Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pennsylvanian, the strange language

Yeah, that mine was one very deep hole- maybe a mile deep as I recall? It's been a long time. It sure scared the bejesus out of me as a kid, and still gives me the willies when I think about it.

Everybody heated with coal, and it didn't take long for pristine fresh-fallen snow to take on a gray sheen from the perpetual smog that hung over the small towns. One of my daily chores as a little kid was to shovel coal from the coal bin into the hopper on the furnace, and help the old man dig the clinkers out of the grate. I can still see the steam locomotives (in use 'til the late 50's) pulling long trains of coal cars on the lines that hugged both sides of the Susquehanna River, and the poor people who couldn't afford coal delivery walking along those tracks with burlap bags- looking for chunks of coal that had fallen off of those trains. Anthracite truly was the blessing, and the curse, for that region.