This happened on December 6 1962, in PA... An African American wanted to change his shift so that her could work that day, so since he was friends with my Great Grandfather he first came to him asking if he would change shifts with him. My great grandfather told him "Ask everyone else on my crew first and if they all turn you down come back to me and I will change shifts with you." so that Black coal miner went and asked the others on my great grandfathers crew. They both already knew what their response was going to be considering none of them like the guy... So the Black guy came back and told my great grandfather that they all turned him down so my grandfather changed shifts with him... Well later that night my great grandfather was upstairs in his house when all of a sudden the emergency sirens at the mine went off, he rushed to the mine to see what happened and to see if everyone was OK... When he got to the mine he found out that it had exploded and everyone on his crew was dead including the guy who he switched places with that day.. After that it scared my great grandfather and he quit his job working in the mines and started a store... Every year when December 6 comes around he always goes and visits the monument saying that it should be him on there and how fortunate he was that everyone turned the guy down when he asked them to switch shifts with him for the day....
