Interviewer(s): A. Gardner. New Iberia, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Hubert Chesson was recommended to me by Rene Seneca. Both are Texaco hands. I met Hubert on his porch on the outskirts of New Iberia. He was working in the yard and wearing the ubiquitous coveralls. His hands were dirty with oil and grease from whatever he was doing. Hubert was a fun guy to talk to - he was frank and forthright with me, and there was lots of good material in the interview. He spends some time talking about the various schedules that he worked after the war, and we end up talking about the Texaco camps for a while. The descriptions he gives are probably the best I have, and he notes that the camp concept was finally given up after a hurricane took them all out. Most of the rest of the discussion is about gas production, although there is a fairly frank evaluation of the friction caused by the racial quotas instigated in the late 1960's. He is also one of the few oilmen to admit to me that the oilfield was a pretty dangerous place to work in the early days.

Hubert comes from a Texaco family, and although he had some experience with other companies before the war, he got on with Texaco in 1946. He worked for the company for 38 years, beginning in drilling and ending in gas production. He made these advancements without a high school education.