tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458046209351156807.post4053088537694840158..comments2020-08-06T09:19:47.899-07:00Comments on Dr Nostromo: The not so innocent anthropologist: Tales from a council house boy: I remember the disaster at Aberfan as if it were yesterday.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01553268250683355699noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458046209351156807.post-7970003304507850342016-10-17T14:02:32.205-07:002016-10-17T14:02:32.205-07:00Great read Martin. It doesn't get any less har...Great read Martin. It doesn't get any less harrowing even after all these years.<br /><br />My father told me the tale of Aberfan. He'd have been 15 at the time. He recalls huge blankets being passed around the perimeter of the pitch at Ninian Park and the crowd throwing coins into it. I'm pretty sure people were throwing money in for families and not for the Coal Board coffers. It became so heavy that more and more men were required to carry it. He later worked in Cardiff with a chap who lost his daughter in the disaster.<br /><br />I think with mining disasters it's the fear or recognition of the same happening to your community, among otehr things, that helps binds working class communities together. Whether they are steel communities like Brymbo or Port Talbot; or farming communities; or coal communities like Senghennydd or Gresford. The inherent danger of the work upon which entire communities were reliant means sympathies with people and places far away and never visited are very acute.<br /><br />My mother-in-law grew up in Gresford over twenty years after that village's mining disaster and she remembers how many people in the village grew up without a dad or uncle. It's easy to forget these days - in which for so many people the biggest risk at work they encounter is the shredder - quite how much anxiety to families was caused by simply going to work. And as you rightly point out Martin, these lives have always been cheap to the Establishment. And so they remain.<br /><br />Dal dy dir.llannerchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08485425460801282594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458046209351156807.post-29178192321459318382016-10-17T03:39:52.273-07:002016-10-17T03:39:52.273-07:00Thank you Edith for your comment. Yes the legacy ...Thank you Edith for your comment. Yes the legacy of both Aberfan and the miners' strike (on which I have blogged about before) have left me in no doubt as to the fact that the lives of working people are cheap in the eyes of The Establishment. As you say all mining communities suffer from these hardships and a lasting legacy for me from that time was how people from all over the world sent donations, toys, gifts and all sorts of things to show their sympathy for the people of Aberfan. That was one important thing that helped people get through that difficult time. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01553268250683355699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458046209351156807.post-38178932065799011002016-10-17T03:19:56.241-07:002016-10-17T03:19:56.241-07:00My dad was a miner and we lived in a typical Fife ...My dad was a miner and we lived in a typical Fife mining community. We followed the reports of the Aberfan disaster with horror and with tears. A child myself, I had no real understanding of the extent or enormity of what had happened, despite the talk at home and in my primary school. We said prayers for the children of Aberfan and I remember there being a collection for them. We lived through mining disasters of our own, the fire at the Michael Colliery where my dad worked as mine rescue. Nothing to compare to what Aberfan and Welsh miners experienced. I remember all too well Thatcher and her vicious vendetta against the miners. The long term damage she did to families and communities. You are right to say that the interests of the Establishment and of the rich and powerful will always supersede the needs of the very people who procured their wealth for them and built this country. Nothing changes in that respect and Aberfan demonstrated that all too clearly. A shameful and despicable betrayal of the Welsh people. The Professorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01867450094035135375noreply@blogger.com