Friday, September 16, 2005

The Washington Post takes on football brothers Thomas and Julius Jones

In "Coal Miners' Sons: From Small Town to NFL, the Jones Brothers Stick Together," Leonard Shapiro reports on the two brothers from Wise County who are now running backs for the Cowboys and the Bears in the National Football League.

The article says this about Big Stone Gap:

"Big Thomas and Betty do not expect their kids to come back to a town that still seems straight out of the 1950s, despite the Wal-Mart and McDonald's just off Highway 23. Most of the mines have closed in recent years, though several nearby prisons have taken up some of the employment slack. Churches, mostly Baptist, seem to be on every corner. The four-block downtown includes a Chinese restaurant, a Christian teen center and businesses such as Sue's Hallmark and Judy's Hodge Podge. And at the back of the Mutual drugstore on Wood Avenue, the main street, breakfast and lunch are served cafeteria-style, with an order of spaghetti and meat sauce, apple cobbler and a large Coke still bringing change from a $5 bill."

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