Word: odessa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...gate into Tan Son Nhut Air base on the edge of Saigon. Special police and South Vietnamese air force guards?ordinarily sticklers for formality?barely glanced up as they waved the vehicle on. Among the mixed load of American and Vietnamese passengers was Howard Hagen, an aircraft technician from Odessa, Texas, and more recently from Danang, South Viet Nam. "I just wish it hadn't turned out this way," said Hagen. "I'm leaving with a sad heart...
...Odessa File, 1:20, 5:15, 9:15, The Last Detail...
...Odessa and Midland sat on the prairie like towns in which the clocks had stopped. Oilmen capped marginal wells, sold their drilling equipment abroad or simply abandoned it in the fields; oilfield hands moved on to Canada or Alaska, or took other jobs. But then, in September 1973, Congress allowed "new" oil-produced above a 1972 base level -to float up to the world price, now about $11 per bbl. Suddenly, the producers, promoters, roughnecks and fortune hunters flocked back in droves to the oldtime West Texas boomtowns -and they are still coming...
...Typically, they hire down-and-out job seekers to work at the wells for $4.50 an hour. The catch: the agent gets the $4.50 and takes $2 for himself before passing it on. Another severe problem is housing, which has failed to expand to accommodate the explosive growth of Odessa's population-from 93,000 to 102,500 last year. Even those with money are often forced to leave for lack of a home, and Odessa churches and citizens have bought dozens of bus tickets for the destitute. Housing is somewhat more plentiful in Midland...
Indeed, the restaurant and nightclub business in Odessa is thriving along with the boom. Patrons often have to wait for 45 minutes on weekends for a table at the Oilpatch, one of the most expensive spots in town. For Herbert Graham, 35, and his brother Phillip, 34, business is so good that they have been able to earn back their original $100,000 investment in The Other Place, a discotheque they opened a year ago, in just five months. Last month they opened another nightclub, the Continental Cowboy. "We were thinking of going out of town to build," says Herb...