In desperation he resorted to poor boying, paying his men with groceries and the promise of an eventual paycheck. During the Depression poor-boys like Richardson paid drillers and toolies ten to twelve dollars a day in oil, if it was found. If it wasn’t, they received whatever a driller could come up with. Richardson, who kept a chronically overdue account at the general store in Kermit, became reknowned for paying his men in bread, eggs, or milk—whatever they needed to eat.
