My Grandfather worked in the mines in W.Pa back in the early 1900s at age 15...He said for the longest time he never saw daylight the whole week because he went in before dawn and left after dark....No unions or litigation back then, you did what you had to, he ended up retiring from a steel mill at age 65....there was also no "press here for Italian" BS, he taught himself how to speak, read, and write in English because he wanted to be an American.
He ended up with Black Lung at an early age...later he would put a shot of whiskey in his coffee every morning, said it loosened up his lungs. He quit smoking at age 75. Got a lot of fishing equipment using Raleigh coupons....He lived to be 95.
That mirrors my father exactly. He started in the mines at 9 years old in SW Pa. He would smoke those little black Italian cigars. He told me when he got near the mine entrance, they would put them out and chew the butt. That was in about the same time frame. About 1948 or so, he went t to work for US Steel in Dravosburg. He became a machinist an died at 93 of black lung.
