Andy informs Mr. Kearns that he cannot take the job offer. Mr. Kearns expresses disappointment and mentions the potential benefits of the job. Andy explains that he is leaving town. Mr. Kearns bids him farewell. Andy stops at a gas station and asks to use the phone. The road is blocked, and he is advised to wait inside. Mr. Marshall, who struck oil, shares his experience of finding oil and the challenges involved. Andy expresses his desire to make money and Mr. Kearns offers him a job. Andy injures his arm while helping at the gas station, and Mr. Kearns encourages him to believe in himself. The road eventually opens, and Andy considers taking the job offer. The gas station owner hopes to have a better service station in the future.
Speaker 0: Hello, mister Kearns. Good to
Speaker 1: see you, Andy. What's up?
Speaker 2: I just stopped by to tell you I'm I'm not gonna be able to take that job you offered me here.
Speaker 1: Why not, Andy?
Speaker 2: I just can't.
Speaker 0: I figured what we
Speaker 1: talked about might work into a pretty good deal for you.
Speaker 2: Thanks, mister Kearns, but I'm leaving town.
Speaker 1: Frank, I'm on my way right now.
Speaker 2: Goodbye.
Speaker 1: That was okay. That'll be $2.80. Leaving Tom White.
Speaker 2: I'm sick of this place.
Speaker 1: I wanna go where I can make some real money. Hi, Joe. I had to pile up the road flight out completely blocked off. Yeah? I'll let you know when the road's open.
Okay. If folks are welcome
Speaker 0: to wait inside, you might be more comfortable.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I can't get through down there, Joe. I wanna use your phone. Okay.
Speaker 0: The lights. Folks, I'll have a
Speaker 1: lamp on in just a minute.
Speaker 0: Next. That'll do.
Speaker 1: Can I fill her up? This will probably be a blow to you, but I just stopped my cigarette. Oh, that's okay. But the way you're headed, the road's washed out.
Speaker 0: Oh, brother.
Speaker 1: Those people in there are in the same pit. Why don't you join them? Okay. Tell me and I'll pull on over. Right over there.
Another reason for expanding the station. Make more room for people when the road's blocked. Phew.
Speaker 0: Handle the 20? Yes.
Speaker 1: Mister Marshall and I are sort of in the same business, just different end. Retail's mine. Production's his. He just did something that nobody ever did in these parts before. He struck oil.
Struck oil.
Speaker 2: Boy, that's the kind of luck I'd like to hit all of a sudden.
Speaker 0: So you think I was lucky. Oh, weren't you? For the past few weeks, that's all I've heard. Luck. Luck.
Luck. I feel I earned what I got the hard way. My break was a long time coming, son. It isn't easy to find oil. It's even tough to find a place that looks like oil land.
I've been wrong plenty of times before, but I had a certain peculiar feeling about this last place. So you study the geology of the ground, see if it looks like any other oil land you've ever seen. Finally, maybe you find a shell fossil that gives you a real clue. Then with a little bit of dynamite, you set off some charges under the ground. The vibrations of the explosions are picked up on a seismograph.
And from this, you can tell whether there's even a chance for oil down there. A lot of work, a lot of dollars, A lot of engineering knowledge is represented in what you finally see towering against the sky till you start drilling. And that's an experience like nothing else in the world. You'd have to go through it to know all the heartbreak. It takes money, men, machinery, patience, sweat, and guts.
And of certain things like money, you've only got so much. And you know that while carrying this kind of an operation, the odds are 8 to 1 against you. Yep. 8 to 1 that you'll go broke. Day night, you drill.
You remember all those other times you've come up with nothing. But still you go on. Even when you know you only have enough money left to drill 10 more feet, just those 10 feet further. Then unless you hit it, you're through with just another one of thousands of dry holes. When you get the final answer, too much has gone out of you in the long, tough pull for you to have much feeling left one way or the other.
Then there it is at last. A lump of mud, oily success. Well, when you hit oil in a new part of the country, a lot of oil company representatives come flocking to bid for drilling rights and all the surrounding land, Public or private, just on the strength of one well coming in. I guess that brings us back to here. We're pretty soon now.
Your job or might just might be bringing your oil and gas right out of my well. Could be. Who knows?
Speaker 1: Everyone around here is pretty excited. Things are gonna really boom. It seems to me this is a pretty good place for anybody looking for a start.
Speaker 2: There's gonna be so much money floating around here. How do I get some of it?
Speaker 1: There are definite rewards for individual initiative and determination, Patience and courage. Yeah. Sure. I know.
Speaker 2: I've been hearing that Horatio Alger stuff till it bounces off my ears. Office boy to present. You too can own a big convertible and marry the boss's daughter. Well, that isn't
Speaker 1: the way it works. See? You get out of high school. You get Get a measly little job for a few bucks a week. At the end
Speaker 2: of 6 months, who gets the promotion and the raise? Not you. They give it to the boss's nephew. You find out you're wasting your time trying to make it the hard way.
Speaker 3: I know how hard it is to keep on believing in the right When you see people all around you doing wrong and profiting by it, You've got to keep faith in certain things no matter what happens. Faith in God, faith in your country, and faith in yourself. Because if we ever lose that faith, our way of life will be lost too.
Speaker 0: Oh, now how do we tell when the road's open again? Oh, the highway patrol come along. That's something I don't think I'll wait for. Alright. Line up over there.
Thank you, kid. You and I seem to think alike, kid. The long lines are getting ahead. I can use you, and I'm offering you a break. These solid citizens for me.
You can be well on your way to that big converter.
Speaker 1: Nice
Speaker 0: going, kid. Lucky. No bones hit.
Speaker 1: All you'll have is a stiff arm for a few days. I'd rather
Speaker 0: get back in the job. You're gonna be alright, kid. It's good boy, Joe.
Speaker 1: I an idea we're all going to be better for what happened here tonight. Mister Kearns, I've been thinking, about that job. I was wondering if
Speaker 3: We hope to hear great things of you, Andy. You have it coming to you.
Speaker 2: Come back and see us in
Speaker 0: a few months. We'll have everything.
Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am. It'll be as nice a service station as
Speaker 0: you'll find at any crossroads in the good old USA.
