Mascot: Memoirs from a Zinc Mining Town/Thirty-Nine Contributors

Descriere

Description Mischief and mysteries, work and play highlight life in a company-owned mining town during the mid-20th century. Residents of Mascot, Tennessee, share their stories through interviews and personal writings that celebrate small-town living. About the Author This book came about because I want my sons and future generations to know what Mascot, Tennessee, was like when it was a company-owned mining town. Since it was a small community in a rural area, there were not many modern conveniences. American Zinc Company built the homes and provided Mascot with amenities that many rural communities didn't have. In the early years, the roads going into bigger towns were difficult to travel. Families worked together, raised their children together, and celebrated holidays together. Many neighborhoods today do not have that sense of interdependence as was experienced in Mascot. The personal remembrances in this collection come primarily from the period of the 1930s through the 1960s-from folks who lived in Mascot. There are already some great books on Mascot's history, but my mother and I wanted to share people's stories. Some of these stories may have details that contradict each other. Some stories will be repeated by different people in the book, but the subtle details and variations embody the history and spirit of this small town. Our research started during a summer visit in 2009 with a few in-person interviews in Mascot and research of personal accounts stored in the Calvin M. Mc Clung Historical Collection at the Knox County Public Library. I began sending letters out to some of the folks my family still knows. The letter asked for people to participate in a book project by either writing a story or doing a transcribed phone interview. Once we started hearing back from folks, Mom and I either arranged to do a recorded interview over the phone, or the person chose to send written recollections to be included in the book. Then we transcribed and edited the intervie