I need to write an essay on something from October Sky.
I'm deciding between what it would be like to be a coal miner in 1957, or just a coal miner at all. if someone could help at all, it would be great
watch Salt of the Earth and Harlan County USA
shareTry googling "coal mining history" or go to a <gasp!> LIBRARY!
"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde
I am a coalminer from Northfork in McDowell County, WV.
Ask me whatever you want.
Do you remember a famous flood in that region maybe back in the 20s or so? I read a book about this sort of incident but the details are hazy. A dam breached above a coal mining town, and it was used as an example of malfeasance in a Torts class I took.
shareThe only thing I know is that coal miners don't want their kids to grow up to be rocket scientists....
shareIt's dirty and you die a slow death coughing up your lungs if you are lucky enough not to die in an explosion.
Digging coal has to be about the toughest job there is.
My father liked it well enough. He was a miner from the late 60s until the early 90s. It paid well and if it wasn't for his failing health he would have kept at it. Ultimately he died from heart troubles that were unrelated to anything involving his time in the mines.
shareThere was a famous flood in a coal mining town somewhere in the Appalachia region in the 20th century.
I read a good book about it around 30 years ago, but I can't pin anything down. I looked up the Johnstown flood, but it's not related to coal mining. Whatever the area, I recall a community of people who thought the "people in charge" were looking out for them, when in reality they were turning a blind eye to the possibility of a dam breach. The catastrophe was larger than a mine disaster, which would be sad in itself.
And don't forget the trapped Chilean coal miners in 2010. Probably the most recent high-profile coal incident we can relate to.
Poldark
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