The Human Cost of Coal

[handmade34]

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/costofcoal/

[d_r]

1. damn.

My grandparents were sharecroppers in southeastern Kentucky. I remember as a kid going out to the coal pile and filing this old metal bucket with coal that they would burn in the pot belly stove to heat the house. The dust would get on your hands and be on everything. In the winter it would be hot in that kitchen with the stove and so cold in the other rooms. I remember a glass of water that was by the bed being frozen in the morning. I remember huddling around that stove and the stove out in a barn where there was a work room where we would strip tobacco. The smell of the tobacco and the smoke would be so strong.