Coal Camp Teens: Proud Creekers

By Margie J. Pittman

Join this, often humorous, walk down memory lane. Find out: Why an apple rolled down the Isle of the Putney church, If Ed got the point, Where Gobblers Knob is, Who cooked Steves duck, Where did Jody get that prize beagle, What was Jerrys surprise, Why Emmas play was canceled, How David got into such a tight situation, Why did Jesse James get kicked out of school, Who in the world is Pampers, Why did Raymond un-quit, How come Larrys Lincoln was only a two speed, And who Sparky is. We survived, with some wonderful memories. This teenage stuff isnt always easy, but it can be great fun.

Teenagers are a strange mixture of hormones, guts and uncertainty. Add in a healthy dose of orneriness, a lot of rock-and-roll, a dance step or two, a few likeminded friends and youll get trouble enough. If however, you throw in, a little coal dust, a swimming hole, a taste of Roys moonshine, a bunch of school skipping, some military service, red blue jeans, Judys bottle of Listerine, and a thick layer of snow and ice, then you have real West Virginia Coal Camp trouble. To say that we grew up poor is an understatement, but dont forget, we grew up in a great country that afforded us luxuries and opportunities that make us seem very wealthy in the eyes of most of the world. For that I am very grateful.

Coal Camp Teens werent so different from other teens, or were they? The rich culture of the mines and the hills, blended together to fashion people who were especially strong. No one ever said that teenage years were easy. Sure there were fun times and memories that will be cherished for the rest of our lives. There were also lessons to be learned. Learning lessons is especially hard when you think you already know it all. There is nothing good about a paddling, unless you learn something from it. There is not much good that can be said about war, except when it is necessary to preserves our freedom. In much the same way, the trials and temptations that filled our teenage years are nothing to brag about, except that they made us what we are today. Coal Camp Teens explores the strange world of the teenager. In particular, the teenager growing up in the coal camps of Campbells Creek, West Virginia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468530452

Margie J. Pittman

Author Margie Pittman learned storytelling from her father, Jessie. A Christian for over forty years, she has published and performed hundreds of gospel songs and three books—Coal Camp Kids: Growing Up in a Coal Camp, Coal Camp Teens: Proud Creekers, Coal Camp Kids: The End of an Era. They are true stories about life in a West Virginia coal mining community. Margie’s current book Dan’s Loving Heart is fiction. While struggling with unforgiveness, God revealed this story of a heart of forgiveness that comes from Him. She prays that Dan’s Loving Heart will help you achieve the same peace that she did through learning to forgive. Margie has also cowritten another book, Tiebreaker, with her Daughter Barbara Reed. It is Christian fiction written around the themes of salvation, family, and national politics. Margie lives just outside of Charleston, West Virginia, with her husband of twenty three years, Bert Jernigan. She is focused on making memories with her family. Ask for both Dan’s Loving Heart and Tiebreaker online or at your nearest retailer.

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© 2012 Margie J Pittman. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 2/3/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-3047-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-3046-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-3045-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011962813

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

The Splash of Spirits

Introduction

Proud Creekers

Chapter One

In the Beginning

Chapter Two

Midway Junior High Here We Come

Chapter Three

A Teenager at Last

Chapter Four

Eighth Grade Fun and Misery

Chapter Five

Skipping School

Chapter Six

Our Friend Beverly

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Dortha Names the Boyfriends

Chapter Nine

On Gobbler’s Knob

Chapter Ten

Good Looking Kids

Chapter Eleven

Jody and Judy Bartley, and Family

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Larry’s Sneaky Sister

Chapter Fourteen

In the Army Now Or Is It the Marines?

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Daddy and His Siblings

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

A Boy Named Rudy

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Jesse James Get Kicked Out of School

Chapter Twenty One

Stephen Is the Cat’s Meow

Chapter Twenty Two

Steve and Lucius Have a Blue Ribbon Day

Chapter Twenty Three

The Cow and the Corn

Chapter Twenty Four

Junior’s Generosity

Chapter Twenty Five

A Perfect Ten

Chapter Twenty Six

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

Chapter Twenty Seven

Stephen’s Rockin’ Horse

Chapter Twenty Eight

Not So Lucky Horse

Chapter Twenty Nine

Stephen’s Horse Visitor

Chapter Thirty

I Am Shot

Chapter Thirty One

Sparky

Chapter Thirty Two

The Spirit of the Mines

We Are Family

Special Thanks

God’s Plan

The Splash of Spirits

From the grey hair and the wrinkles

To the newborn baby’s cheek

We all share a pride in knowing that

Through our veins flows the love of our creek

How can this be? Outsiders might ask

Such love and pride for the hard lives they had

But they don’t see beauty in the creek and its mountains

So it is for them that I feel most sad

When we say our farewells to our dear ones

And of our body there’s no physical trace

Our spirits will splash in the ripples of our creek

We’ve come home and it’s a beautiful place

Author: Tish Steinmetz

Used by permission

Introduction

Proud Creekers

Coal Camp Teens is a book full of light hearted stories about young people who were raised, in a coal camp. It is a sequel to the book Coal Camp Kids. Many of the same characters appear in both books. The stories are based on truth. There is however, just enough fiction sprinkled in to make it more readable. Set in the 1950’s and early 60’s the language is sometimes a little different.

If you haven’t read Coal Camp Kids I hope that you will. However, this book stands alone. You will know some of these characters better having read the first book, but you need not have read it to understand and enjoy this one. Coal Camp Kids was more about our younger years in the coal camp, where this one includes more about our teenage years. The readers of my first book were very kind to share their stories with me. It amazes me just how rich life was, and still is in the Campbell’s Creek area of West Virginia. Some of their stories are just so good that I have included them; even though they are about younger days.

Teenagers of any era are a peculiar bunch. If you have already experienced your own teen years, then you don’t have to be told about crushes, hormones, or friends and enemies. Things like: compensating for being a late bloomer, junior high school, head lice, talking dirty, or the total confusion of not being a child or an adult; will all bring back memories, if not nightmares. If you are yet to experience your teenage years, or if you are a teenager, then hold on tight. Even though it may not seem like it at times; you are (most likely), going to survive the uncertainty and embarrassments of your teen years. If I could offer a word of advice; don’t take yourself (or anyone else your age) too seriously. While you try to navigate these troubled times; remember, it really isn’t as bad as it may seem. Just think about it this way. All the adults you know, muddled through their teen years. Somehow, you will too.

As I said the setting for this book is Campbell’s Creek where most of us grew up. Campbell’s Creek is just outside of Charleston WV. The coal camps were Putney, Cinco, Rensford (also known as Point Lick) and Amherst (also known as Reed). I will be adding a few other coal camps such as Paint Creek, and Cabin Creek. If you talk to anyone who grew up in these parts you will probably hear them refer to themselves as Creekers We will let you know that we all consider ourselves Creekers to this day. This book is dedicated to all the wonderful coal miners and their families who worked so hard to make our state of West Virginia great, and in so doing helped make America great.

Coal was our main resource. It was both our friend and in some ways, it was our enemy. The mines were very dangerous and still are. The men who worked these mines worked very hard, day in and day out. Anyone who enters a mine shaft puts his life in the hands of the company he works for, his fellow workers, the fickle whims of this unpredictable mineral, and the tons of earth that hangs precariously over his head.

The miners weren’t always treated with the respect they deserved. I’m here to tell you they earned respect with their sweat and tears and sometimes their own lives. Unionization didn’t cure all of that, but it went a long way toward making the mines safer, and forcing the companies to give the men at least a little of the respect that they deserved. Better pay and safer conditions benefited all miners and their families. We were, and are a proud people. We made the best of our circumstances, and helped create a wonderful, State for all to live in today. Making West Virginia stronger helped make America stronger. Campbell’s Creek has always been, and always will be, my home. I am happy to call her that. I am a Creeker, a proud Creeker.

Chapter One

In the Beginning

In the beginning, the coal camp kids of Cinco all met at Cinco Elementary School. It was a two room building with two teachers, one for each room. I was in the first grade with some great kids. Many are still my friends today. The little room as we called it had the first, second, and third grade. The first teacher I had was Ms. Saunders. I thought she was so pretty. After she left, Mrs. Graham came and stayed for a while. The big room was fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. Mrs. Palmer taught that room. She also was the Principal. She was a great teacher.

You may think our education wasn’t of the quality that the bigger schools offered. Nothing could be farther from the truth. These two teachers worked tirelessly to educate us and shape our lives so that we could be successful. They were Amazing. We found when we left Cinco elementary to go to school at Midway Junior High, and DuPont High School; we were up with, or ahead of the children from other schools.

Our elementary school house would look foreign to kids today. Our only air conditioning came from a raised window or by opening the door. The furniture was all made of wood. Our desk and chair was one piece. We kept our books and supplies on the built-in shelf under the seat. Our water came from a pump in the back yard of the school. We all drank from a crockery churn with a spigot on the side to pour the water from. Ruby Bartley filled it with water from the pump after she cleaned the school at night. Going to the bathroom would be quite an adventure for today’s kids. We had outside toilets. They were small wooden buildings placed over a hole dug deep in the ground. The seats were raised, but they were only a flat board with a hole cut in them. Our toilets were two-seaters, but my friend Bonnie said Point Lick School had a three-seater. Now weren’t they fancy? Our toilets were kept very clean. Our motto was cleanliness is next to Godliness. Imagine that…. Still there was no way to sanitize an outdoor toilet. The only thing you could do, to help with the smell, was to pour lime in the hole periodically. At home, our mom’s also scrubbed our toilets with magic bleach. Still, it was what it was; a dark smelly room, just far enough away from the school that the smell didn’t come into the school house. That meant it was a decent walk through the rain, snow, heat, or mud. By today’s standards life was very inconvenient, but we didn’t know any different. Still we studied hard and played harder. Hard times are an excellent teacher. Our generation knew a lot about that.

Our first activity of the day was to bow our heads and pray The Lord’s Prayer. Then we would stand straight and tall like little soldiers, with our hand over our heart, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. After that we sang a song. Most mornings we sang, My Country Tis of Thee. One of our other favorites was Those WV Hills. We did these things every morning. We began our days by Praying. It’s no wonder God walked with us. We honored him and put him first. We were just children, but we grew up knowing that there was a God in Heaven and he loved us. Children today could sure benefit from that.

I have so many special memories of that little school house, but my best memories are of the kids who attended there. Now Lenny Ulbrich might have been the class clown of the little room. That is until my little brothers Roy and Raymond arrived, along with the little Bartley boys Jerry and Roy. By then Lenny was in the big room, still keeping us amused. Lloyd Jerry Nelson was the girl getter. The girls all loved Jerry. I personally loved Jerry and Lenny both, but more like brothers. Seems wherever you seen Jerry there was a crowd of girls. Even at six years old he was a classy dresser and a girl lover. He moved away too soon. We all missed him. He was pleasant and smart and always tried to obey the rules, but like the rest of us he occasionally broke them. That’s just what happens sometimes.

Now from the first grade through the third grade Jerry would collect lucky stars. These were little coupons that were attached to the package that notebook paper came in. He even had some of the other kids saving their stars for him. We all had them, and he was trying to win this great prize, the manufacturer promised, for the lucky stars we collected and mailed in. Well after three long years of collecting, his mother mailed them back to the manufacturer for him, just as they were instructed to do. Since Jerry had collected for so long, he just knew he had earned a terrific prize. The wait was agonizing. When it finally came, Jerry was so disappointed he could have cried. It was an original Duncan yo-yo. It lasted about a day. Now that was heartbreaking. After all that anticipation