Copyright © 2003 -2008 Roger Philpot All Rights Reserved
Images © 2008 Roger Philpot
A story about her coal mining daddy
Written By Mary Cottenham Folk
Friday January 5, 2006. Last night I watched The Prime-time Special on TV. And remember another time and another coal miner. A handsome young man with dark red hair, and blue eyes who worked in a coal mine at Coalgood Kentucky. And a little girl who, when she would hear the quitting time whistle blow, would take off running up to the railroad track to meet her Daddy.Several miners would walk that railroad track day after day after their shift was over , {a shift that only paid them $2:50 a day} but there was only one covered with coal dust so bad you couldn't tell that he was a white man, that this little blond blue eyed toe headed blond girl was interested in and that was the one with beautiful blue eyes that carried his dinner bucket under his arm, until she got there to carry it home for him, because she always knew he had something in that dinner bucket for her and probably something that he would have liked to eat himself , but brought it home for her.
Many times, he would grab her and sit her on his shoulders and carry her home. Black coal dust and all. Her Momma wasn't every happy when she saw the two of them, but she didn't care. Now there was two of them who need a bath. She too knew that he had saved something from his dinner for her, and that's why she would run as fast as her little legs would carry her up that hill and down that railroad track. The mine is still there, the commissary is still there and so are the men who crawl into that deep dark and cold mine everyday to earn a decent wage so he can take care of his family. Different men and different times, AND different wages.but they risk their lives every day to a dollar to feed their families. Have you ever tried to take a bath in a #3 wash tub? Filled with water that was boiled in another tub on a coal burning coal, Heated by that same coal that was dug out of that same man who carried something home in his dinner bucket for his little girl? I am very proud of that coal miner, who everyday got up before day light and went deep into that cold dark mine every day for years, and worked all day on his knees with pick in cold black water, with only a carbide light for light, One who entered the coal mines as a water boy when he was only 10 years old. Can you see a 10 year old boy doing that today?????? I hardly think so. I can still remember that big strike the coal miners had in 1939 0r 1940. When John L.Lewis was the head of the Coal Miners Union and when the big black cars and men with guns and rifles were lined up on the road by our house for as far as you could see from one end the road to the other . That will forever stand out in my mind. and the miner whose little girl ran to meet him everyday,The one who loved being carried on her daddy shoulders, so she could get to wherever they were going faster, because her daddys legs were longer than hers , and he could walk faster than she could. I can also remember that same father and daughter going up to the commisary at ,for the Coalgood Bar-B-Que , and I can still taste those good bar-b-que sandwiches and dill pickles, And the brown cows afterward. If you don't know what a brown cow is, It's vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate on a stick .This is just a small part of a miners life, one who lived only 67 years , And a little girl who is now 70 years old. But who still misses her Daddy and those good treats from his dinner bucket and the rides on his shoulders, the best part of the whole time. I hope that as I get older and more forgetful , that I will never forget those coal miners and those times , etched in my mind probably with coal dust. Nor the rides on the shoulders of Coal Miner with the most beautiful blue eyes I will never seen and will never see again. Now that daughter was not the only little girl that was spoiled by the blue eyed coal miner. He had a little Grandaughter that he spoiled as well. One who was happier when she was with him and her Granny, than she has ever been in her life.
Miner going homee
