Fifty-seven years ago, thirty-one Rhondda men died in an underground explosion in the Cambrian Colliery, Clydach Vale. As the anniversary of the Disaster approaches, John Geraint Roberts honours those who died, and those who worked there and survived the Disaster, by sharing some of their memories of what the pit was like as a workplace: the tough times and backbreaking work, the camaraderie too, the jokes and the pranks.