Jynx concluded his latest phlog entry
by wondering if he was in "A
life-change funk," adding, "I need to
fix this... Job hunting does not take
up the entire day."[1]
Too true. That statement really struck
a chord with me and got me thinking
about my father.
My Dad was laid off in 1984. He was a
miner and his work mattered to him. A
lot. He was really lost without it --
and so he took on a major project.
We owned an old house with a crawl-
space beneath it. Dad decided to dig
out a basement. By hand. At one end of
the crawlspace was a deeper area with
a furnace and a coal chute. He started
there. Every day, I'd come home from
school and dirt would be flying up out
of that coal chute. I'd go down and
help for a couple of hours before
supper.
It was hard digging. The house, it
turned out, was built over an old
creek bed. The ground was dense, all
tightly packed with smooth, round
rocks. You loosened it up with a pick,
sparks flying and hands numb from the
shock, and then shoveled as best you
could. It took weeks.
Afterward, we tied in rebar, set up
plywood forms, and poured new cement
walls inside the old foundation walls.
But here's the thing. We dug that hole
right up to the inside of the
foundation walls. I've always thought
that the house should have fallen in
on us. I don't know why it didn't. But
if Dad knew anything, it was mining.
He knew ledges and pit walls. I
guess he knew that the foundation
wouldn't give away because that creek
bed was so solid.
Anyways, I think digging that basement
kept my Dad sane. He couldn't live
without something to do. He was a
miner. So he mined underneath the
house. I still tease him about it.
Not too long after we finished, he got
the call he was waiting for. We sold
the house, packed up all our stuff,
and moved. Another place, another
adventure.
[1]
gopher://leveck.us/0/Phlog/20191105.post
