West Virginia, sooo can somebody tell me why people thinks its cool to diss WV? (Charleston: mobile home, refrigerators)

[RWM56]

WV born and bred, Parkersburg to be exact. I've lived in MA since '79 and I have yet to hear the ignorant remarks about WV that I remember so well from our dear neighbors, particularly PA and OH. Yet, they are so close in more ways than one. Most people I've talked to in New England do not know WV is a separate state from VA!
Having driven to WV from MA several times, honestly I cannot see any difference between PA or MD and WV (except for the cities). I only know I'm in "Almost Heaven" when I see that, "Welcome to Wild, Wonderful, WV" sign.
But here in MA, they make fun of those from NH "Live Freeze and Cry" and ME. There is (was) even a radio show out of Boston called, "Men from Maine," not a compliment!

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by RWM56

WV born and bred, Parkersburg to be exact. I've lived in MA since '79 and I have yet to hear the ignorant remarks about WV that I remember so well from our dear neighbors, particularly PA and OH. Yet, they are so close in more ways than one. Most people I've talked to in New England do not know WV is a separate state from VA!
Having driven to WV from MA several times, honestly I cannot see any difference between PA or MD and WV (except for the cities). I only know I'm in "Almost Heaven" when I see that, "Welcome to Wild, Wonderful, WV" sign.
But here in MA, they make fun of those from NH "Live Freeze and Cry" and ME. There is (was) even a radio show out of Boston called, "Men from Maine," not a compliment!

That supports what I said: every state gets made fun of by people from another. I grew up in W PA. People did make fun of W VA. There was an incident at a Pitt-West Virginia game a few yrs back with an announcer (game was in Pitts). The announcer did get fired.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Minnehahapolitan

While it is demoralizing, I think W.Va. benefits alot from its status. People who actually love that state (such as me), don't have to share it. Honestly, W. Va. is the last vestige of an entirely rural state east of the Mississippi. The scenery is great, living is inexpensive, there is no pretension, great music and people. People pay alot of money to live in Calif. and Fla. when alot of them want the type of small town life that is a fifth of the price in West Virginia. It wouldn't take alot of people to destroy that. Sure, W. Va. has its poverty and mining problems, but when Phoenix drys up, Miami speaks Spanish and you actually do pay a million dollars for a LA shack, poverty will be the least of their problems. W. Va. will always be a winner. Hopefully no one in Washington D.C is reading this. Thats my two cents.

Yes, West Virginia is a fairly rural state for the eastern half of the country. However, Maine is the most rural state in the eastern part of the country with the fewest number of people per square mile.

[GottaHerdOn]

I love when I tell people I'm from WV and they're like, oh I have aunt in Richmond.... and I just look at them... and say WEST...lol Virginia. Some people out there really do not know that there are two Virginias....

[Smoker]

> Some people out there really do not know that there are two Virginias.... <

Some people out there can't find North America on a globe.

[ajf131]

Originally Posted by VALover

Let me start by saying that I love the banjo! I have never figured out why people make fun of WV. I am from SW VA and have heard those dumb WV jokes for years. I live in Indiana right now and often hear people making fun of Kentucky. When I hear someone carry on like that it usually just makes me think less of the person.

Also, sometimes when people here ask me where I am from they think that I am from WV, I always correct them by saying that while I do like WV I am not from West Virginia, I am from Southwestern Virginia.

Neighbors will always make fun of neighbors.....remember this saying and all will be well..."Good fences make good neighbors"...THANK YOU ROBERT FROST FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WORDS OF WISDOM!!!

[CLUCAS]

When you read the sad history on west va that may be one reason why also when you go there and ask someone somthing it seems like there not the brightest people just look at the history of places it all gets past down to there kids...

The economy of West Virginia is one of the most fragile of any U.S. state. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, West Virginia is the third lowest in per capita income [5], ahead of only Arkansas and Mississippi. It also ranks last in median household income.[6] The proportion of West Virginia's adult population with a bachelor's degree is the lowest in the U.S. at 15.3%.[7]

West Virginia had few public schools before the Civil War, but advances came quickly between 1872 and World War I. West Virginia University opened 2 September 1868, in Morgantown. Still, financing schools was hard for the poor region. West Virginia did, however, establish a minimum wage for teachers: about $22 a month. Between 1910 and 1925 the state saw a surge in the growth of high schools, but the depression meant education took a backseat to survival. The 1940s and 1950s brought a wave of reforms to the educational system, including better benefits for teachers, new textbooks, merging elementary and secondary schools, and programs like Head Start and Upward Bound. Education, however, remained a problem well into the 1980s, due to financial problems in the state. In 1984 the average public teacher's salary was more than $4,000 less than the national average. Despite efforts to enact legislation to improve salaries and redesign state education financing, West Virginia's schools continued to suffer. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the state's high school and college graduation rates were the nation's lowest.

The governors during the 1960s began to initiate programs to help clean up the state's environment. William Wallace Barron created the Air Pollution Control Commission and a volunteer statewide cleanup program, and Hulett Carlson Smith's administration brought legislation to control air and stream pollution and strip mining. During the environmental movement of the 1970s, attention was finally given to the drastic impact extractive industries made on the region's land and people. Clear cutting and strip mining created pollution that ruined streams and landscapes. Government programs such as the Appalachian Regional Commission and private organizations strove to help rebuild the regions and increase money coming into the Appalachian regions with tourism. During the 1980s, West Virginia suffered severely from the recession and energy crisis. By 1984 the state had the nation's highest unemployment rate. Renewed attention helped to draw some people to the region. In 1970 the population was 1,744,237 and by 2000 the number had increased somewhat to 1,808,344 but both were still lower than the 1950 count of 2,005,552. In the year 2000 West Virginia's poverty rates remained the highest in the nation.
The population drop also cost West Virginia a congressional seat. Arch Alfred Moore Jr., governor from 1985 to 1989, developed a recovery program and tax cuts designed to attract new industries and revitalize the coal industry. While West Virginia failed to attract GM's Saturn automobile plant in 1985 (the plant went to Spring-hill, Tennessee), by 1990 over two hundred corporations were receiving tax credits and bolstering the state's economy. Jobs in the coal industry, however, continued to decline. The program of tax cuts also led to widespread corruption so severe that Moore was convicted of extortion in 1990. The next governor, William Gaston Caperton III (1989–1997), inherited the state's financial woes. To battle the long-term financial problems, he raised taxes and adopted a state lottery to no avail.

A great deal of financial help stemmed from the efforts of Senator Robert C. Byrd. In 1986 Byrd became chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and promised to bring more than $1 billion of federal projects to West Virginia by 1995; by 1992 he had exceeded that goal. Besides various highway and water projects, West Virginia also received a new federal prison and the FBI relocated its fingerprint center from Washington, D.C. to Clarksburg. The state also benefited from a new appreciation of Appalachian culture and art. Artists and novelists helped awaken the nation to West Virginia's beauty and plight while historians, sociologists, and anthropologists began to create a new body of scholarly interest and work about the region.

Economic conditions improved during the 1960s, as federal aid poured into the state (in part owing to the rise to power in the U.S. Senate of Robert C. Byrd), and massive efforts were made to attract new industry. Since the 1960s the ravages of surface mining have been a major political issue; recently, the practice of leveling mountains and filling creeks with slag has come under fire. In the 1970s, West Virginia's coal-based economy flourished as energy prices rose dramatically; but in the 1980s energy prices fell and employment in the mines rapidly declined as West Virginia suffered through one of the worst economic periods in its history. By 1983 the state's unemployment rate had risen to 21% as its manufacturing base also slumped. West Virginia's population declined 8% from 1980 to 1990. It rose slightly from 1990 to 2000, as a modest recovery based largely on foreign investment and further development of the tourist industry took place, but the state still ranked last in U.S. housing construction.

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by Smoker

> Some people out there really do not know that there are two Virginias.... <

Some people out there can't find North America on a globe.

Would you believe that a co-worker in the school system where I'm employed actually thought Alaska was in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast because so many maps show it to be there as the one shown on the following link:

Moderator cut: link removed

I was making a states manipulative for the students and, of course, had Hawaii and Alaska in the proper positions. She said, "I thought AK was down here" as she pointed in the Pacific Ocean. Yes, that's why AK has so much snow. I didn't really say that and was very nice about it when I told her differently, but she honestly thought such. I'm talking about a 42 year old woman.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by GottaHerdOn

Do people really think we all sit on our front porches and pluck on banjos??!!

Well, now that you mention it...

j/k


I liked WV. Sure parts were mega-redneck, others were modern and quite nice.

[markdalton]

GottaHerdOn...You are right about the accents in WV. The Princeton area definetly has a strong southern influence. As you work your way north, the southerness is still there, but it blends in more with the north. Although I am not from WV, just based on my many years of travelling through that state to get to my relatives in PA, once you hit Clarksburg, the northern influences are noticeable. The way the houses and towns look, the accents...very similiar to PA and OH. That's to be expected because Pittsburgh is nearby, as well other Ohio cities.

I actually think WV is a very interesting state. No state is quite like it. It is also a very beautiful, laid back state. And yes, I have heard mean things said about WV, but you should hear the things people say about my home state of AL.