In the ’70s, after drilling and pushing tools for a few years, I had every roughneck’s dream. Every roughneck I ever met wants to be a fisherman. They see him sit in his truck, making pretty good money, and they trip pipe. That’s gotta be better, right? Sometimes, but not always.
One of the big differences back then was safety. A lot of hands grew up in the ’60s and ’70s, and I can tell you one thing: If they had urine tests in those days, gas would have been $10 a gallon, ‘cause there would have been nobody to drill! I’ve seen a lot of crews walking around about a foot off the ground but, somehow, they managed to get it done. Plenty of hair and beards, too. I know hands that wouldn’t work in a sour gas field ‘cause they’d have to shave. Ya gotta have priorities, I guess. Long hair was the norm. They didn’t seem to realize it was dangerous, hot in the summer and takes a lot more taking care of if you don’t want to look like a dog with mange. Every once in a while, we’d hear of a hand getting scalped, or worse, getting his ponytail caught in rotating machinery. My hair didn’t grow very fast so I never had really long hair, but my beard would have made Duck Dynasty or ZZ Top proud.