Un citat emoționant din Jock Stein, care povestește ce înseamnă să lucrezi în mină:
„I went down the pit when I was 16 (at first I was still working with ponies – it was still that era) and when I left 11 years later I knew that wherever I went, whatever work I did, I’d never be alongside better men. They didn’t just get their work done and go away. They all stayed around until every man had finished what he had to do and everything was cleared up. Of course, in the bad or dangerous times that was even more true. It was a place where phoneys and cheats couldn’t survive for long.
Down there for eight hours you’re away from God’s fresh air and sunshine and there’s nothing to compensate for that. There’s nothing as dark as darkenss down a pit, the blackness that closes in on you if your lamp goes out. You’d think you would see some kind of shapes but you can see nothing, nothing but the inside of your head. I think everybody should go down the pit at least once to learn what darkness is.”
Hugh McIlvanney, Hero worshipped by his people, The Observer, 15 septembrie 1985