The following biography is on growing up in a small coal mining town in Southeastern Kentucky called Lynch. This is a little town in Harlan County -- shadowed by Black Mountain, the highest point in Kentucky. The trip to the top of this mountain is just as exhilararating as the first, winding around sharp curves, edging closer to the few inches of payment on one side, and the solid rock formations on the other. The inside of your head feels as if it's swelling from the high altitude, and for some, like myself, there is the never ending nausea in the pit of your gut as you continue to make your way up the seven mile journey to the top of this, the Black Mountain. When you finally approach the top, where you can pull over and view the spectactular valley with it's abundance of thick everlasting forest below, you don't want to leave -- only stand there and feel the cool breezes and listen to the quiet, soft rustling of the leaves.
This peaceful place is not only beautiful, but with just a step you're in the State of Virginia the welcome sign still at the top of this mountain, as it has been for many years, is a fascinating and mysterious wonderment (especially to young children -- they can actually be in two states at once). The small black stones found lying at the top of magnificent mountain remind you, especially if you've been raised here, of the abundance of coal mined from this very mountain, and the men and women of this, the Black Mountain region, the place I once called home.
Our small community actually sat at the very base of Black Mountain and
consisted of one grocery store on Main Street. It was called the "Big Store",
a large two story building with huge front glass windows and contained the
usual items for a grocery, as well as hardware supplies. The small diner
adjacent to the store was where some of the shoppers would grab abite to
eat or just come in for coffee and linger with friends while the men who
worked the mines would come to sit for a spell -- a chance to breath some
clean fresh air rather than the coal dust that clogged their lungs from years
of working in the mines.