Aflex KY, Community of

11/17/2025

Brian, Denise & Sam 1965

11/16/2025

The Lantern Walkers of Mingo County, WV 1934...

The Lantern Walkers of Mingo, 1934
In the deep valleys of Mingo County, West Virginia, the winter of 1934 pressed against the mountains like a fist. The coal companies had closed for months, leaving families without heat. Nights grew so cold that even the river froze at the edges, and the hollows went dark except for a few weak fires.

That was when the children—barely taller than the coal buckets they carried—created something the grown-ups would never forget.

It began with little Nora Adkins, age nine, who tied a bit of coal oil cloth around a jar and made her own lantern from scraps. She lit it at dusk, saying she was “keeping the dark from eating the town.” Her brothers followed. Then the neighbor kids. By the end of the week, nearly forty children marched through the hollow each night carrying handmade lanterns: jars, tin cans, broken miner lamps wired together.

They called themselves The Lantern Walkers.

They went door to door, checking on the elderly, carrying small bits of chopped wood, and bringing leftover cornbread wrapped in newspaper. Their lights flickered along the mountainside like a wandering constellation, turning the hollow into a place of warmth again.

Men weakened by starvation stood on porches wiping their eyes. Mothers who hadn’t smiled in months began humming lullabies again as the lantern glow flooded their kitchens. And in homes where the fires had gone out completely, the children stayed until the grown-ups felt steady enough to face the cold night.

When spring finally broke, the Lantern Walkers held one last march. Every home placed a lantern on its porch in their honor—an entire mountain valley shimmering like a sky turned upside down.

The people of Mingo still say: “In the darkest winter, it was the children who carried the light.”

11/15/2025

Let me tell y’all a little something you may know and you may not know.
This right here is a coal bucket, the old-school MVP of every holler home. It kept the stove hot, the house warm, and your backside alive through winters colder than a Methodist preacher’s handshake (I joke, I joke, can’t use Pentecostal because I’ll get disowned).

Folks used to haul coal in it till the handle squeaked.

And nowadays?
Well, now they’re sticking petunias in ‘em.

I seen one painted pastel blue with “Live, Laugh, Love” on the side. A COAL BUCKET WITH LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE. The very thought of it. It was more like “Load. Labor. Lug it up the hill” back in the olden days.

So remember:
It ain’t “rustic décor.”
It ain’t a “farmhouse planter.”
It ain’t “shabby chic” or “a shabby sheik” for that matter.

It’s a coal bucket. Show the old warhorse some respect, please. I think he’s earned it.

11/13/2025

Repost from a couple years ago...

Come on in the store is open...

That could be what Mr. Bernard Boswell is saying but probably not. It's probably more like someone is telling him to smile for the camera. Him, along with the young ladies also in this photo...Katharine Milam, Doris Ann Alley and Bridgie DeGeorge yet to be Mrs. Dempsey. Photo taken in the 40's.

I was too young to remember the company store. My only remembrance of it is already shut down and walking around the concrete walkway with a friend or relative. I am told it was a grand building here in our little community. Aflex was a self-contained coal camp with anything and everything one might need for sustaining life back in those days and years. The coal owner/operator thought of everything for his hard-working miners and their families to keep them here working his mines. Aflex was a grand place built by man but what made Aflex a grand place to live and raise a family was the people. All the different families brought together for the purpose of making a living but it was in the living part that distinguished Aflex from other areas. How neighbors treated each other, helped each other and when having to leave ...remembered each other.

11/06/2025

Saw this old “Warm Morning” coal stove and it sure brought back memories. Those suckers could throw out some heat back in their day, they were the “Shohei Ohtani of heaters.” You sure don’t see them much these days, but back in yesteryear they were the gold standard for burning black diamonds. I’m told with a large load of coal they could heat for close to 48 hours. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but it came from a fairly credible source. If true, I can’t think of a wood stove that would do that.

10/24/2025

This photo was taken in front of the old block pump house building on the main road in Aflex. The water tank sat up on the hill behind it. I've seen a photo and I'll post it when I come across it again. This building still stands...

Some Aflex residents and company store employees along with a little doggie friend. It appears they are standing by the company store building. I wish there were names written on the back to identify. Someone told me they thought the man kneeling on the left was Tony Macchiaverna but another thought it was Vito Ragazzo Sr. Maybe some of the relatives of those in the photo will recognize.

10/20/2025

Former resident Lawrence Blackburn passed away. Please keep his family in your prayers. RIP Lawrence!

Oscar Lawrence Blackburn age 91, of Bronston, Kentucky, passed from this life on Saturday, October 18, 2025 at his home.
Oscar was born on March 6, 1934 to the late Mitch Blackburn and Jenny Bowe Blackburn in Belfry, Kentucky.
He was a member of Free Will Baptist Church. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, swimming in the lake, tending to his garden and mowing. He kept a pristine yard and was very important to him. He proudly served his country in the United States Navy and worked 34 years for Norfolk Railroad. He loved his fur babies “Missy and Lacee”. But most of all he cherished his wife and family.
Oscar was preceded in death by his parents, Mitch and Jenny Blackburn, daughter Wanda Leigh “Boo” Hunt, brothers Douglas, Elmer, Willard, Charles, Millard, Homer Blackburn, sisters Paulette and Estie.
He leaves behind to cherish his memory, his wife of 69 ½ years, Jean Blackburn, son Bryant Blackburn (Sherry) of Prestonsburg, Ky; daughters: Rhonda Blackburn of Bronston, Ky; Dianne Linio (Rick) of Lexington, Ky; Terry Meade (Jim) of Williamson, WV; Karen Bowen (Eric) of Lexington, Ky; sister Pauline Milam of Burnwell, Ky; grandchildren: Jeffrey Barker, Shawn Linio, Tracy Rayborn, Keith Blackburn, Curtis Hunt, Alex Meade, Joshua Meade, Zack Bowen, Crystal Blackburn, and Jason Scalf; great-grandchildren: Colton Puckett and Evelyn Barker.
Visitation will be held on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 from 11am-1pm in the Chapel of the Southern Oaks Funeral Home with a funeral service to begin at 1pm with Bro. Tim Ogle officiating. Burial will follow in Southern Oaks Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hospice of Lake Cumberland.
Military Honors will be conducted by American Legion Honor Guard Post #38.
Southern Oaks Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements for Oscar Lawrence Blackburn.