[rfrey]

I have not been a roughneck, but I grew up in Edmonton, Canada at a time when several of my Gr. 12 classmates went for 3 months in the summer and earned more than their teachers did in a year.

The pay is high (my friends earned about 12k/month) but it is dirty, dangerous work. You are isolated for weeks or months at a time. Drug use is extremely common, and your safety and even life often depends on the clear thinking and detail-orientation of someone who is hungover or high or both. There will be no internet access, although there is probably a communal television with satellite access. Many workers lose much of their money gambling: you can not participant and be isolated, or participate and lose, or participate and win and risk physical interventions.

My mom wouldn't let me go. :)

[gamble]

Any money you don't lose gambling will just go toward the downpayment on a $100k pickup truck anyway, if the parking lots of Grande Prairie on a weekend are any indication. =)