Stop 7: Stables

Winthrop had the chance to prove himself one day when the oil drill hit a gas pocket and the mud used to stabilize the pressure in the well began to foam (photo 1). If not quickly rectified, the foaming mud can quickly become diluted and the well can explode. The driller on the well was a man named Amos Yarbrough, and Winthrop tells the story about Amos asking Winthrop and another young man to “mix some new mud" (photo 2).

“Some of the mud and cuttings from the bit, as they come out of the well, are dumped into one of several reserve pits near the well. After the mud has been setting for some time, it becomes almost gelatinous, and someone has to walk into the pit - about 50 feet square - with a high pressure hose, and stir it up. So I and the other chap walked into that mud up to our waists. We stood there, with the hose, for four hours, mixing the mud and forcing it out of the pit so Amos could use it in the well. I’ve never been so cold. It was raw, and miserable, and the damp cold went through my clothes, my skin, my flesh - into my bones.

The relief man should have gone into the pit with me. But he wasn’t having any part of it. He stood on the bank “holding the hose” for us. The chap with me had a few things to say about that, but there wasn’t time to argue. We had to have the mud right now, so we jumped in and mixed it. That night at the boarding house where some of the crew lived, the relief man began sounding off about this guy Rockefeller. “What the hell’s he doing, coming down here and taking a job away from some guy that really needs it?” he asked - and added some other uncomplimentary remarks.

Almost as one man, the boys jumped him. “Look,” one of them said, “you could talk that way if you had anything yourself to back it up. But who was it mixed that mud today - while you stood on the bank? Rockefeller is willing and able to work - and that’s more than you are. We’ll take him, and you can go back to the farm.”

Winthrop was “choked up” when he heard about the men coming to his defense that night. He tells his son that those roughnecks taught him something very important about relationships (photo 3). According to Winthrop Rockefeller in “A Letter to My Son”:

“Be honest and straightforward with men, pull your share of the load, and the rewards they will give you - spontaneously, readily and willingly - will be far greater than anything you can ever hope for. That is true in the oil fields - it is true in the army - it is true in every place and activity in life.”

“You can win the Respect and confidence of any man who respects himself, if you give a little effort to understanding him, his background, his thoughts and needs - and if you show by your actions, and not just by words, that you respect him.”

As a convener, the Institute helps groups create transformational change by using tools and techniques to foster respectful dialogue between groups and individuals (photo 4). By fostering RESPECT across differences we seek to better understand those different from us and we can begin to arrive at shared goals and solutions.