ConocoPhillips is teaming up with Peabody Energy to build a "Coal to Natural Gas" synthetic natural gas plant here in Central City. As with all projects involving the burning of fossil fuels, there has to be a hearing that allows comments from the public regarding the pros and cons of issuing a "clean air" permit. Such a hearing was held last night at the Merle Travis Music Center and over 300 attended. As usual at these events, everyone was allowed to speak and there were differing opinions on the topic. Wasn't a lot of "gray" area there as it was either the cleanest thing since pine scented Ajax (95% of those attending) or it was a foul smelling pollution belching monster (5%). Actually it was somewhere in between but that's not why I bring up this subject.
I don't know what it is about public hearings, but it's something "spiritual," just like when given the opportunity to speak in church, that makes the orator want to be as poetic as possible. This is especially true if they get time to prepare their remarks. They like to conjour memories of times past, especially the tough times. We listened as a twenty-two year old talked about the old days and how much tougher times were "back then." This guy already had cell phones (although they were called "bag phones" in those days), computers, the Internet, etc. Of course he didn't have "texting" or an "I-phone."
Some of the speakers brought up some memories that made my small mind float back in time, however. A couple of them alluded to when the old Roundhouse was operating here and how between the coal furnaces and railroad engines, there was a constant smell of combustion (smoke) throughout our town. They spoke of how you could hang your clothes outside to dry and if the wind was blowing in a certain direction, those clothes would have to be "re-washed" because of the "soot" that settled on them. This was, of course, more prevalent in the winter than it was in the summer because that's when the coal furnaces were used. The item that brought all of this up is how much less our air (at least here in Muhlenberg County) is polluted than it was "back then."
I remember as a young boy delivering papers on my route and the smell of this smoke permeated throughout the entire city. It seemed as natural as drinking water from a creek to us because it had always existed throughout my young life. I would simply put my transistor radio in a shirt pocket, stick an earphone in my ear and listen to top 40 hits on WMTA and life was good as I delivered the papers. It didn't matter what I was breathing. Even after leaving home for the service, one of my first duties was to shovel coal into the stokers in Ft. Lewis Washington and these sames smells were my only reminder of home out there on the west coast.
Natural gas became a part of our landscape in the early sixties about the same time the railroads converted to diesel engines. By the mid to late sixties, the smell of coal was all but gone. The massive TVA power plant was built but the emissions from it didn't rest in our town unless the wind blew it this way which was fairly rare. The bigger problem (in my mind) in those days was all the speed humps (actually speed depressions) in our streets from the installation of gas lines. Sort of kept us from being able to drive sixty miles per hour up Broad Street, which is what we wanted to do.
After my parents passed away, I purchased their home from their estate and made a rental house out of it. Several people have asked me if it's tough to visit that home, especially when someone else lives there and I have so many memories revolving around it. Of course it doesn't, because a home isn't sticks and stones. A home is also the way it's decorated and most especially how it smells. To the people who live there now, and the several others who have lived there over the years, it was distinctively theirs...nothing of the decor or smell was anything like it was when my brother and I lived in it with our parents.
It's the same with a home town. I'll never forget the smell of the burning coal in those early years. I miss the smell of burning leaves and when we go up to our lake house in the fall and rake and burn them, it brings back good memories. I love the smell of a campfire or open fire. The smell of a wood burning stove or a fireplace. A good pipe tobacco or expensive cigar (I don't smoke them but when someone else does, I like the smell). More recently, when I leave my office each evening (I'm next door to the Sonic), I enjoy smelling the hamburgers and french fries cooking as people are starting to arrive for their evening meal. Nothing beats the smell of springtime even if the various stuff emited by the plants limits how long you can smell them (it's called allergies).
Most of these are considered "pollution" by the environmentalists and EPA but I don't care. If I have to leave this earth a little early because of them, it was worth it. I'm glad I got to smell them and from time to time I even miss them. My mother smoked unfiltered Camel cigarettes for 68 years and they probably killed her but that's what she loved and if tobacco is grown in heaven, she's smoking now. For those with breathing problems, (and I understand you're disagreeing with me on this issue), I'm sorry you're not able to enjoy life's "polluting" smells without irritation or breathing problems. I want you to be able to enjoy the experiences I've enjoyed and smelling pollution is a part of this thing we call life. I also understand that if we had "kept it up," we'd all be living a shorter life so it's a good thing that we clean things up.
Now about that "spit" on the sidewalks........
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