It Was Fun While it Lasted

Book excerpt: M H Major’s memoir and personal letters offer an insightful account of an ordinary man’s resilience, fear, hope, and mortality as he struggled to succeed as a wildcatter in South Texas during the fifties. One of four brothers ordered by their Depression-era father to become doctors, Millard was the only son to strike out as a geologist in a business he’d been taught to distrust. As World War II raged, finding new production was easy enough. But an oilman must discover new drilling prospects year after year. A long-time consultant geologist for the King Ranch, Major details his challenges to stay in the game long after production in South Texas began to play out and other geologists had left the field.