Raisins & Almonds . . . and Texas Oil! Jewish Life in the Great East Texas Oil Field

"Raisins & Almonds" is the story of the Jewish contribution to the Great East Texas Oil Boom, told in the words of those who lived it. Twenty-four people describe the same events from vastly different points of view in the same way the different threads are gathered to weave the fabric of a community. Martin Marwil's eyewitness description of bring in Dad Joiner's first discovery well site. Norman Balter's stories of shoveling coal as fireman on a cross-country freight train give us a feeling for Depression days, when people were down-and-out and desperate to survive. Milton Galoob tells how he couldn't afford tires for his truck. "I came to from Oklahoma to East Texas on two tires and two rims." Irving Falk shares the emotions of a seventeen-year-old who found himself alone and obliged to make his way in the oilfields. "I was completely in awe. I didn't know whether to look up, down, or look out for traffic." Sam Krasner swears he didn't ride into town on a turnip truck, he "rode in on a truckload of seven-inch pipe!" They all gathered from many exotic corners of the world to find themselves in the most exotic place of all-East Texas during the Oil Boom. Their recollections make the times come alive again in this historical work that reads like a novel.