[LADY J]

Fox is reporting the first man up was soaking wet and his face all black with soot.

Keep praying that they will be okay.

[Miss Marple]

My husband is a mining engineer and worked underground for quite a few years, until the coal mines in Indiana started to shut down. He now does engineering for a development company, and I am most grateful that I don't have to worry about the danger any more.

He misses the mines, however. He says that people who are frightened of them "just don't understand." (I don't like them!)

It is dangerous work, and those guys are tough. I am so glad they are ok!

All miners come up from underground black like that...it is the coal dust. I used to wash my husband's mine clothes, and it took two washings to get them to a shade of gray.