Sea of
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Oil 11/22/19 2:14 PM
For the future, to understand the past
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11/22/19 2:14 PM
For the future, to understand the past
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Sea of Oil: Story Circle Show & Tell 2019 Photographs © 2019 Laura Napier. All stories © 2019 by each storyteller. All stories printed in this book by permission. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright holders except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Edition of 100 ISBN: 978-0-578-58699-1 For more information, please contact Laura Napier, artist. http://lauranapier.com
1-13.indd 4-5
11/22/19 2:14 PM
Sea of Oil: Story Circle Show & Tell 2019 Photographs © 2019 Laura Napier. All stories © 2019 by each storyteller. All stories printed in this book by permission. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright holders except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Edition of 100 ISBN: 978-0-578-58699-1 For more information, please contact Laura Napier, artist. http://lauranapier.com
1-13.indd 4-5
11/22/19 2:14 PM
So I’m new to Houston in my adulthood. I grew up in Colorado, but before living in Colorado, we actually lived in the Woodlands for six years, and my dad worked in oil and gas. And actually previous to that, he worked on an oil rig down in Louisiana. So that was kind of all around me and my childhood, and thinking about going home and kind of going through boxes and cleaning up every time my parents or my mom has moved, and seeing all these paraphernalia of the oil companies that I’d gotten in my childhood and have dragged with me through my life. So these hats and T-shirts and just like knickknacks, just kids’ toys that I’ve just thrown away and bags and bags and bags, and just thinking about how these companies tried to appeal to communities, and make their way in through these small logos just placed on our everyday objects. Yeah, I guess just thinking about the impact of that, and then how I’ve come back full circle to being back in the Houston area, and seeing that same effect on the community and how oil and gas really shapes this area and our culture.
1-13.indd 6-7
11/22/19 2:14 PM
So I’m new to Houston in my adulthood. I grew up in Colorado, but before living in Colorado, we actually lived in the Woodlands for six years, and my dad worked in oil and gas. And actually previous to that, he worked on an oil rig down in Louisiana. So that was kind of all around me and my childhood, and thinking about going home and kind of going through boxes and cleaning up every time my parents or my mom has moved, and seeing all these paraphernalia of the oil companies that I’d gotten in my childhood and have dragged with me through my life. So these hats and T-shirts and just like knickknacks, just kids’ toys that I’ve just thrown away and bags and bags and bags, and just thinking about how these companies tried to appeal to communities, and make their way in through these small logos just placed on our everyday objects. Yeah, I guess just thinking about the impact of that, and then how I’ve come back full circle to being back in the Houston area, and seeing that same effect on the community and how oil and gas really shapes this area and our culture.
1-13.indd 6-7
11/22/19 2:14 PM
Sea of Oil may mean different things. A lot of different things, but for me, a sea of oil is a place where there is a lot of oil, which is rocks. So that’s why I brought a rock. And this is a rock called siltstone. It’s a very tight rock, and this is kind of a rock that is usually fracked, because it’s dense and has low porosity. So in order to extract oil from it, you would go and frack it. Well, this one I found in East Texas, in outcrops in one of the rivers where I went for a short trip, and there is actually a fossil in here, so it’s an old Cretaceous rock from Upper Cretaceous. One of these unconventional places, I guess. So, when I was ten years old I decided that I want to study rocks and become a geologist, and I was involved in a lot of kind of after school activities trying to go into the field, different field trips and school expeditions and Boy Scouts. But I never thought that I will end up in Houston working in the oil industry. And fast forward to now, I never worked a single day in my life in something that was not related to oil and gas, because my job is to basically find where oil is and tell where to drill. So thinking now, it’s not a surprise that I ended up in Houston, because as was said, Houston is a place where a lot of people like me end up, because of their work.
1-13.indd 8-9
11/22/19 2:14 PM
Sea of Oil may mean different things. A lot of different things, but for me, a sea of oil is a place where there is a lot of oil, which is rocks. So that’s why I brought a rock. And this is a rock called siltstone. It’s a very tight rock, and this is kind of a rock that is usually fracked, because it’s dense and has low porosity. So in order to extract oil from it, you would go and frack it. Well, this one I found in East Texas, in outcrops in one of the rivers where I went for a short trip, and there is actually a fossil in here, so it’s an old Cretaceous rock from Upper Cretaceous. One of these unconventional places, I guess. So, when I was ten years old I decided that I want to study rocks and become a geologist, and I was involved in a lot of kind of after school activities trying to go into the field, different field trips and school expeditions and Boy Scouts. But I never thought that I will end up in Houston working in the oil industry. And fast forward to now, I never worked a single day in my life in something that was not related to oil and gas, because my job is to basically find where oil is and tell where to drill. So thinking now, it’s not a surprise that I ended up in Houston, because as was said, Houston is a place where a lot of people like me end up, because of their work.
1-13.indd 8-9
11/22/19 2:14 PM
In 2012 I graduated from my undergrad at the University of Texas San Antonio with my anthropology degree. And I went out into the world and I was like, “Oh, what do I do with this?” And ended up working for an oil and gas company in San Antonio. And I was in the accounting department and that was the first time I had heard about fracking, I didn’t know what that was. I had never seen a fracking well and didn’t see a fracking well until much later in life because I worked in an office building in San Antonio. And I would hear kind of stories about, what it was, and the kinds of permitting, like air permits that they needed for these facilities and I was really clueless. I was doing accounting and making sure people got paid. And then one day I got a phone call, accidentally transferred to my line, and it was this woman who was in tears and hysterical because her son had had this really terrible skin reaction and her doctor was like, “Well, this is probably some chemical that’s coming out of your water well. Are there any sort of fracking sites near her house?” And she was like, “There are thirty, as far as I can tell.” And so I was really concerned and talked to a co-worker and my co-worker said, “Oh, yeah. We get those calls all the time, and there’s really nothing we can do.” And I was devastated. So I went to grad school, and I went for my master’s in applied anthropology, where I studied what the impacts of fracking were by talking to people who live near fracking wells in South Texas. So, fast-forward kind of eight years later, six years later, and I’m working for this environmental non-profit where I now help people who are impacted by oil and gas development in Texas. And one of the campaigns that I’m working on now is actually related to plastics because there’s been this big push to produce more plastics in the next 20 years. And so I brought my Invisalign because I didn’t want braces. This is more convenient, and I think in a lot of cases plastic is just more convenient. And for me the question is, how costly is convenience on people and on our planet?
1-13.indd 10-11
11/22/19 2:14 PM
In 2012 I graduated from my undergrad at the University of Texas San Antonio with my anthropology degree. And I went out into the world and I was like, “Oh, what do I do with this?” And ended up working for an oil and gas company in San Antonio. And I was in the accounting department and that was the first time I had heard about fracking, I didn’t know what that was. I had never seen a fracking well and didn’t see a fracking well until much later in life because I worked in an office building in San Antonio. And I would hear kind of stories about, what it was, and the kinds of permitting, like air permits that they needed for these facilities and I was really clueless. I was doing accounting and making sure people got paid. And then one day I got a phone call, accidentally transferred to my line, and it was this woman who was in tears and hysterical because her son had had this really terrible skin reaction and her doctor was like, “Well, this is probably some chemical that’s coming out of your water well. Are there any sort of fracking sites near her house?” And she was like, “There are thirty, as far as I can tell.” And so I was really concerned and talked to a co-worker and my co-worker said, “Oh, yeah. We get those calls all the time, and there’s really nothing we can do.” And I was devastated. So I went to grad school, and I went for my master’s in applied anthropology, where I studied what the impacts of fracking were by talking to people who live near fracking wells in South Texas. So, fast-forward kind of eight years later, six years later, and I’m working for this environmental non-profit where I now help people who are impacted by oil and gas development in Texas. And one of the campaigns that I’m working on now is actually related to plastics because there’s been this big push to produce more plastics in the next 20 years. And so I brought my Invisalign because I didn’t want braces. This is more convenient, and I think in a lot of cases plastic is just more convenient. And for me the question is, how costly is convenience on people and on our planet?
1-13.indd 10-11
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I think a lot about oil consumption, actually. Like a lot about it. I have a background in supply chain specifically and so when I think about items, I don’t just think about the end product or what it is, I think about everything that went into going into that product from the beginning of its creation all the way until what happens when it’s disposed of or even reused, that sort of thing. And so oil in particular has a very interesting place in my life, starting from me growing up in Detroit, being based in the auto industry there was a lot of oil and gas presence because of that, because obviously cars burn fuel for the most part. And what’s interesting was it wasn’t until I was probably in third grade that I heard that companies are starting to make electric cars, and that was kind of a really cool invention to me. I was like, “Oh, this is what the future’s going to be like.” But then it’s funny, I was talking to my mother, both my parents were in the auto industry, and I was talking to my mother a couple weeks ago and she was like, “Yeah, no one wants electric cars, that’s not what Americans are buying. So we keep making gas-guzzling cars because that’s just the way that it is.” So I think a lot also, not just about why things are made, but also about who uses them and why they use them. So a lot of the times it’s really consumer-driven. So that’s my background with the auto industry. But then I moved to Houston in 2013. At the time I was working for a big engineering conglomerate and I had started out at that conglomerate working on electric car chargers, interestingly enough. But as you start a career, and you know eventually you kind of work through different reorganizations, or people kind of place you in things, I ended up in oil and gas. Because they had two different sectors, one that does electric car chargers and one that oil and gas. And so they moved me to Houston and I started working in oil and gas. And it was a really interesting experience because they were just very different clients than I was used to, but it was perfectly fine. Eventually I got out of that industry, but it’s a big part of you when you live in Houston and it feels like a lot of people you meet happen to work in oil and gas. It’s a really big part of society.
1-13.indd 12-13
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I think a lot about oil consumption, actually. Like a lot about it. I have a background in supply chain specifically and so when I think about items, I don’t just think about the end product or what it is, I think about everything that went into going into that product from the beginning of its creation all the way until what happens when it’s disposed of or even reused, that sort of thing. And so oil in particular has a very interesting place in my life, starting from me growing up in Detroit, being based in the auto industry there was a lot of oil and gas presence because of that, because obviously cars burn fuel for the most part. And what’s interesting was it wasn’t until I was probably in third grade that I heard that companies are starting to make electric cars, and that was kind of a really cool invention to me. I was like, “Oh, this is what the future’s going to be like.” But then it’s funny, I was talking to my mother, both my parents were in the auto industry, and I was talking to my mother a couple weeks ago and she was like, “Yeah, no one wants electric cars, that’s not what Americans are buying. So we keep making gas-guzzling cars because that’s just the way that it is.” So I think a lot also, not just about why things are made, but also about who uses them and why they use them. So a lot of the times it’s really consumer-driven. So that’s my background with the auto industry. But then I moved to Houston in 2013. At the time I was working for a big engineering conglomerate and I had started out at that conglomerate working on electric car chargers, interestingly enough. But as you start a career, and you know eventually you kind of work through different reorganizations, or people kind of place you in things, I ended up in oil and gas. Because they had two different sectors, one that does electric car chargers and one that oil and gas. And so they moved me to Houston and I started working in oil and gas. And it was a really interesting experience because they were just very different clients than I was used to, but it was perfectly fine. Eventually I got out of that industry, but it’s a big part of you when you live in Houston and it feels like a lot of people you meet happen to work in oil and gas. It’s a really big part of society.
1-13.indd 12-13
11/22/19 2:14 PM
So I don’t know why, but ever since I was little, I’ve always had chapstick on me, like for the longest time, so in every single bag that I own, I have a chapstick. And for gifts, people buy me chapstick, because I go crazy if I don’t have one. So for example, I have two in my purse right now. But growing up, my grandmother always had Vaseline, like Vaseline jars in every bathroom, and she’d always be like, “Courtney, your skin is getting ashy and dry, and you need to put on some petroleum jelly.” She wouldn’t call it Vaseline, she’d just be like, “petroleum jelly.” And then, it’s like my grandfather’s gotten to this age where every time we talk about Vaseline, like at all, like, “Petroleum jelly, I need some,” he’s like, “Well, you know what? My family,”—he’s AfricanAmerican, and he has a long history of working in the fields as a kid. So he was like, “My family had land. But one of my sisters sold it before she died. And you know what? It has oil now and this other family has it, and we don’t have that money.” And it’s just interesting how the fact that we’re so obsessed, my family with this lubrication of our lips from petroleum jelly, and then my grandfather always bringing back, like, “I could have had that land that had all the oil on it,” and it’s just like this greediness. I mean, I love my grandpa, don’t get ... He’s a great man. But it’s just like, he always goes back to the like, “I worked on those fields as a kid, and then like we never knew that that oil was there.”
1-13.indd 14-15
11/22/19 2:14 PM
So I don’t know why, but ever since I was little, I’ve always had chapstick on me, like for the longest time, so in every single bag that I own, I have a chapstick. And for gifts, people buy me chapstick, because I go crazy if I don’t have one. So for example, I have two in my purse right now. But growing up, my grandmother always had Vaseline, like Vaseline jars in every bathroom, and she’d always be like, “Courtney, your skin is getting ashy and dry, and you need to put on some petroleum jelly.” She wouldn’t call it Vaseline, she’d just be like, “petroleum jelly.” And then, it’s like my grandfather’s gotten to this age where every time we talk about Vaseline, like at all, like, “Petroleum jelly, I need some,” he’s like, “Well, you know what? My family,”—he’s AfricanAmerican, and he has a long history of working in the fields as a kid. So he was like, “My family had land. But one of my sisters sold it before she died. And you know what? It has oil now and this other family has it, and we don’t have that money.” And it’s just interesting how the fact that we’re so obsessed, my family with this lubrication of our lips from petroleum jelly, and then my grandfather always bringing back, like, “I could have had that land that had all the oil on it,” and it’s just like this greediness. I mean, I love my grandpa, don’t get ... He’s a great man. But it’s just like, he always goes back to the like, “I worked on those fields as a kid, and then like we never knew that that oil was there.”
1-13.indd 14-15
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I’m a Houston transplant from Louisiana. My mother and I just sold our property last Wednesday. And after Hurricane Katrina and Rita, my mom’s property that we just sold at the time was an RV park in Lake Charles, which is about forty-five minutes south. There’s lots of refineries. Westlake Polymer is one of them. So, a lot of like the guys I went to college with were, their parents worked at the plant. And you mentioned safety. Boise Southern is a plant that was in the town that I’m from. They make paper. And then Westvaco is another plant. So grew up around the idea of plants and safety also, because I’d always see signs that said, “Over a thousand hours with no injuries.” Which I always just would ponder, like that’s good. When does that time gonna stop and what’s the next injury going to be? But part of the damage that was done on my mom’s property, since is a short story, it’s a tepee. The roof got ripped off. And in an effort to repair the roof, she had to buy sheets of roofing that was made out of oil, and it was really bad because they were price gouging. And she was talking about how ridiculous, after such a national disaster, it was to buy this material to repair the roof. And I remember realizing how important that was, so I took the paper, this brown butcher paper that is—what’s the material called? I can’t think of it. The roofing material that it’s wrapped in. And it had all these oil stains on, really thick oil stains. And I just took the paper home, and then about a year later, this project just manifested. I’m like, “I’m going to use this paper.” And it became the source material for a project that manifested later, that sort of residue leftovers.
1-13.indd 16-17
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I’m a Houston transplant from Louisiana. My mother and I just sold our property last Wednesday. And after Hurricane Katrina and Rita, my mom’s property that we just sold at the time was an RV park in Lake Charles, which is about forty-five minutes south. There’s lots of refineries. Westlake Polymer is one of them. So, a lot of like the guys I went to college with were, their parents worked at the plant. And you mentioned safety. Boise Southern is a plant that was in the town that I’m from. They make paper. And then Westvaco is another plant. So grew up around the idea of plants and safety also, because I’d always see signs that said, “Over a thousand hours with no injuries.” Which I always just would ponder, like that’s good. When does that time gonna stop and what’s the next injury going to be? But part of the damage that was done on my mom’s property, since is a short story, it’s a tepee. The roof got ripped off. And in an effort to repair the roof, she had to buy sheets of roofing that was made out of oil, and it was really bad because they were price gouging. And she was talking about how ridiculous, after such a national disaster, it was to buy this material to repair the roof. And I remember realizing how important that was, so I took the paper, this brown butcher paper that is—what’s the material called? I can’t think of it. The roofing material that it’s wrapped in. And it had all these oil stains on, really thick oil stains. And I just took the paper home, and then about a year later, this project just manifested. I’m like, “I’m going to use this paper.” And it became the source material for a project that manifested later, that sort of residue leftovers.
1-13.indd 16-17
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I’ve brought these couple of items that, both of them are like safety promotional items. One is a squeegee, it’s for automobiles, I assume, or maybe just a general squeegee. It says, “always safe, never sorry,” with the corporate logo redacted, it’s from an oil company. This one is a windshield scraper. It says, “off the job safety.” Also from an oil company, company logo redacted. And this one in particular, the scraper, I’ve, living in Houston, I’ve only used this maybe once or twice in my life, but I have this memory of when I was very small, like maybe four years old. A few extreme weather events stick in my mind. One was, there was a hurricane going to hit. I don’t know the name of the hurricane, but I remember seeing Xs of duct tape on all the windows, and my mother explaining me that there’s this thing called a hurricane coming, and I was terrified. It sounded like some kind of monster, I don’t know what it was. Another was it rained a lot. My father was taking me to a daycare center, and I remember him deciding to drive through some deep water, and ending up like six or seven hours late because the water was too deep. Another was there’s one time it got really, really cold ... cold for Southeast Texas, anyway. This was in Beaumont, and I just remember Mom taking me out to the car, and just crying, because the wind was just stinging my face, which is something that a kid in southeast Texas wasn’t used to. That’s what these made me think of, these kinds of extreme weather events that we might have to look out for more in the future.
1-13.indd 18-19
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I’ve brought these couple of items that, both of them are like safety promotional items. One is a squeegee, it’s for automobiles, I assume, or maybe just a general squeegee. It says, “always safe, never sorry,” with the corporate logo redacted, it’s from an oil company. This one is a windshield scraper. It says, “off the job safety.” Also from an oil company, company logo redacted. And this one in particular, the scraper, I’ve, living in Houston, I’ve only used this maybe once or twice in my life, but I have this memory of when I was very small, like maybe four years old. A few extreme weather events stick in my mind. One was, there was a hurricane going to hit. I don’t know the name of the hurricane, but I remember seeing Xs of duct tape on all the windows, and my mother explaining me that there’s this thing called a hurricane coming, and I was terrified. It sounded like some kind of monster, I don’t know what it was. Another was it rained a lot. My father was taking me to a daycare center, and I remember him deciding to drive through some deep water, and ending up like six or seven hours late because the water was too deep. Another was there’s one time it got really, really cold ... cold for Southeast Texas, anyway. This was in Beaumont, and I just remember Mom taking me out to the car, and just crying, because the wind was just stinging my face, which is something that a kid in southeast Texas wasn’t used to. That’s what these made me think of, these kinds of extreme weather events that we might have to look out for more in the future.
1-13.indd 18-19
11/22/19 2:14 PM
[this story was redacted by storyteller]
1-13.indd 20-21
11/22/19 2:14 PM
[this story was redacted by storyteller]
1-13.indd 20-21
11/22/19 2:14 PM
My husband is a geophysicist and has worked for many years for Shell. We traveled around the world with him. My brother is a geophysicist and my son is a geophysicist, so it runs in the family. I lived eight years in New Orleans and one of the objects I brought with me is the t-shirt that we all got from Shell when Shell went back to support the city after Katrina. I still have it although it’s dirty with paint because I have been using it for every house we have been painting and rebuilding with help from Shell to rebuild the city. And, it meant for the city a lot because after Shell said, “We’re going back,” it meant that more companies came back and it meant a lot for the locals there. The other item I brought is a drill head. It’s heavy and it’s small, this one. Officially they’re about the size of a, I don’t know, double the size of a car wheel. And the other thing I brought is a geophone, an old-school geophone, which is normally wired up by hundreds and hundreds around the cable. And you put them in the earth, and then you make some kind of tremor by an explosion or by heavy cars, special cars. And the seismic in the earth will be registrated by the geophones. It goes to a computer and then it comes to my husband and makes nice pictures out of it. So, the geologists can decide where to drill, where there may be oil or gas. And the other item I brought is a drop of the first oil from the North Sea, from Shell. Since I am Dutch and my husband works for Shell, we kept it as a memory.
1-13.indd 22-23
11/22/19 2:14 PM
My husband is a geophysicist and has worked for many years for Shell. We traveled around the world with him. My brother is a geophysicist and my son is a geophysicist, so it runs in the family. I lived eight years in New Orleans and one of the objects I brought with me is the t-shirt that we all got from Shell when Shell went back to support the city after Katrina. I still have it although it’s dirty with paint because I have been using it for every house we have been painting and rebuilding with help from Shell to rebuild the city. And, it meant for the city a lot because after Shell said, “We’re going back,” it meant that more companies came back and it meant a lot for the locals there. The other item I brought is a drill head. It’s heavy and it’s small, this one. Officially they’re about the size of a, I don’t know, double the size of a car wheel. And the other thing I brought is a geophone, an old-school geophone, which is normally wired up by hundreds and hundreds around the cable. And you put them in the earth, and then you make some kind of tremor by an explosion or by heavy cars, special cars. And the seismic in the earth will be registrated by the geophones. It goes to a computer and then it comes to my husband and makes nice pictures out of it. So, the geologists can decide where to drill, where there may be oil or gas. And the other item I brought is a drop of the first oil from the North Sea, from Shell. Since I am Dutch and my husband works for Shell, we kept it as a memory.
1-13.indd 22-23
11/22/19 2:14 PM
Originally, I was born in Baytown, Texas, and Baytown is known for its refineries. We have Exxon Mobil. My grandparents were from Baytown and La Porte, so both my families have a shared history with oil and petrochemical plants. And a lot of the relationships that I have with thinking about these refineries has impacted my personal work and why I’m interested in kind of the landscape environment, and what that means for certain communities. And so for this event, I was actually really excited because I scavenged my parent’s house and I knew I had one of these mugs, and it says, “City of Baytown Branch DuPont La Porte Credit Union.” And my grandparents were members of this credit union, and then I became a member of this credit union when I had my first job. But it’s really funny, because this is such an old logo that the plant is actually on the mug with the sailing ship. And when I was in high school, which was around 2005, the plant actually went from DuPont to Beacon. So these are kind of like vintage mugs, maybe from the early 90s, but there’s tons of different kinds like swag paraphernalia that we have. But it’s just interesting, because I grew up with family members that worked at the plants. Family members that have had environmental repercussions like cancer, also to watch my aunt have to be moved out of her neighborhood because Exxon has bought the land for like a blast radius. My grandpa went to a school in Baytown that is now condemned because the soil was so toxined. There’s some really interesting history that I have, when you start kind of unpacking these objects and what it means to be from Baytown and La Porte. And I was excited thinking that I had found a matching set.
1-13.indd 24-25
11/22/19 2:14 PM
Originally, I was born in Baytown, Texas, and Baytown is known for its refineries. We have Exxon Mobil. My grandparents were from Baytown and La Porte, so both my families have a shared history with oil and petrochemical plants. And a lot of the relationships that I have with thinking about these refineries has impacted my personal work and why I’m interested in kind of the landscape environment, and what that means for certain communities. And so for this event, I was actually really excited because I scavenged my parent’s house and I knew I had one of these mugs, and it says, “City of Baytown Branch DuPont La Porte Credit Union.” And my grandparents were members of this credit union, and then I became a member of this credit union when I had my first job. But it’s really funny, because this is such an old logo that the plant is actually on the mug with the sailing ship. And when I was in high school, which was around 2005, the plant actually went from DuPont to Beacon. So these are kind of like vintage mugs, maybe from the early 90s, but there’s tons of different kinds like swag paraphernalia that we have. But it’s just interesting, because I grew up with family members that worked at the plants. Family members that have had environmental repercussions like cancer, also to watch my aunt have to be moved out of her neighborhood because Exxon has bought the land for like a blast radius. My grandpa went to a school in Baytown that is now condemned because the soil was so toxined. There’s some really interesting history that I have, when you start kind of unpacking these objects and what it means to be from Baytown and La Porte. And I was excited thinking that I had found a matching set.
1-13.indd 24-25
11/22/19 2:14 PM
They used to have at the plant, kind of like meet your parent, take your kids to work day, or whatever, meet your parents day and I don’t think they have ... do they still have those events or ...? They did to a point. Yeah, up to a certain point because they used to be a little more open. They used to let kids, take kids in small tour groups and stuff kind of in the facilities of the plant, which I don’t ... I think you said they don’t really do that anymore because it’s kind of— Safety issues. Safety issues and stuff may have changed over time. But I remember getting, having tours of the plant and stuff and it was really fascinating and interesting and everything. I think they even gave us little uniforms and let us wear those for a little bit and gave us hearing protection, made us wear little hard hats and stuff and gave us tours of the plant. At one point, one of my favorite instances, they even took us up on the platforms of the scaffolding among some of the units, the fractionation units and other things and got to see some of that equipment up close and it’s really loud and really amazing and the view is pretty amazing up there. It was always interesting to see all that. Let’s see, yeah, I mean I suppose I never took a direct interest in it myself because I got interested in biology research myself and that’s what I majored in. But yeah, the culture is all around me anyway, so it’s a big part of the living around here.
1-13.indd 26-27
11/22/19 2:14 PM
They used to have at the plant, kind of like meet your parent, take your kids to work day, or whatever, meet your parents day and I don’t think they have ... do they still have those events or ...? They did to a point. Yeah, up to a certain point because they used to be a little more open. They used to let kids, take kids in small tour groups and stuff kind of in the facilities of the plant, which I don’t ... I think you said they don’t really do that anymore because it’s kind of— Safety issues. Safety issues and stuff may have changed over time. But I remember getting, having tours of the plant and stuff and it was really fascinating and interesting and everything. I think they even gave us little uniforms and let us wear those for a little bit and gave us hearing protection, made us wear little hard hats and stuff and gave us tours of the plant. At one point, one of my favorite instances, they even took us up on the platforms of the scaffolding among some of the units, the fractionation units and other things and got to see some of that equipment up close and it’s really loud and really amazing and the view is pretty amazing up there. It was always interesting to see all that. Let’s see, yeah, I mean I suppose I never took a direct interest in it myself because I got interested in biology research myself and that’s what I majored in. But yeah, the culture is all around me anyway, so it’s a big part of the living around here.
1-13.indd 26-27
11/22/19 2:14 PM
My story is kind of about a friend. And we had several classes together, and she’s also an art major. And I remember one time I was driving her to drop her off at her car, and I parked my car next to her car and we were just talking about like life and everything, and I asked her why she decided to be an art major. She told me that she chose to be an art major because, well, first and foremost, it’s her passion, and she’s very creative, and she wanted to go to the University of Houston for their art program. But the secondary reason she kind of mentioned was because she said that she lives near Galveston, and she said art is like the only escape for me, because there’s nothing really for me there. Because if you’re a woman where I live, your only option is kind of just to marry a guy who works at like an oil refinery or a chemical plant, and then you’re a wife. That’s what my sister does, that’s what my mom did. That’s who my brother in law is, he works at a chemical plant, and then his wife doesn’t do anything, and I don’t want to do that. I want to actually be something different instead of just being a wife of a man who works at an oil refinery. So, that was kind of a really eye-opening experience for me, to see how big of a problem it was for her, and that she had to go to such lengths to find a way out for herself, as well.
1-13.indd 28-29
11/22/19 2:14 PM
My story is kind of about a friend. And we had several classes together, and she’s also an art major. And I remember one time I was driving her to drop her off at her car, and I parked my car next to her car and we were just talking about like life and everything, and I asked her why she decided to be an art major. She told me that she chose to be an art major because, well, first and foremost, it’s her passion, and she’s very creative, and she wanted to go to the University of Houston for their art program. But the secondary reason she kind of mentioned was because she said that she lives near Galveston, and she said art is like the only escape for me, because there’s nothing really for me there. Because if you’re a woman where I live, your only option is kind of just to marry a guy who works at like an oil refinery or a chemical plant, and then you’re a wife. That’s what my sister does, that’s what my mom did. That’s who my brother in law is, he works at a chemical plant, and then his wife doesn’t do anything, and I don’t want to do that. I want to actually be something different instead of just being a wife of a man who works at an oil refinery. So, that was kind of a really eye-opening experience for me, to see how big of a problem it was for her, and that she had to go to such lengths to find a way out for herself, as well.
1-13.indd 28-29
11/22/19 2:14 PM
The oil and gas industry has probably always been a part of my life. I grew up with my dad, my uncles, a lot of my family members that were in the oil and gas industry. Some of my earliest memories is going to the plant, going to the safety fairs, that kind of stuff with my dad, getting to see up close. I remember later on in life, my dad, he was always really proud of his work and he would drive me around the plant. Not necessarily inside the plant, but outside if they was close enough to a project that he had just got done and he would love to explain it to me. He would love to show me everything he built or what he put together. And he would love to explain to me how it worked. But I would say it really didn’t become a big part of my life until right after high school, it was an opportunity for me. With the oil and gas industry, there was many, much work out there for people that may not had the college education they needed. And you had the opportunity of making enough money to survive. Through high school, I was the top of my class, I made great grades. I had a lot of plans for my future. When I graduated, I was pregnant. And so unfortunately, I had to go right into the real world to work. Minimum wage back then was just slightly over $5 an hour. There was no way I was going to work minimum wage. I had no education to be able to actually support my child, pay bills. So I decided the industrial field may be for me. I was young, I was a little bit on the heavy side and I went and I applied for every general labor job I could. And I got hired on for a contractor out of ExxonMobil. I was originally hired on for a three month turnaround and I worked seventwelves, it was very hard. The FRCs, the hard hat, the steel toes, but darn it, I was making a lot more money. I was able to provide for my child. And that three month turnaround kept me a permanent job. Although I didn’t suffer the layoff like most of them did, because I put all into it. Being a female, it was very hard and you really had to work twice as hard. For them to respect you in that industry, it was tough. But I did stay with that company for right at ten years. Don’t think I would ever want to back track. But it was definitely an opportunity I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.
1-13.indd 30-31
11/22/19 2:14 PM
The oil and gas industry has probably always been a part of my life. I grew up with my dad, my uncles, a lot of my family members that were in the oil and gas industry. Some of my earliest memories is going to the plant, going to the safety fairs, that kind of stuff with my dad, getting to see up close. I remember later on in life, my dad, he was always really proud of his work and he would drive me around the plant. Not necessarily inside the plant, but outside if they was close enough to a project that he had just got done and he would love to explain it to me. He would love to show me everything he built or what he put together. And he would love to explain to me how it worked. But I would say it really didn’t become a big part of my life until right after high school, it was an opportunity for me. With the oil and gas industry, there was many, much work out there for people that may not had the college education they needed. And you had the opportunity of making enough money to survive. Through high school, I was the top of my class, I made great grades. I had a lot of plans for my future. When I graduated, I was pregnant. And so unfortunately, I had to go right into the real world to work. Minimum wage back then was just slightly over $5 an hour. There was no way I was going to work minimum wage. I had no education to be able to actually support my child, pay bills. So I decided the industrial field may be for me. I was young, I was a little bit on the heavy side and I went and I applied for every general labor job I could. And I got hired on for a contractor out of ExxonMobil. I was originally hired on for a three month turnaround and I worked seventwelves, it was very hard. The FRCs, the hard hat, the steel toes, but darn it, I was making a lot more money. I was able to provide for my child. And that three month turnaround kept me a permanent job. Although I didn’t suffer the layoff like most of them did, because I put all into it. Being a female, it was very hard and you really had to work twice as hard. For them to respect you in that industry, it was tough. But I did stay with that company for right at ten years. Don’t think I would ever want to back track. But it was definitely an opportunity I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.
1-13.indd 30-31
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I worked for [company redacted] and retired with thirty-five years of service. And in the ‘70s I guess something called OSHA came into effect. They didn’t have it before then, it’s Occupational Safety Health Administration, or we liked to call it Occupational Safety Hazard Awareness. Besides wearing the hard hats and the glasses and the steel-toed shoes and different safety issues or equipment, they had a yearly thing where we would other kind of intense safety training. One of them was where you went and put on breathing air. You would have the tanks and you would have the breathing air masks and you would go into a room. I was real excited the first time I did that, not knowing what I was getting into. I went out to the fire ground and you walk out there and they put you in some heavy boots and a bunker coat like the fireman wear, and also these two tanks on the ground. And of course I couldn’t pick them up and they said, “You’re going to have breathing air. You have a mask and you’re going to have breathing air on.” So of course the guys had lifted up over me and put it down and then I had to snap all the buckles and the straps and everything and put the mask on. You have a strap that goes around and then you have a mask and you have a hose and the hose is connected to those tanks. Well, they said, “You ready?” And I said, “Yeah, I’m fine.” Well, they let go of me and I just went straight back. It was really heavy, so I had to learn how you bend forward and keep the tanks balanced that way. That wasn’t the end of it, we got to go into what’s called a smoky room like you’re going into a fire and all you see is a little ten by something room. Opened the door and they said, “Okay. You just go in there, go all the way back to the back, touch the back wall, turn around and come out and you’ve passed the test.” I said, “Easy.” So they opened that door and I couldn’t see my hand in front of me, I couldn’t see my feet. I knew I was there because I still had the tanks on. I couldn’t see anything, I thought, “Where’s the back wall?” So I’m starting walking towards the back wall and then finally found the wall and turned around and I was breathing like Darth Vader and I made it out and I made it. So, I guess the reality of it is, I’m glad I had the experience but I don’t think I really want to do that in real life.
1-13.indd 32-33
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I worked for [company redacted] and retired with thirty-five years of service. And in the ‘70s I guess something called OSHA came into effect. They didn’t have it before then, it’s Occupational Safety Health Administration, or we liked to call it Occupational Safety Hazard Awareness. Besides wearing the hard hats and the glasses and the steel-toed shoes and different safety issues or equipment, they had a yearly thing where we would other kind of intense safety training. One of them was where you went and put on breathing air. You would have the tanks and you would have the breathing air masks and you would go into a room. I was real excited the first time I did that, not knowing what I was getting into. I went out to the fire ground and you walk out there and they put you in some heavy boots and a bunker coat like the fireman wear, and also these two tanks on the ground. And of course I couldn’t pick them up and they said, “You’re going to have breathing air. You have a mask and you’re going to have breathing air on.” So of course the guys had lifted up over me and put it down and then I had to snap all the buckles and the straps and everything and put the mask on. You have a strap that goes around and then you have a mask and you have a hose and the hose is connected to those tanks. Well, they said, “You ready?” And I said, “Yeah, I’m fine.” Well, they let go of me and I just went straight back. It was really heavy, so I had to learn how you bend forward and keep the tanks balanced that way. That wasn’t the end of it, we got to go into what’s called a smoky room like you’re going into a fire and all you see is a little ten by something room. Opened the door and they said, “Okay. You just go in there, go all the way back to the back, touch the back wall, turn around and come out and you’ve passed the test.” I said, “Easy.” So they opened that door and I couldn’t see my hand in front of me, I couldn’t see my feet. I knew I was there because I still had the tanks on. I couldn’t see anything, I thought, “Where’s the back wall?” So I’m starting walking towards the back wall and then finally found the wall and turned around and I was breathing like Darth Vader and I made it out and I made it. So, I guess the reality of it is, I’m glad I had the experience but I don’t think I really want to do that in real life.
1-13.indd 32-33
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I have come here today to this show and tell to talk about my Uncle, Thomas Aldons. He worked for Esso for over forty years and was Chief Petty Officer on the Warwickshire oil tanker, which was the main ship responsible for bringing in North Sea oil to Great Britain in 1976. This was a collaboration between Esso and Shell, and involved a great deal of heavy dangerous duties to make sure that the oil was brought in safely and securely. In those years gone by, there was not as much reliance on computers more on the knowledge of men that had spent their working lives dedicated to learning about the sea and how to handle it. After my mother died last November, I found among her things newspaper reports of the events in the North Sea and the men involved. My uncle was featured in these reports as one of the top people that worked for Esso on this project. I have brought along a copy of one of those newspaper editions today and also a small vial containing a drop of North Sea oil. This was given to only a few of the people involved as a memento to keep and remember their part in the history of oil around the world. I am so pleased to be able to show these things to you today, and share his remarkable story. I am and always will be very proud of him.
1-13.indd 34-35
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I have come here today to this show and tell to talk about my Uncle, Thomas Aldons. He worked for Esso for over forty years and was Chief Petty Officer on the Warwickshire oil tanker, which was the main ship responsible for bringing in North Sea oil to Great Britain in 1976. This was a collaboration between Esso and Shell, and involved a great deal of heavy dangerous duties to make sure that the oil was brought in safely and securely. In those years gone by, there was not as much reliance on computers more on the knowledge of men that had spent their working lives dedicated to learning about the sea and how to handle it. After my mother died last November, I found among her things newspaper reports of the events in the North Sea and the men involved. My uncle was featured in these reports as one of the top people that worked for Esso on this project. I have brought along a copy of one of those newspaper editions today and also a small vial containing a drop of North Sea oil. This was given to only a few of the people involved as a memento to keep and remember their part in the history of oil around the world. I am so pleased to be able to show these things to you today, and share his remarkable story. I am and always will be very proud of him.
1-13.indd 34-35
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I’m also not from Houston. I’m originally from Nashville, then I went to college in North Texas. Then I moved to New York City, where I got involved in what I do now, which is environmental advocacy. And the first issue that I ever worked on was fracking, so I worked on New York’s ban on fracking. And then I decided to move to Houston because there’s plenty of organizers in New York and it’s way too cold and dark for me, and I decided to come back to Houston because of my work in fracking I just was really interested in seeing what could be done about the oil and gas industry in the heart of it. I really enjoy living in Houston. I love it so much. I’ve been here almost two years now. And so, the item that I brought is a pop socket that says Chevron on it, and so I got this just a couple weeks ago, which is why I was so excited about this project. I just got this like a week and a half ago. My boyfriend works for a fire department, not Houston. It’s a city in the Houston region though, and Chevron went to the fire department one day and dropped off a bunch of swag, and they got key chains and pop sockets and pencils. And as soon as my boyfriend told me this, I was like, “Get me something,” because I had heard about this from one of my friends, Yvette, who works with the environmental justice organization Tejas, and it was one of the very first things that that Yvette ever told me about her experience working in Manchester, and part of her community and communities here in Houston that, we know where the oil and gas industry, really takes over their culture. One of the first stories she ever told me was about how Valero would throw a parade for the community and pass out toys and candy and stuff to kids, and I also saw that myself at a state meeting about a Valero facility in Manchester, where they were also giving out food and drinks. And so, it’s just kind of, just interesting to me that the pop socket itself actually has Chevron’s emergency number on it. I think first it’s weird just to have a logo as a decoration for your phone, but just, with the emergency number right there it’s just kind of pulls it all together, sort of, for me.
1-13.indd 36-37
11/22/19 2:14 PM
I’m also not from Houston. I’m originally from Nashville, then I went to college in North Texas. Then I moved to New York City, where I got involved in what I do now, which is environmental advocacy. And the first issue that I ever worked on was fracking, so I worked on New York’s ban on fracking. And then I decided to move to Houston because there’s plenty of organizers in New York and it’s way too cold and dark for me, and I decided to come back to Houston because of my work in fracking I just was really interested in seeing what could be done about the oil and gas industry in the heart of it. I really enjoy living in Houston. I love it so much. I’ve been here almost two years now. And so, the item that I brought is a pop socket that says Chevron on it, and so I got this just a couple weeks ago, which is why I was so excited about this project. I just got this like a week and a half ago. My boyfriend works for a fire department, not Houston. It’s a city in the Houston region though, and Chevron went to the fire department one day and dropped off a bunch of swag, and they got key chains and pop sockets and pencils. And as soon as my boyfriend told me this, I was like, “Get me something,” because I had heard about this from one of my friends, Yvette, who works with the environmental justice organization Tejas, and it was one of the very first things that that Yvette ever told me about her experience working in Manchester, and part of her community and communities here in Houston that, we know where the oil and gas industry, really takes over their culture. One of the first stories she ever told me was about how Valero would throw a parade for the community and pass out toys and candy and stuff to kids, and I also saw that myself at a state meeting about a Valero facility in Manchester, where they were also giving out food and drinks. And so, it’s just kind of, just interesting to me that the pop socket itself actually has Chevron’s emergency number on it. I think first it’s weird just to have a logo as a decoration for your phone, but just, with the emergency number right there it’s just kind of pulls it all together, sort of, for me.
1-13.indd 36-37
11/22/19 2:14 PM
Thanks to anonymous, Brandy Ball, Rabéa Ballin, Rosanne Barone, Glen Carpenter, Ashley DeHoyos, Ivonne Douma, Justin Garrett, Mia DeBakker, Debra Gross, Sandra Hill, Cristy Jadick, Courtney Amanda Khim, Teresa Pettyjohn, Henry Sanchez, Carrie Schneider, Mikhail Tsypin, Priscilla Villa-Watt, and Quang Vu. Thanks to DiverseWorks, Surpik Angelini and The Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology, and Carrie Robinson and the Sterling Municipal Library for hosting. Thanks to Jessica González and Zitlaly Valenzuela Jimenez for workshop assistance. Book design: Liyen Chong
T R A N S A R T Foundation
1-13.indd 38-39
11/22/19 2:14 PM
Thanks to anonymous, Brandy Ball, Rabéa Ballin, Rosanne Barone, Glen Carpenter, Ashley DeHoyos, Ivonne Douma, Justin Garrett, Mia DeBakker, Debra Gross, Sandra Hill, Cristy Jadick, Courtney Amanda Khim, Teresa Pettyjohn, Henry Sanchez, Carrie Schneider, Mikhail Tsypin, Priscilla Villa-Watt, and Quang Vu. Thanks to DiverseWorks, Surpik Angelini and The Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology, and Carrie Robinson and the Sterling Municipal Library for hosting. Thanks to Jessica González and Zitlaly Valenzuela Jimenez for workshop assistance. Book design: Liyen Chong
T R A N S A R T Foundation
1-13.indd 38-39
11/22/19 2:14 PM
1-13.indd 40
11/22/19 2:14 PM