Anyone on here ever been a Coal Miner?
- Thread starter mrhotdice
- Start date
I'm pretty sure at least 3 of us old boys on here worked previously SE KY coalfields underground. @Chuckinden , @starchief5 and me, for a few months.
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My dad worked in a tipple for a while when I was a kid. My brother works at a coal fired electricity generating plant.
When I lived in western KY, I knew several miners.
When I lived in western KY, I knew several miners.
Worked in E Ky 30 years ago but not in the coal industry. Knew lots of guys that mined coal. EVERY one of them was a good, hard working, family guy. They worked almost every day, including most Saturdays and many Sundays. They'd get two weeks off every year. I had a great deal of respect for those hard working guys. ....not been back for 10+ years....I've heard things have changed a lot.
Back in around 1972 right after we graduated from high school my best friend and I got called to work for a mining company mining a 27" coal seam. My brother worked for them as an electrician. As I recall they were then about three miles back in the mountain. He drove and we parked next to the office and directly in front of the mine. We both looked at the hole then looked at each other. We drove home. That is a close as I ever came to working in an underground coal mine. Those guys who work in the big coal seams are one thing but those who can force themselves day after day to go into something like that... Brave, crazy, desperate... I don't know. More power to them. I could not do it.
The first few days is tough, but like everything else you get used to it. Once your knees get calloused, which takes a while, it gets even better.
Long family history with coal mining in West Virginia and then Virginia going all the way back to the Matewan massacre. I lost a close family friend who was crushed so badly that his remains were carried out on a coal shovel. Another family friend whos arms were burnt so badly in an explosion that he can barely use them today.
My Dad worked 20+ years in the mines with only 1-2 days off per month excluding the periods that the miners went on strike and we were forced to get on Govt assistance for brief periods. I remember the Christmas the mines was on strike and I didnt get very much. I remember the time(s) my Mom come to school to check me out (crying) because we had to meet the ambulance at the hospital with my Dad.
After all of that hard working loyalty, crushed fingers, various stitches, ruptured disks and arthritis from working in damp cold claustrophobic holes, the company did away with him like some old mule when he started slowing down some. On top of it all, they battled him tooth and nail for all of his retirement benefits for almost 10 years (dragging it out hoping he would die so they wouldnt have to pay him). They appealed it on every level and it went all the way to the WV supreme court before they finally gave him what he had coming. He made good money and there was good times but my Dad said If I ever mentioned working in the mines he would kill me himself.
My Dad worked 20+ years in the mines with only 1-2 days off per month excluding the periods that the miners went on strike and we were forced to get on Govt assistance for brief periods. I remember the Christmas the mines was on strike and I didnt get very much. I remember the time(s) my Mom come to school to check me out (crying) because we had to meet the ambulance at the hospital with my Dad.
After all of that hard working loyalty, crushed fingers, various stitches, ruptured disks and arthritis from working in damp cold claustrophobic holes, the company did away with him like some old mule when he started slowing down some. On top of it all, they battled him tooth and nail for all of his retirement benefits for almost 10 years (dragging it out hoping he would die so they wouldnt have to pay him). They appealed it on every level and it went all the way to the WV supreme court before they finally gave him what he had coming. He made good money and there was good times but my Dad said If I ever mentioned working in the mines he would kill me himself.
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You should read John Grisham's book, Grey Mountain. The setting is in Virginia, just across the mountain from Harlan County.
Yes, small coal is a killer. I think we mined 28 to 32 inch coal and shot from solid. Good quality coal but low production. We had to buy equipment that was used in Blue Gem seems which are all small.
People who make fun of coal miners need to spend a week in low coal.
I used to help my Daddy in a little truck mine in the summer months when school was out. He would shoot the coal and I would help him load the car and push it out. If their was one nice thing about it in the summer, it was cool underground. I knew one thing for certain and that was I wasn't going to be a coal miner like my Daddy and his Father.
That is interesting to me. I never did it but I do know my family had a "coal bank" on the hill behind my grandfather's house. I can remember stories of my Dad and my Mother going there and digging enough coal for winter and leaving my elder brother and sister to play in one of the "worked out" rooms. By the time I was old enough to remember it was completely closed off and nearby was one of the underground coal fires around. Just smoldering for years. But that whole area is history now. Strip mining took it long ago.
It's been 30 yrs since I worked in the mines and I forgot about the fact that you never had to worry about the weather underground.
Coal mining is work, but it's terrible work. Not so much as the dangers you face daily, but the long term effects as you get older. I've been lucky not to have any repercussions from working in the mine, but I was only there 12 yrs and most of the time not at the face.
I'm thankful I got out when I did.
My dad was a coal miner his whole life. Worked his butt off for hardly anything in return. Coal miners started making good money in the early 70s but the old timers worked in horrible conditions, out of work about half the time and barely made enough to feed their families. He wheeled around an oxygen tank the last few years of his life. Finally succumbed to black lung at age 66, six years younger than I am now.