“I have been through everything. I started pony driving when I was sixteen. When you were eighteen you were allowed to do your face training in England. So you had to spend two years learning everything about the mine. You watched, you listened, you helped and you picked things up. When you went to do your face training you were expected to know what you were doing. So if you did not help and you did not listen, you did not know and they did not like that. They wanted you to have at least a 75% idea of what you were doing and why you were doing it. It was a good two years, working with different senior miners who taught you the old ways.

“Previously, you would see senior miners working until they were sixty-five, filling twenty-five tonnes of coal a day, and then all of a sudden it was their sixty-fifth birthday, they retired, and within six months they were dead. I should say a six month average after they retired. Your body was toned for working hard every day and then from one day to the next you are doing nothing, does your body collapse on you? It is a funny thing, you work from when you are fifteen to sixty-five, working hard, and then all of a sudden nothing. I guess it is the body packing in. It is never been looked at, that side of retirement.

“An old gent who lived beside us played cricket until he was sixty-five and worked the face, hand filling, until he was sixty-five, and then he got an allotment. You could rent a half acre allotment of land for gardening and growing vegetables, and he rented two of them, because he was going to stay busy. He did not make it to sixty-six. His wife came in one morning and found him passed away, and he was fit! I guess his body said ‘No.’

“Now that we are on machinery your body does not take the pounding that it used to. It is hard work, but it was harder work when you shoveled twenty-five tonne of coal a day and the faces were lower then a table. The majority of seams that you worked were only three or four feet high, so again, it is that adrenaline flowing.

“There are no mines to speak of in England anymore; very few so I came to Canada in 1976. Casa Resources in Sparwood advertised in England for miners to come over. Underground mining in Sparwood closed in the 1980’s and then they put us on surface because we had seniority but it is not the same. You are on your own; you have not got any partners.

“The coal mining in England was all longwall method and it was all mechanized by the time I left. Sparwood, when I came to Canada was hydraulic. Sparwood was mined by room and pillar on one side, and the other side was all hydraulic. I miss the old way of doing things because you did it yourself and you took pride in doing it. These days it is all machinery that does it. It is just not the same.

“I have been here at Quinsam for twelve years. There was only this coal mine left in Canada that was underground until Grand Cache opened up. Everything is machinery now. You have continuous miners, shovel cars, shuttle cars, diesel machinery, and bolters to list a few.

“I would not do anything else; I have been under too long. It is a different world all together. You spend that much time under there that it is a fix thing. It is the smell, it is a different smell, I guess you have to get used to it, but once you do get used to it, it is a draw.

“The difference between Westmin and Quinsam is that they pack their places so they do not cave and here we cave everything, so that it takes the weight off where the men are working. It is as if we are between two pins, they are like opposites; one keeps place as it were, and we have to cave the other, to make it good for us. It is quite a different thing when you see a cave in; the adrenaline flows. I think that is what I would miss, that aspect of it that keeps you on your toes. You get some of those big gob blasts that blow you on your back, and that is just wind. I guess it is like taking drugs, because you are waiting for that punch and you know it is coming.

“I have worked underground for forty-seven years. Every mine you go it is a new experience, so really you are learning all over again. Even in this mine, from one to the other the seams of coal are different, so really it is a different mine, and you are learning roof conditions, weight and everything. You never stop learning in mining, when you stop learning that is when you get hurt. It is when people get complacent that you have accidents, and that is not good. You have to be aware all of the time. It is a learning experience every day you see something different every day, and that is probably why I like mining. It is a different thing that you are doing every day.

“In mining, one day weight can be on and the adrenaline is really flowing, and the next day it is gone. It is not for everybody, but for those who do go underground it is a life unto itself. That is your life.

“Machinery is taking over, but it does not always work. Somebody at the mine has to know the old ways. The only way that we are going to keep it going is to teach these young guys how to do it. Some of them think it is a waste of time but there are times when you can not bolt it. As long as they will learn, men will not get hurt. That is all we think about because we do not like to see people get injured. I am supposed to retire in three years time; but I will see when it comes.”