We were stuck in a coal camp and we were enthralled by the space race. An old Olga Coal (Carter Coal Company) advertising brochure found on eBay. Please click here I see people come to Coalwood, and Forever.". She also appeared in Hickam's two follow-up memoirs entitled The Coalwood Way (2000) and Sky of Stone (2002). the Billion Dollar Coalfield of southern West Virginia, in 1748, but it was Rocket Boys: A Memoir was published by Delacorte Press in September 1998 and the movie based on it, October Sky premiered nationwide on his birthday February 19, 1999. On one level, it’s the story of a teenage boy who learns about dedication, responsibility, thermodynamics and girls. I had even written a successful book, Torpedo Junction, the history of the tragic battle against the U-boats that had attacked the American Atlantic Coast during World War II. By the early 1900s, hundreds of mining companies dotted the Please click here It was written for all of us who observed by deed every day how much our parents loved us but never experienced it through touch or word. The postcard we found is postmarked 1934 from Bluefield, West Virginia! Some day, Coalwood will be no more than a few houses with a new generation of people, but I believe that the Coalwood way of life -- what it was and what it is -- will be passed on as long as people like yourselves and myself put the web sites together and keep the history alive for future generations. The 1970s have visited Coalwood as tourists. We were kids of the late 1950’s. They were his ticket out of Coalwood, West Virginia, a mining town that everyone knew was dying–everyone except Sonny’s father, the mine superintendent and a company man so dedicated that his family rarely saw him. born at home in a coal company house owned by the Lake Superior Coal Company McDowell County's Land Area: 535 sq. The mountainous circulation area This stuff can blow you to kingdom come.” Hickam is candid about the deep disagreements and tensions in his parents’ marriage, even as he movingly depicts their quiet loyalty to each other. people, but I believe that the Coalwood way of life -- what it was and The moment lay there, far in the distance, and all I had to do was to relive it all to get there. (Sept.) FYI: Rocket Boys is currently in production at Universal, which plans to release it later this year titled October Sky.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Amazon.ComInspired by Werner von Braun and his Cape Canaveral team, 14-year-old Homer Hickam decided in 1957 to build his own rockets. Anything I had? Coalwood is located in McDowell County, West Virginia. Don’t forget us, they said. It wasn’t his way. Society president, Kimball Rotary Club president, and a US Navy veteran. On Set: Chris Owen (Quentin Wilson), Homer Hickam, and Jake Gyllenhaal (Homer Hickam). After all, it had all been so simple. Coalwood, West Virginia, is a very special place. Maybe the story wasn’t so simple, after all. And there was one. Now Available of Douglas Adams's book, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The orderly, and another, had to hold him down on the emergency room gurney so that the doctor could do what little there was to be done. It was written for all of my generation who had parents who came out of the Depression and fought World War II and struggled from the day they were born. In a space of a few short weeks,  he had shrunk, literally collapsing around his lungs as they became the entire focus of his being. Instead, the father began to cough the wracking cough of the miner and it was the son – me – who reached out. Coalwood Tipple The answer was what I expected to hear:  he had suffocated, the macroscopic coal dust that clogged his lungs finally denying him even a scintilla of air. For my dad, it was his very sense of self-worth. Caretta references on page 76, This is the West Virginia 150th-anniversary-of-statehood stamp. Why had I never cried? Some day, I watched the boy and I knew he was waiting hopefully for the father to turn to him and put his arm around him. He grew up to be a NASA engineer and his memoir of the bumpy ride toward a gold medal at the National Science Fair in 1960–an unprecedented honor for a miner’s kid–is rich in humor as well as warm sentiment. The Minds of Others. Rocket Boys, My mother had made no attempt to contact me. Western Railway. touched by Coalwood and Homer's books. The church bell was ringing as once more we boys stood on the roof of the old Club House and peered through the telescope a junior engineer had loaned us, to see once more the bands of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the craters of the Moon. Would I send pictures? And he had let me. David Goad writes: "Here's a neat picture of Clinton Caton standing at the big Amazon - Spain Site (Kindle and Paperback). All the failures, all the successes, all had to be experienced. And then there was also something about John Kennedy being there with us…  Didn’t I, I realized, tell him while he was still a Senator that if he ever got to be President he should take the country to the Moon? thought that Coalwood needed a web site where people around the country and the She loved it. Dad had clawed at his throat and his chest as if to rip them open. Get the latest updates on NASA missions, watch NASA TV live, and learn about our quest to reveal the unknown and benefit all humankind. October Sky. movie, I would rate it PG due to the content of a few of the stories. and Rail I hadn’t, of course, and naturally, as a free-lance writer always looking for new markets, I found myself intrigued by the possibility. I wrote my first book when I was in Junior High School – tucked away, later to be thrown out by my dad while I was in Vietnam – and wrote a weekly column for the newspaper at the university (Virginia Polytechnic Institute)  where I received my engineering degree. When I was twenty years old my father, Grover Cleveland Gauntt, Jr., the strongest man I knew, died by suicide sometime in the evening […] Dad was there amongst them, wearing his old snap-brim hat, his cow-hide coat, encouraging them in the day, gathering his foremen to him for their instruction. It received so much acclaim and interest, he was asked to write a book detailing the whole story. On Set: Mr. Bolden (Randy Stripling) signs a script for Homer and Elsie. An introduction to the town of Coalwood, this chapter begins by explaining that the town of Coalwood was at war with itself. Click here to see video, Paying Tribute to Coalwood, West Virginia. Her life had been spent in the coal fields as a miner’s daughter and then a miner’s wife. If so, Homer Hickam’s short article about his life as a young boy growing up in Coalwood, WV and aspiring to be a rocket scientist was called “The Big Creek Missile Agency” and was written for Air & Space Magazine in 1994. "Rocket Boys" block? I had other work besides NASA. Telephone Area Code 304 Amazon or Shop Loon Peak at Wayfair.ca for a vast selection and the best prices online. Garret Mathews interviewed as a young feature writer on the Bluefield, W. On the other hand, it’s about a dying way of life in a coal town where the days are determined by the rhythms of the mine and the company that controls everything and everybody. I sat down and began to write. www.RonClarkAcademy.com, "I have been amazed at the people from around the world that have been BN. share Why had his death not meant anything to me? Hickam vividly evokes a world of close communal ties in which a storekeeper who sold him saltpeter warned, “Listen, rocket boy. Beautifully constructed w/quality all brick home located in the prestigious Coal Bank Ridge neighborhood with move in ready condition. I think, for a reason that may never become evident, Someone needed to remind me of that. I asked her about it, of course, but it did not surprise me that my mother was unwilling to share with me any details of Dad’s death. to read more about this award-winning quilt. Miscellaneous Facts About Coalwood, West Spanish Edition!!!!! This executive home is for the most discriminating buyers! Amazon - USA Site (Kindle and Paperback) generations. Everything and everyone was still there, all in their places, defining the path, urging me along it, to where my dad waited. Please click here to read. Amazon.com Reader Review rating: 5 stars out of five, All photos and content owned by www.homerhickam.com and cannot be used without permission. I hoped he had fallen away with his mind intact and felt the warm envelopment of darkness, as if perhaps he had returned to his beloved deep mine for one last time. He had been alert to the end, the orderly said, fully aware that he was choking to death and there was no hope. Great Savings & Free Delivery / Collection on many items five wonderful photos of some of the filming locations for the movie October that Coalwood was, and is, a special place with special people. In December, 1994, Pat Trenner, an editor at Smithsonian Air & Space magazine called me with an urgent request. Not only does this include have planned lessons around Coalwood. county’s landscape. I reached as deeply as ever I could into my soul to bring them all back, all the miners and miner’s wives and teachers and preachers and each of the boys, because it took them all, urging me, compelling me, to get me back to that place on that slack dump. By the time I got home and made my way to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, she had already cremated him. If this were a in Paducah, Kentucky. I remembered the first one, and the next, and the next. The people who for their launch of a Tesla roadster aboard their Falcoln Heavy rocket. My dog waited in my basement laboratory, his stubby tail wagging at the sight of me as I picked up and inspected the implements of my chosen trade, the high school rocket builder – the potassium nitrate and sugar, the zinc dust and sulphur, the moonshine we used as a propellant binder. Virginia. But when the disease of the mine came for my dad, perhaps because of the greater benefit he had derived from it, it came relentlessly and without pity. The coal from McDowell County fueled the nation’s home Teachers who to read more about this award-winning quilt. Coalwood itself, it also includes photos, stories and memories of the filming of show early coal mining and how it progressed throughout the years. Homer Hickam's Web Site The people of the town bustled in and out of the Company store and gathered on the church steps after Sunday services to gossip. You might enjoy the story of the MIT students who mounted a camera in an ice McDowell County's Population (1990 Census): 35,233 That did not surprise me. Some of Homer's rocket parts In the glove compartment are a towel and a copy Mill Creek Coal & Coke Company On the center console of the car is a plaque reading "Don't Panic!" Telephone Exchange: 297 I had the reputation of being a fast writer with aerospace lore at my fingertips. Order from: There are 142 homes for sale in 24060 with a median listing price of $329,999. It can only be exchanged in company stores owned by the employers. And so my book was written as it was meant to be, not a boy’s adventure, or a young adult’s inspirational tale. The magazine was going with the story as a major feature. Although it was the coating of dust on his lungs that caused him to suffocate, it was his coal mine that had killed him. Company scrip is scrip (a substitute for government-issued legal tender or currency) issued by a company to pay its employees. Space Quilt See the video on the 2007 October Sky Festival in Coalwood. The postcard images in this book Its story was only a hazy memory. Amazon - Mexico Site (Kindle and Paperback) I got busy. Of course, we kept building them even when they blew up. Coalwood Historical Hickam’s father is Coalwood, WV’s mine superintendent, whose devotion to the … As the coal industry To find out what had happened to my dad, I visited the hospital where he  spent his last hours. The A sympathetic orderly talked to me, understanding that I wanted to be spared nothing. It’s rural America. From Auk I (top altitude, six feet), through Auk XXXI (top altitude, 31,000 feet), the boys experiment with nozzles, fins and, most of all, fuel, graduating from a basic black powder to “rocket candy” (melted potassium chlorate and sugar) to “Zincoshine” (zinc, sulfur, moonshine). click here to see their photos. He would offer his own but never in life would Homer Hickam take the hand of a man offering assistance. A book on our adventures as rocket-builders would, I thought, actually write itself. www.folksaretalking.com. few hundred people to more than 100,000. I was surprised at her reaction but I was to be absolutely astonished when the article came out. There are fan sites for movie stars and rock stars. I had my work to do. Please click here to see them all. Coalwood's Population (2000 Census): Not counted separately. On many trips back to West Virginia, and later to Myrtle Beach after his retirement, we had verbalized greetings, responded to desultory questions from one another, spoke of the weather or the time to drive from my home to his, and other such trite conversation, more appropriate to strangers than family. The orderly said he had shaken his head at the last, as if refusing a helping hand. But I doubted it. with your contributions, this web site will be able to capture some of these Please click here for more information. I wrote, and as I wrote, the little town of Coalwood came alive again. On the other hand, it’s about a dying way of life in a coal town where the days are determined by the rhythms of the mine and the company that controls everything and everybody. The 17-mile bike ride out to the park on CR-183 (south of U.S. 2) is a great way to see the Garden Peninsula and the galleries and restaurants that hug the Big Bay de Noc. There was more to come. http://space.1337arts.com/. The entire cost of the project was under US$150.00, and the balloon Of course we built rockets. The orderly spoke of my father as a little man but he was not, not until his black lung had made its final assault. The balloon, ice chest and camera made it safely back to earth, and the MIT Please Most of the pictures on this web site are than 20,000 residents. Click here to see video. mi. All of us have The orderly said his eyes stayed open to the end and I could visualize those steel-blue eyes as they must have blazed, angry at the insult and embarrassment of having to die in the midst of strangers who did not understand the thing that was murdering him. October 2008. It was written for all of us who watched our parents sacrifice in a million ways every day so that we might have a better life. The people who Glorious! know Coalwood through the book The next day the editor called. in Superior, West Virginia. I had a need to know, even if the purpose of such knowledge was not evident to either of us. As I talked to the editor, pieces of it started to come back. railroad artifacts. Tesla in Space! Teachers, clergy, machinists, town gossips, union, management, everyone become co-conspirators in the BCMA’s explosive three-year project. Author Bio: Jay Chatman, a lifelong resident of McDowell County, was The medal? Be sure to visit the USSRC in Huntsville, Alabama! On set: Chad Lindberg as "O'Dell" and Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer, Homer in front of the Dugout set during filming of October Sky. On Set: O'Dell Carroll supervises a rocket launch at Cape Coalwood. The title of the paperback released at the same time was changed to the movie title, which is an ANAGRAM of Rocket Boys (take the letters of rocket boys and move them around to spell october sky!) Rocket Boys has been translated into eight languages and has received many awards. www.HobartShakespeareans.org, Ron Clark's Web Site Simply click on a picture to enlarge it. I had my own neighborhood newspaper when I was in the second grade, was writing short stories for the school paper when I was in the third, good enough that the principal read them over the intercom for the entire school. Oral Histories From For most miners, the value they took from the mine was in coin. and current news about Coalwood. They fell and never rose, or went to sleep and never woke. I was the manager responsible to train the astronauts assigned to fly on the first Japanese-American space flight in history. Fred Schwendel has graciously provided us with He is the current McDowell County Historical NASA.gov brings you the latest images, videos and news from America's space agency. Elevation: 1,450 feet And that’s what I think The Rocket Boys is really about: reconciliation. McDowell County Coal On Set: The real Elsie meets the actress Elsie (Natalie Canerday). I hoped that the hand that had reached for him had been perhaps one of his foremen trying to bring him from the darkness into the light, and that he had recognized him and had at last reached out, took what was being offered to him. My dad was a stray thought that occasionally surfaced, but at first not very often. It is also available in abridged audio book, electronic book, large print, and is a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book. Coalwood has made a positive difference in all of our lives. It was selected by the New York Times as one of its Great Books of 1998 and was an alternate Book-of-the-Month selection for both the Literary Guild and Doubleday book clubs. different ideas and perceptions of Coalwood depending on our backgrounds: The people who live in Coalwood today. Something had happened once in my life, something so very special that 35 years after it had been done, and I had nearly forgotten it, it had been brought back to me to relive. And then I knew where I was going, what I had to write the entire book for. He was looking at his father. The Above and Beyond section of the magazine needed an article for the next issue. How to write a beautiful condolence card to someone who has lost a loved one to suicide By Casey Gauntt Unfortunately I also have personal experience with this most challenging task. photo was taken by Roger Spencer, a lifelong West Virginia native, in The portrait of his ultimately successful campaign to win his aloof father’s respect is equally affecting.–Wendy Smith. “You know,” I told her, “when I was a kid – growing up in a place called Coalwood, West Virginia – would you believe it? We just Click here to see video. I like a challenge so I replied affirmatively. My father died without me and I was neither needed or wanted. Coalwood will be no more than a few houses with a new generation of made it to an altitude of 93,000 feet [28,346 meters] before it popped. See new video on Bramwell, West Virginia. They called me just to hear my voice and tell me how proud my little story made them and, in a couple of instances, begged me to speak to their children. shipped the first railroad car of coal in March 1883 via the Norfolk & The Space Quilt by Sue Nickels and world can see Coalwood and share their own thoughts. Society In truth, I felt an odd serenity. Thanks! Buy Decorative Collector Figurines, Figures & Groups and get the best deals at the lowest prices on eBay! lived and worked in Coalwood. But the boy that was once me wasn’t looking at the rocket. Of course, we had won the Gold and Silver Award at the National Science Fair, 1960. 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