After graduation, I worked for the Pampa Ice Co. during the summer and then for Radcliff Supply Co. thru the winter until college started for the fall semester of 1959.  I enrolled at Lamar Tech (now Lamar University) at Beaumont in pre-engineering.  I only completed one semester - my money ran low.  I came home and worked at various jobs and took some night classes at Frank Phillips Jr. College in Borger.

 

I joined the Texas National Guard in the fall of 1960 and had six months basic training at Ft. Ord, California near the Monterey Peninsula - a beautiful place.  My service was from 1960-1966 and spent my summer camps at Ft. Hood, Texas and one at Ft. Polk, Louisiana.  I trained in heavy weapons and graduated from NCO school at Ft. Hood. 

 

After my basic training, I worked in Pampa until the spring of 1961 when I was hired on a contract payroll for Phillips Petroleum Co. on one of their seismograph crews in Hutchinson, Kansas --- based out f Manhattan, Kansas.  I was hired to work with the survey crew but had to learn what was involved with each job.  From 1961 until 1970 (when the crews were sold), I worked in Kansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, Louisiana (Northern, Avery Island, Cameron (south of New Orleans), West Texas (Kermit & Ft. Stockton areas),  Panhandle of Texas (Wheeler & Mobeetie areas),  Wyoming (Rawlins, Gillette, Rock Springs, and south of Ft. Bridger and Evanston in the Uintah Mtns), Craig, Colorado, and Utah (Moab & Vernal). 

A little anecdote - I rented a Tux in Jackson, Mississippi to be “Best Man” at Bill Breashears’ wedding in El Dorado, Arkansas.  The morning I picked it up near the Capitol Bldg. was the day of Medgar Evers funeral and a lot of cars were driving around..  There had been the riots, water hoses, and arrests there the weeks before.  Needless to say,"I got out of Dodge” and got a few “looks” as I left. 

 

I was hired on the Phillips payroll in July, 1963 and took my physical in Jackson, Mississippi and drove to join the crew in Moab, Utah (John Wayne country).  We drove thru Castle Valley to our job site each day, and I expected to see the Calvary come charging around one of those huge sandstone formations. 

I had the privilege of working and surveying in some of the most remote and beautiful places in the U.S. for about a 6 year period off & on, mostly in the Uintah mountains where Jim Bridger, Butch Cassidy, the Swedes who cut cross-ties for the Union Pacific RR., and  a lot of pioneers traveled.

 

I transferred back to Pampa in 1970 in the natural gas end of the oil business and worked many different jobs including roustabout, field operator, plant operator, warehouseman, gas dispatcher, and production clerk.  I took early retirement in July of 1999 at the age of 59 3/4 and with 36 years of service.

 

I have a daughter in Bishop, CA. from my first marriage and a grandson, step-grandson and step-granddaughter and step-great-granddaughter in Kingman, AZ and a grandson in Reno, NV.  I travel lots of miles when I visit.  I  re-married in 1972.  My wife, Charlene, passed away in June, 2002 after 30 years of marriage.  I have not re-married yet, but maybe.

 

Since I have retired, I have been active (too active) with being a “Gold Coat” with the Pampa Chamber of Commerce, on the Pampa Fine Arts Board helping with the “Chautauqua” and “Arts & Crafts Festival”--- and helping with the restoration of the Burlington Rail Road depot on south Russell street for use by the Pampa Fine Arts for their office, art classes,  and art displays,  Friends of Pampa Library (book sale Chairman),  Advisory Board of the White Deer Land Museum, PHS Reunion Committee, and  Secretary/Treasurer of the Tri-State Senior Golf Association.

 

After I retired, I did not realize I did not have time to go to work!