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Life from the Oil Patch: "The Acadiana Story"

The Era of Change, 1960-1990

HELIOCOPTERS SERVICE THE RIGS As the distance between shore and rig expanded the need for transporting workers by helicopters became viable. Petroleum Helicopters Inc (PHI), begun in 1949, was one of the companies that began shuttling workers and equipment to the rigs. The business expanded through the 60s and 70s. Based out of Lafayette, Louisiana, this company grew to become the world leader in oilfield air transportation.
	"At one time about 85% of pilots flying in the Gulf were all ex-military. And one of the reasons for that is it's so expensive to get civilian flight training. In fact, we had young guys that worked for us as helpers right out of high school that went in the army, went into flight school and came back and hired on with us as pilots. And those were generally our most stable employees because those were the guys that were from around here." "You'd be surprised how many aircraft a year get blown off of platforms and lost. You get these freak winds with the summer thunderstorms and stuff like that. Or even if they're tied down, I've seen aircraft leave the deck, and the tie down ropes and the tie down eyes are still on the deck and the aircraft's gone."
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CULTURAL DYNAMICS OF SOUTH LOUISIANA The culture of South Louisiana could seem welcoming or off-putting. An important part of the area's interaction with the offshore oil industry demanded that outsiders feel welcome and the workforce operate in concert. A delicate balance between newcomers and a historically set social structure were often challenged with the changes being brought by this burgeoning industry.
	"The oil field has never been as integrated as lot of other (industries). I understand there's some black people that work offshore. If you're black it takes guts to work with a bunch of white people, who are just blue collar, half-ass mean people to start off with."
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		"People from outside Louisiana do not want to live in Louisiana. I don't care who you talk to you'll find that out. Very few like me will move here and stay here. It's home for me now."
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		"Well they came in, and it was real funny because, people would come in, and I think most of them that came, came from Texas and Oklahoma, and Lafayette was such a different place. It was different from north Louisiana so you know it was different from other states. And they were all very apprehensive, and I think a lot of them probably didn't want to come when they came. Then when their companies would transfer them (away from this area), they would quit, and either find another job or go independent. And that's one thing that made Lafayette grow, because they loved the people, they loved the way of life, they loved the food, and they would stay."
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RELIGION In 1952, Maurice Heymann's plan to create a centrally located business center to attract oil companies came to fruition. The Oil Center became the location for oil related businesses and the town's people of Lafayette could more easily put their fingers on the place where all the changes stemmed. One of these changes was the introduction of large numbers of Protestants to an almost exclusively Catholic area.
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POLITICS Prior to the introduction of the oil industry, Louisiana was a one-party state. With the return of World War II veterans and the expansion of oil and gas extraction in the state, new people with ideas different from those of a majority of the population migrated to the Louisiana in large numbers.
	"There were two factors in this growth period. One was the number of young men who had been in the army, and who lived in other places and who knew all about the two-party system and all the things that were going and they came back home. That was one little nucleus. Plus, the oil people that came in here that helped Lafayette Parish some because those were all people who had been schooled and raised in other portions of the country. So that gave us our small nucleus that we went with."
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	Donny Bacque : "The oil and gas people brought in Republican ideas. When they moved in from Texas and Oklahoma, they probably were registered as Republicans over there, and said, 'We need to build a Republican Party here.' And the growth of the Republican Party, by and large has been,, because of oil and gas people from outside who actually built it. I suspect, had they (the oil and gas people) not come in, Lafayette would still maybe be a sleepy, backwater town." David DiTucci : "Do you think the same would go for Protestantism?" Donny Bacque : "Absolutely, because, as you know, before they started coming in, it was almost unheard of to be a Protestant. In fact, maybe the only Protestants were the teachers at USL that came in here, because everyone was Catholic. It was just a part of our heritage to be Catholic. So, for sure they brought in Protestantism. And again they were always accepted. It's not like, 'Okay, we're Catholic and you're Protestant, so we can't associate with you.' Other than we can't go to your church, we can still be friends."
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	David DiTucci : Why do you think Republicanism came to Acadiana? Dud Lastrapes : Well the oil industry brought in a lot of people. You know, this was not as homogenized, if you can say it that way, a group of people, or citizens, where it once was maybe 90% Cajun, 90% Catholic. A lot of that changed when the oil industry developed so strongly beginning in the fifties and people from Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, California, whatever, came into the state, many of them still here, and they became a pretty nice blend of oil industry and local Cajuns. And many married locally and so on. So you've had that blend over the years, and I think some influence came into play too, not that we don't have some conservative Cajuns; we do, a fair number, but the influence of a lot of the oil people coming from these states. It was mostly a conservative influence that had a little play on the flavor of politics locally, and still does to this day. I would say most, somebody would maybe challenge me, but I would say most of the people in the oil industry tend to be on the conservative side of politics and today mostly on the Republican side of politics.
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THE 1980s A severe oil crisis in the 1980s adversely affected the economy of Lafayette, a city built on the oil industry. Many people and companies left the once-booming city after the bubble burst. Only recently has the area begun to rebound from the affects of the downturn of the 1980s.
		"When the bottom fell out, you could drive down the street, and practically every other house would have a 'For Sale' sign in front of it. I mean we had so many houses for sale, and not one soul to buy them. It was terrible, and people were moving out in the middle of the night. They couldn't pay their mortgages because the interest rates…At one time, the interest rates were 18%, the prime was 21%, and the only people buying houses were oil people coming in. And of course their companies helped them, so they could buy. And when they left, the companies would buy the house so it didn't matter how much they owed on it. Well people lost their jobs; they couldn't pay their mortgage. Even if they could sell their house, the value of it had dropped so much, there was such a difference in the sales price and the mortgage balance, the couldn't sell it. So they were moving in the middle of the night. Their neighbors, or their friends, wouldn't even know they were gone. All of a sudden they would be gone. You could not find a U-Haul in this town, and they were going all around Baton Rouge and all around and getting U-Hauls and moving out. And we had a bumper sticker that said, 'If you're the last one out of Lafayette, turn off the lights."
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In an effort to prepare the city for future economic growth, the administration of Dud Lastrapes, Lafayette mayor from 1980 to 1992, developed several programs to allow the city to support a large economy during periods of economic growth, which began in Lastrapes's last adminstration. Through Vision Lafayette 2000, the city set short- and long-term goals and developed better transportation and recreation facilities as well as other capital improvements to allow the city to grow. In the 1990s, Lafayette city officials worked toward economic diversification to alleviate the impact of another oil downturn. The affect on the city of this industry crisis highlights the importance of oil to Lafayette and all of Acadiana.
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