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An excellent documentary of coal country

Kevin_LKevin_L Member Posts: 2,011 ✭✭✭✭


Having grown up nearby, it was nice to see a documentary about the area and people that doesn't take a bunch of cheap-shots and doesn't judge.

It's an hour long but it's worth watching. Hope you enjoy!

🇺🇲 "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson 🇺🇲

Comments

  • hillbillehillbille Member Posts: 14,393 ✭✭✭✭

    20 minutes outside of any of the larger cities and it will look just like the areas he is driving through. and yes help, GOOD help is near impossible to come by. I had a good friend who sold all his cattle when he retired because he couldn't find kids to help him in the hay field, and he was paying $10 hour cash, this was 6-8 years ago and it has only gotten worse. The influx of big city folks is taking over, as most of them from New York, ect, are retireing on close to or above six figure retirements. they can buy farms/property and live a really comfortable life on that kind of money around here.

  • jimdeerejimdeere Member, Moderator Posts: 26,153 ******

    I haven't watched it all, but it is pretty close to true. You drive through some of the towns and see where a house burned down. No one cleans it up because the lot isn't worth it.

  • hillbillehillbille Member Posts: 14,393 ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2023

    or it is just left vacant, I have seen numerous houses just abandoned to rot, as I guess there were either no kids or the kids moved and couldn't/didn't want to do the upkeep.......

    and I fast forwarded a lot of it, as I see it everyday

  • Butchdog3Butchdog3 Member Posts: 940 ✭✭✭✭

    Watched it a couple days ago. Excellent presentation of real life in that area.

  • Toolman286Toolman286 Member Posts: 3,211 ✭✭✭✭

    Just yesterday I was talking with a friend about the Buffalo Creek Disaster. In '72, 3 coal slurry pond dams burst & wiped out the valley. They live there now & nicer people you'll never meet.

  • jimdeerejimdeere Member, Moderator Posts: 26,153 ******

    Those boys at the end of the video will make something of themselves.

  • Butchdog3Butchdog3 Member Posts: 940 ✭✭✭✭

    Six figure salary right out of high school to those willing to work in that area.

    Funny part was the comment about the return of the coal industry.

    The EV folks just don't get it. I takes black gold to make electricty for "fuel".

    My dad and uncle burnt stoker coal. We hauled it from Harlan, Evarts, and St. Charles to name a few places. I saw first hand what obamanomics did to the coal industry and the folks in that area.

    I would be sent to the Isle of Misfits if I quoted what those affected had to say.

  • Kevin_LKevin_L Member Posts: 2,011 ✭✭✭✭

    Absolutely agree with you. The hollers don’t put up with a lot of BS but they’re a lot safer and nicer than any dem run city. I’d much rather live in coal country than Chicago.

    🇺🇲 "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson 🇺🇲

  • montanajoemontanajoe Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 59,955 ******

    Thanks for sharing that

  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 25,225 ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2023

    I happen to see a shorter version on youtube same video.

    so sad but true

    my parents ( from Tennessee )and in-laws all from Kentucky ( in laws from Harlin ) the coal mines were about all Thay had back then why Thay left and moved north .

    I still have a lot of relation in Tennessee I have not seen for 30 + yrs and I'm sure they have had many kids and kids of kids I have not or will not meet

    my FIL use to go to work and never see the sun he would work double shifts some times . in the mines to try and keep his family going , he was paid in scrip for those who know about it . my dad did not work in the mines but drove a coal truck early on before moving to Ohio

    My moms family her dad lost a lot of cousins in a terrible mine disaster ( she was born in 1935 so all she knew had been passed on to her ) here is a section of a article from the internet.

    Yancey Mine Disaster of 1932 In Harlan County, KY

    There were twenty-three dead including six brothers from Claiborne County, Tennessee. James Nelson Massingale and his wife had to make the somber trip to Harlan County, Kentucky in 1932 to identify each of their sons' bodies after one of the state's most tragic mine disasters claimed their lives.

    HENREY MASSENGILL, CALVIN MASSENGILL, GARRETT MASSENGILL, ESAW MASSENGILL, CAMPBELL M. MASSENGILL, and THOMAS MASSINGALE

    Local Harlan County resident and historian Jerry Asher has researched the Yancy Mine Disaster, and was even successful in getting the Kentucky Transportation Department to erect a memorial sign along KY 72 near the old mine site where the deadly mine explosion occurred. Abandoned Coal will be filming Jerry Asher soon as he tells of the horrific mine disaster, and one family's unfathomable agony as they laid six young sons to rest.



    flip side many years ago while visiting I found a lot the family were on welfare or disability.

    short story one cousin was on "crazy money" he told me . I had to ask ? my other cousins who were there at the time said he just had to prove he could not fit in with people or work with them

    so every month his check and food stamps would show up . he was not embarrassed to him it just made sense to not have to work

    that was easy 30 yrs ago last time I seen any of them so I have no idea about now


    coal mines were a way of life and ealy death for so many who were just trying to make a living.

    so many stories I know

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