The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

Although politics and religion are not completely off-limits, classmates are asked to be positive in their posts and not to be too repetitive or allow a dialog to degenerate into an argument. 

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Steve Keene

Janalu,

Peddle car?  I had a rocking horse I could get out of bed in the middle of the night and ride.  It was attached by four big springs to a metal frame.  My folks could hear the springs working overtime.  I also had a record player that played 45 singles of "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train." and "Happy Trails To You" by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Steve Keene

Janalu,

Here is another one of my favorites.

Jerry May

To all of our RHS Moms:

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!

Ron Knight

Yes indeed Jerry!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers of the two and four legged variety! Have a special one to be always remembered with "The" virus!!!

Wayne Gary

David,

The picture of thr "Kips Big Boy" with a mask is good.  The Kips was at the Hillcrest and NW Highway when were in HS.  It is now in Lake Highlands.

Steve Keene

I wish a blessed day to all those who wanted to be mothers and were never able.  Love those pets.  From the looks and actions of some of the kids I've seen, you may have gotten the better deal.

Mike Marks

Janalu,

I am not sure who has the best memory of our Elementary School days, you or Lowell Tuttle. After reviewing your list, I do remember all of them. It's amazing to think most of those products don't even exist now. What we thought was modern back then, kids would laugh at now. Powdered toothpaste? Instead of cap guns, now they would have paint ball wars or Lazer tag. We may have been low tech, but we were all active and outside often.

I must admit, I was a typical Boy back then. Many of my fond memories from those distant days revolved around food and recess. Before we transferred to Heights 2nd. grade, I do recall coming into our first grade classroom on the Stadium Side of Greenville and at some point having a "rest period". I don't know if we had floor mats, but I think we may have simply laid on the floor.I am not sure if that time was a benefit for us or Mrs. Hanson, our Teacher.

Hope all is good for everyone in Texas and you all are safe.

Wayne Gary

HELLO

I got this from a friend and thought I would pass it on

David Cordell

Steve, I'm trying to figure out what Dale Evans is thinking in that photo. Doesn't look like a loving, admiring gaze to me. I think she is plotting how to get back at him for something.

This was forwarded to me by a some-time reader.

Steve Keene

David

I think that is a smile of satisfaction that they don't have to share the overseas royalties to that song with their American agent since they changed the spelling of their names.

David Cordell

Steve, I can see how those misspellings might Trigger your imagination. Your wit is faster than a speeding Bullet. (I'm too sleepy to do anything with Buttermilk or Nellie Belle.)

Steve Keene

David,

I just got an email at the end of the day notifying me that now not only have I lost my two jobs, but now the company that I turned the big leases to, in Dimmitt County in South Texas next door to the Briscoe Ranch, has decided to shut all their leases in the Eagleford due to the oil price.  In light of our ongoing dialog, all I can say is "Hi Ho Silver, Away."  They must be stupid because the shut in wells will never return to their original volumes when they turn them back on and they will be essentially be abandoning half the reserves in place.  "Me No Sabe."  I guess I can go free lance and start writing Geico commercials. Just when I was ready to kick back, I find my best option is to kick off.

David Cordell

Steve,

I'm very sorry about your employment situation. The ol bidness has always been feast-or-famine, but it seems like a really big famine right now. Looks like the June contract for WTI crude is at $25.48 as I write this. What do you think the price will be in 6 months? A year?

Steve Keene

David,

40 and 60.

Steve Keene

David,

Your feast or famine comment reminds me of what my mother and grandfather used to say.  They said the oil business was either chicken or feathers.

Kurt Fischer

Steve:

It looks like my oil and gas holdings are about to disappear also.

My father had a small piece of a stripper well in northTexas (near Chico).  My sister and I inherited it.  Now we have two very small fractions of the well.  Each month we would receive a multi-page production report and a request to pay in several dollars to cover our share of the expenses.  We wrote to the management company fairly often to request returning our share of the JV.  Never had any luck.

Yesterday we both received the excellent news that the well is going to be capped and abandoned.  Our share to fund this is $19.95.  Our first question was "Where do we sign and send a check?"  Free at last!

One aspect of the deal is a bit funny.  The letter provides us with two choices.  1) Consent to the operations covered by this AFE  or 2) Do not consent and accept assignment of the wellbore.  Ie., Send us the money or it's your responsibility!

I assume $34,000 to plug and abandon a well is a reasonable price?  

Anyway, it's now time to exit the oil and gas business.

Steve Keene

Kurt,

That's reasonable.  My sister, a nephew and niece, and I have the minerals on 160 acres 2 miles north of Chico in Wise County. Devon Energy came through and wanted to drill a Barnett Shale well about 12 years ago when my Dad had it.  They offered $500 an acre and a 20% royalty.  I told my Dad to take it, because I knew the Devon landman Bob Sample and that was the going rate in that area.  He said no he was going to hold out for 25%.  They put in a unit and bypassed him.  I never could get him to understand that 20% of something was a whole lot better than 25% of nothing.

Jerry May

I looked around for this one.......I'm pretty sure ole Roy played in Austin a lot

Kurt Fischer

Steve:

Looking at the location of this well that is being capped, it is apparent to me that I visited the site before.  It was back in my college years.  Since my father was a part owner of the well (maybe .0001?), he was invited to the site when they were going to frack the well.  My dad invited me to come along.

This was the only time I have been around when a well was being fracked.  How impressive it was.  Huge diesel engines were surrounding the well.  Then they cranked them up and the entire earth shook. It was a magnificent experience.  

It's always been funny to me when people are horrified with fracking and treat it as a recent innovation.  It's been around since 1950.  What is different recently is the advent of horizontal drilling which allows a single bore hole to be exploited in many directions and at many depths.  This has increased the amount of fracking significantly.  

Steve Keene

Kurt,

You are exactly right.  I fracture stimulated a well in 1977 as my first one for Chevron.  I drilled over 600 wells in the Texas Panhandle, and I bet I fracked 90%.   The only time you did not frack was when you had a high porosity zone like a sandstone and the initial volumes were so good, you were afraid of messing it up.  In shales and low porosity carbonates fracking is almost mandatory to increase the permeability so that the oil and gas tied up in the rock can reach the wellbore to be produced.  The only exception there, is when you lucked out into tapping into an already existing natural fracture system that was already in place.  Even then, after producing the initial flush production in the fractures, it was common to go back and frack the well to produce what was tied up in the rock matrix that the natural fractures went through.  I have seen the best of both worlds.  I remember some wells that were producing 40 to 100 bbls of oil a day, that after fracking never made another drop of oil.  I have also seen wells that made just a show of oil and hint of gas that after fracking became your best producers.

The key to fracking environmentally conscious and safely is to have the fresh water zones protected by good surface casing and cement.  On very deep wells it is also necesarry to set intermediate casing to protect the salt water or shallower hydrocarbon producing zones from the high pressures typically encountered in the deepest targeted producing zones.  Where fracking got it's bad name is where deeper wells were drilled in areas that had shallow wells drilled before regulations were promulgated and that had been poorly plugged or just covered over.   These had penetrated the fresh water zones and left them unprotected.  The blame for ruining some fresh water zones therefore was not the fault of the new operator who did everything right, but the earlier producers who did whatever was cheapest and were not held to any standard of accountability.

Kurt Fischer

Steve:

Wow.  This was the most succinct explanation of why fracking infrequently impacts water quality that I have read.  Nicely done.

Kurt Fischer

One last oil and gas comment.

Although the price of oil is down so much now that I don't hear from people that gasoline is too expensive and the oil and gas firms are rippping us off, when we climb back to a reasonable level I expect to hear the age old chorus.  

Working for Mobil Oil and Exxon always helped me keep in perspective how inexpensive our gasoline is.

As you know, major oil and gas firms are made up of four functions: Exploration, Producing, Refining and Marketing.

The Exploration division is incredibly scientific.  Imagine looking for evidence of oil which is contained in porous rock miles below the surface of the earth.  It is a mainly scientific endeavor.  And it is real tough science.

The Producing division is applied geology and engineering.  How can we exploit the oil reserves so deep within the earth?  How do we understand the geology involved.  How do we make the oil flow to the pipes we run underground.  How do we lift it to the surface.  All of these are applied engineering problems.

Refining is process manufacturing.  Refineries are some of the most complex and well engineered facilities in the world.  The process of converting the raw crude into gasoline and other products is an amazing manufacturing process.  Multi billion dollar facilities.

Marketing is the process of moving the refined product to gas stations and having it available to consumers, both to your own brand and other brands.  Plus now it includes the idea of providing small stores with each location.  A huge logistics network.

This is really like having four separate companies working together in the same corporation.  

When I think about all of the functions that must work separately and together and then think the resulting product is sold for $2 a gallon, it seems like a bargain.  Especially when you compare it to the cost of distilled water.  Yet no one complains the distilled water companies are bandits.  But the scale of the majors allows them to add up the pennies they make on a gallon of gasoline and make it into a very large number based on volume.

Perhaps I go on too long on the topic.  But my 15 years at Mobil and Exxon were eye opening.

Lowell Tuttle

Chemicals.

Plastic.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Just saw The Thunderbirds fly over Georgetown!  They sure are an amazing sight!  So fast and so loud!  Just a few moments later, I was back inside the house and heard on the radio that they were flying over Memorial Stadium in Austin.  They fly so close together....and that would make me a nervous wreck!  What happens if they sneeze?

I was just wondering if a guy was clomping along on a camel in Iraq, Iran, or Afghanistan and all of a sudden those guys flew over......what would the guy and the camel do?   I'm guessing the guy might have an accident in his britches, and the camel might take off galloping across the dunes "like no one has ever seen before!"  (Wonder why I thought of that over-used phrase?)

David Cordell

Steve,

I'm impressed with your knowledge! Like most people, I had been given to believe that fracking was a recent development.

Kurt,

My father worked for Sun Oil for 25 years and worked as a consultant and for Degolyer and MacNaughton until his late seventies.

I was always interested in how the taxing authorities generate much more income on a gallon of gas than the greedy oil companies earn.

Different topic for anyone's input.

My son manages a facility that has lots of games and activities for kids and kids' parties. He has kept his job, but they laid off the part-time workers, who are mostly teenagers. He is trying to call them back for an opening on June 1, but they are telling him that they are making more money from unemployment payments than they made as workers. Can this be correct?