It Happened in 1924

Coffee and Contemplations…

I went out to the deck to scatter leftover cornbread crumbs from yesterday's supper. The crisp air chilled my face, but the beautiful symphony from my feathered friends; the Sparrows, Blue Jays, Chickadees, Cardinals and Red Winged Blackbirds are overriding the chill, and I smell the mountain air in which I lived many years ago.  And that led me to remember the two who were responsible for filling my heart with memories of childhood.

So I write.

Daddy was born in a rustic, log, farmhouse in Mt. Airy, North Carolina. He arrived in Coalwood, West Virginia in 1939 to begin work at the Carter Coal Company, which later became Olga Coal Company. He worked first as a bone picker (the process of separating coal from slate as it came through a conveyer), making four dollars and forty-six cents a day. Later he became a motorman and brakeman on the motorcars that carried the men deep inside the mines. Eventually he became a skilled welder, which was the vocation he practiced until retirement.

Momma was born in Baileysville. It was there where my Popaw worked in the mines and mules were used to pull the coal cars. I suppose that Popaw wanted a different type of work so when Momma was only six months of age, Popaw decided to move the family. so, they packed up their belongings including some furniture, and boarded a train for Coalwood. They set up housekeeping in the section known as Frog Level.

Frog Level was the scene of Momma's childhood activity. She said they particularly enjoyed playing around the ball field. As I quizzed her about her life in Coalwood, she recounted a notable incident. One day as Momaw and Popaw tended a garden on the hillside near the ball field; Momma was in charge of babysitting her four-year-old brother, Jack. His curiosity led him to climb the steps of the grandstand where he took a fall that frightened her out of her wits! Amazingly, there were no serious injuries to her brother; as a result, she escaped disciplinary action!

Coal camp ball games were a welcomed summertime sport during those years, but some people could not afford the price of a ticket for admission, so many residents would bring blankets and spread them on the ground and observe from the hillside free of charge.

For posterity, I asked Momma exactly how she and daddy met in Coalwood considering that he was from North Carolina. This is her story …to be continued.