my father the two of them would sit in the swing on the porch and Dad would commence to ask questions as he filled out the man's application, "Where was your mother born?  How long did you live there? etc, now put your X right here on the line.  Take this down to the check office and ask for Miss McClain, remember to go around to the colored side and don't forget to take your hat off."  These men always showed great deference to my dad.  I think some of them actually thought it was Mr. Pint who hired them.

As President of the Colored Welfare Association, Mr. Nash Ozsly was the H.N.I.C.  Although it was rumored that he could neither read nor write, he had all the other prerequisites for being a Negro superstar of that era.  He was very light skinned, had good conkaline, and drove two fine rides.  He had a two-toned green and white 1939 Cadillac and a black 1934 Duscenburg two-seat roadster with a rumple seat.  His wife was said to brilliant and the word was that she did all of his paperwork.  Mr. Pint was not up to Nash's standard, but he did okay.  Life was good.

The two major outlets for mining communities of that era were baseball and quartet singing.  Mining baseball teams served as the unofficial minor league for the Negro baseball leagues.  Local church singing groups and quartets served as a source of talent for national renowned singing groups.  Cousin Curtis probably could have made it with the Fairfield Four had he not had so many children.  In those days, gospel singers did not earn a lot of money.

All Good Things Come to an End

By the end of the war, subtle changes had begun to take place in Acmar and within the Alabama Fuel and Iron Company.  Artway had been very disappointed when TBoy showed no interest in moving to Acmar and becoming a miner upon his release from the Army.  There were distant rumors that the future of AL F & I was limited.  John L. Lewis, as head of the United Mine Workers Union, had taken dead aim on the non-union status of AL F & I.  President Charles D. DeBardlaben of AL F & I swore that his company would never join the union and he would never pay coloreds the same wages as whites.  The national press had a field day.  Race relations were deteriorating fast because returning soldiers no longer accepted some of the old southern taboos and traditions. 

In 1947, the bottom seemed to fall out.  Grandpa Ben died and I saw my father cry for the first time during Grandpa's funeral.  Looking back on it, I wonder if all those tears were only grief for Grandpa.  Dad probably felt additional stress as he realized that life as he had known it was starting to unravel.  The fight between John L. Lewis and Charles DeBardlaben began to tilt in favor of John L. Lewis.  Because of the negative publicity, AL F & I's main financial backers, Macy's (the teamster's union had threatened to stop deliveries) and Colgate Palmolive pulled out seriously crippling the company.  The national union seized the initiative and "pulled the rails".  They went to every buyer of AL F & I coal and undercut prices so low that AL F & I could not remain competitive in the coal market.  No northern investor would touch Charles DeBardlaben for fear of repercussions by the union.  AL F & I mines cut back to four days a week.  Life was no longer good and the Acmar community became nervous.  When worked dropped to three days a week, Cousin Curtis cut his losses and went to East Scooter, a small ore mining suburb of Birmingham.  That only lasted a short time since he had very little seniority with the union. He finally pulled up stakes and moved to Buffalo.  Mexico went to Ohio.  Finally in 1951, Artway moved his wife and four children back to Anniston where he caught on at Monsanto Chemical Company where TBoy was working.

He never regained the status that he had enjoyed as a miner, but life in Anniston was pleasant enough.  He really enjoyed being closer to his mother and rebuilding his special relationship with TBoy.  During the Korean War they each took on a second job at night in an ammunition box factory and even bought me aboard.  The night jobs played out once the war was over and I headed for the Army.  Monsanto moved to St. Louis, requiring both Artway and Tboy to take jobs in the pipeshop.  This was hard work for men past their prime and the impact started to take its toll on TBoy right away.  When TBoy died of old WWII wounds and other complications,                         

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