Long before I was born my grandpa took
the opportunity to invest in oil lands.
From my understanding his investment had paid for a certain amount of
land which different companies would lease in order pump out oil and distribute
under their name. I had heard of Shell,
Amacco, Texaco and Conoco but there were many other names that I did not recognize. I don’t know how often checks were written
to each share holder but each check would bear the name of the company who had leased
the land.
After my grandpa had died the checks were made out to my grandmother. When she died she had made arrangements that each of her children would get 30% of the royalties and the remaining ten percent would be divided among her then eleven grandchildren. I never saw what my parents were getting, but the checks made out to us had always come with a mountain of paperwork. We had always found it to be such a great waste of money that it would often cost more to send the check than the check was often worth. Checks that were cut to my sibs, cousins and I would range anywhere from one cent to 35.00. Two digit dollars were rare. The average seemed to be two and change if I remember correctly.
At times we were offered to sell our property or lease it off to another company which also required a huge mountain of paperwork which included duplications that not only had to be signed but witnessed as well. Often we would go to the neighbors across the street and create an assembly line of signing and passing the papers. Often companies who had asked would change their minds as I suppose the size of the property wasn’t worth it – not among the grandkids anyway who had grown into twelve of us.
As the years went by the amount of checks had lessened – either we had sold the property off or the land had dried up or what have you – and had exchanged hands so many times that it was hard to keep track of where our checks might be coming from. I don’t think the amount was ever worth all the hoops we had to jump – particularly those of us whose names and addresses had changed. Most companies could either get my married name or current address but never both. Thinking that the address was more important I still get mail addressed to my maiden name. In fact, there was one address where we had lived that Roland was also receiving mail in my maiden name. I thought it was hilarious.
Anyway before the coronavirus hit the states but while the pandemic was going on in China we had an outrageous offer on our property rights. OUTRAGOUS on the part of the company – quite unbelievable for us. Corey had asked them about the amount on three separate occasions but was told the amount was correct. He decided to go for it but advised the rest of us to wait in case it was a hoax. It wasn’t a hoax. He got paid! And in turn the rest of us did too. I mean it would take several years to acquire enough pay checks to equal the amounts we had already sold for. This offer would have been at least forty. It was unbelievable.
The individual we had dealt with had
been so enthusiastic for acquiring all this property for his company. I sounded as if he had been more excited for
the gain than we were to sell. And then
COVID hit. I wondered what had become of
him or the company he worked for. Corey
learned that he is no longer employed with that same company but did not know
if it was because his choices may have cost the company (well, the pandemic did
– but that hadn’t even been a
consideration; what company is going to
say, “Oh, we can’t afford to
pay that much – there could
be a pandemic tomorrow and people might not purchase crude oil anymore”) or if it was
just because along with so many other companies in the nation layoffs were
necessary.
There have been so many who have
struggled in 2020 not just because of COVID but because of weather
conditions. People lost homes due to
floods and fires and other elements. And we remain blessed. We may not have a lot but I know we are
better off than so many others. For
that I am grateful.
