Thursday Pipeline Lessons

Had a nice long confab with Mr. B today. Interestingly, he brought a framed and blown-up copy of his dad's business card from back in the day to show me. It pretty much looked like if Currier and Ives had done a Pipelinin' scene. He pointed out the welders. And the "powder monkeys." (They're the guys that blow up the ditch with dynamite if there's big rocks in the way.) He told me about how he saw this one guy almost get buried alive, getting knocked into a ditch and covered with dirt. "Did he die?!" I asked, staring at the black and white drawing. "Nope," Mr. B smiled, "But I think he wisht he would've."

They could lay 1-3 miles of pipeline in one day. Starting at 8 am...sometimes working 18 hours a day. It suddenly struck me that I've never once given any thought about how our oil gets around saying, "Mr. B, honestly, you guys had a huge hand in building this country, you know? I mean, yeah, there's the railroad guys. The pioneers. But this is a big deal." He scoffed. "I guess the only thing we really did was keep people from freezin' up in New York City." This is his usual modesty.

"We should write a book, Mr. B."

"Nah. There's lotsa people who's story's same as mine. Lotsa people were pipelinin'."

"Yeah but you're the only one standing in front of me now."

That made him laugh.

We conversationally meandered and talked about the explosion in Texas City, Texas in 1947. He was only 5 then and living in Corsicana. Google pictures of THAT thing and it'll stop you in your tracks. They say some of the debris landed 5 miles away. I always tell him that he teaches me something everyday.

We also found out about a guy named Jack Ellis, a painter in Canada who specializes in depicting scenes from the oil and gas industry. Lookee here...

There's something quite beautiful about his work, don't you think? Even though the guy's Canadian, it represents a kind of American idea. Conquering the environment. Bending it to our will. Nature and Technology. They blasted through mountains in this country to put a train through it. And they dug through dirt and blasted rocks to make sure people in New York City didn't freeze. That was back breaking, soul scorching work. And they did it. And I feel kind of guilty to have never thought about it. Pipeliners don't get a lot of press.

Found some welding-related index cards of Mr. B's in my collection tonight. Red ink:

New Product

A correspondence course w/ How to Be a "welder helper in all types of welding Situations." from Ship Building to Pipe Fitting to Pipelining. If the welders union hall in Okla, Tex, Arkansas and there states education agency would sponsor a course of such It would be a very helpful educational aid in the welding field. It could be studied while Helping a welder and working at the same time. It would make for a more professional craft."

And this one...dark green marker:

Twenty Seven hundred Pipeliners rotated out of Alaska Once every 3 mos. and in 7 1/2 yrs you could lay 4 pipelines in Alaska. You know how? You leave the engineers, the welders, and the surveyors at Home. Thats how you do it.

Did I mention there was a plane depicted in the pipelining scene from Mr. B Sr's business card? Given the perspective it should not have included a such a large plane flying so low...obviously this was an important part of the story. I asked who was in the plane. He said, "Oh that's the engineers. Making sure we're followin' the plans." Clearly, the engineers weren't getting their hands dirty.

Stumbled on a variation of the same "suggestion" but disguised as an Aggie joke:

Aggie Joke:

1st Aggie: 2700 Pipe Liners rotated out of Alaska once ever 3 month in 7 and 1/2 years you can lay 4 pipelines in Alaska.

2nd Aggie: How do you do that?

1st Aggie: you leave the surveyin crew, the engineers, and the welders at home.

I thought the welders were the good guys. This is confusing. Mr. B started out as a welder's helper so I don't know...

Green ink. White index card:

A Merchandise Contest

A con-test to see who could put together a welding machine the fastest who ever won would be able to keep the welding machine. It would help sell welding machine kits. /Or they could start selling welding machine kits. start a new industry. could tie it to the F.F.A. and Ag classes. Could be a contest held for Ag classes or during county and state fairs.

Mr. B once asked me to find him information about making his own welding machine. I kinda didn't want to find anything on it for fear that he would blow himself up. (He caught himself on fire a little bit last year so this is a very real possibility. I believe he said he sprayed canned air into his hot water heater. Singed his arms. I saw them. And I yelled at him.)

Sparkly light green ink. Index card:

New Product   ----  New Invention

1) A Board game on "How to Help a Welder", could be sold as a (covering ALL TYPES of Welding) Educational Game.

2) A Correspondence Course on How to Help a Welder. Sold as a educational product.

There are two new products from idea about inventions that could be. If one of those Cherokee doctor's would try for 798 Help. Might help the economy.

Not sure what the last part means.

Purple ink. Index card:

NEW INVENTION

Welding glovers TAKE the material that the FIREMEN wear and place it inbetween the leather and have a 3 layerd welding glove. Cherokee.

I've noticed that when Mr. B puts "Cherokee" at the end of a suggestion, I think it means that this idea was stolen from the Cherokee and he's giving them credit. He told me once his mother was part Cherokee. This may be why he's such a big fan.

Also gave Mr. B a copy of National Geographic (September 2011) today. I had noticed that he maybe, kinda, sorta defaced the library's copy of it a while back.

He couldn't help himself...

I had quietly replaced the library's copy and then found an extra. He seemed pleased to get it. He had really gone to town on pages 70-73 which features a timeline of human flight. I should scan the images and his comments. Naturally, I saved it from the garbage.