Part of: J. T. (Cotton) Young Interview (13 objects)
J. T. (Cotton) Young Interview - J. T. (Cotton) Young Interview [part 5 of 13]
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- Well, we moved over and started this other well and
- my brotherClaude and Monk Beasley was the other drillers on the well besidesmyself.
- We got nearly down with this other well and we run intoa peculiar formation there that the boys
- couldn't figure out.They didn't know just what to think about it. And Claude andMonk
- began to argue to me that we'd run into the other old holedown there.
- We's into the other old hole. And I argued that wewasn't, and we kept drillin', and of course,
- it was hard formationand we didn't have too much to drill with either. But we keptdrillin' and
- finally got it on down ready to set casing, and wegot ready to set casing and set casing, and
- I proved my point thenPIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.28that the -- we wasn't in the other old hole.
- If we had've beenwe could've never got a seat with the casing, but we did git aseat, a good seat.
- They finally finished the well there at thatparticular place.
- But it was some peculiar actin' formationthere. That made the boys, my brother and Monk think
- that we'sin the other old hole. But I didn't think we was myself.Well, we went on to --
- we just kept drillin' around there; Idon't know the number of wells on Stringer and other
- leases. Idon't know how many wells I did drill in that old Electra field.I didn't keep count of 'em.
- But lots of funny things happened,little old things.One
- night, I remember one well I's on on the Stringer there,boy
- by name of Jim Daniels was runnin' nights against me, and'course,
- you folks don't know what a fifteen-tong jaw is, butlots of these old well diggers know.
- They don't use 'em verymuch these days though, but they know what they are. And theydropped the
- fifteen-tong jaw in the hole one night while we'son this well; we's on a hard rock too.
- I went out to work thenext morning, they's out of the hole, and I run a pipe in thehole and
- started drillin'. Boy, it was rough. Couldn't make nohole. You couldn't stay on bottom.
- I knew there was somethingin there, but Jim hadn't said anything about it when he left;he
- didn't tell me a thing about it, you know. I guess he thoughtmaybe I'd go on makin' hole and never
- find it and probably neverwould know about the old fifteen-tong jaw bein'
- in the hole.They had fixed the tongs back up, you know, with another jaw.So
- I drilled, tried to drill, for half a day there with thatPIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p. 29bit, and I
- couldn't make a inch of hole. Couldn't hardly stay onbottom with it. I finally pulled out; I told the
- boys, I said,"Well, there's something in there, and I don't know what it is,but we ain' doin' no
- good; we better pull out and see if we canfind out anything."And we pulled out of the hole and when
- we got out of the hole,well, I happened to wash the bit off, and all over that old bitwas just the
- prints of the teeth of that fifteen-tong jaw all overit, you know, where it had been hittin' it,
- gaugin' into that oldbit, and 'course, I knew then. I had already had the boys
- lookaround to see If they could miss anything and they didn't missanything because they'd
- already fixed the tongs back up, youknow.Well, that night come and we left the rig, and I
- told my fireman when I left, I said, "Don't say a word to Jim about that tongjaw bein' in the hole.
- Don't mention it a'tall."And so Jim come on and worked all night and he couldn't donothing either.
- He couldn't stay on bottom hardly, it was sohard, and that old tong jaw in there -- it was so rough
- justcouldn't do no good. And so the next morning he left word withhis fireman, said,
- "Tell Cotton when he comes on I think there'sa fifteen-tong jaw in the hole." (LAUGHTER)Well,
- I already knew there was, you know, but he hadn't told me.But I already knew there was one in there.
- And he knew it was inthere, but he just didn't tell me about it, you know,
- and he thoughtmaybe it wouldn't ever bother. But it did bother.
- We had quite atime with it. Sometimes we could fish 'em out and sometimes we'dPIONEERS IN
- TEXAS OILp .30just have to wear 'em out and sidetrack 'em or do something, youknow.And
- the kind of old tongs we used them days for pullin' outand breakin' the pipe out with -- well,
- you's liable to git onein there anytime. I had a driller that I had broke into drillin'.He's
- here in town now; he's a fine old boy, named Meyers, EdMeyers. He --
- at one time we had five tong jaws in the hole atthe same time. We finally wiggled around and got
- through, gotdown and got finished up. That's the reason it took so longsometimes to drill in these
- wells in them days, you know. Thingslike that'd happen to you and there couldn't nobody help it.
- Theyjust happened. When the tongs'd break -- one of them old tongjaws
- shoot down through the rotary, it couldn't miss goin' In thehole; it'd go right on in, you know.
- Couldn't nobody help it.W.- That's the tongs you used to
- break out and screw back yourdrill pipe.Y.- Yeah, that's what we used them days. 'Course,
- they don'tuse nothing like that any more. They got better stuff
- than that.We finally, before I quit well drillin', got to where we hadbetter stuff.
- We done away with them old kind of tongs altogetherfor that purpose. Ed
- Meyers was a -- he finally made a gooddriller. But when he first went to work with me,
- he's drillin'nights, and I don't guess I went to work -- one well we's on --I don't
- suppose I went to work half a dozen mornings that therewasn't some fishin'
- job. He'd have a fishin' job every morning, of some kind, all the way from a bit and collar
- on up. He didn'tPIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL p.31think he could git anything in there that
- old Cotton couldn't gitout. He told 'em that, said, "Well, old Cotton'll git it out okay.And
- he believed that. He didn't think -- he thought anythinghe got in there I'd git it out okay.
- And 'course, I'd -- if Igot it out, got the fishin' job over with before the
- tool pushercome around, lots of times I'd never mention it a'tall, you know.'Course,
- sometimes he'd come there and catch me fishin'.(END
- OF TAPE)