Prabhupada Palace of Gold (house, move, traffic)

[BJC]

DK, cute....

[harborlady]

Come to think of it, maybe the bigfoot sightings people were getting excited about were really hairy krishnas out for a stroll? <shrugs>

Takes all kinds to make the world spin. Viva la difference.

[TJChapman]

I used to live right down the road from the Krishnas in the late 70s, early 80s when they were building the temple. Wierd stuff! They used to dance down the 2 lane country road with tambourines.

Occasionally bodies would be disposed of out Big Wheeling Creek. Finger nails pulled off and such. Some thought it was the Krishna. I did then, but it was a different time. Believe it or not there was a lot of organized crime in the area then. Unions were big into it.

The Krishna bought a big country bar way out the Creek and turned it into a school for the Krishna kids. It was just down from the Nash farm. Me and Darren Nash were best buds at Big Wheeling Creek School, Sherrard and John Marshall till I moved in tenth grade. Darren got married in I think 2005 in Richmond Va. Hadn't seen him since 1982. Nice wife. Anyway, I did not recognize Darren after about 23 years. He walked right up to me in Tuxedo and said "hey"! I expected him to still be 15.

There used to be an old dirt track where they would run bomber class races and demo derbys in the early to mid 70s. Went to one that I can remember. Must have been about 5. It was glorious!!!! My mom drove an old 58(?) Buick in a demo derby there. She ended up hung up on a fence. Car still ran so she drove it home. We lived on Park View then, long before Wheeling park high was built. Anyway, the car sat down the hill in the lower drive way for the longest time. We used to store oats in it for the pony. I remember they sprouted and we had oats growing in the back seat.

Getting back to Krishna. I went back there once in 1991. Didn't know much of anybody anymore. The log cabin store(owned by the Dearths) was closed so I just tooled around the backroads and found myself at Prabhuppadas Temple of Gold. They have a tacky swan boat that the reincarnate Prabhuppada used to float around on in a small pond. I think it had a trolling motor, but it sure looked like a swan, if a swan ever had a 12 foot neck! The temple is/was coated in gold. Interesting. I was more than a little surprised when I ran across a giant buddha overlooking the valley. More wierd stuff! They had a book out about the Krishna. Came out in the mid 80s. I read it and recognized lots of names. I think former Sherrif turned bus driver Bruce Mosa was listed in there with lots of other locals.

I see a post in this site looking for Mike Groskopf. Yes that is the correct spelling. The Groskopfs were hillbillies oppitomised!!!!!!! Real back woods type. Psychos! I remember Mike used to bully my brother at Sherrard Middle School. Mike was screwing with him on day and my bro pushed him away because he knew Mike had psyco brothers.. Mike fell and cut his head open. Knocked him out cold! He needed several stitches and my brother lived in fear of all the Groskopfs for the rest of the time we lived in Wheeling.

The Big Wheeling Creek Elementary school used to have a Strawberry Fest in the late spring. Not sure if they grew strawberries around the area, but the local women folk sure cleaned enough of them to make several tons of strawberry shortcake for the Fest. I played Texas Poker there for the first time. Think I payed a nickel, which was money I got by collecting pop bottles alongside the road and turning them in for the deposit. A nickel bought a fair amount then. It would get you a pack of LemonHeads and Red Hots at the Log Cabin Store.

The Store itself was a log cabin. Sold dry provisions, but mostly hunting and fishing licenses. It was my bus stop for years. We would wait there out of the rain for the bus. The coal miners would stop in coming on and off shift. During hunting season, the hunters hung out by the dozens. Fishermen to during Trout season. They used to stock trout in the Creek. When I google it now, it looks more like a stream than an real creek. To bad.

There used to be a large island on the creek behind my house. We would spend our whole summers there playing Tom Sawyer. In the spring, after the floods washed out fish camps up stream we would collect the wood and build treehouses and rafts.

A sheet of plywood and some inner tubes made a hell of a raft!!!! Inner tubes were a big commodity for a kid back then. We would set sail on the rafts we made, drifting down the creek through Elm Grove, along interstate 70, through Woodsdale and on. At the end of the day, we would walk all the way home with the tubes, having abandoned the raft as it was to heavy to carry. Once we made it to the Ohio River and kept going!!!!! Dodged numerous tugs with long coal barges. They would have smashed us in a second had we not paddled out of the way. Anyway, once we made it all the way to Benwood. Things were bigger back then, but even today I would have to estimate it was 15 to 20 miles all the way down the creek, then south on the Ohio River to Benwood. We called my mom to come and pick us up from that trip!

Big Wheeling Creek school was great! We had 2 teachers. One for 1, 2 , 3 and one for 4, 5, 6 grades. Plus we had a cafeteria lady that doubled for the janitor. When something big came up she would call her husband to come down to the school to help out.

I can't remember my teachers name, but I surely remember what he looked like. Good time!!! When we goofed off, he would make us hold Webster Dictionaries straight out to our sides. Hurt like hell, but we quit goofing off for a little while at least. By time I graduated 6th grade I had arms like Popeye!!!!

I worked at Isalie's Ice Cream in Elm Grove when I was 12. The old Jewish fella that owned it I had cut his grass for since I was 8 or 9. When I turned 12 he offered me the job. I mostly got to clean up the store, but sometime i got to make milk shakes. Anyway, Isalie's was right next to the original DiCarlos Pizza in Elm Grove. When I opened the store on Saturday monrning I would have to sweep up pizza crust that people would by from DiCarlos next door. They would sit on the front steps of Isalies, eat pizza and leave the crust on the stoop.

As I said before, I lived up on Park View Lane. I remember the road slid over the hill above and below the house. Kept us cut off from traffic above and below the house. The local paper, the Intelligiencer came out and took pics of my dad in front of the landslide. I think we still have that pic. This was long before Wheeling Park High was built. I remember that well!! But that is a different story.

Anyway, from Park View, we would ride our runner sleds almost all the way to Park View Elementary School. Pulling them back up the hill was a pain after school though! Long walk. And the "suicide bend" was a real challenge. If you know the area, you know "suicide bend'!

Christen Stien was my dream girl at Park View Elementary! We were actually married there! Robbie Hudock was the officiating minister. He even provided the Play-dough wedding rings. Alas, we were destined for divorce. I beleive the marriage lasted till the end of recess!!!!!

Remember the urban myth that says that if you get so high on the swing and you loop around the top pole you turn inside out? That was proven to be a patent falsity by none other the John McNulty. Must have been 2nd or 3rd grade when he disproved that myth! He was swinging, got clear to the highest apex where he stopped, straight up in the air!!!! It was fascinating! He seemed suspended as if time stood still! Hung there, upside down on the swing for eternity! Then came crashing down, hit the pole on the way down and landed on the OTHER side of the pole from which he started!!!! Amazingly enough, against all odds, he was still right side out and as far as I know, to this day, remains right side out!!!!!! Brain damage aside (from when he hit the pole), he is an was fine!

Rick Hammer was the man of men! That kid could kick a kickball and throw a dodgeball like knowone could!!!! Why I remember one time when Coach Wildman was unfortunate enough to be in the path of one of Rick's kickball kicks. Coach Wildman was a great teacher. He always wore a hard hat. We all knew that he had a portion of his skull removed and wore the hard hard to protect the big hole in his head. I know Rick wouldn't have done this on purpose, he was a standup guy, but one day he was up for kickball. He let lose with his typical high, long kick, but this one was further than most. And sure enough, through the air it went, up, up, up, then down, down, down! We all knew it was going to happen yet we were powerless to do anything about it!!! When that kickball landed upside Mr. Wildmans head, knocked off his helmet and drilled right into his skull hole, he dropped like a rock. We were sure Rick had killed him from brain trauma. To this day, I am shocked he survived the impact to the brain. At that young age, I had never seen a grown man cry before. I will always remember that. I did not know how Mr. Wildman lost part of his skull, but now I suspect he probably was injured in Vietnam. He was the right age back then. Anyway, Mr. Wildman, thinks for the lessons. 35 years later, I still remember them.

[citybilly]

TJChapman-You have a way with words;you should put this all in a book. It is fascinating. I did not know you could drive demo derby cars on the street. Or teach gym with a hole in the top of your head. lol

[WVUPharm2007]

WTF? Why have I never heard of this place?

[harborlady]

TJ, the only thing that would have made that story better is if you had told it on my front porch over some sweet tea on a breezy summer evening. thanks for sharing.

[David Kennedy]

TJCHAPMAN: don't you ever leave this forum....this is the West Virginia I'm talking about!

[TJChapman]

Glad this was enjoyed by all. I had fun writing it. CityBilly, like I said, this was a different time. If my mom got pulled over by the police for driving the demo derby Buick home, she would have been pulled over by Bob Rockwell, otherwise known as "Fatty the Fuzz"(for reasons that were obvious). Anyway, Fatty the Fuzz was a family friend. I think he would have let Mom off with a warning.

Hope to get more time to write more, but alas, it is Thursday morning. Work beckons.

[citybilly]

Reminds me of when I used to play basketball at the local park, and we had a security guard, what we called a rent-a-cop, and he was a very nice man who had "elephantitis" or something in one arm, so he had to have his uniforms altered. He was known as "Big Arm Jack". No malice intended, everyone liked him. That's just how it was.

[TJChapman]

BJC, for your visit, if you go to the temple, I would suggest coming in from Elm Grove off U.S. 70. Go out Big Wheeling Creek road. As you head out the Creek Road you will go into Marshall County, then into a neighborhood called Marwin. About a mile after that you will pass the Log Cabin Store. Google shows it is still there. About another mile past that you will come to the Boy Scout Bend. On your left is the hill(very steep) and on the right down the bank is the creek. It turns about 80 degrees there. Anyway, if you pick your way up the hill for several hundred feet you will find Rocky Bench. It is a ledge strewn with huge boulders and covered in moss all with a deep canopy of old growth forest. The boulders look like they were dropped there by giants. They are stacked against each other forming caves in between. Oak trees grow out of the tops of the boulders in some places.
Rocky Bench was so close to the road, yet so inaccessible at the same time. Anyway, if you go there, bring some good shoes for walking/climbing. You will need them, but it is worth the effort.

The Krishnas are about 7 or 8 more miles out the creek road.

Big Wheeling Creek Rd, Wheeling, WV 26003, USA - Google Maps

Paste the above address and the map will put you right at the boy scout bend.