You can always get warm, it's harder to cool off.

[John 'n' W.Va]

I think I like winter hunting. As long as the ground isn't frozen and there isn't snow on top. It was -2 C during this hunt. I was use to the heat of FL., but the cool air feels so much nicer.
It was weird, but I found a ring with concrete in the middle of it.

[attachment 75585 12-15-07ring.jpg]

It took a while, but I got the concrete out of it. It is a heavy ring, but looks to be junk.

[attachment 75587 12-15-07ring2.jpg]

Then I found a Consolidated Coal token. It said of ND. and WV. It is a $1 token. It also says the Monongah store. That is a mining town about 5 miles from where I live. It seems illegal to pay people these things and than make them spend it in the company's store.

[attachment 75584 12-15-07minetoken.jpg]

The total wasn't much, but I do like mine tokens. It reminds me of my family and my past. When I was little we shopped a lot at the company store.

[attachment 75588 12-15-07total.jpg]

 

[bottlebum]

Not much? Those are finds to be proud of.
Thanks for sharing!

HH, Bottlebum

 

[John-Edmonton]

I love digging up tokens. I actually have a (non detected) token collection which I occasionally upgrade when I go to coin shows. And that ring.......really weird that someone would fill it with concrete.

 

[awhitster]

Nice finds John. The company store reminds me of that song Big John. My Daddy's name was John. He liked that song.

 

[IndianaSmith]

I wonder if that wasn't a piece of petrified finger in the ring Still nice finds. You ever find any scatter-tags? I've got one from Black Star "Washed Coal".

Smitty

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

[quote IndianaSmith]I wonder if that wasn't a piece of petrified finger in the ring Still nice finds. You ever find any scatter-tags? I've got one from Black Star "Washed Coal".

Smitty[/quote]
I thought the same thing about the ring.
No, I haven't found one scatter-tag yet.
I have found a lot of the miner's tags that they hung on the in and out board.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

[quote awhitster]Nice finds John. The company store reminds me of that song Big John. My Daddy's name was John. He liked that song.[/quote]

That song reminded me of my grandfather. He was a coal miner and was 6ft. 4". He and most of the family called me little Johnny. I'm the runt. I worked in the same mines he did, but not at the same time. He was like a legend in that mines. They were always telling me stories about his strength. The ones telling the stories intimidated me.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Boy it takes forever for these pictures to load. Nice ring and token. As per the ring - do you have any Mafia down there and did you happen to find any body parts? Ain't Monongha an Indian name, Ain't it supposed to be Mononghahela. Lots of folks swapped their company tokens at the Company Store. I was down through all that country when I was a kid in the forties. I remember we got off the beaten path in Arkansas and wound up in Clifton, Arkansas way, way, back in the woods.. You had to drive through a creek to get into town ( dirt roads of course ). They couldn't afford a bridge.

There were two buildings in town, a farm implement shack and a general store that was the Post Office, gas station ( with the old style gravity pumps with the gas on top, which you had to hand pump up there ), garage and whatever. We went in the store and they all acted like we were aliens from outer space and practically hid from us. THey had pickles and crackers in barrels and rounds of cheese and smoked meat hanging. and I recall my Ma asked for something real common in civilization but they had never heard of it. Saw a lot of log cabins with gunney sacks for doors and windows in that area. It was a different world.

One time I went with my first wife and her family way back in the toolies down in the Ozarks to visit some jack-leg relation who lived on a farm like Ma and Pa Kettle where the hogs and chickens ran in and out of the house. They rousted your arse out of bed every morning at 3:30 AM for breakfast and if you didn't get up then you didn't get fed. No electricity of course. Coal oil lamps and wood cooking and heating stove. There used to be wolves down there back then and the boys would all get up before light and go wolf hunting. I got roped into chores and milking the cows ( which I was experienced at ). Funny thing was these folks had lived in a big city and owned a fancy resturant for years but they got tired of the city life and the grind, chucked it all, and moved out into the middle of nowhere and were happy as clams.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah or Tennessee Ernie Ford's song "16 Tons." where he owed his soul to the company store.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah I've known some big old boys and seen a few bigger ones. When I was young I knew Norman Eugene Walker who turned into Clint Walker the TV and movie star. He was 6-7 and 275 pounds of solid muscle. Had a buddy of mine I grew up with who was a skinny rascal when we were kids but got into body building in later years and turned into 6-7 280 pound moose. But the tallest feller I ever met was the tallest man in the world and came from my home town. He was one Robert Wadlow and liked a quarter inch being nine feet tall. He was seven feet at 12 years of age. I've got a pic of him somewhere I'll post if I can dig it up.

First time I ever saw him was when I was just a toddler and my mom and me were walking in downtown Alton, Illinois and we rounded a corner and there he was with his elbow propped on top of a store awning talking to a feller. I didn't even come up to his knee and it scared the pee waddin out of me. I remember this car he rode in. It was a 36 Chevy with the front passenger seat removed. He would squeeze into that thing, sit in the back seat, and his feet would be on the front floor board. Well so much for reminiscing.

Here's the pic of Wadlow.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

One minute you are talking about Arkansas and the next WV. We ain't even close. Well, maybe a couple of the things you mentioned.
People look up to see who you are and to wave hi. That is an unspoken law here. When they look up and you aren't someone they know, then you get that alien look. Nothing personal, just who are you?

They do call the town, Monongha. The river is call, Monongahela. It means "river of steep slippery banks."No beaches to MD.

Northern part of the state had a lot of foreigners, Italian, Slavic, Poles. They didn't allow them in the southern part of the state, the clan was too strong. The Mafia was"is" big in this town that I live in. My dad and his buddy use to run numbers for the mob. Now his buddy runs Cleveland.

 

[Uncle Willy]

I got a whole jar of tokens I have found, including silver dollar tokens from Vega and some of the gambling joints here in Washington.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah I came from Southern Illinois a Mafia nest. Used to know a lot of fellers in that clan. One section of my hometown was called " Little Italy" and all their parents and grandparents lived there. I remember one time there was a rash of "trunk murders" in town with bodies being found in car trunks all over town. Of course none were ever solved. A buddy of mine was one of them.

He was heavy into gambling and had gotten in their pockets deep and couldn't pay up. I was drinking beer with him the night before he got it. I tried to get him to leave town. He was a great big guy ( 350 pounds ) and they found him stuffed in the trunk of is car out in a watermelon patch. The car was a 53 Ford Victoria with a small trunk so they couldn't even get the lid closed. He was laying on his hand with a gun in it but he was shot in the other side of the head. Pretty neat trick. The cops of course ruled it suicide. His parents received a visit from the boys so when the cops came around they went right along with the suicide scenario. They told the reporters later that Donny was despondent and they were worried about him,. Despondent hell, he was scared out of his wits and suicide didn't even enter his mind.

Bill

 

[awhitster]

[size=x-large]You Might Have To Click It Twice[/size]

16 Tons

 

[Paul(NWO)]

If you hunt in an area with trees, the ground shouldn't be frozen under the leaves. Speaking of Mine store Scrip, I bought some in West virginia while visiting my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. My son-in-law had me watch Matewan. I was able to get it at the local library. For those that don't know, it's the story of the actual happenings of a miners strike and organizing into unions. It happens in the town of Matewan, W.V. althogh the filming was done in Thurmond, W.V. The miners set up a tent town outside the mine town after being are locked out. The mine owners bring a train through and machine gun the tent city with the miners, their wives and children in the tents. There even is a gunfight in the streets. The mine owners hired thugs for security to gun down the strike leaders. No wonder the people of West Virginia view outsiders strangely. I've noticed that if I smile and wave at someone there that they are not likely to wave back. If you haven't seen the movie it's worth seeing for the history.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

My grandfather on my dad's side always worked two shifts,16 hour days. He had so much shoulder muscles he almost had no neck. He said he didn't know how a man could live on 16 tons of coal. In the old days they got paid by how much they loaded. He loaded 50 tons of coal a day. They always had two men working together. He worked so hard they let him work alone. No one could keep up with him. He had to use explosives to get the coal. Than separate the coal from the slate and load it all into separate train cars. You didn't get paid for the slate. He had a special shovel made for him so he could load coal more quickly. He also had to lay his own track by himself.
The clan chased him from the southern part of the state because he was a foreigner that spoke poor English. They sucker punched him in the jaw. He turned and look at them. He held his fist up and said,"I no hit you, I kill you." Other wise if I hit you, you will be dead. They took another look at him and said we can't do anything to you, but we will get your kids. So he moved back to the northern part of the state.

 

[awhitster]

[quote John 'n' W.Va]My grandfather on my dad's side always worked two shifts,16 hour days. He had so much shoulder muscles he almost had no neck. He said he didn't know how a man could live on 16 tons of coal. In the old days they got paid by how much they loaded. He loaded 50 tons of coal a day. They always had two men working together. He worked so hard they let him work alone. No one could keep up with him. He had to use explosives to get the coal. Than separate the coal from the slate and load it all into separate train cars. You didn't get paid for the slate. He had a special shovel made for him so he could load coal more quickly. He also had to lay his own track by himself.
The clan chased him from the southern part of the state because he was a foreigner that spoke poor English. They sucker punched him in the jaw. He turned and look at them. He held his fist up and said,"I no hit you, I kill you." Other wise if I hit you, you will be dead. They took another look at him and said we can't do anything to you, but we will get your kids. So he moved back to the northern part of the state.[/quote]Tough times back then. But it was a different time. Things were done that way. Not saying it was right. Nowdays it would be a hate crime.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

I know the story well about Matwan. My family could add to that story in their own town setting. How about a machine gun tower over the company's houses and everyone had to be inside by 7:00 PM.

I really disagree with you about waving. When I was a kid, I had a friend visit me. We walked everywhere because we weren't able to drive. He said his arm got tired from waving all the time. Go down any dirt road and the people wave.

 

[Uncle Willy]

That happened in a lot of strikes in the old days. THe auto makers used to call in armed thugs to quell strikes and people got killed. When I was a kid I remember seeing strikes where strike-breaking thugs with clubs and ball bats were called in to put knots on heads. Course the unions used to employ their own to stop scabs from crossing the lines. Course you never see that today in our "pussy" generation. They wouldn't want to offend anyone.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah it depends on where you are. I've been in friendly places and places where folks shy away from you. Texas is one of the friendliest places I've ever been. They treated you like they had known you all their lives. plus many places in the South. The folks in Northern Idaho were like that also.

Bill