Jynx concluded his latest phlog entry 
by wondering if he was in "A 
life-change funk," adding, "I need to 
fix this... Job hunting does not take 
up the entire day."[1]

Too true. That statement really struck 
a chord with me and got me thinking 
about my father.

My Dad was laid off in 1984. He was a 
miner and his work mattered to him. A 
lot. He was really lost without it -- 
and so he took on a major project.

We owned an old house with a crawl- 
space beneath it. Dad decided to dig 
out a basement. By hand. At one end of 
the crawlspace was a deeper area with 
a furnace and a coal chute. He started 
there. Every day, I'd come home from 
school and dirt would be flying up out 
of that coal chute. I'd go down and 
help for a couple of hours before 
supper.

It was hard digging. The house, it 
turned out, was built over an old 
creek bed. The ground was dense, all 
tightly packed with smooth, round 
rocks. You loosened it up with a pick, 
sparks flying and hands numb from the 
shock, and then shoveled as best you 
could. It took weeks.

Afterward, we tied in rebar, set up 
plywood forms, and poured new cement 
walls inside the old foundation walls.

But here's the thing. We dug that hole 
right up to the inside of the 
foundation walls. I've always thought 
that the house should have fallen in 
on us. I don't know why it didn't. But 
if Dad knew anything, it was mining. 
He knew ledges and pit walls. I 
guess he knew that the foundation 
wouldn't give away because that creek 
bed was so solid. 

Anyways, I think digging that basement 
kept my Dad sane. He couldn't live 
without something to do. He was a 
miner. So he mined underneath the 
house. I still tease him about it.

Not too long after we finished, he got 
the call he was waiting for. We sold 
the house, packed up all our stuff, 
and moved. Another place, another 
adventure.


[1] gopher://leveck.us/0/Phlog/20191105.post