Interviewer: Preetam Prakash

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Robert Boles, whom Preetam interviewed shortly after arriving in the Meridian area, had originally tried to put him in contact with Billy Joe Teu. Billy Joe was a friend of Robert’s who had grown up in the same rural area in Clarke County. Preetam spoke with Billy Joe shortly after he interviewed Robert and they arranged to meet the following week. Billy Joe had been unable to attend college after graduating from high school due to financial constraints and had originally hitchhiked to New Orleans to get a job in the oil fields. He repeatedly described the oil field of the 1960s and 70s as a “man’s world” and emphasized the opportunities that existed in the oil industry of that time if one was capable and hard working. He was at times, sharply critical of the excessive safety and environmental regulations which he believed had come to characterize the industry in recent years and which had drastically altered the nature of work. The increasing reliance on professional engineers and automated and computerized equipment in the offshore oil industry since the 1980s was another issue which drew his criticism for having contributed to a de-skilling of the workforce and also for resulting in young people with very little experience actually working in the oil fields assuming positions of authority over long time industry workers. Billy Joe had worked his way up from roustabout to driller, working for Shell Oil Company for much of his career. He had retired from Shell in the early 1990s, but had then gone to work for a consulting company. At the time of the interview, he had stopped working in the oil industry just a few months prior due to health issues.