In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [Firs [67], Line —— 4.0p —— Norm PgEn [67], I just wondered, “Is he coming back?” ELEVEN Mining Safety Dean and Terry Vencil: We’ve got this waterbed downstairs. I went to Kingsport to get it, and the guy was talking down there. And I told Terry I said, “We’ve got to have this big mirror to go up on the ceiling when we get this thing.” Well, back up just a second though. I wanted the waterbed, coming out of the ’60s. He was afraid that the floors in this old house, built in 1918, wouldn’t support the pressure. And I was saying, “No now, per square inch, the pressure is the same thing as a regular bed.” And he said, “Darling.” When he says, “Darling,” like that, I said, “I might as well forget it.” But I just kept sort of tickling at it until he finally went down and got the waterbed. June Carter and Johnny Cash. I graduated from the University of Virginia in ’73 and came back to the mountains. At that time, I had a son from a previous marriage, was offered a position at CDC [Center for Disease Control] in Atlanta, Georgia, and did not want to rear a child in Atlanta. So I came back home, and my first job, the boss was Dean Vencil, a rough, crusty old man, and just sort of fell in love with the crust. Med-tech. We worked in the laboratory at the old Dante clinic, which used to be a hospital, and then moved into the newer clinic later. She walked in . . . I walked in the first day, you know this poor little girl just fresh out of college, and I bounced in, and I said, “Hi, I’m Terry Kern, and I’m here to start work.” And he said, “I’m ready to leave.” I don’t know if he thought I was there to take his position or a threat, I’m not sure. She said, “Hi, I’m Terry and I’ll be working here soon.” And I said, “Yeah, and I’ll probably be leaving.” Because I didn’t think the clinic was big enough . . . 67 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [68], Line —— 0.0p —— Norm PgEn [68], . . . for the two of us. . . . for the two of us. Have you ever seen the movie Shrek? He is Shrek, and I am Donkey. I’m always the happy one, and he’s always the one taking care of his buddy. I came in October, and I guess . . . December? December. Wasn’t long. Our laboratory was, how big would you say? The one at Dante wasn’t much bigger than the kitchen in there. About fourteen by twelve, maybe. Yeah, something like that. Very small laboratory and two people working in it, you soon bond. Yeah, you rub cheek to cheek every once in a while. At that time, I guess I started making less than $5,000 a year, in the early ’70s. And you might have been making what? I was making ten. Big money. And Dean had a son by a previous marriage, and I had a son by a previous marriage. We knew we had these two boys that we were going to have to take care of. And so one of us had to get a job that paid. So Dean went into the coal mines. We both worried about it. She told me after I retired that she didn’t think I would ever live long enough to retire. She thought I’d get killed. And I told her one time—aw, it was fifteen years before I retired—“If I get killed, don’t wait until my body is cold before you sue Clinchfield, because I’m not going to be doing anything wrong. I’m not going to be doing anything unsafe. It’s their fault. And don’t you let my body get cold before you sue ’em.” And I know that there were a lot...

Share