I have the book "Bloody Harlan" which deals with the organization of the union in Harlan Co. Ky. My grandfather went to work in the mines when he was 11 years old. ( NO child labor laws back then ). He worked in the mines until he was over 70 years old and had a 50 year pin from the UMWA Of course, he had Black Lung. This was just one of the many perils of the miners from this era. Just to show how important the union was to the miners, I remember that my grandfather cut a picture of John L. Lewis from the UMWA Journal, framed it, and hung it on the living room wall This was in the 1950's,. Unionizing came before my time,but my Mother remembers a lot. My few memories include a Moon Pie left in a dinner bucket,a plastic worm in the water part of the bucket, filling carbide lights in the kitchen at night, and the time someone brought him home in the back of a pick-up with his back broken from a accident in the mine. Thank you for talking about the miners and bringing these memries back to me. Gayle Researching DUNN, KECK, HILL, PROFFITT, and WHITACKER