The Glass Castle

It seems like a thousand years ago, but once upon a time Kadizzle was plunked down on a different planet. That planet was southern West Virginia.  At the age of about 22 Kadizzle set off from civilization to the planet coal.  It was a different world.  Only someone who has been there can know.  Strangely a young person from Kadizzle's current town was recently plunked down in the same place. The young woman was a teacher in Welch, West Virginia.  Welch has recently become known because the book The Glass Castle took place there.  Kadizzle was in Southern West Virginia's coal fields to teach the coal miners how to get the coal from the ground without being killed in the process.  Coal miners are special. Miners have been abused and oppressed for as long as it took the coal to form.  Depressing is the word,  nothing is as depressing as southern West Virginia. Poverty leaks from the ground, and so does smoke.  Once on the way to a coal mine Kadizzle drove through a little mining town where acrid coal smoke leaked up through the cracks in the pavement.  Under the town was a mine that had been on fire for years.  The place looked like a scene from hell, but the people did not seem to notice.  Not noticing was a way of life.  Miners lived in shacks, and bankers helped the car dealers rob them.  Dirt with coal dust came down everywhere.  The entire experience was like going back to medieval times.

For the first time in a hundred years Mrs Kadizzle and Mr. Kadizzle trudged off to the local theater to see the movie that emerged from the book.  Kadizzle was curious if the movie would actually show scenes from Welch.  The real Welch did appear in the movie, and they managed to make it depressing as it was.  The movie was not that much fun, it was too reminiscent of how things really are back there.

At 22 one thing Kadizzle needed like a drug addict was female companionship. The search was serious and endless.  Like a detective Kadizzle sought a nice young lady.  This was not an easy task, but took some strange turns.  Someone said Kadizzle should get to know Minnow.  Kadizzle was warned how to conduct a meeting with Minnow.  Minnow lived in a shack above the railroad tracks.   It was winter and it was cold.  The idea was to have Minnow put old Kadizzle on the trail of a girlfriend.  Minnow had no real heat in her shack.  When Kadizzle walked in through the kitchen he saw all kinds of food on the table.  The table was the refrigerator.  No need to put the food into a cooler the kitchen could not have been much above freezing.  The correct way to visit Minnow was to get in bed with her.  The idea had nothing to do with sex, but was the only way you could stay warm while talking.  Minnow was a pretty husky young woman and the idea of bedding down with her did not have much appeal.  Kadizzle stood in front of some sort of fire in the bed room and shifted from one foot to the other to stay warm.  Somewhere in those hills there had to be some college educated women who needed Kadizzle.  The search was fruitless, and Kadizzle finally had to insist to his coal company that he must be moved back to civilization.  The story down in the coal fields has many twist and turns, but the coffee is getting cold and it is time for another cup.