Interviewer: Preetam Prakash

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Preetam had initially contacted Cathy Webb after speaking with Richie McCallister, the dean of occupation education at Meridian Community College. Richie had told Preetam that Cathy had a husband who worked offshore and who might be willing to speak with me. Preetam met briefly with Cathy who taught in the English Department at the college. She called Preetam back a few days after their first meeting, saying that she would like to sit down for an interview and that she could provide the perspective of an “oil field wife” even if her husband was not willing to participate. The interview took place at Cathy’s office at the community college. Cathy had grown up in the Mississippi Delta and had moved to Meridian area after meeting her husband. She talked about some of the challenges she had had to go through having been raised in a wealthy, upper class Delta family and having had to learn to fend for herself in various ways when her husband was working offshore. Overall, she held a positive view of offshore work and the financial stability it had provided her family.