Interviewer(s): E. Bernier. Lockport, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I met Raymond DeFelice, or Rainbo as he likes to be called, and his wife at the Exxon retirees luncheon. We scheduled the interview for the afternoon so that he could be out with his cattle in the morning. Since retiring from the oilfield in 1983, he has kept himself busy with real estate and cattle ranching. He talks a lot about what kinds of jobs and characteristics got a man a raise as well as all of the different schedules he worked. Viviane had a big box of pictures and showed me some great shots of what "everyday life was like with the oilfield in your backyard." Viviane was honest about how difficult it was to raise her kids by herself basically but knew that her husband couldn't make as much money working anywhere else at that time.

Rainbo was born in 1932 and began roughnecking during his summers off from high school. After returning from the Korean war in 1955 he began working for Offshore Drilling Company. He got a job with Exxon in 1956 as a roughneck. He worked himself up to workover superintendent by 1977. He took early retirement in 1986.