A day in the Life of a Old Coal Miner during the 1930's. A Miners Story of a day underground.

[Music] [Music] [Music] this is the story of an old coal miner during the depression years trying to provide for his family trying to survive these old coal mines day in and day out and provide a better life for his children and this is his story you know after 10 years of this i really don't need a clock i automatically wake up before it goes out but i'm just laying here thanking the good lord for what i have keeping me safe thank you for my family and keep me safe another day well i guess the clock's going off well i'm up putting my old raggedy work clothes on for another day i see maul's already up cooking some breakfast pouring the stove up get my lunch ready she's been a good woman good mother i check on the kids before i leave out in the morning usually one or two of them's already up looking at me i try hard to make a better life for them i'm one of the lucky few i own four acres here just a haul or two over from the mines it was handed down to me by my father and i'm able to have a little garden around here i head out towards the mines and it's not far half a mile walk i passed through the the company mining camps where all my buddies live i'm glad i don't live in this passing here up to the mines now i see we got a lot of coal needs to be shipped out check the tag board here see what's new going on and tagged myself in see if he's work available a few days ago we didn't have no work had so much coal on the ground he wasn't hauling it off didn't need nothing so they called off work today that was a good thing but it don't pay well i hear i'm waiting to go inside here check on my buddies see how they're doing what's going on this morning shoot the bull wait no george in there he he goes in there and does the fire boss and see if everything's okay for us to go in he's got a dangerous job now here's the crew here at this old mines on the on this shift good old bunch of guys buddy we all depend on each other and my dad he he started in the mines when he was probably 12 13 years old and a lot of other dads guys did too [Music] well it's time to get into the mines here i let all these young guys go in before me in better shape than i am and i my workings is not too far in here my buddy william we get in a workplace here trying to inspect it a little bit and scale it down we've been shot tonight before so we start loading here the hall crew they're waiting on us to load a car they start hooking up these ponies and horses but we just loading hard as we can load back breaking work but you get used to it here in the other places we're working on other places in the face here drilling getting ready to shoot it and we're just working behind them loading a loose coat here's shop fires loading the places out of the drill some guys has already got their cars loaded and they're heading them out of the face out to the main line [Music] hooking up these muse horses backing these cars into the places where we can load them in these places that's been shot oh george here he's been working on the track here if the track gets out of gauge you can't haul nothing on these cars and you got a wreck got a mess he does a good job keeping this main line straightened out where these to haul these cars out with this heavy coat we keep loading these cars [Music] usually takes us an hour so load one but it's time for a break it is back breaking work sit there and take a breather thinking about what's happening at home maul's washing clothes for the week she does a good job she works hard trying to keep his family together i wish i could get her some modern machinery though she puts out a lot of wash and i try to try to think about what i need to do in this garden i got around the house here that shore saves us on the company store it healthy really helps us going we're back to loading again breaks over old shot fire over there he's about got another place loaded and when he does he'll let everybody know around the immediate area and he'll get ready to shoot it off he'll say fire and hold fire in the hole fire in the hole and while the smoke's clear we'll all take us a lunch break it's about lunch time anyway wait till the smoke settles down we all get together there eat a little bite that talk about each other's families what's going on just trying to catch up these younger guys they just getting started anyway we're talking about well i'm trying to get some extra money around the house i'm raising some hogs on a little piece of land that i got it really helps out i can able to buy shoes and extra stuff by trading these hogs some old guys for their extra money they've been setting up been doing a little moonshining but that's way too risky i just wouldn't risk my family's security for that because i want to be a good example family i try to take the family to church every chance i can try to live right serve the lord best i can thank him so much for taking care of me in these old minds watching over my family there's nothing better to see your kids saved and baptized i'm so proud of them i wish them a better life than these old coal mines and school is the way to go i try to instill in them learn as best as you can and go and learn as much as you can reading and writing and arithmetic i can write my name and read a little bit but that's about it i'm back to work back to this loading this old code in these cars back breaking work and it does take its toll in the time now some places in the mines those guys just don't want to work you can see just the top sitting down and it's just too dangerous too dangerous we've got a crew comes in in the afternoon in the evening ship and they usually timber up at night so make it safe as they can for us [Music] we really appreciate them i had no buddy of mine about a month back he got covered up on a river all rock called the cold rolled out on the rib on him and covered him up before he could get to him i've had a lot of good friends dying these minds you never know when it's your turn it's up to the good lord he left a wife and three children so sad and i try to talk to my my little boy as much as i could that this is not a life for him but that's what my dad told me too but here i am an old man in these coal mines and these younger boys they just don't understand they take a risk it only takes one time not much of a rock and all to [ __ ] you or just kill you it's not worth taking that risk we still own these cars this makes about the fourth car we've loaded today some of these old places is hard to get into or they've had to scale it down and rocks fell in it trying to get in there back then places some of them are tight these are not pretty places and here's what you got to watch out for these old kettle bottoms they're just old petrified tree stumps that was formed when the coal was born they they'll just fall out at any time [Music] you won't even know they're there we try to put t timbers in under them like this and mark these spots but sometimes we miss them [Music] it's break time again man some of these days are long but they're not too long if you stay busy that goes pretty quick [Music] and i'm thinking about this weekend if i don't have to work if i can get out of these old mines take my boy squirrel hunting i love to squirrel hunt and i want to teach him all about these mountains it's our heritage and our way of life back to loading the cold man some of these days just seemed like they never end well it's quitting time men know william we're heading out of the mines here for a hard day's work well it's friday and it's payday good time to collect or to pay for the what we've been killing ourselves for all week i need to head by the company store here and pay on a bill all i get is script here it's only good at the company store and i'm so glad i'm not indebted to them like my buddies are and it don't matter what color you are in the company store we all look the same we come out of that mind we all brothers everybody works hard for what they got oh i'm gonna head on home my ought to be getting ready to start some dinner here this garden really helps me out here you see all the canning stuff it really helps the family she's starting up the old dinner i'm kind of hungry i know these kids are she does such a good dinner i really appreciate her i love her so much and these kids they don't understand they eat good thank the good lord that i'm able to provide for now these old minds they're a battle plane of the past i know that but this is the way my father and grandfathers worked their whole life but it sure beats living in the city living on the street in a cardboard box and a soup line every day during the depression these mountains can provide a living [Music] and i'd like to dedicate this one to my father and grandfather that worked her whole life in his mind [Music] and he's on mountains and these mines are a hard way alive but i wouldn't trade it for nothing i would trade my health though so i thank you all for watching hope you enjoyed this story and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: DONNIE LAWS

Views: 240,109

Keywords: Life of a Old Coal Miner, History of coal, A Coal Miners Story, Digging Coal, Underground Mining, Underground Coal mining, Miners, Mines, Appalachia, Mine workers, Dangerous, History of, Safety, Depression, Hillbilly, Coal mining, Early coal, Mining camps, Mining families, Working in coal, Mine disasters, Child labor, Coal history, mining families, mine Safety, Mining conditions, Coal of Appalachia, DONNIE LAWS, Hand loading Coal, Mining History, Hard labor, Early Mining

Id: i44C46b91Fw

Length: 15min 59sec (959 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021