Coal camp life was shaped by company control, community institutions, and shared recreation. Coal companies often paid miners in scrip, a private money issued by each company, and many of the coins had holes in the middle so they would not be confused with American currency. Miners could cut or draw scrip against completed work, and by payday many were scrip bound, owing their entire paycheck to the company and starting again in debt. Independent local businesses did accept scrip, but usually at less than face value. In many camps, cash prizes were offered for the best flower gardens, but vegetable gardens were illegal because they could feed families during strikes; many miners' wives planted flowers by the house while secretly growing vegetables in nearby woods. Church was an important part of camp society, with Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Catholic churches, each identified on its own hill, and miners were expected to attend on Sunday after working Monday through Saturday. Baseball was also central to community life. Every coal camp had its own team, competition was fierce, skilled players were recruited and given above-ground jobs, and Sunday games drew large crowds. Behind the Whipple Company Store, Ballpark Hill served as the one ballpark for all five coal camps, and even major league teams played exhibition games in southern West Virginia, including the Cincinnati Reds against Scarbro on October 10, 1908. The baseball diamond for the valley towns was in Whipple, while the Rialto Opera House and Movie Theatre was in Scarbro, which grew beyond the other camps and remained an incorporated town until 1930 with a jail, city hall, town marshal, brick yard, Chinese laundry, and bottling company. The company store stood at the center of daily life as a commercial and social hub, with the post office, bank, doctor's office, undertaker, and in Whipple even a ballroom upstairs for the community's elite.