Coal Camp Kids: The End of an Era

By Margie J. Pittman

Coal Miners from the forties and fifties were a special kind of people. The community of the camps they lived in instilled value and culture that is lacking in todays world. The Coal Camp Kids and Teens arent kids any more. Most of them have great grandchildren. Coal Camp Kids, The End of an Era catches up with the Kids today, and tells how they are passing on their values. The process creates some amusing circumstances. As you read, find out: Who got a phone call from Jesus, why were Bonnie and Margie on a four wheeler, who told David Pittman, Thats how they do it on TV, Why was Ruby Bartley so embarrassed, who thought they might need a good talking to, what did Karen shower everyone with, who got a standing ovation, what did Billie pray for, who is afraid of a thunderstorm, who thinks they would get a rush from a tornado, what got Paula tickled on the elevator, why was Joshua splashing in the tub, and who was interested in Margies twelve string? Explore the joys and heartaches that fill our everyday lives in the West Virginia Mountains. The End of an Era completes the trilogy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491820384

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.

Book preview

Coal Camp Kids

The End of an Era

Margie J Pittman

38678.png

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2013 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 10/2/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-2040-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-2039-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-2038-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013917286

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1   Our House

2   My Offspring

3   When the Coal Camp Days Were Over

4   The Cinco Kids Still Going Strong

5   Emogene Bartley Garten Brown

6   The Things Kids do and Say!

7   Honorary Coal Camp Kid

8   Dr. F. Scott Moore

9   Jim and Sue

10   Cammi

11   Beverly and Mary Ann

12   The Pittman Family Reunion

13   A Coal Camp Kid Named Yvonne

14   Emma Lou Stone Johnson

15   A Family Thanksgiving

16   Being Neighborly

17   Mrs. Potts

18   My Hero

19   Family Fun

20   God’s Special Men

21   It’s the Little Things

22   Coming to an End

About the Author

This book is dedicated to the memory of

Emogene Bartley Garten Brown

The epitome of the Coal Camp Kid

December 3, 1933-December 1, 2012

Introduction

My name is Margie Jane Pittman. I am a Coal Camp Kid from Cinco West Virginia. Located at Campbell’s Creek. I am also a proud Creeker. There are many of us Coal Camp Kids still around but not as many as there once were. I have tried to tell our story. It’s a story that needs to be told. The history alone has such value that it should be preserved. Today, we all have much different lives from when we were Coal Camp Kids. We do however, have memories that, though they fade, will never leave us as long as we live. We are growing older now. Soon all of us will be gone. We have a legacy and a proud heritage. We won’t be satisfied until our story is told to future generations. Otherwise, they will never know what it was like living in a coal camp.

The Coal Camp Kids raised wonderful families. This book will tell you a lot about our offspring. These kids, grandkids and great grandkids have never known the joys or the heartaches of living in a coal camp. Those of us who lived that experience came away with a spirit and a strength that will live on in us regardless of how we age or where we roam. Hopefully some of this spirit will be passed along to our kids and theirs, and theirs, etcetera. I think that there is quite a bit of evidence that that process is creating some exceptional people. This book will chronicle our latter years and those of our prodigy. Hopefully the best of the coal camp mentality will survive for a long time to come.

Recently, I was telling a teenage boy about my books Coal Camp Kids and Coal Camp Teens. To my surprise he had no idea what I was talking about. What is a coal camp? he asked. I was shocked. At first I thought he was putting me on, but soon I realized he was clueless. There are no longer any coal camps in America. There are still some migrant camps in the agricultural field with very oppressive practices, but as a rule employers do not even attempt to require employees to live in company owned housing. The coal camp era was a time in our lives that will never be again. It is a part of our personal history and our nation’s history. They were hard times, but in their own way they were wonderful. We were poor monetarily, compared to many outside our community, but in culture and heritage and indomitable spirit we were oh so rich. I still miss those days. I guess I always will. The libraries, and schools need to teach this history to our young so the days of the Coal Camp Kids will never fade.

I can still visualize Judy Bartley and Lenny Ulbrich, on our first day of school, as though it were yesterday. They are still my friends, all these years later, and I love them both. A few years later I met a young girl that would become my best friend. She still is and always will be. Her name is Bonnie Stone Jarrett. She has walked with me through many hard times, times of sorrow, and of joy. Her smile alone can brighten any room she walks into.

Of course none of us will ever forget the ones who have left us through death. They are still a big part of our memories. One of our recent losses is Emogene Bartley Garten Brown. This book is dedicated to her memory. She was the epitome of the Coal Camp Kid. She passed away after a long illness. I went to the Holiness Church at Cinco to pay my respects. The church was, full to overflowing, for hours with many friends that I grew up with. As I sat at her wake a million memories went through my mind. She was as pretty as a movie star. Her smile was beautiful, it radiated from her whole face and shined through her eyes. We adored her.

I sat with her brother Jody and we talked like a couple of siblings. We grew up like brothers and sisters. I guess Jody’s claim to fame was all the broken bones he achieved. Seemed he was always breaking a leg or an arm. He was almost always sporting a new cast for us to sign. However that night we quietly talked about his wife and two sons. I could see the pain on his face as he spoke of their deaths, yet he had managed somehow, to go on for his Daughter Glenda and his grandchildren. Only God could bring someone through that kind of loss. Jody trusts God. His Christianity is his strength. Today he walks quietly through life waiting for that day when the family will all be reunited on Heaven’s shore. I looked at the coffin where his sister Emogene rested and thought of heaven. So many have already moved on to their Mansion Home. They are just Coal Camp Kids reaching Glory. I knew that soon we would all be moving on. This is the End of an Era.

Chapter One

Our House

S ome of the wonderful things about the great state of West Virginia are the hills and mountains. We love the hills where we played as children. Now I am climbing a mountain with my best friend Bonnie. What a wonderful time we are having. You would think we were teenagers again, the way we are laughing and playing our way to the top of the hill. My husband Bert who has never lived in the hills is having a ball too. He and my brother Raymond have it all worked out. We will have to take Raymond’s four wheeler around the mountain to the house where we will be living. Bonnie and I are on an adventure for sure. We have had many adventures together before but none like this. As you know Bonnie has been my best friend for many years. She has the best personality in the world. We keep each other laughing and that is so important when you are climbing a mountain at our age.

The four wheeler was slipping and sliding as we went around the mountain to my new home. The mud was ankle deep and my husband Bert was laughing at my fussing. I just knew any minute now we would be heading over the mountain. I’d fuss a while and then I’d pray a while. I told Bert he was the worst driver in the world and then I’d ask Jesus to forgive me for my words. Now some men would be upset to be talked to that way, but not my Bert. He just laughed because he knew I didn’t mean a word of it. I was just scared and it was my nerves talking. It was March and it was cold and rainy. My best friend Bonnie and I were having fun in spite of the tough situation.

You see it was Bonnie’s fault I was here in this mud trap. I had been living in South Carolina where the weather is pretty nice all year round. Well Bonnie was tired of me being so far away so she prayed and prayed that God would bring me home. God in his infinite wisdom had said yes, so here we were. Now all we had to figure out was how we would be able to live here. Turns out there was an empty house up on Pittman Mountain. The house belongs to my brother Raymond and his wife Judy. It had set empty for several years. It needed work and a lot of cleaning. Bonnie and I worked so hard that I’m sure a few times she wished God had just left me in South Carolina.

Prayer is a wonderful thing. God can do anything. Bonnie and I have known that all our lives. We are a praying bunch. The Coal Camp Kids learned very early in life that God is our refuge. Sometimes you’ve just got to stop what you are doing and praise the Lord for his goodness. I have to admit every time I fell in the mud that surrounded the house, I wondered, Was this really God’s Will? I’m sure Ed Jarrett, Bonnie’s husband, wondered the same thing sometimes. You see one day Bonnie and I decided we had to go do some work on the house. We had no way