when coal was king

When I was a kid, just about  everybody used coal to heat the house and cook. The row houses in every coal mining town had a pile of coal in the front yard. Coal was plentiful and cheap. Industry used coal to fire the furnaces which produced electric power, and the railroads used  coal to drive the huge engines along the C & O tracks located a few yards from our house. The black smoke belching from the coal trains smothered us with soot, leaving the clothes mom hung on the line with a pepper like finish.

 

We had a fireplace which dad kept going during the winter months. In the evening before going to bed, he would bank the hot coals with ashes in order to maintain a smoldering fire throughout the night....then kick it alive in the cold morning hours with a poker and a fresh supply of the black fuel. Such was our life during the great depression. Even though coal was cheap, we were pressed to keep the fire going when money was so scarce. My older brother and I would often walk along the railroad tracks gathering coal which fell off the overladened trains that went by with regularity. We would carry an old burlap bag and fill it with the dregs of commerce. Sometimes the pickings were slim.

 

The hoboes riding on top of the coal were not much help, until my brother had an idea one day that paid off. He threw a rock at the riders and they responded by hurling lumps of coal back at us. We collected the ransom as the train rolled out of sight, and repeated the assault whenever more coal was needed.  Dad finally started making enough money as a carpenter so our career as train robbers came to a close.  We were young then and did not consider our actions illegal...and maybe they weren't.....but I would like to make amends, I would feel better if I could repay the coal company for our rash conduct. At the price of coal those days, I figure we own $35.43. Now if I just knew who to send it to..............