As we stood around the parking lot at the mine, a guy came out and said "Everyone come in here and take a test". What the hell I figured, I would just go in and take the test. After the test the man giving the test carefully banged the test on the table and formed them into a neat pile. Without looking at the test he threw them in the waste basket. Then he looked at everyone and said "You are all hired, but there is one problem, I told ten people to come here, but there are eleven people here. Someone is here that does not belong, who is it?" Sheepishly I raised my hand. "Your hired too the guy said". Thus my afternoon nap on the porch launched my coal mining career.
Lord Kadizzle worked every summer as a coal miner and paid his way through college. The rest is history. Anyone who ever worked worked with real coal miners would come to love them. Coal miners are special. Everyday when you go underground you think in the back of your mind you may never come out alive. At any given moment it is a given something can fall on you and kill you. As coal miners liked to say at the time " You can't fool mother nature". In other words gravity never goes to bed.
One thing that hits every coal miner pretty quickly is that it is best if everyone is your friend underground. When you are trapped under a rock somebody has to get you out. When the damn place catches on fire someone has to come get get you. Every person you work with is possibly the guy who is going to save you.
An example is in order. One day "Juky Jack Blake" was operating the continuous miner. That is the machine that cuts the coal loose. Up the middle of that machine runs a conveyor. Jack was an amazing person. Many days I saw Jack casually get up out of his seat and take two or three steps back. Moments later a boulder would fall right were Jack was sitting. Once I asked Jack how do you do that? I said "Jack, someone could fire a high powered rifle next to your head, and you would not flinch". Jack gave me this answer " I drink, but when I drink, I don't mess around, I am not going to sit down and drink a beer, if I sit down I will drink a case of beer". It seemed to work, he had nerves of steel.
Jack was in some bad top, and told me he wanted me to watch the top while he ran the miner. Jack was afraid the top might fall. Usually before the top fell some stuff would trickle down. Jack had a sixth sense for things going wrong. As I stood behind the miner sure enough a big boulder fell onto the conveyor. Quickly it came up the conveyor and rolled off onto Jack. Jack was pinned under the large stone. I was young, but I did have a little bit of a brain. Quickly it went through my brain, if the top was coming down, and I went up to get Jack, it would be two people killed, not just one. That did not make much sense. I paused. After a moment I went up and grabbed Jack under the arms and pulled him back to where the roof was secure. The first thing Jack said to me was " You weren't sure if you were coming to get me, were you? I replied " It did not make sense for two of us to get killed". Jack's leg was in pain, but he was OK.
Working with coal miners as a young person I learned a whole lot quickly about life. Underground coal miners are noble people. I worked with miners in southern West Virginia, the toughest, nicest, and meanest if need be people in the world. They will share their lunch if you don't have one, and they will kill you if you cross them. I worked with miners in eastern Ohio, where one miner told me he would kill a federal inspector I was having trouble with for $70. I appreciated the offer, but said no thanks.
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