My olfactory nerves were on overload as the smell of boiled eggs emanated from the rich, brown soup that swirled around the canoe.  It’s not a smell altogether offensive, not reeking solely of death and decomposition, but a dark earthy scent exuding both life and death.  Some folks would say the water is just stagnant;… Read more –>

Coastal Welding’s office in Houma, LA, where I was to sign up for the roustabout position, was dingy, with walls the color of cigarette smoke.  Decked out in my painter’s pants, chambray work shirt, and steel-toed boots, the industrial feel of the place fuelled my enthusiasm.  Behind the desk sat a very short, rather pudgy,… Read more –>

My first job as a roustabout for an oil production company was a great experience.  Even though it ended abruptly, I never pursued justice but instead turned my focus to finding another job.  Being single again, there was no second income to fall back on, and a J-O-B was what I needed F-A-S-T.  Despite the… Read more –>

“Hey, gal! I’m Freddie.  I’m the boss around here.  I got word from the big boss that you’re our new dispatcher.  Your room is the first room on the left.  You’ll share a bathroom with that knucklehead, Ernie.  There’s the desk, the phone, and the radio.  No long distance personal calls.  Our call sign for… Read more –>

We hadn’t gone far up the bayou, when Roscoe pulled up in front of the small local store and gas pumps asking me if I wanted something to drink.  Never one to drink much but coffee in the morning, but not wanting to hurt his feelings, I said sure–anything.  Quick as a flash, he was… Read more –>

How do you court someone when you live where you work, seven days at a stretch?  Any time and any place, that’s how, because in the oil field, there is no schedule.  Time doesn’t mean a thing.  Ever heard the old saying, “Hurry up and wait”?  Well, that’s the oil field in a nutshell.  The… Read more –>

Crew-change day was there before I knew it and time to embark on a new adventure.  Oh sure, I had ridden on crew boats when I worked over at the production dock.  My first was a ride out to the edge of the Gulf of Mexico on a fifty-foot crew-boat run by a suntanned crew… Read more –>

For days after my first crew boat excursion, all I could think about were the mysteries that lie beyond the mouth of Bayou Grand Caillou  in that vast ocean called the Gulf of Mexico.  Previously, those were just words on the map sitting below Louisiana, between Florida and Texas.  Now, those words denoted a real… Read more –>

April 1981.  That was it.  It was done.  Small, cozy home wedding followed by honeymoon in Hawaii.  Time to finish up my first semester in Elementary Education with some good grades and take the summer off to plan, dream, and think about what the future holds. That was the summer I fell in love with… Read more –>