Texaco Trinidad

Dad went to work as a geologist for Texaco (pronounced Tex-AH-co), spending some time on the rigs, checking test bores for signs of oil.

That's where he met his great friend Keith Jeffries, who married Pam. Keith died in 2013 and his obituary in the Trinidad Guardian can be found here.






Tales from the time:

• his nickname was 'Dai Death' after his numerous driving accidents
• they made him drive the jeep because 'he had no license to lose'
• in one crash he rolled a jeep in to a village and killed a water buffalo
• a friend who was flung in to an oil drum of water, thought it was fuel and was screaming that no-one should strike a match
• after injuring his back he was flung on to a flatbed carrying stinking fish
• he had an operation and they left some wadding in, which went septic
• in the fire drill, the darker a man's skin, the closer he was put to the fire - Dad was scathing about the racism on the rigs

A history of the oil industry up to 1962 can be found here.