[Hoot Gibson]

The Carter years were a boon for construction and coal mining. My dad was involved in both at that time. As I said, the Reagan years were almost starvation for construction.

I lived through the Carter years, so save your fingers. You will not convince anybody who tried to buy a house during that time that construction was booming.

Coal was doing well when I entered college, but the job market hit rock bottom near the end of Carter's term. I had one job offer and was lucky. Many of my friends stayed in school because there were no mining engineering jobs available for them. The wildcat strikes of the mid 70s by the UMWA over health benefits under the contract to which the UMWA had agreed presented Massey and other non-union mining companies with a golden opportunity.

When Massey signed contracts to deliver coal to its customers, it met its commitments. The UMWA steadily lost its grip on the mining industry because the thugs that ran the union grew fat and greedy. One result was that non-union coal began pouring out of Mingo and Martin Counties in the 80s but that was the UMWA's doing, not Reagan's.