Why I'm Not a Coal Miner

Grand Pa Cox was a miner, daddy was a miner, why wasn't John a miner.

I graduated from high school in June of 1971. Peabody Coal Mine number 10 in Pawnee was going full blast. I thought that this would be a great place to work and make a lot of money. So that first week of June 1971 I told daddy that I was going to apply for a job at #10. I must have been crazy, I knew that daddy had been hurt at the mines and that it was dangerous. I guess it was the money that made me forget all the bad things about working in the mines. He told me that he would talk to the front office and I should go over later in the week to apply. I went over and got to meet the head man and talk to him about a job. He said that daddy had talked to him and they would have me fill out an application. He said that they were not hiring anyone that week. He told me to check back each week. I went twice a week all summer long. I had friends that got jobs over the summer. Each time they said that they had just hired someone. By the end of summer I was tired of going over and not getting hired. Daddy told me it was all timing, I just wasn't there at the right time.

Several years later, after I got a job at the Secretary of States office as a computer operator, daddy told me that he had told them not to hire me. He did not want me to work in the mines. That was one of those times that a child and parent have a special moment. Parents sometimes have to make "life changing" decisions for their children.

Evey friend that got a job that summer got seriously hurt working in the mine. Daddy did know best...

I have always wondered how much influence Mom had in that decision.

Computers have been very good to me....