Friday's Babble || The Beers and Bears of Bavingon
Black bears are one of the largest animals that live in Western Pennsylvania, and according to the PA Game Commission an "adult grows to an average of 50-85 inches in length with an additional tail length added on." Black bears generally weigh between 200 and 400 pounds, but they can get much larger. In fact, some rare ones weigh up to 800 pounds! In Western Pennsylvania, there is an estimated 8,000-10,000 black bears.
As can be seen in the up-close photo of the bee box in this post, bears have flat feet with 5 toes on each paw. They also are equipped with claws that can easily tear into wooden bee boxes. The bear that found Coal Tipple Brewery's bee boxes used its sense of smell-- bears have a fantastic sense of smell and comparatively poor eyesight.
After the bear broke into the brewery's bees, an electric fence was constructed around the area to keep any future hungry bears out.
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Oktoberfest-Saison
DragIime -Blonde
Nippy Tipple-English Ale
Fossil Fuel-English Pub Stout
Dead Canary-IPA
16 Tons-Strong American Ale
Fun fact about 16 Tons-- it is named after a song. SIXTEEN TONS is a song made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford and written by Merle Travis. Travis said the line "another day older and deeper in debt," was a phrase often used by his father. This and the line, "I owe my soul to the company store" refers to the scrip workers were paid with which could only be exchanged only for goods sold by the company store. This made it impossible for workers to store up cash savings.
All of the beers at the Tipple are named after something to do with mining. For example, GO DEVIL has it’s origins in both mining and the oil industry. In drilling, it was primitive fracking: a nitro charge would be dropped in the hole to set off the explosives already packed in there: Drop and Go like the devil! In mining, it was a three-wheeled rope or cable block used to lower mining cars down a slope, the third wheel allowed braking to prevent runaway cars.
On a slightly sadder note, the PIT PONY was a class of pony commonly used underground in mines from the mid-18th to the mid-20th century. The term refers to the work done by the animal and has sometimes been applied to any equine working underground regardless of breed. Typically they would work an eight-hour-shift each day, during which they might haul 30 tons of coal on the underground mine rails. The average pit pony lived only 3 1/2 years while surface ponies lived 20.
Along with beers and bears, the Tipple also has greenhouses, local honey (when it is not being consumed by said bears), crafts, and a small bakery! Check out the website here.
I’ve heard that phrase “another day older and deeper in debt” from my grandparents, so I’m glad I finally know its origins. I liked the history of mining that you included. I once visited a mine in grade school and became claustrophobic, so I can’t imagine how people and animals worked in mines all day. I wonder if the shortened lifespan of the poor pit ponies was a combination of overwork and breathing in the coal dust. I remember learning in school about how breathing in coal dust ruined the lungs of coal miners and eventually killed them. Pittsburgh is historically known for its steel mills, so Pittsburgh burned a lot of coal to run these mills (which is why Pittsburgh had such horrible air pollution). I looked up coal mining after reading your post, and in May the Smithsonian magazine published an article that says black lung disease in miners is making a comeback, as workers from the 70s and 80s are dying from the disease. Scientists believe that workers today are also at increased risk because they work longer hours in the mines and therefore breathe in more dust. I posted the link for the article below in case you’re interested in reading more.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/black-lung-disease-deadlier-than-ever-before-180963303/
A lot of deaths in the mines were the result of breathing in fumes and chemicals. I didn't explain the name 'Dead Canary' in the blog post, but it is an allusion to caged canaries that miners would carry down into the mine tunnels with them. If dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide collected in the mine, the gases would kill the canary before killing the miners, thus providing a warning to exit the tunnels immediately. I always knew Pittsburgh used to have a smog problem, but it's disheartening to learn about the illnesses simply trying to make a living created.
DeleteDue to Appalachian classics with Professor Karshner, anything that kind of sounds like anything Appalachian throws me back into that class.
ReplyDeleteThe line "I owe my soul to the company store" was what threw me back into that class. I might not remember anything about the literature that comes from Appalachia, but I remember a lot of other things. You said that it was impossible to build up cash savings, and that is completely true. The dismal pay that mine workers were receiving in Appalachia is one of the reasons that the Appalachian Mine Wars happened.
Another reason included the horrible working conditions. I remember reading something from a mine worker. Unfortunately, I don't remember what book or article it was. He talked about a time down in the mines when it started to collapse. Him and some fellow miners managed to avoid falling rock, but they did get stuck. This small area was the death of one of the men that had survived the collapse. There was limited oxygen, and the miners took turns breathing at a small hole in the collapsed rock. The oldest miner eventually refused to breathe at the hole because he was old, his lungs were too diseased from breathing in the coal dust, and he was going to die soon anyways. The miners stuck in that small space tried to make him breathe through the hole, they even forcefully stood him up to try to get him to breathe at the hole, but he refused. The miners watched him die so that they could live.
Things like this exemplify how horrible the working conditions were for those people. The working conditions and the inability to survive financially caused the Mine Wars. They are what created the cause for the term redneck. Mine workers started wearing red bandannas around their neck so that they knew who was against the company without having to ask.
If I hadn't taken Appalachian Literature Classics, I wouldn't know any of this. There is still one functioning company store, though it isn't technically a company store anymore. They sell red bandannas for the sole reason of what the red bandanna meant during the mine wars.
DeletePittsburgh may be extremely different than deep Appalachia, but I have a feeling that miners' lives were pretty similar because the companies running the mines were outsiders to the mine towns. Pittsburgh is also strange because it can be considered part of the overall Appalachia region, but most don't consider it to be because of how urban it is.