My father led a life that involved raising ten kids, holding two jobs, studying and waiting for promotion while he managed all this. He was the leader in our family, the nicest guy inside the house, and the meanest (meanest looking, at least!) outside the house. Nobody messed with his family, if he had anything to say or do about it. He had alot to protect, and he embraced his responsibilities and I am grateful everyday to my father for the upbringing he gave me.
Along those lines, what came into my inbox today was a copy of FREE BOOK REVIEWS, a blog run by my friend, Albert Robbins III. http://freebookreviews.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-fathers-role.html. Just as the URL indicates, Albert addresses today's problem of role reversal between men and women. He's a Christian traditionalist who believes men and women need to reclaim their God-given roles consistent with their natural gifts. It's well worth a read!-Kate
Below! A scene from the Lerner & Loew Musical entitled "My Fair Lady" where Mr. Higgins addresses the modern question: 'Why can't a woman be more like a man?"
Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Collection-Anthology-Sweet-Sensual/dp/1461107555/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306334715&sr=8-1, either in print, or eBook form. The print book is only $9.95, while the eBook version on Kindle is only $3.99. Don't worry if you use another Reader other than Kindle. You can buy Historical at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/56562, once again, for only $3.99.
My story is about the love between a couple in coal mining country, and their struggles to stay together to make a life despite the dangers and setbacks of life in the mines. The men and women who fought for the rights of the working man were people such as my couple, Jack and Maddy. It is one that comes from the heart of my Irish roots, being that at the time my story takes place, the 1890's, it was predominantly the Irish, as well as the up and coming Poles, who populated the coal mines.
I spent two summers in the Carbondale area, the scene for my story, during my early childhood. The small town atmosphere of safety and trusting neighbors was still pronounced there during the 1950's and 1960's. I remember swimming in Crystal Lake. I recall my cousins and I going down to Main Street on a Saturday night for what would be my very first Texas red hot. Texas red hots are predominantly a Northern food, although by now enough northerners have moved South that they might well have brought our precious red hots with them and set up stands and narrow takeout joints to sell them. Anyway, I had never tasted one. Although I refused the onions that are pretty much standard with these little dogs, I loved mine, covered with mustard, a slice of pickle, and the delicious red chili meat sauce. Mmmmm! Washed down with Pepsi, it was a real treat.
It was a wonderful time, and I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Pennsylvania. The Carbondale mine closed down about 1929. Its closing was one of many harbingers of The Great Depression. It sent my mother's people north to New York State. Still, my roots stay strong in my spirit. A few years ago, I talked on the phone to clients to get their votes concerning a company in which they held stock. One was an elderly lady, who voted on the phone, and then paused. "Where are you located?" she asked me. "New York," I replied. "You're a Coal Cracker," she said. It took my breath away for a second, cause 'cracker' is a derogatory term, a racist term for white people. Coming from a genteel woman, one who probably had more money than I did, irked me a bit. All I answered so many years after visiting my relatives in Carbondale, was that my mother came from there, about twenty miles from where she was in Scranton. She answered, "See?" That sent me researching the term. Here's what I found:
In the Urban Dictionary: A resident of Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially the Anthracite region roughly between Reading and Scranton. Nothing derogatory in that. All true!
Yuengling! Diet staple of coal crackers. How did they know? It is my favorite beer, having been introduced to it from some time I lived in Pittsburgh. That's uncanny, I thought.
Wow! Sure enough, I'm a Coal Cracker!
The northern term 'cracker', at least in this case, means to literally crack or break coal off the mine walls. And so A Tale From the Red Chest is dedicated to those men who came to America to find a better life. What they found, by and large, was more of the same from where they had sprung. The only thing that was different was that they had the opportunity to work through our free system to make things better for themselves and their families. And that made all the difference in the world!!
So, that's why I wrote this story.
