[inglor_cz]

I grew up in a mining city (Ostrava, black coal). Now the mines are closed, but when I was a kid, they were in full operation.

Disasters happened infrequently, but when they did, they were ugly. A spark at a wrong time in a wrong place, and sixty fathers would never come back home again.

Mining is freaking dangerous. The forces of nature involved are enormous, and human is but a small ant facing them.

[iso1210]

Not just dangerous for the miners too. Aberfan had a major effect on the UK. A slag heap near the village collapsed, burying a school and killing 144, almost all of them schoolchildren

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster

[BurningFrog]

The Crown did for Aberfan what Watchmen did for Tulsa.

[iso1210]

Haven't seen either, I assume the Crown covered the emotional effect on the Queen, no idea what Watchmen is - it's the film with the glowing man with a dong isn't it?

To me, Tulsa is either 24 hours away, or the place Chandler went to for Christmas in Friends.

[BurningFrog]

Is the HBO series with the glowing man.

It is not about the 1921 massacre of 300 blacks in Tulsa, but that serves as the backstory.

Both shows are first rate TV.

[OJFord]

Namely?

[BurningFrog]

Making the world aware of the major tragedies that happened there.

[sologoub]

A bit off-topic, but how did the city cope with the mine closure and loss of so many jobs?

[inglor_cz]

Lots of drinking and a significant loss of younger population that went to study elsewhere and never returned. A sad sight.

The environment is much better, though. The air is mostly clean, while it smelled like burnt tires in my childhood.

[sologoub]

Sorry to hear that! Haven’t made it to Ostrava yet, but traveled a fair bit around Czechia - amazing country and people.

[inglor_cz]

The worst phase was probably around 1998. It is slowly getting better. We have some interesting architectural projects, for example.

Also, neighboring Poland has undergone an economic boom in the last 30 years, and the network of connections between the region around Ostrava and Poland is becoming very helpful to the local economy.

[PebblesRox]

"Hey, Coal Miner" is a poignant glimpse into life in the mines. The whole song is great but this verse in particular always gets to me:

"Into the truck, Then into the bath, Ground to dust And then in a flash, Turns into fire That turns into ash, Hey, coal miner."

https://youtu.be/0LQZWvEMWIA?t=01m07s