Poison ivy

It was the crazy summer of 1997 when dad was drilling down in Overton and laying around 10 miles of 4 inch gas line to get the gas out of the Overton field.  It was a David and Goliath scenario with the little shit kicker from West Salem up against the largest producer in the state of Ohio, Belden Blake.  It was a race to see who could get the most production out the fastest andspoiler alert, Dad is still on record with the largest gas producing well in the state of Ohio in a single year.

Anyway, he needed a lot of help from me that summer especially when it came to clearing the path for the pipeline crews.  So I spent a lot of time on the 550 brush hogging.  I do not get poison ivy but I did that summer.  The doctor later said I had gotten the poison ivy in my lungs and it made it into my blood.  I woke up one morning so swollen that my eyes were almost closed.  When I got down to the wells at 7AM to see what Dad needed me to do he was talking to Paul Obermiller.  He took one look at me and said, “If you cannot get the fuck up in the morning and want to come down here half asleep, you need to stay home.” 

I responded, “Dad, I am awake, I think I am getting sick or something because my eyes are swollen.”  “I don’t give a shit, you are half asleep, get the hell out of here,” he replied.

There was nothing I could do but leave and go back home.  When my Mom saw me she took me to the hospital where they gave me shots to bring down the swelling.  Needless to say Dad felt like shit when he found out that in fact I was not half asleep that day.  I harassed dad about that story all the time.

Shawn