but no company town fit the mold better than a Basin town, Texon, that endured for generations. by Bobby Weaver Back in 1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford had a hit song entitled “Sixteen Tons” concerning the travails of a […]
Nitro
by Bobby D. Weaver The oil patch abounds in unforgettable characters. In bygone days the well shooter ranked high on that list and, for all I know, he might still be right up there. It takes an unusual personality to work with nitroglycerine on a daily basis. The steely nerves of those nitro handlers are […]
Surface Rights…or, How to Succeed in the Cow Business Without Any Cattle
by Bobby D. Weaver Surface rights are a part of the legal definition of land ownership. In an area where oil is discovered, the oil company leases the mineral rights to the subsurface in order to drill for and produce oil and gas. The surface rights remain with the landowner with the proviso that the […]
The Oil Well Promoter
by Bobby D. Weaver There have always been sharp operators in the oil patch, especially in the early days. There are some who say that they are alive and well in today’s world. But few of them were the match of Henry. Along about the end of World War I, Henry was operating out of […]