Oil Book Review! (Roughnecks, Drillers, and Tool Pushers: Thirty-three Years in the Oil Fields)
I recently finished the workplace memoir "Roughnecks, Drillers, and Tool Pushers: Thirty-three Years in the Oil Fields" by Gerald Lynch. This book is many things, but it's mostly a firsthand historical account of one man's career working in the oil fields from the mid-1920s until the late-1950s. This book had personal significance to me, as my father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and many uncles and cousins have worked in the oil industry. I was raised listening to stories of oil drilling misadventures, never truly knowing what terms used meant (B.O.P., crown block, rat hole, casing, tool pusher, etc.). This book forced me to do my research as I read, googling each term, lest I was not able to appreciate the litany of colorful stories in this charming book. The book itself follows Gerald Lynch who, as a young man, gets an opportunity through family to work at the lowest levels on an oil derrick in northeast Texas. Over the years he grows from a wil...