Texas State Historical Association -- all ebooks free!!

[LJJohnson]

Every TSHA-curated eBook now available to download for FREE

I'll have to use the A word here. This is really awesome. I have a number of the books aready, but I'm jumping in as we speak to grab more.
You don't have to be a member, best I can tell, but you have to enter your name and email, and in return get an email with the PDF you picked.

Dear Texas History Lover,

TSHA has launched our NEW! online eBook catalog. Featuring every eBook TSHA currently offers, the catalog will be updated with all future releases. The best part? You can download every eBook for FREE.

TSHA eBooks are curated by Handbook Staff and draw from our acclaimed historical publications, such as the Handbook of Texas and the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Each eBook provides an account of important people, places, and events in Texas history, on topics ranging from battles of the Texas Revolution to the evolution of the state's musical legacy.

I invite you to browse our full list of eBooks, as well as read and write reviews on all of the selections you make. Each eBook will be delivered directly to your email inbox to download at your convenience. Choose from one of our three featured eBooks below or peruse the entire catalog today.

eBooks

[AnemicOak]

Linked page only shows six of the books. The entire list (AFAIK) is here...
https://www.tshaonline.org/ebooks/category/ebook/

[LJJohnson]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Linked page only shows six of the books. The entire list (AFAIK) is here...
https://www.tshaonline.org/ebooks/category/ebook/

Good catch, thanks. I had though there was a link on the landing page I gave to get to all the books, but apparently not.

I have already read a number of these curated collection, and while most are not very long, they were very detailed. Even though I was born in Texas and spent a majority of my life there, and have read books on Texas history, I was impressed with the details of life during whatever period of time the "book" covered.

[AnemicOak]

My ancestors emigrated to Texas in 1845 (in one line anyway) so I always find stuff like this of interest.

[LJJohnson]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

My ancestors emigrated to Texas in 1845 (in one line anyway) so I always find stuff like this of interest.

Mine came over to Texas (from Louisiana) in the early 1930s, following the oil field. The oilfield was much rougher and tougher than now. To this day, if you visit a bar frequently by drilling folks, you can figure 90% probability that anyone who is missing fingers worked on the rig floor at some time..

When I was training to be a drilling foreman, part of my apprentiship was to work as a floor hand (roughneck) on 3 kinds of offshore rigs: submersibles, semi-submersible, and floaters (i.e., drillships) for 3 months on each.

While on the drillship, when we were desperately trying to get the drillpipe down to the leave of the last casing. The ship was doing a fair imitation Joe Cocker dancing, and the rain made everything slick. I managed to use one of my fingers to pad two pieces of drill pipe coming together at speed.

They flew me to the nearest emergency room, and my finger survived. At the beginning I had only 45% mobility at the beginning. After I couple (3, I think) og months of therapy I got mobility back to 80%+. Since I wound up going into programming/support within 10 years of that time, glad I worked so hard on the therapy.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by LJJohnson

Mine came over to Texas (from Louisiana) in the early 1930s, following the oil field. The oilfield was much rougher and tougher than now. To this day, if you visit a bar frequently by drilling folks, you can figure 90% probability that anyone who is missing fingers worked on the rig floor at some time..

When I was training to be a drilling foreman, part of my apprentiship was to work as a floor hand (roughneck) on 3 kinds of offshore rigs: submersibles, semi-submersible, and floaters (i.e., drillships) for 3 months on each.

While on the drillship, when we were desperately trying to get the drillpipe down to the leave of the last casing. The ship was doing a fair imitation Joe Cocker dancing, and the rain made everything slick. I managed to use one of my fingers to pad two pieces of drill pipe coming together at speed.

They flew me to the nearest emergency room, and my finger survived. At the beginning I had only 45% mobility at the beginning. After I couple (3, I think) og months of therapy I got mobility back to 80%+. Since I wound up going into programming/support within 10 years of that time, glad I worked so hard on the therapy.

I met a guy once with a deformed finger. I asked if it was oilfield related, he said he worked the oilfield but that was where his wife shot him.

Oh and I know a guy whose hand met with the traveling blocks. He lost 2/3 of one finger and the other two were broken. All the fingers were taped together at first. (Mid 1970's)

[LJJohnson]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Oh and I know a guy whose hand met with the traveling blocks. He lost 2/3 of one finger and the other two were broken. All the fingers were taped together at first. (Mid 1970's)

.

I have never had any objection to physical work. After college I

• worked as a technician at a brick plant
• in a newspaper/printing shop learning to run a linotype and the old style letterpress press (couple of tons of cast iron and 7 feet tall)
• worked as a roustabout in a small field in Maxie, MS. Best job ever. Either drove or walked down to the office (about 300'), and picked up my company car or the needed tractor or large trunk. Just 2 of us, nearest management in N. Lousiana. I.e., pure 8 hr workday, good partner, no hassels from management, no real emergencies (unless you count the time the nearest place to get food ran out of the large rolls of balona where I got my 14" thick slices of bologa, and was out for 2 weeks) <g>
• worked as night operator, warehouseman, and crane operator on offshore production platform.
• Finally, 9 months as a roughneck to train for 10+ years as a drilling foreman.

I even *enjoyed* the 9 months of working as a roughneck, kinda. Running pipe in and out of hole, adding bags of noxious chemicals to the drilling mud, and when all else failed, chipping paint. Layers and layers of paint, then painting layers and layers of new point. Repeat as needed.

That was the one physical job that I didn't want to return to ==> ever. Although I did have a couple of well kicks that could have turned into real disasters, but I was young enough and experienced enough and confident enough to make the right decisions. And I didn't lose any fingers.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by LJJohnson

.

I have never had any objection to physical work. After college I

• worked as a technician at a brick plant
• in a newspaper/printing shop learning to run a linotype and the old style letterpress press (couple of tons of cast iron and 7 feet tall)
• worked as a roustabout in a small field in Maxie, MS. Best job ever. Either drove or walked down to the office (about 300'), and picked up my company car or the needed tractor or large trunk. Just 2 of us, nearest management in N. Lousiana. I.e., pure 8 hr workday, good partner, no hassels from management, no real emergencies (unless you count the time the nearest place to get food ran out of the large rolls of balona where I got my 14" thick slices of bologa, and was out for 2 weeks <g>
• worked as night operator, warehouseman, and crane operator on offshore production platform.
• Finally, 9 months as a roughneck to train for 10+ years as a drilling foreman.

I even *enjoyed* the 9 months of working as a roughneck, kinda. Running pipe in and out of hole, adding bags of noxious chemicals to the drilling mud, and when all else failed, chipping paint. Layers and layers of paint, then painting layers and layers of new point. Repeat as needed.

That was the one physical job that I didn't want to return to ==> ever. Although I did have a couple of well kicks that could have turned into real disasters, but I was young enough and experienced enough and confident enough to make the right decisions. And I didn't lose any fingers.

That guy worked in the oilfield for the next decade plus a few years till the field went (trying to think of a nice word) and nearly everyone lost everything.
At least this time around, people seem a bit smarter with their income.
He found a job in a totally different field and has been at that ever since.
The most fun job I ever had was construction.
And come to think of it my granddad had all his fingers but had a steel plate in his leg for years.