Robert J Samples wrote:
From as far back as I can remember, up until I was around 10 years old my father was a farmer. We were living in Bulcher, Texas which was virtually on the banks of Red River. There was an oil field there and Dad had been hired to build retention levies around tank storage tanks. This was a precaution against a leak from one of the tanks which would spread all over the landowner’s fields and be almost impossible to be able to return the land to its original condition.
I was impressed with the speed and dexterity with which he handled his team of horses. These retention dikes were about 3 ft high and maybe 10 yards from any storage tank. There were usually two storage tanks and a “gun barrel” tank that held a fire at the bottom to separate any water from the crude oil before the crude was transferred to the storage tank. When a storage tank was full, the pumper for that lease and a representative of Standard Oil would gauge the tank and then close the field valve and open a valve connected to Standard pipeline and lock it with a metal strip that kept any change until the storage tank was completely empty, which might take a few days.
The tools or equipment Dad used were a “go-devil” and “fresno”. They were pulled behind his team of horses. I do not know which piece did what, but he would load one or the other and had a load of dirt to the location designated for the dyke, when he had his team to deliver enough dirt, he changed equipment and then formed the dike, which was about 3 feet tall and when finished would have a completely enclosed levee around the three tanks to keep any accidental spills contained.
About three to six months after this job, the oil company, Kewanee Oil Company hired Dad as a rouseabout. This was a member of a work gang who handled any general work necessary in the fields being produced by the company.
Later, one evening we were all at the supper table and both Mom and I noticed that Dad wasn’t the same. Both of us asked him what was wrong. He finally told us he had been offered a pumper’s job but was going to decline taking it. We both wanted to know why. We all knew that a pumper’s job was a significantly better job, higher pay, and a house to live in. Now this was in the late 1930s or early 1940s and the housing was far below today’s standards. Only after World War II were improvements made and indoor plumbing and toilets installed.
Dad finally told us the reason he was planning on declining the promotion. He said he would have to do fractions! I think I was in the 4th or 5th grade. I told Dad I knew how to do fractions and would teach him fractions. So, I taught my father fractions at the kitchen table!
He was determined that I would go to college, even if it ‘hare lipped’ the governor. When I turned 18 and graduated from high school, I began working on a drilling rig in West Texas. I send all the money I made home to be deposited into a bank account for college, keeping barely enough for food and boarding house rent. I am sure Dad planned with the banker to cover my checks if I spent more than expected.
When I registered at Texas A. & M. and was issued my uniforms, Dad went with me, and I could tell he was stressed, even though I was the one handling the requests and dealing with the registration. When my family got ready to leave, Dad handed me his checkbook and said, “Be as careful as you can”!
As far back as I can remember he always said I was going to college and learn how to “meet the public”. I never really understood what that meant. I think it meant I would be able to hold my own in an argument or debate. I wish he had lived to see me installed as the president of the Rotary Club of Houston, who when I was president had a membership of 900
From as far back as I can remember, up until I was... (
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