Another Absurd Public Typing Choice

I tried it again during dinner, writing a second letter to a second friend, and actually met some really cool people including one who has about 10 typewriters himself and is a bit of a collector.  It's nice not to be interrupted so much, but with this machine I felt like I was totally asking for it!!!

A Poem and a Robust

I suppose it's somewhat political, but it's what I believe and it is part of my justification for why I love owning this machine.  Those of you who have been following my blog surely know how long I have wanted a machine that could type the title of that poem! And yes, I am aware now that there are some misspellings.  

The best thing about having one of these at a Starbucks might be laughing to yourself when people walk by and say their grandmother had one just like it!!!!

East Kentucky Trip

I know it has little to do with typewriters, but it has everything to do with my poetry collection I am working on.  I lived in Lynch in Harlan County, Kentucky for a summer and it was life changing.  I worked underground coal. These are the signs welcoming you into Kentucky as you cross the state line from Virginia, right over the highest point in Kentucky.  Check out the large caliber bullet holes. 

The mountains out there are large, close together, and gorgeous.  I took this photo of Cumberland from Kingdom Come State Park. You can see smoke, a few buildings in Cumberland were on fire.  The large clear spot in the back between the hills is a giant slag heap near the coal cleaning plant I worked briefly in.

This is just on the Virginia side of Black Mountain, and is what a coal seam looks like.  When you go further into a mine how deep you are has less to do with how much up or down you are going than it does how much taller the mountain above you gets. 

At one time the largest coal tipple in the country, this is typical of the fascinating ruins in Lynch and Benham.

Speaking of ruins, this old school was the company offices when I worked in the mines.  That was in 2009, and it was still being used when I visited in 2011.  It looks pretty rough for just 6 years of vacancy! 

The mountains are so tall each morning the fog just hangs in them.  This is a mine I worked at, filled in and grown over, all the buildings broken down and removed.  You can see a very obvious contour in the land though. Some other mines I worked in are still active.

An old continuous miner, something rarely seen above ground, and not so different than the ones we used.  The drum with the teeth on it rotates, scraping the coal which is scooped up that ramp in the front and fed out a conveyor on the back into shuttle cars which transport it to the conveyor belt which brings the coal out of the mine. 

Old strip mine maybe, or logging, or both.  Not as ugly as it can be sometimes.

Corn nuggets are harder to find back home than in East Kentucky.  These are the far superior cousin of the hush puppy!