Saudi road pics

[rwilson]

reminds me of west texas back when I worked the oil fields. Dust rags soaked with oil. empty glass bottles in the house half full with sand, etc.

[workingonit]

Originally Posted by rwilson

reminds me of west texas back when I worked the oil fields. Dust rags soaked with oil. empty glass bottles in the house half full with sand, etc.

I remember a few towering dust storms blow thru my neighborhood in SW Dallas, during the Texas drought of '57-60 (maybe later); my grandparent's house two houses down was our residence when the storms blew through, because they had A/C, and could close their windows, but my Dad had only a swamp cooler + attic fan, so he couldn't close all the windows in the sweltering heat.

Cousins visiting us (a family reunion, pre '60), during that era, talked about how bad it was in their towns of Monahans, Wink, Pecos, and Odessa, and I could see for myself, when my mother took me and my brothers to Midland (talk about a sparsley vegetated...no trees or grass to speak of...oiltown), for two weeks in 1960, to visit her sister, a secretary for Mobil Oil.

Not only did I get a duststorm, but a heavy thunderstorm, later, provided a lightning strike that set a huge oil tank (a couple of blocks away from my aunt's apartment) on fire, and the smoke plume towered over the city for days.

My X5 is a veteran of visiting the West Texas oilfields; previous owner #1 (I'm the third owner) was an oilman, and he used the X5 to visit the fields. Mostly flat lands traveled, and at highway speeds to get there, is probably why my X5 still is mechanically in good shape (at 211k miles, but the Aux fan just died the other day), though previous owner #2 did a lot of work preparing the X to hand over to me, in trade for my '66 Chevelle drag-car.

Perhaps we need another duststorm to blow thru today, to impart the current population with the knowledge of what our ancestors went through, on a regular basis, just a few generations ago. Not to mention the Dust Bowl era of the 1930's.