I went to see an old man yesterday.

[King Coal]

He is 82. His name is Margarito (Mag) Martinez. He grew up around Trinidad, CO and mined there for 25 years. His Dad was a Ludlow miner during the years of the massacre. He mined here for 25 years as well. He was the president of a local Union. He told me he thinks there is a still a reason the Lord is keeping him alive. He hates Bush, of course. He knows what time it is. He said it was sure good to talk to a good democrat.

[DrRang]

1. Went through Trinidad yesterday . . .

Coming back from Colorado Springs, which is one of the creepiest hard right places in the country. But the land around Trinidad is beautiful, and it just looks like a real neat town. We used to take the train up there from Albuquerque to visit friends. They showed us the old machine gun emplacements (?) and other relics from the union wars

[seabeyond]

2. special memories of trinidad. went thru last fall

on the way to cuchara. so nice driving out of texas panhandle ot raton. see liberal bumperstickers, but.....get to trinidad, and i was running into democrats everywhere. anti bush everywhere. i was on such a high. i like trinidad, but that made it a little more special

[joanski0]

3. Thanks for going to visit

this man. And thanks for posting.

[King Coal]

4. I remember Mag from the '70's.

I was working for Kerr McGee in a Uranium mine in Ambrosia Lake. I had just started and I was driving a haulage drift on the bottom level of the Section 17 mine. Our vent shaft was still able to provide ventilation, but had collapsed enough to disable the bullet skip that was our emergency exit. This was some pretty wild ground. Lots of shale and water, and we needed that shaft as it would have been very likely for the main haulage drift to cave in. The superindentent refused. He was an expatriated Iraqi. I can still see him telling us that a new vent shaft would cost a quarter of a million dollars. We called Mag. He showed up in slacks, a bright orange muscle shirt with sport coat, and a fedora. When I saw him in that outfit I thought we were sunk. Mag was in that Iraqi's office no more than 60 seconds. They started drilling our new vent hole two days later. It was good to see a good democrat back then, too.

[cmd]

5. Thanks for the post, King Coal

I heard lots of stories from Dad when I was growing up about just how quickly the boss could change his mind when the union showed up. I remember that chuckle that would follow the end of the story. Dad is 84 now. He can no longer stand on his tired old legs, but his mind is as sharp as a pin. He zips around on his scooter, mining rocks from his yard in Arkansas. If you see Mag again give him my best, cmd (aka, coalminersdaughter)

[King Coal]

6. My Pleasure CMD,

Tell your Dad King Coal says "Hey" from New Mexico.