Oklahoma's Oil Boom

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           In Oklahoma there were also oil wells and the counterweights also rocked regularly. Oil was discovered in the city itself. The oil wells came closer and closer to Oklahoma and finally, overcoming the weak resistance, burst into the city streets. The city was left to be pillaged. In the courtyards of buildings, on the sidewalks, in the streets, across from schools, next to banks and hotels - they're sucking out oil everywhere. Every god-fearing person pumps oil. Oil tanks stand next to big ten-story buildings. Your eggs and bacon smell like oil. On a spare bit of vacant ground children play with iron debris and rusty wrenches. Buildings are ripped down only for oil wells and counterweights to appear in their place. So where yesterday somebody's grandmother sat at a little round table and knitted a wool scarf, today a counterweight creaks away, and the new owner in a businesslike suede vest happily counts the gallons he's pumped.
           We saw the latticed towers and heard the optimistic creaking everywhere.

Chapter Twenty: The Marine.