Pearl, Pearl, Pearl

Her dad’s lifelong profession included a lot more than met the eye.

Donna McGuire Tanner

I grew up in West Virginia. My father, Basil, began working in the coal mines at 14 years old. He and my mother, Rachel, and their seven children had to relocate many times to follow work in union mines Sometimes the workers went on strike for better benefits or working conditions. Then there would be many months of layoffs. In 1954, when I was almost 7, a layoff lasted for months. All the miners knew they had to do something to make it through that time. Many of the miners, including my father, gathered up all the camping supplies they would need to take to a construction site in Virginia, where they worked the entire summer and into the fall season. In the early 1960s, another lengthy strike hit the…

You're reading a preview of

Good Old Days (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2023

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.