Chevron Overseas Petroleum Company in San
Francisco had been on my case to skip my
daughters graduation so I could get to Aberdeen
as soon as possible. I declined their kind
request as I was rather pissed with everything.
When we did arrive in London I found that
Chevron United Kingdom had not finalized
my work permit. When I walked into the company
office on Portman Street in London Don McFain,
my boss, got rather concerned that we were
all in trouble with immigrations. I told
him I came in on a visitors visa which seemed
to calm him down a little. He insisted that
I should get out of the country post haste.
We decided to go over to Paris for a week
or two. I enjoyed Paris because it gave me
time to do things with my daughter. Cassandra
tried out her high school French on the cab
driver who got a kick out of how she was
talking. French tend to like it when you
try to speak their language.
We finally got to Aberdeen in June 1985. You can see above
where all the granite came from when you
fly into Aberdeen, that is if the sun is
shining. Aberdeen is know as the Granite
City or Silver City because most of the houses
were made from granite taking from this hole.
We were met at the Dyce Airport by Oran Hebert
and Paul Vita who took us to our apartment
on Garin Road. It was small and the only
food place nearby was a fish and chip place
that had the greasiest chip in the whole
world, and my mother didn't know how to cook
unless she had a pound of lard. I did finally
find a very good Indian restaurant that wasn't
to far. There were no McDonalds, Burger King
or Kentucky Fried Chicken in Aberdeen at
this time. Yvonne and Cassandra started searching
the area for permanent residence. They finally
found a house at 14 Louisville Avenue, which
Yvonne tactfully told me that it had a slight
problem, it was a house of ill repute. I
told her that some of the best place that
I have stayed were whore houses. That was
something that I really should of thought
through before opening my mouth. After looking
things over I saw that it would make a real
nice house, but would require a lot of work.
We got a contractor and made him a deal on
getting the changes made so we would be in
the house by 2 December. I paid a little
extra, but I did not have to deal with tradesmen
directly. I designed the kitchen, laundry
room, and closets and Yvonne decorated everything.
It turned out to be a great house. As it
turned out, the contractor would have met
the deadline, but the paper hangers ran out
of paper. Everything was ready except for
one strip of wall paper. We had purchased
American washer, dryer, and refrigerator
that were made to run on 220 volts. This
really was a great investment and most British
products were very small. They tend to shop
for groceries every day and us tiny refrigerators.
When we left that sold very quickly to expats
just arriving. Everything else was purchased
locally.
In August I took a leave to put Cassandra
in college. She wanted to be a dancer, but
while we were in Grenada Mississippi she
was diagnosed as having a shredded knee cap
which precluded a dance career. I will always
thank God that she did not become a dancer.
As a result, she enrolled at Delta State
University in Cleveland, Mississippi. She
was only 50 miles from her grandparents in
Grenada, Mississippi. It was a hard thing
for Yvonne and I to board the plane and leave
Cassandra in the USA. This was an experience
that I don't think I got over. No time in
my life had anything caused me so much pain.
I have been under pressure more times than
I care to remember, but never did it cause
stress like this. After this experience I
really feel for people that go through this
type stress on a daily basis.
Everything had shifted into high gear for
Cassandra's Christmas visit to Aberdeen.
I had this feeling of doom that the house
would not be ready for her when she arrived.
I could not think of anything but when she
would arrive. As it turned out I made a big
mistake in the travel arrangements. I thought
that COPI would handle the travel arrangements
in a professional manner. I was wrong. Carol
Chin routed her on a very bad route. After
this I told COPI that Cassandra would handle
all of her travel arrangements in the future.
This fiasco changed me in dealing with COPI
travel, don't have anything to do with them
worked ok. I was high enough in the company
that they did not challenge my decision.
I scheduled a meeting in London to coincide
with Cassandra's arrival. I went out to Heathrow
Airport to pick up Cassandra. We were staying
in the Portman Hotel just off Oxford Street.
She liked to visit Speakers Corner at Hyde
Park. Believe that the pictures below were
taken in the summer.
We went down Oxford Street looking at the
crowds and the stores. Vendors were roasting
chestnuts on an open fire in the street.
They smelled good, but I didn't care for
them.
When we got to the house in Scotland Cassandra
was amazed at what Yvonne had done
to the
house. The last thing she had seen
was a
rather crappy house. After settling
in things
started to go wrong. Apparently
the gas pipes
belonging to Scottish Gas failed.
We were
in Scotland with no heat, which
is like being
up that proverbial river without
any visible
means of navigation. The neighbors
all chipped
in with electrical heaters which
got us through
until Scottish Gas sorted out things.
During the winter there is very
little sun
light, only about 4 hours,which
limits what
you can show or do. I took a vacation
over
Christmas and New Year so we could
do things
around the area, but because of
the lack
of sunlight and the cold we had
to put off
doing a lot of things until she
returned
in the summer. During the summer
there is
very little darkness. One thing
that we did
start was a tradition of picking
out a Christmas
tree. We went to a nursery where
we picked
up a Norwegian Fir. The nursery
made things
feel a lot like Christmas with decorations
and the darkness.
See Aberdeen in 1890
See Pictures of Aberdeen
See Pictures of Queens Garden Party
See Pictures of Edingburg Castle
See Pictures of Edingburg
See Balmoral Castle
See Loch Ness
See Braemar Highland Games
See Brodie Castle
See Fyvie Castle
See Crathes Castle
See Drum Castle
See Cassandra and Cindy Touring Scotland
See Fraser Castle
During the 5 years we spent in Scotland,
Cassandra would come back for Christmas
and
summer vacation. She brought a friend
one
year and they traveled all over
Scotland.
Initially I did not want to be in
Scotland,
mainly because I was trying to recapture
my life with Cassandra always around.
After
awhile I had to admit that she was
grown.
Sure. Anyway I finally got serious
about
the job. The first task was to cut
back manpower.
The department was over staffed
and the company
needed to reduce manpower so I jumped
in
the deep end. The area of responsibility
was any activity in Europe. The
main focus
was on the Ninian Field, but we
were also
developing a gas field and drilling
wildcats
in various parts of the area. I
had a well
test group that would go to the
rigs and
test the wildcat wells.
See Pictures of the Ninian Field
In 1990 I convinced everyone that
Brian Smith
was ready for my job. They wanted
me go to
London, but Yvonne's health was
getting worse.
In September 1990 the overseas assignment
came to an end and we moved to Lafayette,
Louisiana. After two years, the
company offered
a rather attractive package for
people to
take early retirement. It was attractive
enough for me to take even thought
I was
only 56 years old. On 31 August
1992 my career
with Chevron terminated. We enjoyed
retirement
even though Yvonne's health was
failing.
After 18 months in retirement Yvonne
died
on 20 February 1994 of pneumonia.
She was
cremated and her ashes were spread
in the
Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas.
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