That Room in the Dark Corner

I was watching Anthony Bourdain a few days ago. He was in West Virginia and talking about coal. Coal. I hadn’t thought about coal in a long time. I have some roots in coal. My mom grew up in Mahanoy City, in coal country. My son lives just outside of Tamaqua, within two miles of Tamaqua Coal Pockets. While slate was very important to me in my childhood, coal also played a small part.

So what is that room in the dark corner? I’ll get to that. First, in my childhood we all had cellars. Cellars were usually dirt floor, furnace in the corner, cobwebby places that we would rather avoid. It wasn’t until my teens that most people started changing their cellars into basements, with actual floors and lots of drywall. I remember, in my early twenties, looking for a house to buy and viewing a house that still had the dirt floor cellar. The real estate agent said that those older Pennsylvania Dutch still like their cellars!

Picture that dirt floor cellar. Picture that old gasping furnace. Picture the cobwebs. Now in the darkest corner, usually toward the front of the house, was that room. The coal bin! A little scary to a small child. So black in there…black as coal! A room for a child, well at least this child, to stay away from. What else might be in there? Coal and rats? Coal and cats? Coal and ghosts? We didn’t know because it was so dark in there. Maybe it was the devil himself!

I did stay away from that room but I do have a pleasant memory of coal from my childhood. The arrival of a new load of coal. The truck would pull up out in front of the house. They would attach a chute from the truck to a small opening into the coal bin. I can still remember the sound of the gravelly coal going down the chute. I can remember the smell of the coal. I recall the workers that set up the chute and took it down when the bin was full. Good times from a good childhood.

I doubt that there are many homes in our area that still have coal bins and coal deliveries. It’s a little sad to know that they are gone. I can say that about a lot of things.

On a side note, this is my 250th blogpost. Thanks for continuing to read them!