| Credits For Pictures and Information |
| Thanks to
Chuck Clausen, web master for Ondas del Lagos, who has graciously
allowed the pictures from his site at
http://www.cclausen.net/5ebv.html to be used in this
presentation for the Chevron Retirees Association Unaffiliated Chapter.
If you worked in Venezuela this is a good site to visit for you and your
family. His site is devoted to life in Oil Field Camps in Venezuela from the children's view potnt. His father who worked for Sun Oil Company uprooted his family and moved them all over the world much like many of us did to their family. His site convey to me above all else that the children that we worried would be upset and distorted living in primitive conditions, where oil fields are usually found, was pretty much unfounded. Most of them were very happy living in foreign countries in camps. I have used photos form Gulf, Texaco and Richmond Exploration (Standard Oil of California) to put on our site. He has other companies like Creole, Shell, Sinclair, service companies and other private companies that did business in Venezuela. |
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The photos and images on Mene Grande were generously contributed by Skid Frothingham. He had an interesting life. He was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1929. Skid's father, Al Frothingham, was employed by GULF OIL COMPANY and went to Venezuela to work with MENE GRANDE OIL sometime around 1937. This is an approximate date because Skid recalls that his father went down ahead of the family and got on the list for family housing. He feels that it was about a year before an opening occurred.
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Ann Gourley Caffrey contributed the
photographs for the Richmond Exploration Company, a company belonging to
Standard Oil of California. She was born and raised in southern California. Moved to Maracaibo in 1946. "My father, L.W. Gourley, had preceded us (mother Leta, brother Bill, and I) in 1945 to learn Spanish and Venezuelan labor law to prepare for his position as personnel manager for REXCO. My brother and I attended Bella Vista School, and in my freshman year of high school, I studied independently through the University of Nebraska Extension Program. Those three years were full of the joy that only Maracaibo oil brats can understand and share! We moved to New Orleans where my parents stayed for a short time in preparation for duties in Sumatra with Caltex Pacific; my brother went to Gulfport Military Academy in Mississippi and I to the McGehee School in New Orleans from which I graduated in 1951. A highlight of that period was summer in Singapore in 1950, where we lived at the storied Raffles Hotel. Can't afford to stay there now! I graduated from Whittier College in southern California in 1955." |