Dark as a Dungeon

There was a tragedy this past week where 12 miners were killed in West Virginia. My Grandfather on my Mom's side was a coal miner. He was born in the 1880's and was a Catholic in Northen Ireland, not very popular to say the least. He wasn't allowed to go to school and went to what they referred to as a 'Hedge School'. Work was scarce too and that's how he wound up in Scotland. After coming to the States, he got a job working the coal mines in Western PA. He did that for many years then there was an mining accident and his left hand was crushed. The doctor who worked for the mining company said he's be ok. He wasn't ok, he wound up losing his hand. My Grandmother used to hold the nails for him while he would hit them with a hammer. My Mom and her three sisters would always drop the nail. Talk about love...
Here is a Merle Travis song called Dark as a Dungeon that is from the 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken' album.
I never met any of my Grandparents, I wish I had. Some day I will.

here are the lyrics, the sound quality isn't too good

Come all you young fellows so young and so fine
And seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mine
It will form like a habit and seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal
Chorus
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the danger is doubled and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine

There's many a man I've seen in my day
Who lived just to labor his whole life away
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mine

[chorus]
Oh when I am dead and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner a-digging my bones

[chorus]
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine