That's a great story.


...and I don't know what meals at Sbisa cost in the late 80's when I was there, but I know they weren't worth much more than 25 cents.

fossil
Wonderful description of tank seining. I have been in on a few of those, though not at midnight. It is one of those things that sounds like a lot more fun than it actually is!
Also noticed in your last cotton post you used the phrase "fair to middling". The origin of that could be another topic for you. I would do it, but I am not nearly as eloquent or interesting a writer as you.

Hi Fossil

I'm home visiting the folks and Dad brought in his 1948 Longhorn to show me the tuition costs listed in the back of it. (He wanted me to post that above. I wish he'd learn to use the computer He He!, then he could talk to y'all.)
According to the 1948 Longhorn:

"Necessary expenses, including board, room, laundry, and fees, approximately $550.00 per session.
Additional expense for unifor, about $50.00"

Hi Goose!

FisherCoAg ...

"Fair to Middling" is a term used in cotton grading. It is funny to me that the term jumped from the cotton patch to common usage everywhere and 99% of the users have no idea of its origin ... and most times it is not used correctly to convey the intended message.

I mentioned above that a sample is taken from each bale of cotton ginned and that sample with identifying tag is sent (usually) to a Cotton Exchange for grading. In preparation for grading the sample will be wrapped separately in blue paper and laid out open on a grading table for 24 hours to assure it is down to 2-4% moisture before grading begins.

When the grader gets to that sample, the first thing measured is staple length and fiber strength (staple and "mike" that are keys to spinning quality.) These tests will reveal things like weak, immature, and damaged fibers caused by unfavorable growing conditions such as drought, rainy weather and freeze damage. (The farmer is usually aware of these factors and is not surprised if a low grade is reported for staple and mike.) The next part of grading is done by hand and eye ... and is not completely judgmental because standard samples of each grade are available for comparison by the grader.

This part of grading is for color, luster and cleanliness of the sample ... and these grades are given in adjective form. Now don't get upset that the grading adjectives used in cotton grading are not in line with the descriptive and superlative adjectives we use in daily practice. The cotton grading terms used today probably originated at the Liverpool Cotton Exchange in England 300 or so years ago. They are fairly standard in cotton markets throughout the world.

There are 13 grades in use today in the US. Think of these as 3 basic grades and 10 intermediate grades (until about 1975 there were about 20 intermediate grades.)

The top grade is FAIR (this means Excellent.) This grade is characterized by very bright white, clean cotton.

The middle grade is MIDDLING (this means Average) This grade is the universal standard for fleecy cotton, very nearly white in color and containing only a small amount of foreign matter.

The bottom grade is ORDINARY. (this is best described as rotten cotton.)

The intermediate grades are identified using terms like Strict, Low and Good. So the heirarchy of grades using the initials from top to bottom would be: F, SMF MF, SGM, GM, SM, M, SLM, LM, SGO, GO, SO, O. Now these grades do not mean much to you or me but they do to the farmer who receives the price for his cotton based on that grade. And they mean a lot to the cotton buyer for a mill that has an order for several tons of cotton to fill an order from Van Heusen for a certain quality broadcloth for shirts.

So back to "fair to middling." Since Fair is in today's terms Excellent and Middling today would be Average ... then Fair to Middling equates to the midpoint between Average and Excellent (Strict Good Middling.) ... and that is a very good grade, well above average.

And 99% percent of the people when asked how their day is going who answer "fair to middling" think it just means Average. Now you know.

Edit: For the West Texas connection ... I doubt any cotton sample from West Texas ever graded above Middling because of dirt and trash inherant in the harvesting method, i.e., stripping not picking.



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/20/2006 1:31p).]

Terry L ...

I think of a "session" as a semester and that has me a bit confused. The price list you quote for a session to me equates to the cost for a year, i.e., fall and spring semester.

I just know that prior to registration each semester I went to see Mr. E. E. McQuillen '20 who gave me a check for $200 and that covered everything except meals. I received 25 cents for each meal worked as a Fish Waiter in Sbisa so that would probably equate to $100 which would be $300 total cost per semester. (Dadgum, that was hard work for 25 cents!)

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/20/2006 12:43p).]

(per Dad)

Cap Newman

Newman High School in Sweetwater sits on the site of the Newmans horse racetrack. The school was named for Cap Newman. They raised and trained racehorses on the ranch. Panzarita (sp?) was one of the greatest racehorses was bred on the ranch. She died after a race at the New Orleans racetrack. She is buried in New Orleans and there is a monument to her there.
When Dad was at Ft. Campbell he went to Calumet Farms to visit and met the General Manager there. When the General Manager at the farms found out he was from Sweetwater he asked Dad about Cap Newman. The Gen. Manager at Calumet Farms told Dad that he felt that Panzarita was the greatest racehorse of all times.

Okay questions: All questions below pertain to Sweetwater.

Who was the all around world's champion cowboy?

Who was the light weight boxing champion of the world?

Who were the two pro football players that made the all time pro football team?

Who was the champion racehorse?

Okay Go!

quote:

---

Question?

Does anyone know how much it cost to attend A&M for a session (semester) in 1947?

---

I know there have been some figures thrown around for the year mentioned. For comparison, my fall fish semester, '73 fees w/ 7 day meal plan, laundry and 15 hours was like $838. My total student loan when I graduated was all of 4600. Kinda glad I don't have to pay for any kids of my own now...

edit for one noticed typo....

[This message has been edited by EMc77 (edited 5/20/2006 7:30p).]

Terry L. ...

Run these names by your Dad:

World Champ Cowboy - Louis Brooks 43 & 44

World Champ Boxer - Lew(Sweetwater Slinger)Jenkins 40-41

All World Football - Sammy Baugh and Bulldog Turner

Cap Newman's Racehorse - Pan Zarata 1910(Queen of the Turf)


Edit: And I bet Cap Newman or his heirs never missed those five bass we collected from his tank.

And Terry, ask your Dad if he knew Sam Lambert from the Sweetwater area. He was a unique individual, a long time friend of my family and all things considered the best working cowboy I ever knew.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/20/2006 8:26p).]

Hi Fossil Ag

Dad's laughing. Said he knew you'd get them all right. I told him he'd not get to much past you.

He said he remembers Sam Lambert but didn't really know alot about him but thinks he might have been of the Baxter Lambert family.

To change subject abit, Dad wanted to mention Marion Flanagan from Sweetwater. He played on the "kiddie corp" team at A&M. He might have been one of the best atheltes of the bunch.

Hey Goose!

[This message has been edited by TERRY L (edited 5/20/2006 10:13p).]

Terry L. .....

Here is a Cap Newman story your Dad will appreciate.

In about 1918 Cap Newman and his cowboys had driven a herd of cattle to the shipping pens at the Sylvester rail siding. My Dad who was about 10 at the time was sitting on the top rail of the corral with a bunch of other kids watching the commotion. Apparently Cap thought the kids were spooking his cattle from entering the corral and he rode down the line swinging a doubled lariat popping any kid not nimble enough to get off the fence fast enough. I don't know if my Dad was one of the kids popped but 30 someodd years later he still had no love for Cap Newman. Holding a grudge was typical of West Texans.

Edit: I followed Marion Flanagan in high school by newspaper and family and friends in Sweetwater. He was the closest to a superstar we had encountered in that part of the country so accounts of his exploits in each game were followed as close as possible given the times and technology. I lost track of him after high school and honestly did not know he went to A&M until I searched him out on the internet not long ago when we were talking about other football greats.

I wish all larger towns that have websites would add a section to give biographies of earlier residents who excelled in various activities and industries. The best part of our history is being lost as the clock ticks ... Youngsters today need to know that they can accomplish great things in life because someone else from their own home town did it in earlier years.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/20/2006 10:57p).]

Amen to your last statement Fossil Ag. Even our small Mississippi Delta town has had a wealth of atheletes but you wonder if the kids, many underprivileged and fatherless, are even aware of them. They definately could serve as role models possibly inspiring them to reach higher and excel.

Dad wants to know if you've run across Kenneth Timmons and James (Jimmy) Stribling at the C.S. Aggie club. They're friends of his.

Terry L. ...

I do not know Stribling. I will get back to you later on Kenneth D. Timmons '50 (if that is the correct person.)

Terry L. ...

I will let you handle this with your Dad in the manner you think appropriate. The Kenneth D.(KD) Timmons that I knew locally passed away a couple of weeks ago. He had a petroleum products distributorship in Bryan. He was a fine person in every respect. I do not know if this is the same person who was your Dad's friend but if so please extend my condolence.

Oil wells are as common as fleas on a dog's back in Texas, particularly in West Texas. In fact, to date more than 350,000 have been drilled in the state. The production from these wells on state owned lands have financed our schools and universities ... and during the boom in 1983 produced the tax revenue that financed 28% of the state's operating budget. We really should know more about the machinery that produces that oil, if nothing more, just out of respect for the industry that makes the state of Texas so uniquely wealthy and strong and employs a great number of our neighbors.

The most visible symbol in the oil fields that we are all familiar with is the Oilfield Pumping Unit (commonly referred to as the Pump Jack.) You probably see at least one every day. I plan to tell you what they do and how they do it ... so you can pass the information along with authority to your New Jersey relatives when they ask "what is that thing."

This Is a Typical Conventional Pumping Unit



Pumping Units are used in the oilfield as the equipment for recovering crude oil. Now if you wish to be technical about what a Pumping Unit actually does ... it provides a means of converting rotary motion of a motor into a vertical reciprocating motion to move a piston rod of a pump up and down to lift the oil out of a hole in the ground. Got it?

Now Pumping Units come in all shapes and sizes, from the little ones about six feet tall for shallow wells to the big ones in West Texas more than 20 feet tall for the deep wells. The size of the unit depends the depth of the well (the deeper the well the more weight being lifted) and the length of stroke the operator wants the pump to make (the stroke determines how much oil the pump lifts each time the pump comes up ... a 12 foot stroke is fairly common on the big units.)

Now, let's identify some parts: The best place to start is the part every school kid recogizes as the "horse's head." It is called the Horse's Head. And coming down from the Horse's Head is a cable Bridle that is clamped onto a rod. This rod is highly polished stainless steel called a Polish Rod that connects to the Sucker Rod string that goes down to the Pump in the bottom of the well that gets the oil moving to the surface. (The Pump at the bottom of the hole is basically no different from the pump on grandpappy's windmill.) The valve at ground level that the Polish Rod goes into is the Well Head. (The reason the Polish Rod is highly polished is that it goes through a heavy rubber gasket (called the Stuffing Box) that keeps gas pressure under control and you don't want that gasket to wear out.) The Well Head has a variety of valves on it but the main one connects to a Flow Line that the oil pumped to the surface flows through to an Oil Storage Tank. How much oil are we talking about? That varies greatly depending on a lot of factors ... most of which are several thousand feet below the surface ... but that can range from a barrel a day to a thousand barrels a day depending on the formation the geologist predicted, the engineer approved and the driller hit.

Now back to the pumping unit. The Horse's Head is attached to the Walking Beam. That is the strong-back of the unit. At the middle of the Walking Beam is a large bearing called a Saddle Bearing by which the Beam is connected to its supporting post. Knowing how strong this three legged post has to be you are not surprised that it is called the Samson Post. At the backend of the Beam is another large bearing called a Tail Bearing. This connects the Beam to a bar called an Equalizer which has two Pitman Arms that attach to two Crank Arms that are attached to the main Pumping Unit Gear Box. The Pitman Arms connect to the Crank Arms by large bearings called Crank Pins.

But what are those great big things on the Crank Arms where the Equalizer bars connect? Those are Counter Weights ... and they are the key to this thing working. Figure the Sucker Rod string hanging by the Bridle from the Horse's Head weighs roughly a pound per foot ... then a column of oil being pumped from 13,000 feet down has so much weight and that is the weight on the Bridle. Without something to help, the pump would have to tug like heck to get that weight up and then go like 60 on the way back down again ... bad on pumps and motors. So Petroleum Engineers are paid to calculate just how much Counter Weight, and where, on the Crank Arms (considering leverages, etc.) to place it. These Counter Weights weigh thousands of pounds but they balance the work on the motor and the unit, so just by being bolted down on the Crank Arms they do half the work.

Now between the Counterweights is a big black box. And it is big and heavy, weighing in at 30,000-70,000 pounds. It is full of big gears. Its purpose is to number 1 stand up to the great weights it must be the anchor to but equally important to reduce the input RPMs from a motor to the slow, slow turning you have witnessed on the turning Crank Arms of a Pumping Unit at work.

Once again the Petroleum Engineer is called in to figure out how to hook this Gear Box up. First, he knows how many strokes per minute he wants his Pumping Unit to make and he knows the gear reduction of the Gear Box and he knows the rated RPM of the (in this case) electric motor that will power all this. He matches all of these by determining the diameter of the Shiv (pulley) that you can see next to the motor in the picture.

Now recall in an earlier post I talked about the old noisy Ajax motors? By good design and good engineering a unit this size operates efficiently and silently with a small electric motor ... and if electricity in not available to the location, a little six-cylinder Ford motor works as well.

How long will a Pumping Unit last? Assuming the Unit is bolted securely and level to a concrete base weighing about 30,000 pounds ... and that the Pumper regularly greases the Saddle and Tail Bearings and the Crank Pins, probably 50-60 years. And how much do they cost? Medium size units (the commonly seen size) $80,000-90,000 ... the bigger ones around $150,000 or so.

Now, put all this together over a $1-2 million hole in the ground and $70/barrel for crude oil doesn't sound all that outrageous.


Edit: The oilfield standard for Pumping Unit sizes are 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640 and 1280, with 10s being the smallest, 320s and 640s the most popular sizes, and 1280s the super-size that requires a crane to rig up.

I have a little Size 10 rigged up in my back yard (Curtis Model D10-36, Dodge City, Kansas ... 36 inch stroke.) It has a 5hp electric motor, fake beam-mounted counter weight, a six foot polish rod, going into a standard well head. By all appearances it is a working unit, except, my tubing string is only 40 inches deep. My 8 year old granddaughter was my Geologist who examined the bore hole cuttings that I dug out with a post hole digger ... and in her opinion of the two rocks, a bottle cap and a couple of grub worms, the well had potential. Usually folks do not put a pump on a dry hole but this one does a fair job keeping the squirrels out of the yard.


[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/22/2006 10:18p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/22/2006 11:29p).]

Fossil Ag

Thanks so much for letting us know. It is the same Kenneth Timmons. Dad usually hears from his buddies back in Sweetwater about such things but it could be possible that they haven't all heard yet. Anyway he is very greatful for the information.

Oh, he also enjoyed your story on Cap Newman and has really enjoyed chatting with you. I'm going to sign him up on Texags but he'll have to get Mom to type for him when I head back to Dallas.

Thanks again.

Getting Dad set up here

Fossil Ag

I always thought those things looked like giant grasshoppers.

DeltaAg51 .... Welcome aboard. As a general rule we do not haze rookies on this board so don't be timid about expressing an opinion or giving sage advice.

Terry L. .... The Lufkin Mark II pumping units are commonly called "grasshopper" units. I suppose they look more like a grasshopper than a conventional beam unit to some folks. You will recognize the Mark II the first time you see one ... whoa, what is that?

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/23/2006 6:15p).]

DeltaAg51 - Welcome to the discussion!

If you see her, tell Patsy her long lost nephew in Houston says hi.

Hi! This is DeltaAg. Thanks, I've been enjoying your discussions with Terry.

Goose,

Planning to be in Sweetwater between Aggie games to visit Jerry Bob Smith and will try to see Patsy.

Of all the subjects one might pick to discuss on a West Texas board, the one subject that is universally recognized in some manner is oil drilling rigs and oilfield service companies. We run across something related to the oilfield virtually every day in our travels. Perhaps some of you are a bit embarrassed about your lack of knowledge of an industry that is so commonplace in your daily lives. Unfortunantly it is difficult to gain that knowledge unless you are treated to actual experience on locations and on the rigs. Why is it so difficult? The oil field has a language all its own that just does not match up with the jargon or accepted terms of any other activity. And the only way to learn the terms is by doing the work ... unless someone takes the time to describe the activity and explain the terms. And I am gonna do just that.

This is an oilfield drilling rig, a Jack-Knife Rig to be exact, typical of what you might see in West Texas. A Jack-Knife rig has the feature that a couple of pins can be pulled and it can be laid down using its own power for separating into two pieces for transport (instead of old ways of having to dismantle the derrick piece by piece.) The rig in the picture is just rigging up because I do not see the necessary guy wires or the safety line for the Derrickman (the Geronimo Line.)



First, terminologies: The derrick is more appropriately called the Mast. The red thing on top of the Mast is the Crown. The Crown houses the Crown Block which operates with the Traveling Block (red thing just above the drilling floor), each with 3 or 4 Sheaves (shivs) to form the oversize block and tackle that does the heavy lifting. The Traveling Block has a very large hook from which the heavy stuff hangs. The dead end of the Drill Line is anchored in the Crown, the other end of the Drill Line (the Fast Line) goes into the Drawworks on the Drilling Floor. The Drawworks has a Cable Drum that holds about 1,000 feet of Drill Line (necessary because the distance from Crown to Floor is more than 100 feet and the line makes about four loops around the pulley Sheaves.) How much will it lift? About a million pounds.

Next, how big is that rig? A medium size rig and its various components required to drill 10-15,000 feet weighs about 1,250,000 pounds plus about 250,000 pounds of drill pipe. It requires about 36 heavy oilfield truckloads to move it. The main components include the Mast; the Substructure (the big gray boxes that support the drilling floor, Rotary Table, the Mast and the Drawworks; Motors; Generators; Mud Pumps; Diesel Tank; Mud Tanks, etc. Assembling all this iron takes a couple of days.

Next, who are the players? The rig crew consists of the Driller, a Derrickman, and two or more floor hands. The Driller is the supervisor of the crew and is in charge of all drilling and hoisting operations. The Driller's office is in the blue Doghouse at the Drilling Floor in the picture. The Derrickman during the time drill pipe is being removed from the drill hole, or being returned to the hole, stands on the Monkeyboard (red catwalk 3/4 way up the derrick) and his job is to uncouple pipe from the hoisting Elevator and stand it neatly against the Mast in a rack called a Fingerboard. (When pulling the Drill String from the Bore Hole, when the Monkeyboard is about 90 feet above the Drilling Floor, the string is uncoupled at three joint intervals.)

Now where the Driller supervises the crew on one shift (a shift is called a Tower(i.e., Evening Tower) in the oil fields but it is spelled TOUR ... funny but true.) The person who is in charge of all rig drilling operations and crews is the Toolpusher (sometime called drilling superintendent.) The Toolpusher's job is to keep that Drilling Rig drilling, in three shifts, 24/7 until the Well is Completed. The reason for the heavy-duty "pushing" is that that Rig is charging the customer $1-2,000 per hour for their services.

Now we have a Rig and we have a drilling crew, what do we do next? Drill. The key to this is the Rotary Table ... a table with a square hole in it that rotates with great force. The square hole accommodates the Kelly, a heavy square pipe 43 feet long, that has a heavy duty Swivel on its top end that fits on the Hook of the Traveling Block. Feeding into the Swivel is a Mud Line that directs Drilling Mud through the Kelly and on into the Drill String. The Drill String consists of Drill Pipe that screws into the bottom end of the Kelly and down into other joints of Drill Pipe, Drill Collars, and the Drill Bit. The Rotary Table turns the Kelly which transfers Drilling Mud into the Drill String and twists the Drill Pipe which turns in the Bore Hole and turns the Drill Bit. Drill Pipe is 30 feet in length. Drill Collars are very heavy pipe (about 20,000 pounds each) are in the string just above the Drill Bit to help insure the drilling goes vertically and also adds strength to the Drill String just above the Bit. Drilling Mud is pumped through the String and Drill Bit to flush out cuttings by the Bit and to cool the Bit as it cuts. Drilling Mud has special properties that water alone cannot provide.

Now let's go back to the surface and answer more questions. The first would be "What is a Rathole Driller?" During site preparation before the Drilling Rig moves in, a shallow well driller is called in. The first thing he does is drill a hole for the Conductor Pipe ... this is a large diameter (24 inches +/-) hole fairly shallow and casinged as the initial drilling of the bore hole. (Some call this Spudding In.) The Conductor Pipe keeps the loose sidewalls at the surface from caving in when drilling starts. The pipe will be cemented in and the initial stack for Blow Out Preventors will be installed. When drilling commences it will be through the Conductor Pipe. Next the driller will drill a Rathole. The Rathole is a casinged hole under the Drilling Floor where the Kelly will be stowed when the Rig is hoisting pipe instead of drilling. When drilling, the Kelly drives one length of Drill Pipe (30 feet), then the Swivel and Kelly are taken from the Hook and stowed and another device called an Elevator is placed on the Hook in order to lift and add another joint of Drill Pipe. When that joint is added to the string, the Elevator is exchanged for the Kelly and drilling resumes. The Rathole Driller drills another hole during site preparation called the Mousehole. The Mousehole is also casinged and holds the next joint of Drill Pipe that will be added to the Drill String.

Life on the Drilling Rig gets complicated when drilling commences and that is where outside services must be called in for specialized work.

As the rig drills it may pass through water aquifers. To keep from contaminating the ground water an intermediate string of casing will be installed in the Bore Hole to the bottom of the lowest water. This calls for a Casing Crew. Then companies like Halliburton or BJ Services will be called in to pump cement into the casing. Heavy Drilling Mud will then be pumped into the casing to force the cement down out of the casing and up into the airspace between the outside of the casing and the bore wall until it reaches the surface. This cement will prevent contamination between stratas. Then drilling resumes.

Eventually the drilling with luck will hit the planned oil production zone. This is the end game and all sorts of specialists are called in here ... but assuming the verdict is a good pay ... this is time to run another string of casing, the Production Casing. Since the casing wall is solid, it must be perforated at the desired place to allow oil to flow into the casing. This is done by a Gun Perforator ... The device is lowered into the hole and small shaped charges are fired to blow holes in the casing.

Next the well must be "stimulated" to get the oil flowing into the casing... this requires more specialists. Acid is sometime used to dissolve fissures into limestone as pathways for oil to travel. Or the situation may call for Fraccing. In Fraccing, compressors drive great quantities of water and sand under extreme pressure into the well to fracture the formation to initiate flow. When oil begins to flow into the casing and the amount is deemed adequate to continue completion efforts, the Drilling Rig crew will have completed its job. Now is the time for them to move on to their next location.

When the Drilling Rig moves off the hole a Workover Rig will be moved in to run the Tubing, Sucker Rod, and Pump into the hole.

Throughout the entire drilling operation the Drilling Rig crew must be aware of the threat of drilling into a high pressure gas pocket and cause a well blowout. To safeguard, a stack of Blow Out Preventors (called the B.O.P.s) attaches to the Casinghead throughout. Rams, powered by hydraulic fluid under great pressure from Accumulators filled with nitrogen are at the ready to automatically seal the hole. The Shear Rams is capable of slicing through Drill Pipe as it slams closed. A nice thing to have on your side!

In addition to casing crews, cementing crews, workover crews, there are a myriad of other specialties that can be called in. Wireline operators, well logging, mud experts,etc. All are a part of an extended team. You see their trucks on the road every day and maybe now you will appreciate the work they do.

You have to give a big thumbs up to the folks who work to get that crude oil out of the ground. Their workday every day is in the face of the elements ... hot sun or freezing rain. And everything they do is hard, heavy, and hazardous. They are good at their work ... and they take great satisfaction in that. And they are a fun bunch to be around.

There are dozens of other unique terms in the oilfields but the ones above are enough to get you started ... they might even help you get a job on a Rig is you are also stout looking, alert, smart and just love the outdoors.


[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/26/2006 7:58a).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 8/7/2008 3:17p).]

quote:

---

The Shear Rams is capable of slicing through Drill Pipe as it slams closed. A nice thing to have on your side!

---

how do you get back into the hole if this happens? Also, what about the pipe that is in the hole, how would it be retreived?

Powerbiscuit ... Pressure control is the job of another group of specialists. There are a number of alternatives depending on the particular situation ... first of which is the amount of pressure. The BOP stack has a number of valves and fittings that are used as needed. Heavy drilling mud pumped into the hole controls pressures normally encountered plus there are other means,including flaring. Once the well head pressure is under control the Rams can be reopened, Fishing specialist are called in to latch onto the Drill Pipe stub and the Drill String can be retrieved. The downhole pressures that can be encountered range from 2-3,000 psi for land drilling to up to 15,000 psi in offshore wells. Like every other problem encountered in the past 150 years of oil exploration, someone has figured out a way to solve most every one ... and they have become wealthy in the process by providing that unique service to the industry. (Heck, once you get the drill string out of the hole you can always call it a gas well!)

excellent job on drilling rig mechanics
I have always been fascinated by what man has designed to do what he wants done. Watching a drilling rig work is one of the most interesting and intricate things I've ever encountered.


The summer after my freshman year at A&M, as a swamper on a gin truck, I took apart and put together all those pieces you just described. Laying down or picking up the mast and setting that whole thing up was a pretty cool thing to watch and do.

That was a long, hot and very dangerous summer, but it paid well. It was also the year that I dedicated myself to succeeding in school and get me an inside job when I graduated. . . .

Moving day for an Oil Drilling Rig is a sight to behold for those of you who lead sheltered, sedentary lives. There is a lot of heavy iron that has to be moved quickly, because the Operator of the well (the oil or gas company who contracts with the drilling, service and workover companies) wants the drilling rig out of the way so the Workover Rig can get in and finish completion work on the well. The Toolpusher of the drilling rig is just as impatient because chances are he is contracted to begin drilling on another location in a couple of days.

The Rig crew starts the moving day process by disconnecting all power cables, interconnecting fluid hoses and stowing all small items. The process is just like a housewife getting ready for a household move. Then the heavy Rig-up Trucks arrive.

This is a 30-Ton Gin-Pole Truck similar to the one The Sheik worked behind. (The "Swamper" works behind the truck handling winchlines, tail hooks, chain slings, to move stuff.) This is the workhorse of a Rig move. (These trucks in the oilfield are normally referred to as "Tandems" even though technically every other truck on location is a tandem rear axle. The term Tandem is just usually reserved for the 30 or 50-ton brutes.)

In the photo below, one 30-ton tandem has bedded his gin poles and has backed up a ramp to winch a 60,000 pound drawworks off the drilling floor (rig move.) Ramps up to 10 feet tall are used to disassemble the drill floor whan a crane is not available.) The second 30-ton tandem poled up is lifting the front of the first truck to have his bed level with the drill floor during the loading process.



The photo below is a 30-ton tandem "unloading" a 60,000 pound drawworks. The load is moving on the heavy tail roller on the back of the bed of the truck as the operator eases off on his main winch line. When the back end of load touches the ground the driver will drive forward while easing off on the line. All large rig items are mounted on I-Beam skids to permit loading and unloading in this manner.



The 30-Ton Tandem measures almost 30 feet from the front to rear axles and can lift and move 60,000 pounds from the gin poles. It has three winches, the main winch capacity is 80,000 pounds, another 60,000 and the small one 40,000. The gin poles are not just 6 inch heavy pipe ... they are 3 pipes ... a 4 inch inside the 6 and a heavy 2 inch inside the 4. For moving things around, another feature is the gin poles can be disconnected at the top and the poles stowed in a trough on the side of the bed. Then the truck is used as a flat bed and with use of a heavy tail roller on the back end of the bed, and the main winch, can pull heavy oifield equipment pieces up on the bed for transport.

Oilfield equipment, and especially drilling rig components, are designed and built for this method of movement. Every large item of equipment is mounted on heavy skids that allow that piece to be winched over a tail roller on oilfield trucks and trailers for ease in loading, transport and unloading.

So the Tandems usually start their day by "setting out" all the skid mounted units located in the "back yard" of the drilling location ... pumps, generators, tanks, etc. ... lining them up on the side of the location where haul trucks coming later can latch onto them, winch them on their trailers and go. One Tandem will be poled up removing catwalks, stairs and handrails. They can set out everything up to the substructure, the drawworks on the drilling floor and the mast. If the substructure is not over 8-10 feet two Tandems can get the drawworks off and set out (drawworks weigh 80,000 pounds) but in some cases a motor crane must be brought in to do this. Four Tandems working together can also un-pin the Mast and lay it out on racks ... and assist in separating two halves ... Crown section and bottom section.

This is a 50-Ton Tandem doing its thing on a muddy location. (On muddy locations it is not unusual to have one bulldozer pulling and one pushing to move trucks and trailers and loads.)


When a number of loads are set out by the Tandems, haul trucks start arriving on location to winch up their assigned loads. Loads are assigned specifically because state highway permits are issued on the basis of the number of tires supporting the weights carried. In addition, the state permit also designates the route to be taken because of the width, weight and height of the particular piece of equipment. (18 foot high loads do not fit under 14 foot underpasses.)

So the haul trucks load and go to the next location. Most will shake off their load to the side of the new location, to be set later by the Tandems. Others may be held until the rig-up is ready for them and those loads will be spotted directly from the trailer.

The last items to move are the drill pipe. Since a 15,000 foot well will have about 500 joints, this total weight is about 200-250,000 pounds, requiring 5 or 6 loads.

The Rig Toolpusher supervises the rig-up at the new location. Each item of equipment must be precisely placed because heavy suction lines, catwalks, handrails, etc., do not stretch or bend. Fortunately, designers of the drilling rig built it so that mating items pin together instead of bolting which makes things go faster. With all the loads on location, there is no time for breaks or wasted motion. The amount of road time between locations is a big factor on how soon the rig is reassembled ... but on a move of 20 miles or less, the Toolpusher should be ready to drill by the end of the second day barring mishaps.

Some drilling companies have their own trucking operations while others choose to use independent rig moving specialists. Whichever, rig-up truck drivers and haul truck drivers must be skilled and disciplined to perform their daily tasks without damaging expensive equipment or causing injury to anyone ... either on the road or on location. You don't appreciate the beauty of the situation until you watch four poled up Tandems, two on either side of a 100 foot Mast alternately backing and forwarding in a saw-tooth movement working the Mast to the precise location to pin on the drilling platform .... or watch two slick-back Tandems (one on the bottom and one on the crown, one moving forward and the other backing) moving a 100 foot mast on an infield move.

On any oil field location you will frequently see fellows in white shirts ... and maybe even ties ... but you can bet that any you see will have spent their time on that drilling floor ... and everyone I know in the oilfield takes pride in calling themselves "Roughnecks." So when you encounter one, give him a big thumbs up ... he deserves your admiration.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 8/7/2008 3:52p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 8/7/2008 3:54p).]

what he said. . . .



my summer in the oil field started the week after the end of my freshman year. Saturday night after we got home from A&M and our finals, my buddy called and said his dad the truck pusher had a couple of openings for swampers. I was hoping to play around a little for a week or two and then get me a job for a couple of bucks an hour plowing and driving an air-conditioned tractor for one of the neighbors. This swamper job was at 4.25 an hour (about twice min wage) if I remember and he needed us monday morning at 6am. It went downhill from there. The starting time at the yard depended upon where the location we were working was located. We had to be on location and tearing down at sunup, so we might have to leave abilene at 4am or 5am on some mornings. We worked moving until sundown and then back to the yard and I'd drive home to Anson. Covered in mud, grease, diesel and sweat, those were long hard hot days. Then back again the next day. Saturday and Sundays sometimes, were taken up with rigup or down too. Lots of hours, lots of overtime. There were six or seven rigs that the company owned, so it was rare that we had a day at the yard without a move scheduled. Besides the pay, the only other thing that made it tolerable for me was the upcoming school year that would signal an end to my oilfield career. I really don't see how those guys did it day in and day out forever.

I remember riding on boom lines, swinging from hooks on the poles and doing some of the most dangerous and stupid stuff. One time we were moving a 3ft diameter concrete culvert pipe and I couldn't get the winch line centered, so I hung on to the light end and my added weight kept it leveled while the driver backed it up and got it in place. One day on a dare, one of my swamper coharts climbed out of his truck cab, over the hood to the front bumper grill guard and jumped to the trailer of the truck in front of us, he then ran the length of the flatbed to knock on other guys back window, all while we tooled down the highway at 50 or 60 mph.

One of the coolest things I remember seeing was we needed to shift the sub structure over a little bit, so four trucks pulled their winch lines over the tail rolls and tied on to each corner of the floor. It was so heavy that the front of each of the trucks would lift 4 or 5 feet in the air until the pull and balance would equalize and they'd eventually lift the sub off the ground a couple of feet. Those in front would put it in forward and those in back would hit reverse. We'd inch it up until all the holes lined up, as indicated by the tool pusher who was underneath the substructure at the drill hole hollering and giving hand signals to the four drivers.

I remember being covered in drill mud from having to retrieve a siphon that got loose, I remember being doused in diesel and scared to death that somebody would light a cigarette around me. Mostly I remember being hot and as physically tired and worn down as I had ever been. 10 times worse than any 2-a-day football practice.

I have in my desk drawer a broken link from a chain that snapped and the free end came wihin inches of hitting me at and below the belt buckle. The driver thought that he'd killed me, cause I fell off the pipe basket and he said I was as white as if all the blood had drained out of me.

Like I said before, thats when I dedicated myself to getting a college degreee and an inside job.


[This message has been edited by TheSheik (edited 5/29/2006 5:58p).]

It is amusing to me that when oil patch veterans congregate, it doesn't take long for the conversations to turn to near disasters, for-sure disasters, bad luck and dumb mistakes they have encountered (only as an observer or witness, of course.) No one ever admits personally to making a mistake ... but when mistakes are made when drilling they can be real doozies to clean up. I had oilfield trucks so I had the pleasure of getting called in for some of the clean ups.

It really doesn't matter if the location was in West Texas, East Texas, Louisiana or Kuwait, the tales have universal applicability, and appeal. Every rig and well is susceptible.

One mess I got involved in was during the Boom of the early 80s when the Austin Chalk created a lot of interest. It seems a rig that had drilled to about the 14,000 foot level was coming out of the hole and had about 5,000 feet to go when the drill string separated. (Now that is a real "Oh, @#$%" moment on a rig.) In layman's terms, 5,000 feet of drill pipe weighing about 66,000 pounds dropped like a rock straight down 9,000 feet. The results are not pretty ... when the lower end of the string hits bottom inside that 12 inch borehole the top end is trying its best to join it ... so that straight string takes the new form of a corkscrew. Fishing crews snagged on the errant string in a day or so and the tug-of-war with mother nature ensued. That is where the million pound capacity of the rig drawworks comes in handy. Luckily, the rig was able to get the string moving and eventually got all pieces back to the surface. But strangely as each joint of pipe cleared the surface it expanded its corkscrew shape several times more than it was able to in the tight hole. I was called to move that misshapen mass to Houston to get it straightened. That 170 or so joints of pipe required 8 truckloads, each looking like a giant steel bird nest. Trying to tie those loads down securely took almost as much time as figuring out how to load it.

Another time in 83 or 84 we were hustling to finish up a rig move north of Bryan when I got a frantic call from a fellow who wanted trucks to move a small rig from near Giddings to a location on Dilly Shaw Tap just north of Bryan. I told the fellow that a hurricane had just coasted in near Matagorda and we were expecting bad weather here in a day or so. He said, "I know, that is why I need to move today!" It was already mid-afternoon so I told him OK, we would do our best. So as fast as trucks finished their loads at the other location I had them on the way to Giddings. By nightfall we had the new rig on its way to Bryan. Weather was already turning bad here and I am sure all the cars passing my trucks on the way to Bryan got a kick out of the name of the drilling company boldly lettered on the side of each piece of equipment ... Hurricane Drilling!. We rigged it up the next day in some of the foulest hurricane weather we had experienced in this area.

Later that year we moved a big rig for Prodeco Drilling (a Canadian outfit) from Sonora to a location 4 miles east of Bryan. Loads began arriving two days before New Years. It was then the superintendent for the drilling company told me the operating group had a contract (and $30,000 penalty clause) to begin drilling on New Years day. He said he had not mentioned it before because of the operator's delays in signing the rig contract that he did not think neither the rig crew or truck crews could do it so he was not worried. I was not so cavalier about the situation because the operator was the outfit that signed the checks for both the drilling rig AND the trucking. By this time we had cold wind and freezing rain. We started the rig up immediately as the key structure pieces arrived. We worked all night New Years Eve, the location became a giant mudhole and bulldozers had to pull and push every truck onto location, pull their loads off and push into position. There was not room to turn trucks around so they were just pulled into the pasture out of the way. By daylight on New Year Day the Mast was pinned to the floor, at least one motor and one generator were on line, all other equipment was available, the Rathole was dug so the Rig was spudded in ... and my trucks were scattered all over the pasture. It took two more days to get the trucks out of that frozen swamp and ready to roll again.

Another time I was called by a frantic Toolpusher needing "Help right now." It seems he had noted a problem with a sheave in the Crown block and decided to lay the Mast down to replace it ... without the aid of a crane. When the Mast was half way down (about 45 degree angle) the sheave cratered and he was stuck. Now I had bid on moving his rig onto that location and he had turned my bid down in favor of a competitor ... and that company had declined to help him out of his predicament even though they were rigging up another rig not a mile away from him. I did not have a crane available but made about 20 phone calls locating one for him and getting it on his way. The crane got to him in a couple of hours and saved his derrick ... and his hide. A few weeks later his rig moved again and guess what .... he turned my bid down again in favor or another competitor. (I waited 20 years for that fellow to call again asking for help.)

But the disaster tale of all times did not take place in West Texas, thank goodness. It happened near New Iberia, LA in November 1980. Wilson Drilling Company was drilling a well in the middle of Lake Peignoir, a 1300 acre pond about 3 feet deep. Their target was the side of a salt dome. Several oil and gas wells were on the perimeter of the lake. At about 1300 feet the rig started acting strangely (sinking?) and the crew abandoned it. Shortly thereafter they noticed the level of the lake dropping. Then they noticed a giant whirl pool around the rig, and eventually a crater that swallowed the whole rig along with all the water in the lake and a nearby canal. The hole eventually swallowed another nearby rig, 7 barges and I suppose a few pirogues with unhappy Cajuns. It seems the rig had drilled into an active salt mine and in addition to flooding the mine had melted all the salt in the formation and the bottom of the lake had simply caved in. Nothing was ever seen of the rigs but the barges popped back to the surface a few days later like fishing corks. And when all was settled, little 3-foot deep Lake Peignoir was now 1300 feet deep. I am glad I wasn't called about moving that rig back to dry land. Read about it here: http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=6

Those were fun times back during the Boom and we all grieved when the inevitable Bust followed. Thousands of drilling rigs were stacked out in every available spot of open land and oilfield workers of every specialty were scattered to the four winds. A popular bumber sticker for several years following the bust was "Lord, Please give us one more Boom ... we promise not to screw it up next time."



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/30/2006 3:15p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 5/31/2006 11:30a).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 8/7/2008 4:03p).]

Hurricane Drilling huh ?

I worked for Fisher-Webb which was eventually bought out by Harken Drilling. We were all out here around Abilene - San Angelo - Breckendridge.

In one of those round about full circle deals. I ended up at A&M with an accounting degree and got my CPA and several years later ended up doing the tax return for Harken.

man, we have to get fossil on some kind of regular posting schedule....I check this thread 4 or 5 times a day....many times I am disappointed to find no new posts, other times it is like Christmas morning.

fossil, you have to quit devoting so much time to family, grandkids, golf, hunting, fishing or whatever and dedicate at least 4 or 5 good hours a day to writing interesting posts for all of us to read, thanks in advance

powerbiscuit, Thank you for the kind remarks I am glad someone is interested in the stuff I have been writing.

Originally it was not my intention to dredge up a lot of ancient history to post in a Texags Forum. I had been planning for some time to write down some favorite memories of life in West Texas in earlier times to pass along to grandkids, nieces and nephews as sort of a family legacy. But then when my posts about early day West Texas football legends seemed to spark some interest here I decided to share those early day life stories with you folks too, assuming in the end I could kill two birds with one stone and eventually print out this thread (along with your shared input) to pass along to the kin. That is not working out as planned.

When this thread jumped to the extended margins a couple of weeks ago I can no longer print out the thread without losing half of each line. That has me stymied for the present because I do not look forward to redoing all this for the family. I had hoped to be able to copy/paste into My Documents where I could play with the margins, etc., then print from there, but no luck so far. Any suggestions?

I am not criticising Texags at all. I know it was not set up with the idea of accommodating a bunch of long posts. This thread seems to be unique in that respect and I do not wish to take advantage of Texags good nature. Anyway, I will be hanging around for a while, posting when a good story comes to mind until Texags runs me off ... or until higher duty calls.

you can cut and paste to word, then downsize the pictures that are making it over wide. You may have to jack with the margins and a few other things. It might be easier to just cut and paste your post to word and see if you can work with that. There is a way to do it without retyping everything.

I'll be happy to copy it into a word document for you if you aren't able to do so.

And by the way, I asked a few pages back and didn't see a response. Did you ever happen to attend a live Bob Wills performance? I realize, you might be a little young, but he is one guy (band) who I would have really liked to see in person. Much of his music is timeless.

Bob Wills.... Wish I was about 3 years older. He used to play regularly at the Dixie Club in Angelo.

I really do enjoy western swing. At least Ray Benson and AATW are keeping it alive.

Man, a new topic on musicians from WT or those who came thru, usually before they made it "big"

Fifty years and three days ago I graduated from The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. One month later I reported for active duty as a Second Lieutenant in the US Air Force ... the first to report of the 570 in my graduating class who received military commissions. After Pre-Flight processing at Lackland AFB, my assignment was to proceed to Ellington AFB at Houston for training as a Navigator.

A year later I had my Wings and my next assignment to Whiteman AFB, Missouri as a Navigator on a KC-97 Tanker in the Strategic Air Command (SAC.)

At that time the US and USSR were in the early stages of the Cold War. Soviet intransigence had been demonstrated by the blockade of Berlin 1947-49 which was broken by the Berlin Airlift. In 1948, the fellow who had directed the Airlift (as well as the successful bombing campaign of Japan in WWII), General Curtis LeMay, was named Commander of SAC and given free hand to develop a bomber command to counter the USSR. LeMay could do that.

Starting with B-29s remaining from WWII days and the giant B-36 bombers just coming off the assembly line at the Convair plant at Ft Worth, LeMay began organizing his forces. (LeMay had no more use for Russia than Gen Patton.) By the end of 1948 LeMay had every Russian city targeted for nuclear destruction. But that was for starters. He upped the order for B-36s to a total of 380. Then he placed orders for 1300 B-47 bombers (the first swept wing jet bomber) plus 260 reconnaisance versions. The first B-47s began arriving in 1952. SAC bases began springing up everywhere in the States and in all friendly countries.

The B-47 had been on the drawing board for a few years as a replacement for the B-29s ... but the B-47, though unique and showy, was only a medium bomber capable of only a couple of weapons and not enough range to go global.

Thus the need for a tanker capable of inflight refueling of the B-47. Thus entered the KC-97 in 1950. The KC-97 was a B-29 that Boeing had designed a fat body for to haul cargo during WWII but the Air Force needed bombers worse than it needed cargo planes so none were built, except, after the war PanAmerican bought some of the planes to be used as airliners in the Pacific. LeMay chose that Boeing airframe to be his tanker, removed the passenger seats, installed four huge 1,800 gallon tanks on the upper deck, and added a flying refueling boom and he had his tanker. LeMay ordered 875 of these.

By the time I arrived in 1957 LeMay had his Strategic Air Command with more than 60 bases worldwide, more than 2,500 bombers and tankers ready for war, and more than 200,000 warm bodies. LeMay insured members of his command had the best available; but LeMay demanded precision, professionalism and absolute effectiveness.

A KC-97 Tanker Refueling a B-47 Bomber


The early day mission of KC-97s was to serve as a flying gas station for B-47s ... conveniently located any place in the world where the bomber flight plan indicated a need for more fuel ... that could be in the Arctic, over the Atlantic or Pacific, or where ever. To provide the top off refueling before going over Russia, Tanker Task Forces (30-40 tankers) were on wartime alert continually for years in the northernmost tier of bases ... Alaska, Northern Canada, Newfoundland and Greenland ... standing by for the launch order (that simply because of our readiness never came.)
A Typical Winter Scene of KC-97s Up North


The weather was just as bad at one northern base as another. Cold. Our tours were typically two weeks at a Task Force base then two weeks at home base for training missions. But we had better duty at times. The unit might move to the base in the Azores for a 90 day tour providing support for bombers based in England, Spain and Morocco rotating to and from the States. That could also permit some nice R&R trips when the schedule permitted.

Beginning in 1958 major changes began occuring in SAC. B-52s began coming on line replacing the B-36s and ICBMs began coming on line replacing for the most part B-47s. Also, the all jet KC-135 Tankers began coming on line replacing the KC-97s. The mission at Whiteman remained unchanged until 1962 when the B-47s and KC-97s were closed out and I received orders to KC-135s at Bergstrom AFB at Austin.

An interesting note about the refueling tactics between the KC-97 and the B-47. The top airspeed of a fully loaded KC-97 (carrying 43,000 pounds of jet fuel) was just about the stall speed of the B-47. Now the Tankers speed picked up a bit as fuel was transferred but the bombers stall condition worsened ... so the maneuver was when we hooked up, the pair would start a descent to gain speed ... then disconnect and climb back to starting altitude and do it again. Those were tense times at night and in weather with two 6-ship cells doing that toboggan maneuver.

I was at Roswell, New Mexico going through KC-135 transition training when the Cuban Missile Crisis festered. The school was closed, we were declared graduated, and given 24 hours to get to our next base. (We were renting a furnished house in Roswell; the wife nearly croaked when I relayed the orders ... "24 hours??" she shrieked.)

KC-135 Refueling F15s and F16s


KC-135 operations were basically the same as KC-97 days where B-52 support was concerned but in training we were moving more into working with various fighters. In 1964 when the Vietnam War began, fighter support increased to half our time. The commitment to the B-52s remained the same in heightened alert but fighter deployments to Southeast Asia became a major operation. Once again back to the task force operations. For a fighter squadron move one tanker would be assigned 4-6 fighters and a six tanker formation would become flying fuel tanks for an entire squadron of fighters from California to Hawaii to Guam to coast-in at Vietnam. A tanker task force in Thailand would provide airborne tankers along the VN border to support any bombers or fighters needing fuel. From 1966-70 I was assigned to headquarters 2nd Air Force at Barksdale AFB, LA in tanker operations. After that, I spent a two year tour with SAC at Guam. During that period SAC had 250 B-52s stationed there launching and recovering 24 hours a day. Quite an operation.

In 1972 I was reassigned to the 16th Special Operation Squadron in Thailand to be the Fire Control Officer on an AC-130H Spectre Gunship. That was an interesting job.



The Gunship had a pair of 20mm Gatling guns, two 40mm cannons and a 105mm Howitzer sticking out the left side. Our primary job was to patrol the Ho Chi Minh trail at night and stop all truck traffic permanently. Since our operations were at 8,000 feet we were within range of just about everything except a bow and arrow ... so flew with lights out and preferred moonless nights. After 58 eventful missions Congress stopped all funding for further air operations so I came home in late 1973.

By 1974 the Air Force budget had been sliced to the bone and I found myself on an airbase that did not have a single aircraft assigned ...and I was given the exciting duty of flying a desk. I spent a couple of more years there then retired with 20 years and 2 days on active duty. It was a wild ride and I enjoyed every minute of it ... but the lure of finding a permanent home in Texas was too great. Aggieland just seemed like a perfect final roosting place.



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/1/2006 5:41p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/1/2006 5:48p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/1/2006 5:58p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/1/2006 6:06p).]

powerbiscuit ... I remember your question about seeing Bob Wills in the in the early days. I started a reply to you laying claim to one of the earliest known sitings (1938), but after a bit of research realized my mistake ... but got sidetracked by other matters.

In 1937 or 38 (5 years old), I remember walking with my grandmother to the Roby courthouse to see a political speech by W. Lee O'Daniel ("Pass the biscuits, Pappy" who was running for Governor. I remember "Pappy" gave a fire and brimstone speech standing on a flat bed trailer, and men passing one gallon buckets for donations (my grandmother donated a dollar bill!), and I recall a western band played a lot of music.

In later years having listened to Bob Wills and the Light Crust Doughboys on WBAP at noon every day that I could, and knowing W. Lee O'Daniel and the Doughboys were connected at one time, I thought in later years the band I saw was Bob Wills and the Light Crust Doughboys from Burrus Mills.

Close but wrong. O'Daniel was Sales Manager for Burrus Mills in 1931 and hired Bob Wills to lead the company band called the Light Crust Doughboys. But shortly thereafter Wills and O'Daniel had a falling out because O'Daniel expected Wills and the band members to work in the flour mill during the day when not on radio. Seems Wills did not want to drive a truck and was also hitting the bottle a bit ... so he left the band in about 1933. O'Daniel emceed for the band until 1935 until he quit or was fired from Burrus Mills. After that O'Daniel started his own band called the Hillbilly Boys to promote his own flour mill called Hillbilly Flour. That is the band that accompanied O'Daniel in 1937-38 in O'Daniel's run for Governor ... the band I saw.

O'Daniel won the election in 1938 and was reeelected in 1940. In 1941 he beat Lyndon B. Johnson for a vacant Senate seat and represented Texas there through the war years.

Bob Wills in the meantime started a new band named the Texas Playboys and the rest is history. I never got to see Wills and the Playboys in person.

EMc77 ... The idea for a thread on West Texas musicians is a good one but I may not be able to contribute much there ... unless you want to include all the pickers and singers that grew up in the Panhandle.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/1/2006 9:09p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/3/2006 9:42a).]