COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER ON FATHER'S DAY

FATHER’S DAY BLOG – 6-20-10

COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER ON FATHER’S DAY

I cried when I watched the news reporting the coal mine explosion that killed 29 coal miners at the Upper Big Branch coal mine on April 5, 2010. There were tears of frustration. It brought back painful memories from childhood.

There were 600 safety violations in less than 18 months at the Upper Big Branch mine. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) cited in a newspaper article on April 25 that a “backlog” impedes enforcement of mining violations. That backlog is caused by the tactic used by the coal mine company owners who have their lawyers aggressively contest violations in order to thwart enforcement. And the few enforcements are set so low monetarily that it amounts to a slap on the wrist. Unfortunately for coal miners today, the coal barons of old, with the assistance of MSHA, still rule.

I was raised in a company house in Beeson Works, a coal company camp town near Uniontown, Pennsylvania. All nationalities, Russian, Greek, Swiss, Italian, Polish, African-American, and Czechoslovian, lived together in that tight-knit mining community. After a death in the mines, neighbors prepared food to feed the grieving families and relatives. They supported and comforted each other the same way the coal miners do today.

My dad, Fred Jones, loaded coal deep underground at the Kyle Mine in southwestern Pennsylvania in the 1940s and 1950s. He died in 1987 from Black Lung Disease. A tall, massive man withered away to skin & bones.

But when I was a pig-tailed little girl, he was my hero. Handsome, big, strong, courageous and known and loved by everyone. He taught me things that will always be instilled deep inside. Be on time, work hard, make your own way, pay your bills on time, never eat a meal without saying the blessing, and lend a helping hand. My love of animals came from him.

This Father’s Day I remember him with love and an abiding respect for all that he was and all that he passed on to me.