Thanks for the article.

Your mentioning typing the lease on the trunk of you car with a manual typewriter and
carbon paper is such a true story of the old days of the the petroleum landman business.
I remember doing that many, many times parked in some farmer's pasture, or in a covey hole at
a court house. There is nothing in this world like being a petroleum landman. One day on some
back road in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, or Louisiana trying to explain to someone what a great
idea it is to sign that lease, and the day next flying across the country from coast to coast to get a
lease signed, or maybe to visit a graveyard to satisfy yourself and the company that mineral owner
is indeed deceased. I started leasing in 1978 and stayed with it for years. Eventually, abstracting came to
Mississippi, so I started up an abstracting company and have been doing that for several years and have
found it to be a hard business, more difficult than law practice, but just as lucrative.

However, I do still get the calls to join in on an oil and gas ticket and one day I may take a couple of
months off and join a crew. This time I'll have my laptop. :-)

We've come a long way from running mineral and surface interests back to patent to
current owner searches of today.

Take care and thanks again for the story.

Lin
Toney Title Services

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