Big Stone Gap

[first lines]

Ave Maria Mulligan: [narrating] When I was a girl we drove past the coal mines, it looked like a story book to me. It seemed an army of men was doing something so important it could change the world. That's when Mama would say, "Every time you light a lamp to read, you can thank a coal miner." I was born and raised in the hills of Virginia when coal was king.

Ave Maria Mulligan: Life was simple in Big Stone Gap. You went to Zackie's for your jeans, you went to Gilley's for your engagement ring. And you went to my family drugstore when you were sick. On Friday nights you rooted for the Vikings, and after the game you went for burgers at Carmine's to celebrate, because we never lost.

Ave Maria Mulligan: Every year we put on The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, the story of a mountain girl and the mining engineer who loved her. You either acted a part or played in the band or worked behind the scenes, like me. One year was a lot like the last, and before I knew it, it was 1978 and I turned 40. Almost overnight I was the old maid in Big Stone Gap. It seemed like happiness was for other people.