In his book Rocket Boys -- the basis for the movie "October Sky" -- Homer H. Hickam Jr. depicted the West Virginia coal-mining town where he grew up in the 1950s as a pleasant company town. George L. Carter, who founded Coalwood in 1887, "wanted his miners to have a decent place to live," Hickam wrote. The workers were given homes with plenty of amenities and Coalwood had parks, sidewalks, and a good water source. In 1954, the company even provided one of the first cable television systems in the United States as a free service. "Although it wasn't perfect," Hickam commented, "...Coalwood was, for a time, spared much of the violence, poverty, and pain of the other towns in southern West Virginia." When Hickam's grandfather moved to Coalwood to escape violence in other coal-mining towns, he found a better quality of life for his family. In return, he and his son gave the company many years of service. In her Perspectives column, Ann McLaughlin looks at the emergence of modern employer-assisted housing (EAH) for the 21st century.

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