Summary of Homer H. Hickam, Jr.'s Rocket Boys

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I grew up in Coalwood, West Virginia, which was built for the purpose of extracting the millions of tons of rich bituminous coal that lay beneath it. My father, Homer Hickam, was the mine superintendent, and our house was situated just a few hundred yards from the mine’s entrance.

#2 The company church was set on a little grassy knob. In the 1950’s, it was presided over by a company employee, Reverend Josiah Lanier, who also happened to be a Methodist. The denomination of the preacher the company hired automatically became ours too.

#3 I was proud to live in Coalwood. According to the West Virginia history books, no one had ever lived in the valleys and hills of McDowell County before we came to dig out the coal. I learned most of what I knew about Coalwood history at the kitchen table after supper.

#4 The town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was founded by George L. Carter, who bought the land and built a coal mine. He also built houses, school buildings, churches, a company store, and an icehouse. He hired a doctor and a dentist for his miners and their families for free.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822545007

IRB Media

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Insights on Homer H. Hickam and Jr.'s Rocket Boys

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 19

Insights from Chapter 20

Insights from Chapter 21

Insights from Chapter 22

Insights from Chapter 23

Insights from Chapter 24

Insights from Chapter 25

Insights from Chapter 26

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I grew up in Coalwood, West Virginia, which was built for the purpose of extracting the millions of tons of rich bituminous coal that lay beneath it. My father, Homer Hickam, was the mine superintendent, and our house was situated just a few hundred yards from the mine’s entrance.

#2

The company church was set on a little grassy knob. In the 1950’s, it was presided over by a company employee, Reverend Josiah Lanier, who also happened to be a Methodist. The denomination of the preacher the company hired automatically became ours too.

#3

I was proud to live in Coalwood. According to the West Virginia history books, no one had ever lived in the valleys and hills of McDowell County before we came to dig out the coal. I learned most of what I knew about Coalwood history at the kitchen table after supper.

#4

The town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was founded by George L. Carter, who bought the land and built a coal mine. He also built houses, school buildings, churches, a company store, and an icehouse. He hired a doctor and a dentist for his miners and their families for free.

#5

My father, Poppy, was a miner in Coalwood. He was always at the mine or sleeping prior to going to the mine or resting after getting back. In 1950, he developed cancer of the colon. The doctors gave him little chance for survival. But he went back to work in a month.

#6

I lived according to the shifts in Coalwood. I was awakened in the morning by the tromp of feet and the clunking of lunch buckets outside as the day shift went to work, I ate supper after Dad saw the evening shift down the shaft, and I went to sleep to the ringing of a hammer on steel and the hiss of an arc welder.

#7

I loved to read, and I spent hours doing so. I was constantly reading, and I loved to discuss the books I was reading with my teachers.

#8

I loved reading in elementary school, and I would spend hours in the library. I would read two books: one for me and one for my teachers. I did not see myself past Coalwood, as all the grown-up Coalwood boys I knew had either joined the military services or