What a touching message! My mother was a coal miner's daughter, too. She told me some about life in the mining camps. She was the oldest of eleven children. There were many hard times for them. As the oldest, she later became like a second mother for some of her younger siblings. I was "almost" a miner's daughter. My father was in a mining explosion at the Lewisburg mine before he and mother met. He continued working in the mine. When I was about one year old, he became seriously ill. After recovering, he was told by a doctor that he needed to get out of the mines for his health's sake. So when I was two years old, he moved us north so he could work at the Ingalls Shipyard in Decatur. He was bothered by arthritis all his life, but never complained. The extreme cold in the winter and extreme heat in the summer while doing his job could not have been easy, but he persevered until retirement and provided for us. We were never rich in material things, but rich in love and the Christian example both Mother and Daddy gave us. I too wish that my parents would be with us again on Thanksgiving. Melba Clark ----- Original Message ----- From: <wla@execpc.com> To: <aljeffer@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 5:50 PM Subject: [ALJEFF] Movie Theatres If I could have one person at my > Thanksgiving table it would be my DAD....He would make up for all the > rest of the ancestors. A Coal Miners Daughter... Now we all know why > Loretta Lynn wrote that song. God Bless you Dad...