Title: The Good Things That Were Once Under the Sycamore Are Now No More
Author: George Gibson
Publisher: George Gibson
Date: 1980
ISBN: none
Length: 16 pages
Quote: “St. Charles, a place where I’ve labored and worked all my life…turned into what some would call a Ghost Town.”
George Gibson, born in 1905, reminisces about his life as a coal miner, preacher, and union organizer in Virginia. Labor union activity was less dangerous in Virginia than it was in Kentucky; Gibson describes injuries from hard work in the mines, not from cave-ins, explosions, or those infamous outbursts of violence. He could probably have said more if he hadn’t wanted to fit his story, plus photos and other people’s statements of support for what he was saying, onto eight sheets of printer paper.
About such a short book, it’s hard to say much, but I have shared this book with older people from Lee County. (Very few people come from St. Charles, though the settlement by that name still exists.) They recognized the names of people mentioned and agreed that Gibson described those people and their activities accurately. This flimsy booklet is thus a primary document of local history. Buy it when you can.
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