The term "doodlebugging" was used to describe oil exploration using the seismograph method, I think the name came from the doodlebug that crawls around making holes in the land.

To the outsider, that was what the crew did----moved around the land---making holes---moving on.

And some of the helpers on the crew also had no more knowledge of what they were doing---describing their job as----"making holes, putting out little jugs, then picking them up and moving on".

At that time the entire crew was required to be in the field and move together. That changed later, becoming centralized, with the usage of computers.

This is a record of the moves we made and a few details of our life during those years, when we were "doodlebuggers".

It sounded like a lot of fun. We reported to work in Grand Saline, Texas, in June 1953. Since we knew we would be there just a short time, the Party Chief, Kenneth Webb, suggested we stay in a motel, which we did. I dont' remember how long we were there - a week or two.

From there we were sent to Shreveport, Louisiana. The new Party Chief was Chester Dodd.

We found small living quarters upstairs in a house and carried everything (one carful) upstairs. Another young couple lived in the same upstairs and were very friendly and welcomed us. As soon as they left B.G. decided this was too "close" and we promptly carried everything back down again. I don't believe we spent the night nor knew where we were going.

We drove across the bridge into Bossier City and found a small apartment where we lived until November.

In November 1953 we moved to DeQuincy, Louisiana. We carried our belongings into a duplex, then met with others on the crew. This was our first move with a crew.

Besides Dodd, party chief, we had Ed Jones, wife Dorothy, as first computer, Brad was second computer, E.S. Perkins, wife Jean, as observer, in charge of field crew, Cecil Ivy, wife Earline as surveyor, Truman Anthony, wife Daisy, as driller. These were all permanent employees. Sometimes helpers moved with us, sometimes helpers were hired locally and stayed behind when we moved on.

As we met with these people to discuss our luck (and theirs) in finding apartments, we were told quite emphatically we could not live there where we had chosen. Those people were Red Bones! This was a new and foreign term to us. I still don't know much about them, nor how the crew know automatically that they were such, but it is a group of people that is much prejudiced against, in that part of the country.

So once again, we put our belongings in the car and started searching.

We found a duplex with the landlady living in the other part of the house. She was recovering from a serious illness and at that time her sister was still staying with her to help her. B.G. did not like the idea of moving in with two old "biddies" but we did. We stayed a year there - the sister went home shortly after we moved in - and Mrs. Vincent bacame a good friend and was like a first grandmother to Brady, who was born in February 1954.

Not long after moving to DeQuincy, H.L. Thompson (Tom) was sent to the crew for a short time. And that was the first time we met him but we were with him later.

Also - Tom Tartar and wife Ruth were there awhile. And also Miles and Georgiena Prater. I believe Ed and Dorothy Jones were transferred on from there.

This grop of people had been together for quite awhile and while we were with them we enjoyed them very much and we did things together.

These small towns had no washaterias so I washed all diapers by hand, of course. Then in the fall, I guess November, I saw in the little local paper that a wringer washer was for sale for $25.00. I did some fancy begging, B.G. gave in, we bought the washer, someone from the crew delivered it for me with a company truck and I was in Heaven. I pushed it up to the kitchen sink - drew rinse water in the sink and washed away.

Two weeks later we were told we were being transferred to Houston. Now, we still had just the car to move in - so - we sold the washer to someone else on the crew - for $25.00 - and Heaven disappeared. But hey - I got to use it for two weeks!!

In Houston we moved into an old house that had been made into several apartments. We spent Christmas there. I don't remember talking to anyone the whole time we were there except the doctor.

Brady and I both got sick in January and it was most distressing for me. We were expecting to move again and here we were sick.

We bought another washer - a new one from Sears. It was called a portable automatic. It, too, was pushed up to the kitchen sink for use. But it was wonderful!

So - the night before we left Houston, B.G. drove back to DeQuincy to buy a little luggage trailer that was for sale. Now we could move a washer!

This was a short move. Up the road to Trinity, Texas. Again, we moved into a duplex, with the landlady living in the other half of the house. It was a very cold, uncomfortable place - hard to describe how unusual. I checked into the local doctor's office and he was very reluctant to accept me as a patient because I was so far into my pregnancy - my 8th month. Of course, I had brought my records with me - so he decided I had had care up until then and accepted me. After we were there about a month Ed and Dorothy Jones were sent to the crew and we were glad to see old friends. One morning at the breakfast table - here they came - Ed and Dorothy - so early - they had been to the office and discovered we were to move the next day. No warning at all! Not a hint of it. We usually had some idea of how long we might be hanging around. So -- since Dorothy had not even unpacked - she had come to spend the day with me and help me. How wonderful - what a good friend she was. I got it done and in the afternoon while Brady napped and Dorothy stayed with him, I walked down to the doctor's office (I don't remember how far) to retrieve my records to present to another doctor! So much for accepting me!!

I had my suitcase packed for the hospital, just in case, and we moved on to Jacksonville. Our party chief now was Gene Gerhiser but I don't remember anyone else on the crew except for the Jones'.

In Jacksonville, Texas, we again found a duplex with the owner living in the other half. However, this time we had to share the bath! Not too pleasant. We moved on February 9th. I checked in with a nice elderly doctor and decided things were O.K. The landlady offered to care for Brady during my time in the hospital. She promised not to dip snuff while she was caring for him. Now, she did not have to do that because I was not aware she used this good stuff! They were a nice old couple.

David was born on February 20th but because it was a Sunday this nice old doctor was nowhere to be found. But his partner was and all went well. No problem. We stayed long enough to get a nice start with our new baby, David, and about 6 weeks later - the week after Easter - we received orders to guess what - move!

The day we were scheduled to move a terrific storm blew in and we were forced to change plans for a day. Twelve noon it was black as midnight. A tornado touched down in a field right outside of town. So there we sat - all packed in boxes - lights out - with 2 babies - for a day.

But we got up the next day and made our move to Vinton, Louisiana. This was a very small town with not much available for rent. I quickly saw a very small building sitting all by itself that looked empty ans i rather jokingly said that with my luck that would probably be my next home. Sure enough - no joke at all. I figure it was about 20' by 10'. The hot water heater didn't work and there were no cabinets at all. None at all. Not one in the kitchen. It was Home Sweet Home for about 2 months.

But on the bright side --

Brad was promoted at this time to first computer. And got a raise to $400 a month.

We were back with H.L. "Tom" Thompson who had made Party Chief. There was one other wife on this crew - Billie Bartlett. Bartlett was the driller - they were expecting their fourth and were still moving in their car. She soon went home for her delivery. They were keeping a little house in north Louisiana - their home - and they kept some possessions at that location. Whereas we had all our possessions with us!

Okay, now that I have mentioned money let me add this little nugget. We received $12 for each and every move! That's right - $8 for Brad and $4 for me! Big time spenders. We never spent a night in a motel. We never ate a meal out. But of course, it would still cost more than that for a move - even way back then.

And here is another little fact. Okay - say we moved on a Wednesday. We would be told, usually on a Monday, It would be common for me to get the news at the end of the work day on Monday. Now - Brad worked Tuesday! He had off the day of the move - period! And sometimes he had to go to the office the day of the move itself for awhile! The office had to be packed up also and moved! And always - the Saturday after a move was a work day.

We ate breakfast in the old place and an evening meal in the new place. Now granted, the evening meal wasn't fancy - sometimes pancakes and eggs but always some hot meal.

And even in these "luxurious" quarters that we had in Vinton, I invited Tom to eat with us. He was still single and appreciated a home cooked meal, regardless.

After our stay there, our next move was up to New Boston, Texas. On June 24th alright!! I don't remember the dates of all our moves!!

The person hired on as 2nd computer after Brad made 1st computer was a little strange, to put it nicely. And for this, our first move with him, he decided he didn't want to drive. He had no car, and it would have been convenient for him to drive a company vehicle. But no - the guyes decided Brad would drive and he would ride. Now, this was a salaried personnel and he was going to be driven and got paid to be driven? And I was going to drive? With two babies, no seat belts in those years. Just a 4 month old and a 16 month old rolling around. When the plans were explained to me, I dared to speak up and said - "No way". Brad drove us and I don't know what happened to Mac - maybe he is still there. But I knew I could not do that under those conditions. (Later, after Tom married and had a family of his own, he remembered and apologized for some of the things we endured but it was not his fault.)

We spent the summer in New Boston in a development that had been a barracks at one time. Perhaps from World War II. Fairly comfortable. I came to know a lady next door (same building) who had a nice 12-year old daughter and we let her baby-sit for us twice that summer, while the mother was right at home, keeping an eye on things. This was a rare occasion - having a fews hours out.

At this time, we worked under contract to Phillips Petroleum. When the time came to move, we were told to pack up and head south and watch for someone to come out into the road and stop us and tell us what town to go to!! Paranoid! This we did, made the contact and was OK.

We went to Mineola, Texas. Found an upstairs apartment and carried everything up. Vacation was coming up. Brad decided we would go to his home, Virginia, then on to Ohio and I would stay for awhile and get rested up. I had been sick a lot, having two babies so close together and dragging around from one place to another, I was anemic and tired. So after two weeks in the apartment, we moved all our stuff into the single guys apartment and Brad was going to stay with them after he came back.

A vacation it was not. It was very difficult to have two small children in some one else's house - and I was sick - and getting sicker and glad to get to my mother's house.

But when Brad got back, he was very discontented. They had transferred Tom out, so Brad had a new boss. He called in the middle of the night at my mother's and told me to come home and when I told him I did not see how I could do that right now, he hung up on me!

Needless to say, I came. My mother traveled with me to the train change, each of us carrying a baby, then she headed back home. Brad met us in St. Louis. So much for a nice restfull visit.

Brad had rented us a small quarters and moved our stuff in. Not for long. Our next move was to Newellton, Louisiana, close to the Mississippi border. Still under contract to Phillips. This was in November and quite cold. We were completely packed up, ready to go, utilities turned off, still waiting for someone to make the call to tell us where to go. I sat in a rocking chair with Brady and David wrapped in a blanket and waiting until we could go!

I have never bought one dollar's worth of gasoline at Phillips Gas Station!! I showed them!!

In Newellton, we again were upstairs. This time, over a furniture store. Long stairs!! Up and down, up and down!! Lots of roaches!! I fought them very hard but to no avail.

We spent Christmas there. Me and the boys were sick with colds. Miserable.

And then we were stacked!!

Stacked again!

Stacked means - no contract. SEI paid us, of course, but no one was very happy.

We went to Shreveport (Bossier City) and Brad was back in Rosencrans' office.

Since it was "day-to-day" we moved into a motel efficiency. Pretty crummy living, that drug out for five weeks. Rained every day we were there. But again! I remember inviting the boss, McWilliams, to eat! He had not moved his family because he had kids in school!

Our next move was a long one. From Shreveport to Midland, Texas. But they put a positive spin on it by telling us it would be a long job there. So that lifted our spirits. And it was such a long trip, we got two days moving costs - $24 - and stayed in a motel and ate in a restaurant!

We found a small house and proceeded to move in. The landlady told us the water was so hard we would not be able to use it for laundry or much else. Something else I had not experienced and so could not believe. But she was surely right and all the laundry came out of the nice hot water just the way they went in!!

Beside being thoroughly "drug out". I was now pregnant again and quite nauseated. And so this move-in was pretty slow - remember - I already had two little ones to care for. But slowly but surely. I got things straight - just in time for a massive sand storm!! A sand storm in West Texas is an event. The air is permeated and the sand gets right in the house - into the closets - into kitchen cabinets - into everything! And so I cleaned again.

And then -

After doing it twice in as many weeks, Brad came home and said, "Guess what, we are being transferred." This "long job" had turned into two weeks for us and they were giving this job to someone else!

I was so tired all I could say was "OK". But Brad was quite angry and the end result was - we quit!!

So we quit, put our belongings in that little home made trailer and headed for Chincoteague. Intentions were to find work on the east coast and get out of this kind of work.

We were on the road for five days, five hard days. Somewhere in Georgia, the axle on the trailer broke, dropped onto the wheels, had flat tires, came close to going over an embankment, but Brad got control of it and there we sat.

We went through all of our belongings - filled the trunk and inside of the car completely and left the rest. People came out of the woods and almost fought with us for our scraps. Our car was full completely to the ceiling and we did the remainder of the trip all four in the front seat.

It was a disastrous decision. Brad looked for work up and down in the major cities. Offers were made - all in the south in the same line of work.

Meanwhile, Kenneth Webb was calling, asking us to return.

And Muriel was at the wit's end - her quiet world turned upside down. I was forced to spend the last two weeks with Mom-Mom Ida Reed in her home - which was a more realistic environment.

After a month, we returned! Moved to Silsbee, Texas back to Tom's crew - H.L. Thompson again.

Again - an upstairs apartment. Stayed a few months - till I could no longer go up and down the steep stairs. So on July 15th (yes, I again remember moving day) we moved to a nice little house out in the country.

The move from this upstairs was the only time someone told me they were glad I was leaving. Not because I was a "bad" tenant but because she was so worried seeing me traveling those stairs.

Clarence was born while we lived in this country house. It was a pleasant time. Tom got married to Peggy, whom he met at Christmas time.

Then the couple who owned the house, wanted to move back into it so once again we went house-hunting. Six units all in a row - which meant the inside four had one window each - one in front and one in back. Awhile later, I really lucked into it and got an end apartment. Wow! Windows!

We bought another used wringer washer for $25. Do I talk a lot about washers? Well, with three babies now, a washer was an important part of my life.

In the spring of 1958 we found a good deal on a nearly new house trailer. It was 43 foot long and 10 foot wide. One of the new "larger" ones at that time! We bought it, moved in, very thrilled.

Peggy kept my three children one morning for me while I basically moved everything in, putting in place as I went. I made the beds, picked up the children, gave them lunch and we napped.

Brad and some of the guys moved in the big stuff after supper and we were in.

An automatic washer! So we again sold the wringer for $25 - seemed to be the going rate for wringer washers.

So now we had lived in Silsbee 2 years and in 5 locations.

In a month we were back in Houston - stacked once again.

I don't remember exactly what part of Houston that was - we were not there for long. Maybe a month and we were on to Laurel, Mississippi. It was summer time, perhaps June.

Here we met Jim and Nancy Polk for the first time, Ed and Betty Godwin, Bill and Barbara Shell, Don and June Cotter. Jerry Lavendar was our party chief. I believe Ed and Dorothy Jones were there for a little while.

John was born here in August. Mom-Mom Ida had come down to be with us at birth time. And Clarence and Muriel drove down to pick her up shortly after John was born.

Then in February 1959, Brad was promoted to party chief with a raise to 600 a month. It was a "hand-picked crew" - whatever that meant. And we were sent to Columbia, Texas, a fairly long move.

We drove over to that city and checked into a small motel and Brad returned to Houston for information and I think a company car. Our trailer had not yet arrived. I was alone with four small ones in a strange town, no phone, no anything, for several days. One of times I remember being quite afraid.

John was 5 months old and I had no refrigeration or way to heat a bottle or anything. We walked to a restaurant once a day. My fear was that I would "lose control" of one while crossing the street - but we survived just fine.

And our trailer arrived and Brad returned. We got set up and Brad was tackling his new job when -

They gave that job to someone else! And we were sent on to Vinton, Louisiana - back to Vinton - after only two weeks in Columbia.

This was an interesting time. We moved into a field behind a farm house that had very recently been a rice field. No much had been done to turn this rice field into a trailer park. And it rained every day! So I stepped out of the house and sunk in. Sunk into mud. But I wanted to take the boys out every day to get some fresh air.

And so I let them play on a sheet of aluminum that was laying there next to the trailer. It was a big dry area and it was in the sun so it was warm.

Well, after some days of this nice play area, they decided to move it. Well, Landlady came running out of the house screaming in Cajun, her only language. All I knew was she was telling me, "No!!" Very loudly! This sheet of metal was covering an open cesspool!! Filled to the top! Overflowing!! About two feet from my trailer! We stayed there about six weeks. Ah yes, interesting.

From there we went south of New Orleans to Poydras, Louisiana.

Brad earned his money here. Lots of things went wrong. But I'm telling about MY LIFE. He will have to write about his.

I think it was about a two-month stay in Poydras. Then on to Baton Rouge for a week! Stayed a week!

Next back to Shreveport - Bossier City one more time. Always "stacked" - meaning no contract - when we went to Shreveport. We spent the remainder of the summer there.

Meanwhile, the company SEI, had started to change their procedures. The data was being put on tape and sent into Houston. So the interpreters would no longer have to be in the field where the data was being gathered. No more moving? Was it possible?

One of the first party chiefs to get one of these jobs was man named Mitchell. But not long into his job, he became very ill with Hodgkins disease.

Next thing we knew, we were moved to Houston to replace Mitch who died soon after.

That was our last move with SEI. We stayed in out trailer in the same spot for four whole years, from 1959 to 1963. Kenneth was born while we were there.

In 1963 Brad went to work for Sinclair and we moved to Flour Bluff. The office was in Corpus Christi but we moved out to Flour Bluff into a trailer park.

Salary went to $800 a month. Trailer was paid for - lot rent was $50 a month.

We bought a dog and a second used car. We were living now. Of course we were still in 430 square feet of living space and my washer that came with the trailer had worn out. But things were looking better.

We stayed two years, then came to Lafayette under contract to Tenneco. We had a six month contract, 1200 a month. We were wealthy.

We sold the trailer and rented a house. We came with a TV set, a sewing machine, one small chest of drawers and one single cotton mattress. We had clothes, linens, pots and pans and dishes, kinda skimpy on furniture.

We rented on Dutton for five years. Then it burned down! We had accumulated some furniture and salvaged almost all of it.

We moved into a very small house on Normandy Circle for a few months, spent Christmas there.

Then we bought a brand new four bedroom house, very nice, enclosed garage, fireplace, etc. Three days after we made the first payment on this house, Tenneco managed to tell us - "Hey, guess what? You are moving to Houston!"

So off we went to find a place. The only time we ever got to scout for a house. We found a beautiful 5 bedroom, again the works - fireplace, enclosed garage - brand new.

This was the one and only time a move was paid for. Start to finish. Movers came in and packed everything, it was taken to Houston and then people came in and unpacked.

We actually stayed in a motel and had a few restaurant meals. But we weren't used to such and that was probably the smallest bill for moving a family that Tenneco ever received!

Nine months later we were back in Lafayette, renting on Corona Blvd. We lived there 18 months before we finally found our house on Bellair Rd.

Finally! We planned to stay there forever! But that is another story. And for now we reside at:

200 South Locksley Drive

But I don't use monogrammed stationery.

Laura Fulper Reed
Lafayette, Louisiana
Spring 2003