I was seventeen when I went underground for the first time.Nothing prepared me for the darkness.You could read about mining and listen to older men talk about it, but until the cage dropped and the daylight disappeared above you, you did not understand it.The older men watched the new starters carefully. Nobody made a fuss about looking after you, but they did.I remember the noise of machinery, the dust settling on everything and how strange it felt eating sandwiches underground.When the shift ended, coming back into daylight was almost too bright to look at.I went home tired in a way I had never experienced before.The following morning I got up and did it again.
