Seismic Wife

By Janeen Spicer (Grimshaw)

CGG came to Cedar City, UT when I was in my third year of college at Southern Utah State College.  Some "juggies" in the duplex apt. next to mine.  They were noisy.  Always drinking and partying it up late at night.  Borrowing pots and pans.
     Of course the CGG folks could be fun too.  The local bar...The Sportsman wasn't just full of preppy kids...now there were new people in town with helicopters, handsome men, ready to buy beers.  I'm not exactly sure, but I think Cedar City has more young women than men.  Someone named "Brave Dave...the Seismic Slave" had his name in the stall door in the ladies room.  Who was this "Brave Dave I wondered.
     One of my neighbors and I began to get friendly.  CGG employee Kevin Spicer.  We fell in love.
     I wasn't exactly new to the oil exploration business.  My family operated Grimshaw Drilling out of Enoch, UT and I was the book keeper/secretary/drillers helper/part runner.  The family only did water wells until the oil boom of the late 1970's hit.  We bought a Garner Denver Portadrill and began doing contracts for Getty Oil in the area.  $200,000 and $300,000 checks came in from Getty Oil at that time.  My family had a large farm, an irrigation company and a helicopter company with a Bell Jet Ranger and an old Vietnam rescued Chinook (pilot Jim Clark was my cousins husband).
     Several months went by and my current quarter of college was nearing an end.  I decided to go with Kevin to a place called Kemmerer, Wyo.  Sounded good to me.
     My family did not think it a good idea.  My Mother cried.  My father showed up with my 6'3 brother at the duplex to tell me I was not leaving town.  He had a rifle and aimed it straight at Kevin.  Kevin professed his love for me to my father who finaly put the gun down and and left (with the car that they had given me).  They figured if they took my car I wouldn't leave town. 
     I got an offer that next day from CGG the juggie van to the newest line.  But, not to Kemmerer, Wyo. rather Wendover, NV (Bendover, NV).  I said YES!  Then came the towns of Delta, Fillmore and Manti.  Then to Star Valley...Smoot... Thayne...Alpine and Afton.  And on and on for how many years I cannot exactly remember. 
I hauled my wedding gifts off to a tent in Smoot.  Greatest time of my life.
     In the subsequent years, my Grandpa George lent me his Buick Electra and travel trailer to use.  That car always reminded me of the B-52's song "I got me a car, and it's as big as a whale and it's about to set sail".  Later our son Mikey (who was born on the seismic trail) would remark, "my Mom could drive this Buick ANYWHERE!" (about 2 or 3yrs.)
     Did I mention Townsend, MT, near Helena, MT, Pinedale and Big Piney (Swinedale and Pig Swiney)?  We finally made it to Kemmerer and to the lovely shores of Lake Viva Naughton (Lake Viva Rotten).  I made a friend in Townsend, MT one morning...Ruthie...who brought over a Sweedish tea ring at about 8 a.m., baked in her Green School Bus with the most charming flower boxes on the windows.  We were instant friends and still are to this day.   A pair of seismic wives...out on an adventure...treating each town as if it were a field trip to be explored.  We both loved to cook and bake and share our cooking talents with hungry friends from the crew.
     My husband worked as a juggie...back crew...front crew...survey crew.  His father was Jim Spicer a Permit agent for CGG.
     During those years that I was in Wyoming and moving everywhere in the West my Cedar friends said I was M.I.A. (missing in action).  I had the opportunity to explore the most beautiful areas of the country, to witness the oil boom (that I am now realizing was a very historical event).  Thank you to this web site, the logos, pictures and stories for bringing back a flood of memories.
*I am finding that I cannot correct errors on this page.  The story should read "I got an offer that next day from CGG to drive the juggie van to the newest line.
*We had a daughter born in Montpelier, ID 1984 and brought her home to the apartment above the Railhead bar before we shut down for Christmas.  She is getting married this July and is not planning to move into a tent with her wedding gifts, but rather a new, less than year old, 3 bedroom house!  I didn't come at her fiancé with a rifle as my father did to ole Kevin Spicer!