Bob Moore

B [Bob McCarty, Interviewer]: --in your home on the Pinehill community. The date is 10/18/1976, time five o'clock. Now then, Mr. Moore.

BM [Bob Moore, Interviewee]: Yeah.

B: They tell me that back in your younger days that you drilled, helped work, or helped drill wells in this community, is that right?

BM: That's right!

B: Where did you work at in this community?

BM: Well, I worked on the Albert Biggs Mosquito allotment, right on the side of a crick.

B: That would be on the side of Mosquito Creek.

BM: Yeah, that, that's right!

B: Right on the side of Mosquito Creek.

BM: Yeah. And I worked for Charlie Lowe he was drillin' a well there. He was a contractor.

B: Charlie Lowe was a contractor.

BM: Yeah.

B: Uh, do you remember, Mr. Moore, do you remember the depth that that well was?

BM: I think it was about 3,200 feet.

B: Did you get oil at that time, or did it--

BM: Yeah, yeah. We got oil there. It was a small well but it was a producer.

B: It was a producer.

BM: Yeah.

B: Roughly what would you say that that well would make a day?

BM: I'd say about fifty barrels at that time when we brought it in.

B: You dug, when it came in, it came in at fifty barrel a day?

BM: Yeah, something like that, yeah.

MM [Mary McCarty, Interviewer]: Is that too strong? (sound of cups clinking)

B: Naw. Where else in the community did you help drill?

BM: Well, we drilled one over on, you know where this forty-eight runs up there. For Freeland.

B: For Freeland.

BM: Yeah.

B: Do you remember the Indian allotment that that would drill on?

BM: Oh, let me see. Yeah! The Morrisons.

B: It was on the Morrisons?

BM: Yeah.

B: You know that that Morrison was the freeman, didn't you?

BM: Yeah, yeah. We--that was the first well we worked on that had electric power.

B: The Morrison well was the first one that you had electric power to?

BM: Yeah.

B: What year was that, Mr. Moore?

BM: Oh, let's see--that must've been about 1925.

B: Nineteen-and-twenty-five? When you first went to work in the oil field working the drilling, was there any other wells located around in that part of 00:03:00the country?

BM: Yeah, there was a well or two around in there. Freeland had some production over in that part of the country.

B: Do you have any idea where that production was?

BM: Well, it was right around in there, quite a little bit of it, and then, oh, Glen Freeland, he's still alive, he could tell you where it is.

B: Now I talked to Glen the other night--

BM: You did?

B: --and I found out from Brick Kirchner that Glen Freeland has had an eye surgery and his thinking at the present time is not very much. It's pretty weak, he doesn't remember. When I asked him about it, he said, "I don't remember. I just don't remember."

BM: You know, I've known Glen Freeland for practically all his life. When he was about--when he first come from West Virginia, up around Nowata.

B: Did you know Claude Freeland?

BM: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I worked for Claude Freeland once.

B: Our deed according to the records that we have on the, this oil survey that was made through here, Claude Freeland and--where's that notebook at? (pause; sound of pages flipping) Uh--it was drilled--

BM: He drilled a well right up here about a half a mile called the Hoppy Toad.

B: There you go, now we're gettin' somewhere!

BM: Yeah.

B: We're getting' somewhere now!

BM: Yeah.

B: This is some stuff I got from Albert--or George Krumme--

BM: Yeah.

B:--and it gives in here the first well that was actually drilled in this community. It was Barnes and Freeland, was it or was it not?

BM: Yeah! Barnes and Freeland. Yeah. I knew Barnes. I knew Freeland, too. See when I first come to Bristow in 19-3. I was just a small kid then, then I come in 1911.

B: See, this thing here, (referencing publication) "on April 11 one-third of a mile to the northwest in section thirty-six," which would be way over here, 00:06:00"township seventeen north, range nine east, with a depth of nine hundred and ninety feet to a thousand ten feet, it was encountered of the initial flow of seven million cubic feet per day."

BM: That's gas.

B: Gas.

BM: Yeah.

B: (continues reading) "This well's flood was turned into a twelve-inch line of this company, which at that time carried gas to the Oklahoma City area until the pressure decreased to a flood of which it would no longer force gas into the pipeline. The well was again connected to the pipeline in February 1917 when its open flow capacity registered 350,000 cubic feet a day with a rock pressure of 375 pounds." Alright, now then, on this rock pressure, what did they mean by that rock pressure?

BM: That was, I don't know. I don't know what they meant by that rock pressure. You see, we never drilled very many gas wells. We were drillin' for oil, mostly.

B: Drillin' for oil, mostly.

BM: Yeah.

B: Now, this well that you were talkin' about, what year was it--what year that you drilled here on the Big Mosquito--Albert Mosquito, what year was that?

BM: Let's see, oh, must've been about 1930, 19--, let's see, about 1920-25. 00:08:00Between 1925 and 1930, I'd say.

(woman talking in background)

BM: You got a record of that, haven't you?

B: No, I don't have a record of that one.

BM: No, you don't.

B: I've got 'em up to, uh, oh, looks like about--

MM: [Indecipherable] published that in '23 so he wouldn't have anything on '25 [indecipherable], remember?

B: This was pub--this information that I have was published in 1925, although I do have records here of the Hoppy Toad Oil Company.

BM: The who?

B: The Hoppy Toad Oil Company.

BM: Oh, yeah.

B: Here is some of the Hoppy Toad and here is the C.L. Freeland Oil Company.

BM: Yeah.

B: Does that bring back memories to you?

BM: That does, yeah. Well, Glen worked on this Hoppy Toad, dressed tools up there. I remember him talkin' to me about it, and that was before I was--well, I was, had worked the oilfield a little but then since then I hadn't. For a while I was--

B: I just, this log here that I have in my hand is a log of a well "C.L. Freeland Oil Company Mexi-Farm." Now where would that be?

BM: The Mexi-Farm?

B: The Mexi-Farm Well Number One. Where would that be located?

BM: [Indecipherable.]

B: (reading) "Township seventeen north, range nine east, section twenty-nine."

BM: Well--

B: Section twenty-nine.

MM: Bob, why don't you question him about the rigs, that was something, you know, ask him another [inaudible].

B: Now this, this picture here, is--that is one of the first rigs that operated, the old cable tool rigs, is that right?

BM: Yeah, that's right, I remember rigging up [indecipherable] in Kansas.

B: That was in Kansas.

BM: Yeah.

B: But that is--

BM: [Indecipherable] Charlie Lowe and dress [indecipherable] name is Ernie Moore.

B: Ernie Moore and Charlie Lowe.

BM: Yeah, you don't want to leave somebody but he dressed tools for Charlie.

B: Now this Charlie--this Charlie Lowe, was he one of the people that 00:11:00drilled in here, too?

BM: Oh, yeah.

B: You mentioned that a while ago.

BM: Yeah.

B: Could you tell me how the old cable tool rig operated with comparison of the [indecipherable] of today?

BM: Well, the [indecipherable], it drills much faster. The cable tools was much slower. And they used what they called a rag line--that, uh, manila line--that's manila line that Charlie Lowe's drillin' with there. (interference in tape) 00:12:00But they generally spun it in, the first of the hole with a rag line because it's much easier on the rig and it's much easier on everything.

MM: [Inaudible.]

BM: We would kind of leash a wire line in a manila line when we first started, we called that a cracker. And we drilled with a cracker at first because it was easy on the rig. Oh, that old manila line just used to, just grunt and groan and sing along with us--it was really nice to work with one of them. There wasn't many drillers in my day that knew how to run a rag line--uh, manila line.

B: Uh, was that a pretty complicated thing to do?

BM: Yeah, it was a little complicated, it is, but the manila line would stretch 00:13:00out, you know, like a rope--that's what it was, a rope line.

B: It was actually a tag line.

BM: Yeah.

B: You'd call it a tag line of today.

BM: Yeah. And it would--well, we'd drill about five or six feet by the rag line and it'd be about nine feet by the time we got through because it'd stretch out.

B: It would stretch out four feet.

BM: Yeah, three or four feet.

B: Mmm-hmm.

MM: Ask him [inaudible].

B: Was it--especially when you first started the hole with that-a-way, was it pretty hard to keep that hole straight?

BM: No, it was fairly easy, we'd rig it up and guide the stem and boards across and go close to the stem and then guide the stem.

B: You mentioned a while ago about dressing tools? How was the old tools dressed or sharpened or whatever you might do? How was that done?

BM: Well, dressin' tools is, uh--a driller and a tool dresser work together on a tower, and a tool dresser, he assisted the driller. The driller's supposed to know more than the tool dresser did, but lots of times they didn't know as much. I dressed tools for about twelve years before I started drilling because it was much easier on me and no responsibility. Well, I guess where they got the name "tool dresser," when they dress a bit they'd put 'em in a forge, they'd heat 'em up to white heat and then dress 'em out to gauge. They had a gauge that you'd dress 'em out to.

B: You had a gauge that slipped over the end of that bit, is that right?

BM: Yeah, that's right, that's right. When a bit got in sand formation or after drilling so long, it'd wear out and make the hole small so that the pipe wouldn't fall, so when it got out of gauge we had to pull the bit off and put it in a forge and dress it, but they always had another bit they put on and we'd be drilling while the bit was heatin'.

B: What kind of point was on that?

BM: Well, we'd dress it to both sides and would come right out the gauge in a side of a circle on the gauge [indecipherable] and we'd work it out the gauge 00:16:00and pound the worn surface off and it was kind of a bevel on a point and a bottom.

B: It had a beveled point on it?

BM: Yeah. We used to have to dress it with--the big bits you'd used to have to dress with sledgehammers. Then we got to where we used a ram--that ran off of a crank of machinery.

B: That made tool dressin' a lot easier and a lot quicker.

BM: Oh, yeah, a lot easier.

B: A lot faster.

BM: Yeah.

B: All you had to do was heat it up to the white hot that you wanted it and take this ram and batter it out there like you wanted it.

BM: That's right.

B: And if you got--

BM: I was pretty good on a ram. I was hittin' 'em too nice one day.

(both laugh)

BM: But they was much better.

B: The ram itself in later years came into quite a accomplishment, or quite a labor-saving device than the old-time tool dressing.

BM: Yes! Yeah. We used to, when I was young, we started a twenty or twenty-four-inch hole. As you can imagine them bits would be quite hot. You stand up alongside of them you got cooked.

B: That's right.

BM: So we used that ram to drive 'em out the gauge.

B: Ram 'em out there, flat end of it out the side you wanted it? If you got it flared out too big, well then how did you work it down?

BM: Well, we was careful not to do that. When you got it too big you had to pound it down with sledgehammers.

B: She wants to ask you a question now.

BM: Okay.

MM: What about that one? That picture?

B: What about that picture there?

BM: On that picture is a picture taken at El Dorado, Kansas.

MM: But it's the same kind of drilling bit, too.

BM: I was on a--I worked up there one winter, that was at El Dorado.

B: That was at El Dorado, Kansas.

BM: Yeah.

B: This here is the old boiler that--

BM: That's the boiler, that's the boiler.

B: That is what, now then--you said this boiler, what part did this boiler play?

BM: That made steam to run the engine on! (laughs)

B: Oh, it was operated by an old steam engine?

BM: Oh, yeah! That was fired with oil and sometimes they fired it with gas. Gas was much better because it was cleaner.

B: It was cleaner than the oil?

BM: Yep. It carried about 120 pounds of steam and the boilers were rated anywhere from thirty to forty-five horsepower boilers. That was the way they rated them.

B: Well now, then, go just a little bit further. What happened, say you're moved into an area that there wasn't gas and there wasn't any oil, how did you fire--what did you use to fire that--

BM: We used to fire with wood or coal. Whichever one they get, which was the cheapest.

B: If coal was cheaper, why you'd fired with coal.

BM: Yeah. They [indecipherable] fired with wood. But boy, that took a lot of 00:20:00wood to heat that water up to where you get 120 pounds of steam.

B: What was this well here made out of?

BM: That derrick is made out of wood.

B: It's an old wooden derrick.

BM: Old wooden derrick, right. It was about seventy-two feet tall.

B: What kind of wood was--BM: Pine.

B: Pine?

BM: Yeah.

B: That would be made out of two-inch stuff, three-inch stuff, or what?

BM: Oh, yeah, it was made out of two-inch stuff, the derrick was. But the big timbers like the beam, which were the biggest parts, that and the main cell, the beams and Samson post, sat in the main cell. That was the biggest timber in the whole rig. And the walkin' beam was next and they were slotted out and keyed with wooden keys--that was hardwood keys and drive it in with a sledgehammer They was dovetailed, the timbers was dovetailed to fit. That was built by rig builders.

B: Had to be a rig builder to do that?

BM: Yeah.

MM: [Inaudible.]

B: And now then, on this first well that worked your walkin' beam that operated your bit, there was a big bullwheel on that, was there or was there not?

BM: Oh, yeah. The bullwheel, they would wind up the cable that the stem was to, and the walkin' beam, after it got about, oh, it spun. You had a gangway at about a hundred feet and that'd hook onto the walkin' beam.

B: It would hook onto the walkin' beam at about a hundred feet?

BM: Yeah. And this would go onto a crank that run to the belt, to the belt on 00:22:00the bandwheel. And it hooked the [indecipherable] up to the timber down here, it had a whole--had a whole band of 'em who put that on this crank to come through the bandwheel. And the engine run here in this engine house with about a twelve-inch belt that run over the bandwheel and operated the bandwheel and the crank that operated the walkin' beam that the tools was on the end of it.

B: Now they had all this drilling, whenever they started drilling the wells before electric came in here, they just drilled in daylight, did they or did they not?

BM: No, we drilled night and day, twelve hour shifts.

B: What kind of light did you use at night?

BM: Oh, we had a generator that made electric light.

B: You made electric light with a generator that operated off of this steam?

BM: Yeah, on the steam. But the first, before they had the generator, we used what they called the "yellow gold." That was an oil pot come up with two spouts and a piece of hemp in each one of 'em and we'd light that to work by.

B: Worked by that smudge pot--

BM: Yeah.

B: --that old smudge pot at night, then?

BM: Yeah. Called that the "yellow gold."

B: Was those smudge pots pretty dangerous? Workin' at night?

BM: No, they wasn't dangerous. You soon learned not to get too close to 'em, you get yourself burned.

B: Well, after you got a well down, oh, down into the gas sands--

BM: Then it was dangerous.

B: Then these smudge pots was dangerous.

BM: That's right, that's right. But I don't think they had 'em in this--well, they had derricks, they had to've been up there around Nowata where they wells is about 600 feet deep and they worked with a machine, [indecipherable] and [indecipherable], a machine like that.

B: About how long did it take to drill one of these wells?

BM: Here? In this area?

B: Yeah, in this area.

BM: Well, ya done well to drill one in about thirty-five days if they didn't have a fishing job losing tools.

B: Uh-oh, now then, how did that come about? How did that--

BM: Well, sometimes the lines would break, you know, and sometimes they would lose the tools by breaking the line and then they'd go in there and fish 'em out.

B: What kind of a deal did they use to fish 'em out with?

BM: Oh, Lord, they had a lot of fishin' tools. The one thing that, if they had the line on it, they had what they called a three-prong grab. It was a tool that screwed onto the end of a stem and it had three long prongs on it with little wickers that come up. Oh, they were big as, oh, couple inches big. And they'd get ahold of the, try to get ahold of the line and pull them out.

B: How much, how deep where they, or have you ever helped fish out one?

BM: Yeah, I've fished one out over at Yale about thirty to a hundred, and I fished one out at Utah, was about two hundred feet. Now that was a fishin' job. We was out there seventy-nine miles from any town, forty miles from any neighbor, and they hauled the groceries out in trucks. We used what they called a Clark engine. That was operated by gasoline. Didn't use a boiler there. That was all sand formation and sand would drill close and would sometimes stick the tools. And we stuck the tools about, oh, I guess about two hundred feet deep, and the sand and gypsum around 'em and we couldn't pull 'em out. So we cut the line and filled the hole with tools--stems after stems--and put all forty sticks to drill by it first, with the small tools. We started a twenty-inch hole there. We drilled by it with the small tools and put all forty sticks of dynamite on it.

B: Forty sticks of dynamite?

BM: Yeah. [Indecipherable] put on twenty-five and I had fifteen left, and I said to Charlie, I said--we was livin' in a camp thar that had two small boys, and I said, "Before somebody gets hurt, let's just put 'em all on, instead of hidin' 'em some place, we'll just put 'em all on." And we filled the hole full of tools and pulled 'em out. But it broke the beam and there wasn't a piece of timber in that part of the country big enough to make a beam out of and they sent to 00:28:00Florence, Colorado to get a piece of timber big enough to make a beam out of. And then once we got the beam out of it, ah, why, then we pulled 'em out.

MM: [Inaudible.]

B: What is the difference between the early casing and the casings of today?

BM: Well the early days started a well with a wooden conductor.

B: A wooden conductor.

BM: Yeah. It was made like a pipe. If we started a twenty-inch hole we'd get about a twenty-two-inch wooden conductor, and that was just about twenty feet long, and as we drilled we would put the wooden conductor in and then reduce the hole to a fifteen-inch hole, or eighteen, and go on from there.

B: Now, this wooden conductor that you're speaking of, that would be what we would call today the surface pipe. Is that right?

BM: Yeah. That's right.

B: The only thing in the early days, the surface pipe, or wooden conductor, it was made out of wood but today it's made out of steel.

BM: Made out of steel, that's right.

MM: What kind of wood?

B: What kind of wood would they be made out of?

BM: That was made out of two-by-fours and two-by-sixes, about twenty feet long.

B: Oh, you made it yourself?

BM: No, they made--a company made it.

B: The company made it.

BM: Yeah. It was a company that made the conductors.

MM: What year did they quit using them?

B: What year did they quit using that wooden conductor?

BM: Oh, it was, I supposed, about nineteen, nineteen eighteen.

B: Then they went to the regular steel surface pipes.

BM: Steel surface pipes, right.

MM: [Inaudible.]

BM: You had to have something, you know, to keep the hole from caving in, and protect the drilling root. Stem.

MM: [Inaudible.]

B: What year--or do you know--what year did they go to the steel derricks instead of the old wooden derricks?

BM: Well, they used wooden derricks up until, well, I guess they still use some of them now. But they got to where they make units out of steel and hardwood and turnbuckles and things like that they started in on that about, oh, about 1920.

MM: [Inaudible.]

B: What year did they do away with these derricks and go to the type that they're using out here now, what they call a grasshopper?

BM: Oh, that's just been late years.

B: That's been here in the later years?

BM: Yeah.

B: Say, from uh, 1960, then?

BM: Well--

B: Fifties or '60s.

BM: 'Bout that time.

B: What kind of wagon and teams did they use to get, to, uh, wait a minute, let me back up a minute. On puttin' up one of these wells before you--you started drilling, how long did it ordinarily take you to put one of them up?

BM: A derrick?

B: Put up a derrick and get all set up to go to drillin'.

BM: Well we probably put up a derrick in about four days and then we would move the tools in, that'd take us about four days.

B: Now then, let's say that again.

BM: I said it'd take about four days to build a rig. The rig builder'd do that, there was a crew of about, generally about five men. And they worked hard. And fast. And they worked daylight. Then we would move our tools in, that'd take us about four days to rig up, to get ready to start. And then we'd start drilling in about four days.

B: You'd start then, it'd take roughly from the time they rig builders moved in and everything was completed, ready to go to drilling, it'd take about twelve 00:33:00days, is that right?

BM: Well, no, it didn't take quite that long.

B: Ten to twelve days.

BM: If we didn't start up in four days after we started rigging up, why, the contractor would get on our tail!

(both laughing)

BM: But about four days. And we worked twelve hours a day and when we was rigging up, all four of us would go out the last day and finish rigging up and the driller and tool dresser would stay there and start, they'd work about eighteen hours that day.

B: What was the pay during that time, Bob?

BM: Well, I was getting' about eight, nine dollars a day.

B: Eight or nine dollars a day?

BM: Yeah.

B: Now today their wages'd be--

BM: Quite a bit more.

B: Yeah, I'd say, what--what would you say the wages would be today on a modern-day rig?

BM: Well, I don't know what they're gettin' now, but when I quit drilling, that was about, oh, I was getting' twelve, thirteen dollars a day, but I was only workin' eight hours. Well I started workin' eight hours about, oh, about 1930.

B: You started workin' eight hours a day runnin' three shifts.

BM: Yeah.

B: Three eight-hour shifts, and of the eight hours you'd draw about twelve dollars a day?

BM: Yeah. Ten to twelve.

B: Ten to twelve dollars a day.

BM: Yeah.

B: The drillers, what did the driller draw? Was that the driller's--BM: The 00:35:00driller'd draw two dollars or a dollar more than a tool dresser did.

B: Say the tool dresser drawed twelve dollars a day then the driller would draw about fourteen dollars a day.

BM: Yeah.

B: What year did you start in working in the drilling business?

BM: Oh, 19-well, I first started in it as a kid, I was, I was sixteen years old. I worked on a cleaning-up rig up around Little Fall. It was [indecipherable] shallow stuff. And that was, oh, that was about 1912 or '13. And then I got fired because I was too little to dress bits, the contractor thought. But I had a good driller by Charlie Lowe who'd drilled, and he was big and strong as an ox. And he took a lot of work off of it. Well then, about, oh, about 1914, why I 00:36:00started back again.

B: About 1914 you started back in again, into the oil pipe work.

BM: Yeah. I worked 'til World War I and I went to the Navy, I was drawing fourteen dollars a day working twelve hours over in Yale when I went to the Navy in 1918 for--well, I worked six months and drawed fifty dollars. Which was quite a comedown. (laughs)

B: That would be quite a cutback in pay.

BM: Yeah, it sure was. And I wondered if it was a good idea for me to quit a fourteen-dollar job to go to--fourteen dollars a day--to go to war. But since 00:37:00then I've been drawing a little pension, about sixty-two dollars, and I guess if I live to be a hundred I'll get the money back.

B: You'd probably have to live to be about a hundred and fifty!

BM: Yeah. (laughs) Which I don't think I'll [indecipherable].

B: What year did you--then after you came out of the Navy, did you go back in to the oil pipe--

BM: Oh, yeah, I was working for the Carter Oil Company then, and he--

B: Carter Oil Company?

BM: Yeah. Over in Yale. And the company had a plan that if you went into the service, well when you come back they'd give you your same old job back. And I went for it.

B: You went right back to work for the same people that--

BM: Right back to work, and I recollect, yeah.

B: Then what year did you finally give up the oilfield, settle down and say "to heck with it?"

BM: That's when I starved to death!

B: That's when you starved to death?

BM: Yeah! Oil business was pretty good but you worked maybe two or three months and the company shut down and you'd be off for a month or two. And it was hard to get a job. But I was pretty lucky, I was a good tool dresser, and was always able to go to work. Lots of tool dressers would be drunk or into a fight or something, but I was always able to go to work and generally had a job if anyone else did. I worked for Wilcox for, oh, about two years.

B: What year did you finally completely quit the oilfield and leave it alone?

BM: Let's see, well I come out here in 1929, I'd been out of a job for about thirty days, and damn near starved to death, and I'd had one job since then, I worked about thirty days, and when that, well, when we--by that time I was quit, or--couldn't get a job.

B: At about 19-and-29, then, is when you actually left the oilfield?

BM: About 1930.

B: About 1930 is when you actually left the oil--oil pipes for good.

BM: Yeah.

B: I believe that's--

MM: [Inaudible.]

B: How important was that oil in this community?

BM: Well, it was not quite as important as it is now, we didn't have to buy foreign oil, and we had plenty of oil the fact of the matter is that there was 00:40:00times when they cut the production of the wells down to where they were only producing so much a day. They prorated.

MM: How much a barrel?

B: How much a barrel at the beginning, how much a barrel did that oil sell for?

BM: I think about two dollars a barrel.

B: About two dollars a barrel?

BM: Yeah.

B: What would you say it is today?

BM: Oh, I imagine about fifteen dollars.

B: I believe it's more than that.

BM: You do, well, that's probably worth it.

B: I would say, I would say about twenty-three to twenty-five dollars a barrel today.

BM: Yeah, well that depends on the grade of oil, of course, and the way gasoline is selling I expect it ought to be worth more than that!

B: Yeah, I would too! (laughs)

B: [Indecipherable], is there anything you wanna ask him? You got 'im talkin.'

MM: [Inaudible.]

UW [Unidentified woman, Bob Moore's wife]: Ask him out loud.

MM: What did they do for fun, them oilfield guys?

B: What did they do for fun, you oilfield boys workin' out there in the oilfield, what did you guys do for the fun? To have fun?

BM: Oh, we'd get--not me, but most of 'em 'd get drunk and get into a fight, and something like that. Play craps and play poker and run around with the women--

UW: When you stayed, lived around Yale?

BM: What?

UW: Lived around Yale and worked, what did you all do for fun there?

BM: When?

B: When you lived around Yale, what did you guys do for fun up there?

BM: Oh! I went to dancin' about twice a week.

B: About twice'st a week??

BM: Yeah!

UW: They had square dancin'.

B: You mean them old feet got--

BM: Yeah! Listen, they couldn't start a dance 'til I got there!

B: Oh, oh!

BM: I was a dancer. I liked to dance.

UW: Tell them about how far you walked to work each night.

BM: Oh, sometimes we walked three miles 'round [indecipherable]

B: You walked three miles?

BM: --horse, you get a horse and buggy and sometimes quick to get up when you couldn't get over with a buggy and'd have to walk.

B: Did you ever call for any of these square dances?

BM: Oh, yeah!

B: What was some of the calls that you called?

BM: Oh, I called a hundred of them.

B: Call a little bit for me!

BM: Well, let's see--how 'bout "Two Little Sisters?"

B: That's good! Let's have it!

BM: (calling, clapping, and stomping in rhythm) Two little sisters form a ring/ dosey out and dosey in/ two little sisters ready again/ back to your partner and everybody sway/ two little sisters out to the right/ pick up one little sister and three little sisters form a ring/ back to your partner and everybody sway/ four little sisters form a ring/ get back to your partner and everybody sway/ 00:43:00four little sisters form a ring/ back to your partner and everybody sway. That's one of 'em.

B: That's mighty good, Bob, mighty good.

UW: Bob and I have danced a million miles.

BM: That was when she would answer my callin'. She don't do anything I tell her now. (laughs)

B: We're gonna have another little get-together.

end of interview