In the 1950s, I was involved in oil drilling gas in southeastern Kansas. Much of the free-flowing, 28 gravity (thick) oil had diminished to one to three barrels per day. Hence came secondary recovery!
Recently, I went to a jobsite in the mountains to watch the drilling of a new well. Upon arriving, I saw some drilling equipment that I didn’t recognize.
In the ’70s our sons, Bess and myself were building dune buggies as a hobby in south Georgia. We were known locally as the dune buggy builders of Adel.
Someone approached us one day and asked if we would be interested in buying an Amphicar. There were only 3,000 of these boat/cars manufactured in Germany in the ’60s, and I had always wanted one but thought the possibility was out of the question. But, here it was.
In the late 60s, we attended the Florida Water Well Exposition in Orlando, Fla. We were living in Adel, Ga., at the time. There wasn’t much room for the four of us in our 1967 Ford F-100 single cab pickup, as it had two factory installed Mustang bucket seats. We had just purchased a microwave oven and went by the appliance store to pick it up. While there, we saw a big refrigerator cardboard box and the appliance dealer said we could have it.
I can remember when my dad was working for George E. Failing Company as a salesman and troubleshooter. He usually hung out at Failing Plant No. 2 in South Enid, Okla., where the original Failing drill sat outside for many years. That rig was my playground.
Before
state well regulations and drilling licensing was required, our company would
occasionally drill a well inside a property where a basement was to be built.
There are many small, portable drilling machines
manufactured all over the world that I would classify as wannabe drills-drills
that are purchased by well-meaning nonprofit charities, church groups and
others to drill water wells in developing countries.
