Kilroy: The Friendship Behind the Legacy

Chapter 1

A Miner’s Son

Mid January in a Pennsylvania coal mining town brings with it a bitter cold. Bluestem Field coal mine is showing its seventy-five years of age. In the mid 1800s, Beech and Hickory, from the nearby hills, was fallen to construct the buildings and tunnel entrances. Since that time the mine had faced the harsh sun, wind, and rain year after year turning the structures, a silvery aged finish cracking and bowing against the chilling winds. Just up the road is the Old Jackson Saw Mill, built the same year as Bluestem, shaping timber for the mine. The sawmill did not fair as well as Bluestem and now the railroad brings timber to town as needed.

People living in Granger, Pennsylvania has few choices: they can work in the mine or in one of the several small businesses that exist merely to provide materials and services to Bluestem and the miners. Granger birthed from the discovery of the anthracite, and the mine survives on the sweat of the men in the town. Granger lives with the beating of the heart and the heart of this small town is Bluestem.

The Bluestem Mining Company is in the business of pulling coal from the ground and gives little care to the appearances of their facility. Throughout the Great Depression, coal mines in the area suffered from the lack of money while trying to keep up with the demand for their fuel. Without labor unions protecting the workers, the men of the community are truly dependant upon the coalmine for survival and the company knows this all too well. Men who started low in the company, and worked their way up to management positions, still have a heart for the men under them but the company has a strong hold on each of them and finds ways to manipulate even the softest hearted foreman into submission of their bidding.

Since the beginning of 1942, a new era began in the United States. Plunged into the middle of World War II, the Nation is gearing up for war and federal demands for resources forces the coalmines to step up production. To meet these demands, the mine is working younger and younger men deep in the belly of the Earth. Families living in and around Granger find every male member working side by side in the mines. The days are long and the work is hard but the men’s conditioning allows them to take the work and ignore the pain, tolerate the darkness and live on.

The men working the mines are not just physically tough, they are mentally strong as well. The average family has seven children and the mine does not provide well enough for the fathers to bring their families far out of poverty conditions. The men have turned to turn to the hills and rivers to subsidize the inadequate income with wild game. As soon as the youngsters can keep up, they are out in the woods learning to shoot, trap, and fish. Even the girls venture out with their fathers and brothers to pick berries, fruits, and greens. The women fill the dinner table each evening with a meal often dependent on the hunt the day or week before.

The mine yard is relatively quiet just before the steam whistle sounds a deafening blow, signaling the end of another shift. Men and machines stir to life as the workers slowly appear from the depths of the mine riding a rickety rail line leading across the yard and down into the mouth of tunnel number three opened just a year ago. The steel rails are supposed to be straight and parallel, for the mine cars to safely run on, yet in the rush of constructing and opening the new tunnel, Bluestem cut corners on the shoddy rail at best. One can clearly see, at a glance, how safety is not the primary issue with the company.

The second shift workers line up along the fencing, near the main gate to the yard, waiting their turn to punch the clock. Still more make their way up the narrow winding dirt road, cut into the side of the hill years ago by the lumber company for access to the mill. The rain last night had soaked the road and most of the men are already filthy with mud before even beginning their day’s work. Blank scruffy faces, dawning hardhats, and toting lunch boxes gather near the Pay-man’s shack awaiting entry into the facility. Foremen walk slowly down the line shouting out work orders to the rows of men as second shift is about to begin.

A mile down the winding road, the townsfolk of Granger listen for the whistle blow as well. They prepare for it each day to signal the return of their husbands, sons, and brothers. Even before the whistle makes a sound, wives see to it that the table is set, the coffee is hot, and the children bathed. Some of the women in town stop at the mirror to straighten their mussed hair or touch up their makeup while others put down their ironing or sewing to make ready for their men’s arrival. The youngsters quickly finish chores then act as lookouts for Mom to alert her when Dad is coming up the road.

From the shadow of the tunnel appears a mine car filled with men finishing their day in the dark damp earth. Blackened from head to toe, their bodies ache from the tedious labor of boring the precious carbon from the walls of the mine and breaking it into manageable chunks. Their helmet lamps shine in the darkness of the tunnel as the cable pulls them to the surface and into the dissipating light of sunset. The men chatter and roughhouse with one another during the ride to the surface. Now is the time to tell a joke or two, if you know a new one, and if not, there is always time for fun at the end of the day.

When the cars roll into the open air and grind to a stop in the yard, men spill out and make their way to the supply building to turn in picks and shovels for the next crew. Coats and jackets hanging on hooks beneath an awning on the outside wall of the supply building get collected up and the men move toward gates.

Those who can afford too, walk straight to the tavern to wash down the dust in their throats, but most go home to relax, clean up and enjoy the hot meal that is waiting for them. The younger men run off to see their sweethearts before heading home. It is a different mood surrounding the men standing in line waiting for their trip into the mine. Their smiles and laughter are on hold for the next twelve hours. Some choose the night shift but the new hires always start on nights. The fun is over until the end of the shift.

Seated in the last car is William Markowski, a rugged young man of twenty-two and the second of six boys in the family to work in the mines. William’s older brother, Kevin, was killed four months earlier, at the age of twenty-three, in a collapse in tunnel number one and his next younger brother, Edward, seventeen, was a new hire being trained in the loading area. The middle boy, Randall, fifteen, struggles between finishing his education and getting on at the mine to help out the family and does what he can around the house in the absence of his father. Finally, William’s two youngest brothers, Timothy and Joseph, ages twelve and ten, are far too young to do much more than spend their time going to school and helping around the house.

Kevin’s death in the mine collapse widowed his young bride leaving her with nothing except their newborn baby girl. He moved her to Granger after he met her on a trip to Boston looking for work. He never found that new life on the east coast but he did find the love of his life and quickly married her and moved her home. Since Kevin’s death, Katherine and the baby moved into a small apartment above the Donnelly’s garage and works at the school serving meals while Kevin’s mother watches their girl.

Following his son’s death, Kevin’s father promised to care for his daughter-in-law and now provides a portion of his income to support Katherine and little Judith. During the spring and summer, he picks wild flowers growing along side the road, on his way home, and stops by to see little Judith and wraps a small amount of cash around the flower stems before giving them to Katherine. Judith is usually fast asleep by the time he finishes work and when she is awake, he never touches his granddaughter while covered with the coal dust. He would just look in the window and watch her sleep for a few minutes before heading home.

William had planned to move away and start a new life elsewhere too, but following his brother’s death, he joined up with the mining company to help his parents. William now gives his income to mom and dad to help pay the bills and put food on the table for his brothers, sister-in-law, and brand new niece. Up before dawn and deep in the earth ‘till dark, with added small jobs on the weekends at the Hardware store downtown, William’s days are filled leaving him little time, if any, for socializing with the girls in the community. An occasional date for a soda is all that William has time to arrange but there is no sweetheart waiting for William when the whistle blows.

There is one fair maiden in town that has caught William’s eye. Becky Halderman is as pretty as the day is long, at least to William, and she is shy to boot. William liked that about Becky. William met Becky back in December of last year when the lumberyard sent him to the Halderman home to repair a water line in the kitchen. William stopped working beneath the sink cabinet when the announcement came over the radio that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. He put down his tools and gathered in the living room, with the rest of the Halderman family, and listened to the broadcast.

As the President informed the nation of the attack, the Halderman family huddled near the radio hanging to every word. William stood in the doorway, between the kitchen and living room but his attention was on Becky who smiled sheepishly at William. Since that day, William occasionally asked his Mom for some spare change to take Becky to the soda shop once a week where they sit and talk. Free-spirited Becky would chat up a storm while William would sit quietly and watch carefully at every expression she would make. You can always tell when William has been around Becky; he would hum to himself.

Eddie was sickly, as a child, and suffered from a high fever once that damaged his ability to think and process the world around him. Some would call him slow while other, harsher people, described him as retarded. William loved him deeply and stood against anyone who might have a smart remark about him.

Prior, to his sickness, Eddie was regularly off with William doing something together. Their favorite pass time was hiking through the woods, about two miles, to a small pond where they would swim. They would meet at the pond with other boys from town and take turns swinging from a rope, they tied in a large walnut tree, performing stunts in the air once they let go and began falling to the water. William tried repeatedly to do a double back flip but never seemed to land the way he wanted and, the guys always elected Eddie to climb the tree to tie a new rope when the old one wore out.

Now that Eddie is sick, William does not dare take Eddie off into the woods. He knows if he takes his eyes off Eddie for even a second, Eddie will disappear. There is always a fear that Eddie will hurt himself so William stopped taking him to the pond. After a couple of trips, to the pond, without Eddie, William stopped going all together. William stays in town instead and takes Eddie to other places where the atmosphere is a bit safer. Dad only allows Eddie into the woods when he is along with them.

This past weekend they all headed for Elmer Grossman’s place, just on the other side of the river, and done some deer hunting. Eddie had a great time and Dad let Eddie rattle the antlers to bring the bucks in closer for the shot. He had to get on him a time or too for rattling them too much though.

William sits emotionless and motionless in the car, with his pickaxe balanced over his shoulder, as the car rolls out into the open air. It snowed a bit, while the men were inside the tunnel today, and William is dressed for the constant temperature of the mines, not the bitter winter freeze of the surface. William shutters when the cold evening air slams against his arms soaked with sweat.

When the rail car comes to a stop in the middle of the yard, the men climb out of the gondola…

Hey, Markowski! A foreman yelled out from across the yard hanging his head out of the door of a management shack.

Yeah boss? William hollers back.

I want to see you and your Dad before you leave, okay? … The foreman waves his arm motioning him to come to him.

Sure Boss, be right there.

A crowd, of workers, gathers around William patting him on the back and shaking his hand. More men arrive on the surface moments after and gather around the group that has already formed. Once the gates open, still more men, from the second shift crew, make their way over, and join in. A celebration of sorts ensues among the group while the men shake hands and share gentle punches with their friend. One by one, the men say their goodbyes to William and begin their walk home or climb into the mine car for the next trip down into the dark. Rarely is a smile seen on the faces of the men, today there are many, and William laughs at the bright sets of teeth shining against the blackened faces of the workers.

Seated in the last car, appearing from the mouth of the tunnel, is an older gentleman aged far beyond his years from the tedious labor of working in the mine for the past thirty years. Harold Markowski is both proud and terrified of the thought that his son is heading off to join the war. He already lost his eldest son to the mines and now fears that he will loose his next to the Fascists in Europe.

When the car rolls to a stop, in the yard, Harold is slow getting up and out tonight. Fatigue is not slowing him down today, instead it is the fear of what the close of the day is bringing. If he takes his time getting out of the car then that will delay the whole process to come.

Eventually, the second shift men gather around the car giving him no choice but relinquish his seat or face another twelve hours in the mine. He moans as he climbs from the car and leans way back with his hands on his hips in an effort to loosen his back muscles then, with a big long stretch, lets go a groan heard across the yard. The older men can feel his pain while the younger bucks snicker at the old man with the bad back.

Harold walks over to the group, surrounding his son, with the desire to join in on the goodbyes but hesitates to look upon his son’s face. He has the entire evening to spend with William and wants the other boys to have this time with his son. Standing off to the side of the group Harold removes his hardhat and wipes the sweat from his brow with an old handkerchief from his back pocket, smearing the coal dust worse than before. Putting his cover back on, he produces a pack of smokes from his pocket and lights one up, blowing the first drag up into the air with a sigh of relaxation.

The miners huddle in around William giving him their advice and pep talks about how they would single handedly kill every German in occupied Europe. William smiles and laughs at the remarks but he is not truly listening, he knows that they are not the one leaving for war, he is, and this reality is setting in. The guys take turn relaying their plans for William’s return bragging up all the events that are going to take place in this small town when he gets back. William knows that is an eternity away, and more than likely would never happen, even if he stayed in Granger. With nods of acknowledgement and appreciation, William agrees