AAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!! PENNSYLVANIA! NO! NOT PENNSYLVANIA!!!
i just left pa back in july to come back to tennessee (where i'm originally from...although i'm still not quite home). i lived in hazleton, and worked in schuylkill county (at the federal prison, to be exact).
the 18 months that i was in pa, i basically hated it. why? well, let's see: too damned cold (i saw more snow than i ever have in my life last year...and it wasn't a bad winter from what i was told), taxes are stupid, people (for the most part) are buttwipes, and the thing i hated most about the area (and ya said it in your post) COAL! everywhere i looked...COAL! i hate coal!
well, that's the way i felt for about 14 of the 18 months i was there...but believe it or not, i actually miss parts of it. i just wish i would have found a place to live north of harrisburg or hershey...something flatter than where i was (also hated all the squealing mountains).
when i transferred to a new institution in southwest virginia (but live in northeast tennessee), i had to leave my plane at the hazleton airport. i finally got a chance to get back up there to get it about a month ago, and actually felt "homesick". i still can't figure that one out.
i really think that IF i could have found a place near harrisburg or something like that, i would have liked it a lot more. let's face it, there's nothing to do in the schuylkill county area. nothing but coal cracker bars and coal mounds...oh yeah...let's not forget centraillia (spelling?). ya know, the town that's been on fire for 30 something years? lol
The Tuckster
"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a beer!"
Bob and Doug McKenzie 
