oilfield trash

Oilfield Trash: the term likley began as a pejorative coined by locals in towns that experienced a rapid influx of oilfield workers arriving to drill and service oil and gas wells or provide oilfield services to the industry. Some of the stiff-necked town Fathers (and mothers) saw the oilfield workers as rough, itinerant vagabonds with too much money to spend and a serious lack of moral fibre verging on criminality. Never mind that the oilfield people could be professional engineers,geologists and technical people who made more in a month that most of the locals did in a year. Some were indeed not well "house-trained" but Bar owners, hotel owners and merchants soon discovered that most of these oilfield folks were actually pretty good for business. Today the term is seldom used outside of an "in-joke" among veteran oil patch people. The industry has matured workers are better trained for the most part and the numbers of truly uncivilized or trashy folk are dwindling. In the 1950's one snarly old town councillor (in a prairie city that will remain nameless)wanted to implement a by-law to prevent the "oilfield trash" from living within the city limits, instead having them live in trailers in an oilfield "ghetto" out on the prairie! He lost. In the ensuing years it was the influx of oil and gas money that made the place (and many others like it,) what it is today.