He gathered together a group of friends and formed the Big Creek Missile Agency, inspired by Werhner von Braun and named for their high school. Indeed, their first attempt cost Sonny's mother her garden fence. But they weren't deterred by such a minor setback. It was not necessarily a term of endearment. It looks back fondly, sometimes sentimentally, but also honestly on a time and a place that are quickly receding from our national memory.
Roots run deep for people from small towns.
More than 30 years later, Hickam recalls the details that made life in Coalwood unique. Winter came to West Virginia late that year. Just before Thanksgiving, the first of the cold fronts from Canada finally reached us, and the trees abruptly dropped their leaves and turned black and skeletal. Winter storm clouds scudded in, got snagged on our hills, and stayed. Everything just seemed to turn black, brown and gray after that.