The path was steep : a memoir of Appalachian coal camps during the Great Depression

Sue Pickett was a coal miner's daughter who became a coal miner's wife and witnessed and lived through the turbulent years of the Great Depression and the sometimes violent struggles between labor unions and coal mine bosses throughout the Appalachian South?especially her native Alabama. The dramatic central episode in her account is a March 1934 standoff between striking miners and the mine owners. She writes of that "wild night when an armed mob gathered at Coleanor, ready to fight and, if necessary, die for the rights to which they had newly awakened.?.?.?. One black man wept as he ran, afraid that someone else would kill [the dangerous and feared coal company enforcer] Mike Self, whom he believed it was his right to kill.?.?.?." Pickett's story is peopled with memorable characters, including her irrepressible husband David and an almost Biblical cast of other family members; a roaring, fire-belching automobile nicknamed Thunderbolt; Irene, a fiercely proud ten-year-old mountain girl left homeless by the hard times; and many others. The memoir is a saga of determined working-class people making do and getting by, but equally of their love of family and land Sue Pickett was a coal miner's daughter who became a coal miner's wife. She witnessed the turbulent years of the Great Depression and the sometimes-violent struggles between labor unions and coal mine bosses throughout the Appalachian South especially in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Mrs. Pickett's native Alabama. Her story is peopled with memorable characters an almost Biblical cast of family members, which includes her irrepressible husband David; the dangerous and feared coal-company enforcer Mike Self; Irene, a fiercely proud ten-year-old mountain girl left homeless by the hard times; a roaring, fire-belching automobile nicknamed Thunderbolt, and many others. Theirs are stories of making do, getting by, and surviving, but they are equally of love of family and land You could almost smell the Depression What October would bring As long as I've got a biscuit, you won't starve Despite all, well-fed and loved The community barber The value of Papa's teaching A new hope We never knew our cruelty Thunderbolt Here we rest Hottest day I ever saw Such good people The worst road in the United States Score one for West Virginia! Hot dogs for Thanksgiving So dad-burned purty Every river leads to Piper Best medicine in the world "Sleeping sickness" A burglar wouldn't try to break in Wild over Roosevelt Is this a deathwatch? All men brothers.