ANTHRACITE BOOT CAMP by Louis Ronald Scatena is a riveting suspense with captivating plot and characters, as he recalled them from his boyhood that occurred many years ago. It is his graceful tribute to life around a Pennsylvania coal–mining town, life’s challenges in sustaining the townspeople over two generations, and how mines served as the lifeblood of this special town. It’s a true story that describes typical beauty and challenges that mirrored the love and hard work of the people living in mining towns in the first half of the 20th century.
The repetition of the boy’s thoughts wander as he joins his father in the dark tunnels, including small dungeons that miners typically called “Dog-Holes”, and consistently demonstrate the strong bond between father and son. In recalling those boyhood years, the story also describes the risk of surviving the dusty, back-breaking work of coal-mining, including the miners’ dangerous equipment, and their recoil from sudden roof cave-ins.
The book chronicles frightening episodes, such as when the boy witnesses a dragline operated by his father about to topple into a pit as shown on the book’s cover, or when the boy must crawl under the screaming dragline as it strains to crawl up a steep hill, or when he observes a dog hole’s sudden roof collapse at his feet.
Scatena luminously described the frightening background when the boy travels underground at age eleven to assist miners in dog-holes where they barely fit, or when at age thirteen he enters an abandoned mine with his father to help drill and blast a drain hole beneath a water-filled mine pit, or when as a young teenager, he enthusiastically operates large bulldozers, steam-shovels, and dump-trucks, but often with alarming results.
It also has a series of humorous events as when miners frighten the 9-year-old into believing he is pursued by a hungry bear, or tease him with crude “mature adult” questions that the boy doesn’t understand, but tries to comprehend later by naively repeating the question to his horrified mother, or when the boy eventually adopts his father’s practice of occasional, but often dangerous pranks on co-workers and friends.
ANTHRACITE BOOT CAMP recounts remarkable stories of the men below ground and their families above, a compendium of many fascinating stories against a backdrop of Italy’s history and folklore, and often poignant, humorous portraits of family love throughout it’s struggles and successes. It also gives a reliable account of typical coal-mining means and methods applied by miners at that time, including definitions of terminology, figures of equipment, and diagrams of mines. ANTHRACITE BOOT CAMP is an educational and entertaining story for readers of all ages with many references to famous hit songs out of the past, including Italian classics that help the reader interpret and appreciate the level of passion within described, highly emotional events.
The book is a charming novel that is sure to delight readers of all ages. The story is a real page turner and is full of heart-warming actions and endearing moments. In summary, it’s a historical tale of hard work, family, kindness, and compassion.
ANTHRACITE BOOT CAMP
Available in all major book stores!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3k1OkiV
Product details
Publisher : BookBaby (January 18, 2021)
Language : English
Paperback : 160 pages
ISBN-10 : 1098349431
ISBN-13 : 978-1098349431
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