Good Books

I just finished my third book by Homer Hickam, this one titled The Coalwood Way. It is a memoir of Homer's last years in high school in Coalwood, West Virginia. More interesting, in my view, is Rocket Boys which describes growing up in a mining town and some boys' amateur rocketry.

Why do his writings appeal to me? First, we are the same age, both graduated high school in 1960, then college. Second, we came from working class families, though Hickam's must have been a little better off since his father was a mine supervisor while mine was more a laborer. Third, we both have roots in coal mines. My grandfather on my mother's side worked the mines near Uniontown in southwestern Pennsylvania supplying coal and coke to the steel mills of Pittsburgh.

I have become attracted to Hickam's description of life in a coal town, thinking perhaps I too could have grown up in one had my folks not left. I wonder what it would have been like for me to grow up in a mining family. Since I have no direct knowledge of conditions of families and workers, I us Hickam's writings to fill me in on how it might have been, to have a vicarious experience through his writings.

Homer's father stayed in Coalwood to continue in mining. Then Homer left his coal town for college, the military, and an engineering career. My family was a generation earlier, moving to get work in automotive industry. My mother "got out" a generation earlier than did Homer's (as did all her siblings moving to Cleveland and Detroit).

I find Hickam's writings most interesting. I will have to watch the movie movie version of Rocket Boys called October Sky , and am looking forward to his next book.