I loved this story, by the way!!
I wonder if he and the oilmen, or the Shetlanders, kept in touch?
Ed
For a while; remember, I was still a teenager.
A couple of times the next two years, I sent Christmas cards and gifts to the family, but never received any sort of acknowledgement. Later I learned they had moved to Scotland (after old dad died), but where and why I have no idea.
I kept in touch with the Texan and the Oklahoman until I went to the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants in the early 1990s; by that time they were nearing (early) retirement, and had flourished and prospered.
Time, the great Diminisher of long-distance friendships.