Interviewer(s): A. Anand. Chauvin, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Mr. Ferrel Chauvin was referred to me by his younger brother, Mr. D.J. Chauvin, who also called him to introduce me. Both Mr. and Mrs. Chauvin (Grace) were quite friendly (she came in mid-interview), and the interview was quite informative. We talked for a while about traveling, and about various things in general like cultural differences. The Chauvins have traveled a fair bit, and Mr. Ferrel Chauvin is very proud that he has traveled to Europe a few times and taken his kids to most of the big monuments across the U.S.

Mr. Ferrel was born in Chauvin in 1932. He served in the Army in the early 1950s. After leaving the Army in 1953, he joined Mobil as a kitchen hand, then became a roustabout, and then a roughneck. He went to work for Texaco in 1954 and worked his way up from being a derrick man, mud engineer, and driller, to a senior drilling supervisor before his retirement on December 31, 1989. Mr. Ferrel remembered his years in the oilpatch fondly, particularly the jokes crew members played on each other, a subject on which he said he could write a book! I returned to interview him on the 18th for more specifics about his work experience.