GUEST: Strataca Mine Historian Myron Marcotte

Link to Strataca Mine Website

John tells Homer he never wants rockets “on company property again, you understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” replies Homer.

“Then go home,” says John, who throws the rocket in a trash can.

At home, John is talking in another room on the company phone.

“Yeah? What’s your tunnel number?” asks John.

Homer talks to his mother in the kitchen.

“He called me a thief, Ma, in front of everybody,” says Homer. “How could he do that?”

“He was dead wrong callin’ you that,” says Elsie.

“He’d never have done that to Jim,” says Homer.”They could catch Jim stickin’ up the company store,
and Dad would probably laugh and say, ‘That’s my boy.’ “

“I know he’s hard to understand sometimes, Homer,” says Elsie, “but you have to know he loves you.”

“He loves the mine, more than Jim even,” says Homer. “More than you.”

“You hush up!” says Elsie.

“What’s it given him back?” asks Homer. “Nothin’ but a spot on his lung.”

In This Episode

• Jake Gyllenhall as Homer Hickam
• Chris Cooper as John Hickam
• Natalie Canerday as Elsie Hickam