Day 3: I Sold my Soul to the Company Store

We all started this beautiful Monday morning bright and early (not really) at the local community technical college. We found this place so interesting because as college students we value education and appreciated seeing others from a far off state and a different background value education as well. Seeing studens a lot older than us was very surprising, but we understood it was because they were looking for a new start in life after the fall of the coal industry. We got to sit around and hear all of their stories and learned much about how their stories brought them to the school. These were very inspirational people and we enjoyed hearing them speak about how lucky they felt and could really feel how much they loved their community. Next we went into the Coal Academy to see how people trained using simulators to practice with heavy machinery to eventually be put to work in the mines. It was a very interesting machine which we decided to call "the diggy thing".

Cole trying the simulator.

We also got to walk inside of a small mock mine that was also used for practice where we learned a little more about what it must be like to work in a mine. It was very small and dark and definitely not a lot of fun.

Our group in the mock mine- so dark and small!

Our group in front of the school with Mr. Ronald Hayes!

Next stop on our crazy adventure full of wild and wacky shenanigans, we took an exhaustive tour of the Kentucky Coal Museum where we learned much about what it was like for those in the coal industries in the 50's and 60's. There was so much to see on the hundreds of floors of the museum. There weren't really that much, but it felt pretty large. There was a very interesting outdoor elevator that we all shoved ourselves into. The lack of personal space brought us all closer together. The tour guide was a lovely woman that was also a fountain of information. Something that really blew our minds was the idea that coal companies gave out their own currency that you could only use at that companies store. Can you believe that? Tragic!

We ended our day with a delicious meal and a great conversation with Joe, the husband of the woman providing us with housing this week. He was great, told us a lot, and I want him to be my dad. He was a very wise man, a great politician and, and told us a lot about what it was like to be an outsider in Appalachian politics. It wasn't easy, but he managed. Overall, it was a fantastic day full of good times and wise words from wise, old Appalachian people.