A Coal Town Christmas
Adapted from Saving Shallmar: Christmas Spirit in a Coal Town Betty Mae Maule was one of 60 students who attended the two-classroom Shallmar School in November 1949. When teaching principal J. Paul Andrick asked Betty Mae to write a problem at the board one day, the 10-year-old girl stood up at her desk and promptly fainted. Betty Mae and her siblings hadn’t eaten anything all day. Their last meal had been the night before when the eight people in the family shared a couple apples. This is how bad things had gotten in the little coal town on the North Branch Potomac River. What had once been the jewel of Western Maryland coal towns was dying. Operating only 36 days in 1948, the Wolf Den Coal Corporation, which owned Shallmar, came into 1949 struggling in vain to stay open. The Read more…
Surviving Christmas
The Christmas tree stood in the living room of the Tarenton, Pa., home, lit with bright lights and decorated with colorful glass balls. George Pochon and his wife had decorated it alone while their five-year-old son, Jimmy, lay on a pile of pillows nearby. Jimmy smiled when he saw the finished tree, but he didn’t get out of his makeshift bed. “Well, I won’t get out of bed today, Mummy, I’ll get out of bed tomorrow,” Jimmy said to his mother, according to an Associated Press report in December 1949. His mother turned away from him so that Jimmy wouldn’t see the tears welling up in her eyes. Jimmy had been good all year and he was hoping to have a merry Christmas with lots of gifts. “I’ve been a good boy, so Santa’s going to see me before the Read more…
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