Adelante Book Group session on Sue Pickett’s The Path Was Steep, 4/8/4:00 at Eclipse Coffee and Books

As we return from Spring Break and Easter vacation, we want to touch base to remind everyone that the final Adelante Book Group session for this year is coming up on Wednesday, April 8 at 4:00 p.m. at Eclipse Coffee and Books. At this time the Montevallo Branch of AAUW will host its annual celebration of Alabama Authors whose works address issues of special concern to women and their families. This year’s topic is the experience of those who lived in the mining communities of our area during the days of the depression.

Dr. Norman McMillan, Professor Emeritus of the University of Montevallo, will discuss The Path Was Steep, a memoir by the late Sue Pickett. “Sue Pickett was a coal miner’s daughter who became a coal miner’s wife and dealt with coal mine bosses throughout the Appalachian South — especially her native Alabama. According to Suzanne La Rosa of New South Books, “The Path Was Steep is funny and moving in equal parts and evocative of the culture and time.”

Norman McMillan, who wrote the forward to PIckett’s book, also helped to edit the work. Dr. McMillan is the author of a noted memoir Distant Son, an Alabama Boyhood. Respondents will be Professor Jim Day of UM’s Social Sciences Department and Mr. Henry Emfinger, Curator of the Aldrich Coal Mine Museum. Dr. Day is the author of Diamonds in the Rough: A History of Alabama’s Cahaba Coal Field. Mr. Henry Emfinger is the author of The Story of My Hometown, Aldrich, Alabama. Mr. Bill Plott, author of a forthcoming book on The Negro Baseball Leagues, will also be on hand to initiate questions and discussion.

Ms. Cheryl Patton, owner of Eclipse Coffee and Books will host the event. Copies of The Path Was Steep are available for purchase at Eclipse. Light Refreshments will be served. The public is cordially invited, and we very much hope you will join us for a lively discussion of this important part of our history.