"Tinker Toy Drilling"
Back then, families were much closer, worked and played together and helped each other in times of need. When the company moved to a new location with a rig, related equipment and as many as 25 families with their cars and trailers in a caravan. In some areas of the country, drillers and their families were looked on as transients and weren't well accepted when they moved into a new area.
On holidays, being unable to travel respective homes bases, the employees and their families would get together, usually at our home to celebrate.
One Christmas in Pensacola, FL all the families gathered at our home for dinner and exchange gifts. Most of the individual families couldn't afford Christmas trees and decorations. Each of the men had purchased Tinker Toy sets, put them all together and proceeded to build a drilling rig on our living room floor. They took my Mother's electric fans apart to use the motors as power units. The men spent all of one day and most of the next building the rig. I was about 6 feet tall and took up most of the living room floor. They put some of our tree lights on the rig for rig lights. Once it was completed and a working model, the men wouldn't allow myself or their kids play with it and my Mother couldn't get her living room back for several weeks.
On weekends the fellows would return to play with, add to and improve on their design. They did everything except drill a well through the floor. After a few months when the fan motors finally wore out, they took it all down and finally let their kids have the Tinker Toys. Dad had replaced Mom's fans months before. To say the least, my folks were happy to have their living room back.
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