Shamokin

Christy's story deserves to be heard all the way through.

Christy Ann Mirack was born on November 3rd, 1967 in Shamokin, Pennsylvania.

If you have never heard of Shamokin, that is not surprising.

It is a small coal mining town of about 10,000 people tucked into the hills of Northumberland County, the kind of place where families go back generations and everybody knows everybody's name.

Christy was the middle child of Vincent and Geraldine Mirack, known to everyone as Gerry.

One of her teachers there, a man named Tommy Ryan, later described her as a polite, refined young woman from the kind of solid coal region family that built that part of Pennsylvania.

She went on to Millersville University in Lancaster County for her degree in elementary education.

Lancaster was about an hour and a half south of Shamokin, and for Christy, it was the start of a new chapter.

"All right, gentlemen.

First, we have a Hungarian man who intends to travel to Shamokin, Pennsylvania, to meet his son-in-law.

He has a railroad ticket, but only $12 in his possession.

I think we can all agree that his deportation must stand." "Now wait just a minute." The room turns its attention to Roosevelt, who leans forward in his chair.

I've listened to the podcast for a while though, and hearing other people talk about things they still can't explain finally made me write this down.

It happened during winter break of my junior year of college, at a property my family had just inherited near Shamokin, Pennsylvania.

I've changed my friend's name and left out the exact town because someone else owns the place now.

The property was about 15 minutes outside Shamokin, in a much smaller former mining town.

The property had belonged to my great-uncle Kyle.

None of us had known him very well.

Ooh, what you got?

So this one is located in, I love this name, [laughs] this is Shamokin Cemetery in Shamokin, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

Can we go there and Shamoke?

I think we Sha-can?

[laughs]

[laughs] Sha-can? I don't know.

I want a T-shirt or something from there, but Shamokin.

Seriously.

They don't know I'm from Pennsylvania.

And the guy, he's got this Shamokin, you know, coal miner accent.

He goes, over here, Craig, you got your record ball.

You play record ball out there in California, Hollywood.

I don't, I don't drink cold coffee.

I'm like that, I'm like Edna from, uh, the Dunkin' Donuts, like, Shamokin Dunkin' Donuts.

[laughs] "They get their, they get their cold coffee.

Iced coffee, I guess they call it." I just don't do it.

I'm basically Edna.

I hope Edna's doing well.

A- for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, there was a famous, like, video, uh, from Shamokin, Pennsylvania, this is pre-pandemic, where the, their Dunk- look, local Dunkin' Donuts burnt down, and the news company went there and interviewed everyone about the impact of the local Dunkin' Donuts going down from, like, some, like, skater guy who was like, "Uh, where am I gonna meet my lawyer and hydrate with my Gatorades?" To, like, Edna talking about people getting their cold coffee.

And the chief of police was interviewed, whose name is pronounced...