STAY IN THE SUN © Daniel K. Statnekov West Virginia coal mine Lured us off the land To burrow down beneath the ground It's not what we had planned But work was sure and all year round The hours set each day No risk there was like farmin's storms To ruin a man's earned pay So young we was to make that choice But seen sich misery Amongst the folks we loved the best A change we'd thought it be Learned soon enough the price we paid To get out of the sun Pale as death our faces turned Didn't know what we'd begun The dust that covered us with black So fine it made you choke Was worse'n we knew at the time Didn't figure it a joke And coughin' fits did bad erupt That kep' us up at night Like smokin' Lucky Strikes non-stop Then losin' in a fight Some of us jist up and quit But others stuck it out Steddy money every week He'ped overcome the doubt Unions fixed conditions some John Lewis pioneered Taft-Hartley didn't change the dark But lessoned all our fears The years went by, and used we got To that there enterprize But those of us who did the job Hid truth behind our eyes Old friends they seemed to age so fast And shrink in size and weight Some of them jist up and died Coal miner's turn of fate We could of left, it was our right Jist couldn't quite decide How to go about our lives And most of all provide For famblys that'd come along Depended on that pay And all the debts contracted for It seemed the only way To make ends meet in this here world Grown big and mechanized And us so poor, unlearned, and sich Was truth we reco'nized But breathin' coal dust underground In holes dug without light Is work that wears a man away Turns life into one night So if I had to start ag'in Advise a son or two I'd say to him "Stay in the sun No matter what you do."