Chapter 3

On a Tuesday night towards the end of July, Lester Givens - the night maintenance foreman at Pitchfork Coal Mine - announced to the crew that Jerry was no longer a probationary member of their team. After some good natured congratulatory ribbing, Jerry donned his rain suit, and headed off to steam clean the coal sorter. The job didn’t get any easier, but the pay raise made the work more palatable.

The pay raise also gave Ester some breathing room with the family’s finances. Ester was thrilled that she could finally start replenishing their depleted savings account.

The summer continued to be good for the Donavans. In August, Ben Chaney hired the entire Donavan family for a week, to help him bring in his tobacco crop. Ben grew burley tobacco because it could be air-dried, and he could harvest the whole plant at once. The golden type of tobacco grown in North Carolina and Virginia was more labor intensive, because it had to be cropped a few leaves at a time, and the leaves dried in heated barns.

The plan was to harvest one acre a day. It was an ambitious plan, because one acre produced about twenty-two hundred plants. To make sure he could meet his acre a day goal, Ben Chaney also enlisted the help of his wife’s niece, Lisa Bass, and her twin brother Lloyd. Jerry knew the Bass twins because they were his age and had been his classmates in high school. Lisa and Lloyd were as different as two related people could possibly be. Lloyd was tall and slender with curly brown hair, while Lisa was of medium height with a curvy body and straight blond hair. The Bass family lived in Cokerville, where Mister Bass worked at the savings and loan.

Jerry, Ben and Lloyd went down the rows felling the plants with hatchets, and the teen girls loaded the cut plants onto a wagon pulled by a tractor. When the wagon was full Alice drove the tractor to the barn. Ester Donavan, niece Lisa, and Ben’s sister Ida Flood helped Alice unload the wagon. The women cut a notch in the base of the plant stem, hooked the notched plants on five foot long sticks, and hung the sticks on ten foot long rolling metal racks. Each stick was loaded with fifteen tobacco stalks and weighed about fifty pounds.

When the acre of plants was cut, the men went to the barn and hung the full sticks so the tobacco could air dry. Ben had temporarily installed two-by-six wood runners from side to side in the big open barn, where he normally stored farming equipment. The runners were just less than five feet apart and formed ten rows that were thirty feet long. There were three tiers of runners, starting a foot below the barn’s rafters. The tiers were about five feet apart.

They started hanging the sticks from the top row first, so Chaney had laid wide boards across the first two tiers. Two people stood on the ground at each end of the barn, and passed the sticks up to a couple of people standing on the first tier. Those folks passed the sticks up to Jerry and Lloyd who stood on the second tier. The two taller young men then hung the sticks on the third tier.

It was hard and dirty work, but the Donavans were happy with the money they made.

And so, life moved on. Summer tuned to autumn then winter arrived. The Donavans finally had something for which to be thankful on the fourth Thursday in November, and Christmas was a joyous holiday.

The good times lasted until the first Friday in February. The good mood Jerry brought to work quickly evaporated, when his supervisor made an announcement as he handed out paychecks.

“Gents,” he said, “I have some bad news. Today was the last day for this here old hole in the ground. After their shift today, all the miners and bolters were paid off and let go. We’ll get an extra week, working with the salvage crew, and then we are history, too.”

The news of the mine closing wasn’t entirely unexpected. Rumors had been bouncing around since the first of the year. The rumors were based on the woes of the United States steel industry. US steel makers were in serious difficulty because of foreign competition, mostly from Japan and Germany. Ironically, the Germans and Japanese had a competitive edge, because the United States helped them build modern efficient mills to replace ones destroyed by Allied Forces during World War Two.

The timing of the mine closure was unfortunate for Jericho Donavan, because he was not a member of the United Mine Workers Union. The union would eventually find jobs for its members. In addition, the Union doubled the sixteen weeks of unemployment compensation paid by the state.

Jerry worked the extra week with the maintenance crew, and drew his final paycheck that Friday. Ironically it was his eighteenth birthday, the day he became eligible for union membership.

Jerry immediately filed for unemployment compensation, and began searching for another job. Unfortunately, all of Appalachia was suffering through an economic down-turn, because of the soft demand for coal. There was not a job to be found within fifty miles of Coker County. There was some good news, though, because Jerry was still doing odd jobs for his neighbors. The part-time work, combined with his unemployment, netted him about the same amount he had earned working full time.

One small bit of good fortune that came from the mine’s closing, was the effect that it had on the personal life Jerry had put on hold with the death of his father. Now he was no longer working evenings and nights, so he actually had the time for a social life.

Jerry was a complete novice when it came to dating, but he screwed up his nerve and the first girl he asked out was Missus Chaney’s niece, Lisa Bass. Lisa was the top student at Coker County High School, and seemed to be a shy, quiet young woman. Given all that, Jerry was amazed that for the last six months she had flirted with him whenever she and her brother visited their uncle’s farm.

Lisa said ‘yes’, so on the third Friday in February, Jerry got ready. He washed his truck, put on his best chinos and a blue plaid shirt, and drove into town to pick up his date. Jerry was nervous when he presented himself at the front door of the Bass’s nice gingerbread Victorian house on Vine Street. He was relieved that Lisa’s twin brother opened the door when Jerry knocked. His relief was short lived, however, when Lloyd shook his hand and led him into the parlor.

“Lisa is still upstairs getting ready. I’ll go tell her you’re here, but my Dad wants to talk to you first,” Lloyd said.

Henry Bass was a big man with crew cut brown hair and black horn rimmed glasses. He had served in the Pacific in World War Two and still carried himself like a Marine. Henry told Jerry to have a seat and went right to the point.

“I knew your father. We were both members of the VFW and he did business at our bank. He was a good man and I hear you are following in his footsteps. I respect what you have done for your family.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Jerry replied.

Bass flipped his hand up in a dismissive wave.

“I don’t need your thanks, Jerry. What I need is for you to show that same respect to my daughter. Lisa is a special young lady with big plans for the future. You are the first young man she has ever dated and I would be most unhappy if you derailed those plans.”

Jerry nodded earnestly.

“My Mama taught me how to respect women, Mister Bass, and Lisa is the first one I ever asked for a date. I figure we don’t know enough, between us, to get into too much trouble.”

Henry Bass barked out a loud laugh.

“Famous last words,” he snorted.

Just then Lisa and her mother walked into the room. Jerry and Mister Bass stood up as they arrived. Lisa was wearing a dark green cable knit sweater, and a green and black tartan plaid wrap skirt held together with a big brass safety pin. Her hair was parted in the middle so it cascaded over her shoulder and down the front of her sweater. Jerry thought she looked beautiful. Lisa smiled sweetly when he told her so.

Then they were at the front door and Jerry was helping her into her navy blue peacoat. Lisa shrugged into her coat and turned to face her parents.

“We are going to the A&W, and then the movies. I’ll be home by midnight,” she said.

Mister Bass frowned and looked at his watch. Midnight was almost six hours away. Missus Bass saw his frown and patted his arm.

“That will be fine, dear, but not a minute later. We’ll be waiting up to hear all about your evening,” she said.

Once they were in his truck and on the road, Lisa slid across the seat right up against Jerry’s side.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this, Jerry Donavan. I’ve liked you since the eighth grade. I was so jealous when Bev Holman said you kissed her during the freshman class hayride. Now here we are on a real date,” she said excitedly.

Jerry blushed but didn’t say anything. Truth be told, he had almost fainted when Beverly grabbed him and shoved her tongue into his mouth.

They enjoyed a root beer float in a booth in the A&W, before seeing a Christopher Lee vampire movie at Cokerville Theater. The movie was only so-so, but Jerry loved the way Lisa pushed herself tight under his arm during the scary scenes. After the movie Jerry was set to return Lisa home when she took their evening in another direction.

“I don’t want to go to home yet, Jerry. Instead, do you think we can go someplace and talk?” she asked.

Jerry found a place to park out by Hemlock Creek. They snuggled up under a thick quilt he kept behind the seat for emergencies and Lisa shared her plans for the future.

“After graduation I’m going to leave this place, Jerry. For twelve years all my focus has been on getting into a good college and then going to medical school. Well, now I have a full scholarship to the University of Maryland, and when I get there, I don’t want to be some naive country girl. It’s going to be your job to help me with that.”

Jerry grimaced and shook his head.

“I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know any more about that stuff than you do,” he said.

Lisa looked at him and grinned.

“Then I guess we’ll learn, together,” she said.

They didn’t move past second base on that first date, but that was mostly because of the cold weather and cramped front seat of Jerry’s pickup. It was the first make out session for either of them, but when they finally came up for air an hour later both of them couldn’t wait for the next one. They scheduled it for the following Sunday after church.

Jerry woke up early the Saturday morning after his first date with Lisa. He felt great as he trotted down to the Chaney farm to do his usual weekend chores. Even the weather was agreeable as the day broke sunny and the temperature climbed into the high forties. It took almost four hours to complete the list of chores Ben Chaney left for him. Then he hustled home for lunch.

Jerry took a quick shower and ate lunch, before checking in with Miss Ida, to see what help she needed. Ida Flood lived in a red brick, two bedroom, ranch style house that she’d had built when she move back to Coker County after her husband died.

Ida answered his knock on her door wearing a knee-length white sundress, with large red hibiscus floral print, and a pair of oxblood penny loafers. Her dark blond hair was in a ponytail. Ida was attractive more than beautiful, but without her usual cat-eyed black glasses and make-up, she looked like a teenager. Jerry was astonished by her appearance, and stood rooted in the doorway, his mouth agape.

Ida grabbed his arm and tugged him through the door.

“Get in here, you big oaf, and close your mouth before something flies into it,” she said with a decidedly feminine laugh.