High School graduation came and in a class of six graduates - I was the only boy. There was no celebration as there is now, just a few words of congratulation and a handshake. We were no less proud of our accomplishment. There were now some decisions to be made; do I carry on in the work force and pursue the girl in my life? or continue with my education. University entrance credits had been achieved but enough money had not. Unfortunately, student loans from the government did not come into vogue until many years later. Financing was the prime mover that pushed me into applying for an underground mining job. On a sunny Friday afternoon, I walked up to the coal mine above the Japanese community by Long's Sawmill (Tolko now) where Mr. Thomas and Sam Gerrard had their operation.

The mine manager, Sandy Allan, sat with me at the portal to number eight seam and listened to my plea for work. He gave me the O. K. to start work on the following Monday morning. Bad news, on the weekend, Mr. Allan had dropped dead from a massive heart attack on Sunday. However, as fortune would have it, he had written my hiring into his log for the Friday before. Consequently, my mining education began as scheduled on that Monday morning, working with my dad, Bill Berkeley and his son Ken, Alf Clifford, Angelo Scamuri and Sam Gerrard. In the beginning we worked the number eight seam, which was six feet high but had a poor roof. There was little coal left here, as it was an old working and we were mainly robbing coal from the remaining supporting pillars.

Mostly we worked in number three seam; it was only three feet high but had a solid sandstone roof and was much safer. Both seams lay at about a 35-degree angle, so you could stand up on the high side of the level in most places in the small seam. After the coal was removed from a ten-foot wide face, the bottom rock would be drilled, blown and shoveled into the lower end of the space left, called the gob. Rails would be laid to accommodate the small coal cars, and then the whole process repeated. Dad and I worked number three level to the right of the main slope. Number two level kept Bill Berkley and his son Ken busy. Angelo and Alf worked number one. When a coal miner's certificate was achieved in 1949 a new level, number four, was worked on my own.