Sandy & I lived about a mile above where J. M. Bevins Elementary is today on Slate Creek. We had lost our first child (Larry Andrew) on December 10,1971...Saddest day of our lives...
When we discovered that Sandy was with child in 1973, even though the doctors told us we would not be able to have another child, I decided that I would try to get a third job.
I was already teaching school and driving a school bus, but since I wanted Sandy to quit her job at the school board office, to be able to stay home with our son Laddy.( He was born in February of 1974.) I sought out a night job...
Well, the coal business was booming so I went to see Victor Street who had a Coal Lab, located down the alley way where Western Auto was in old Grundy. The road was a shortcut also to the 460 road behind town.
Victor hired me and started me off working in the processing shack at the tipple below Grundy & across the bridge...
Someone would drop samples off about 5:30 in the evening, and it was my job to divide them numerous times before running the sample through a grinder that produced a ton of black coal dust...After work, around 10:00, looking for all the world like a coal miner, I would drive to Sandy's parents house at Blackey, at the foot of Rockhouse Mountain, and take a shower in their basement, before driving to our Slate Creek home around midnight, getting up around 6:00 to drive my school bus..
Someone would drop samples off about 5:30 in the evening, and it was my job to divide them numerous times before running the sample through a grinder that produced a ton of black coal dust...After work, around 10:00, looking for all the world like a coal miner, I would drive to Sandy's parents house at Blackey, at the foot of Rockhouse Mountain, and take a shower in their basement, before driving to our Slate Creek home around midnight, getting up around 6:00 to drive my school bus..
After several months of this, I started working in the actual Coal Lab....That work was hard, but I didn't get dirty...
Jim McGlothlin, owner of United Coal Company, would often call to check on how the coal samples for that day had assayed out...The quality of the Black Gold probably meant millions, one way or the other...LOL...Just knowing that there were dozens of men who became multi-millionaires...
Alas, I wasn't one of them, and I gave up the job just before Laddy was born...
Jim McGlothlin, owner of United Coal Company, would often call to check on how the coal samples for that day had assayed out...The quality of the Black Gold probably meant millions, one way or the other...LOL...Just knowing that there were dozens of men who became multi-millionaires...
Alas, I wasn't one of them, and I gave up the job just before Laddy was born...
I just couldn't take it any more...Stayed sleepy all the time. Sandy did take a leave of absence from her school board job, and we tightened our belts and made it just fine.
God is Good!
God is Good!
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