| A Short Story: Growing Up in the Oil & Gas Industry, March 09 |
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 I grew up as a Phillips Petroleum baby born in Bartlesville Oklahoma where my father Richard took his first job after graduating from Midwestern, and University of Tulsa. Each summer and important holidays our family would spend lengthy visits with his parent’s who owned & operated a Phillips 66 service station in Canton Oklahoma. I’m sure all of the long work hours helping out at the station inspired my father to study Geology and get into the business of finding oil- rather than selling it! Anyway, their station provided me with many of my fondest childhood memories and inspirations which I will share here.  Strahan’s 66 station (as it was called) was not your ordinary gas station- by far. My grandmother Beulah was known as the best boat mechanic for counties and was a pretty good car mechanic as well. I thought her oil and grease stained fingernails were unique and often saw her 5’ 0’ stature upside-down under the hood of a car or the back of a boat with her legs and feet dangling up in the air! Strahan’s 66 offered many other things besides just oil, gas, and car service. They actually sold boats, motors, fishing tackle, skis, life vests, minnows (yes - live stinky minnows), tires, belts, air conditioners, batteries, knifes, guns, as well as trade with the local Native Americans.  My grandmother was a big influence in my life. While co-operating the gas station, she directed me towards artistic endeavors. She shared her love of painting, crafts, dancing, sewing, fishing, boating, hunting, cooking, and along with my mother, encouraged me to practice them often. My first art sales happened in that station when I was just in elementary school. I would pick up loose railroad spikes from the train track and paint different scenes on them and she would sell them to her customers! How fantastic was that!  My grandfather Delbert on the other hand, put me to work at the station. My first job was washing the car windows while he’d pump the gas. I would stand up on a ladder using the squeegee then he would come after me with the shammy to dry it off. I think he paid me pretty well - I got lots of bubble gum! Oh and his smelly feet! Somehow I got the job of removing his big black lace up boots after work when visiting! I still have his foot stool in my studio today.  My granddad was a great role model in my life. He showed me how to be generous, friendly, and respectful to all people and always give the absolute very best service. He taught me loyalty and devotion by including me in the behind-the-scenes efforts that created the success of their business –even if it was scrubbing the driveway or scooping dead minnows every night and driving them way out to the country for proper disposal. His examples still live on in me.  Our family eventually moved to Houston TX to open my father’s company StraGo Petroleum, and I later went off to college at TCU. I know my parents would have preferred I go into a field such as Geology, or Nursing, the problem was that in all of my Science classes, I would get so inspired to create art out of the images I was being presented with – I ended up taking art classes and getting my degree in Painting and Printmaking instead. That was 20 years ago, and today my paintings of gemstones, minerals and earth core samples create common grounds for my father and me to relate and connect on. I see my special destiny is a combination of my father’s interest in the earth, and my mother and grandmothers encouragement to pursue fine arts, that I have arrived at my unique combination of both! And, I owe much of it to Phillips Petroleum for providing my family their life-work and vicariously influencing mine! Now, I’m the one with oil stained fingernails! |
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