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

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Joe Taylor was recommended to my by Hubert Chesson. Both worked for Texaco, and Hubert said that Joe was one of the oldest hands still around. I went to Joe's house a couple days later - his place was across the bayou, just a couple blocks up from the apartment I had rented. Joe was at home watching TV, and although he was a little gruff at the get-go, once he warmed up to the interview we had a long and interesting talk. He provided some vivid descriptions about the conditions he was born into - the lack of opportunities in rural Texas, combined with the Great Depression, really put the squeeze on a lot of people. Also, he talks about how strange it was to move into French country, and how many of the men he started working with didn't speak much English. We talked about the old steam rigs that he worked on, and some of the differences between drilling in Texas and Louisiana.

Joe Taylor was born in Texas, began working for the Texas Company as a young man in 1935, and finished his career in Louisiana with the same company (which had by then become Texaco). Joe started out as a roughneck in Texas, and by the end of his career, he was a drilling and production foreman for the rest of his career. He's 88 years old, so he's seen quite a bit of change in the industry. There are some interesting comments about the difference in the foreman's responsibility with Texaco as compared to Exxon and other companies, and we also talk about how he was able to work with inexperienced or difficult hands once he was in a supervisory position.