That is a good question. When I envisioned Beaumont County, I put some limestone quarries there, which are common to where I live now and where I used to live. Heavy industry would not work, and I wanted something other than agriculture.
Years ago my father was a metallurgist, which was a declining steel industry in the US. He and a friend talked about setting up a business. Dad subscribed to the Wall Street Journal, adding to the newspaper clutter in the living room.
One day he told me that he and his friend planned to start a cement block company in South Carolina. "It'll be something for you one day," he told me. My older brother's career was planned, or so they thought. But what to do about me?
I protested that I knew nothing about cement blocks. He replied I didn't have to. I did not tell him that I would NEVER live down there.
But I have since 2004!
The plans did not come to anything. I would have managed things better than Dexter Botley, but not by much!
Dad eventually became a foreman in an industrial cement plant near Philly. I worked there as a manual laborer after high school and during breaks from Penn State. That was the only time I benefited from nepotism.
Some of that experience shows up in the book, which will be out soon on Blurb. Very soon!
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