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I love driving through West Virginia especially the mountainous areas outside of the Charleston area. So many of the towns have no fast foods, or chains of any kind. The people are homogeneous and mostly working class. Many of the towns look exactly like they did 40 years ago, maybe just quieter.
What is the most traditional unchanged town in West Virginia?
Last edited by total_genius; 06-27-2008 at 12:02 PM..
There are a few...Mobley is my favorite...no stop lights, no cops, no cell phone service...no crime...no Walmarts...has it all...and a few cows grazing on the hillside...a perfect utopia..
Semi-pasture-ized...depends on which end of the cow you are walking...rear-end, definitely....takes me back to the days when we brought the cows in for milking...always barefoot in the summer.. got betwix the toes...must have been medicinal...I've lasted this long...somethings are never forgotton...
There are a few...Mobley is my favorite...no stop lights, no cops, no cell phone service...no crime...no Walmarts...has it all...and a few cows grazing on the hillside...a perfect utopia..
Have to have my cell-------can do without Wal-Mart (Costco; OTOH, gets me into lots of trouble )
This might be an appropriate place to post these lyrics. I discovered them yesterday on a Google search. I was not aware that Phil Ochs had written a song about West Virginia, but I found the lyrics, and was touched by them. I've never heard the song.
"From the flat plains of Ohio we drifted out one day,
for the southern part of the journey
Underneath the bridge, the Ohio River sang
As we headed for the Hills of West Virginia
And the red sun of the morning was smiling through the trees,
As the darkness of the night was quickly fading,
And the fog hugged the road like a cloudy, cloudy sea,
As we drove though the hills of West Virginia.
We smoked the tobacco and drank of the wine,
And we spoke of the forest we were passing.
And the road would wind and wind and wind,
When we drove through the hills of West Virginia.
Among all the wealth of the beauty that we passed,
There was many old shacks a-growing older,
And we saw the broken bottles laying on the grass.
When we drove though the hills of West Virginia.
The Virginia people watched as we went riding by,
Oh, proud as a boulder they were standing.
And we wondered at each other with a meeting of the eye,
When we drove thought the hills of West Virginia.
And once in a while we would stop by the road
and gaze at the womb of the valley,
almost wishing for a path down below,
Where we stopped in the hills of West Virginia.
Up and down and all around we took our restless ride,
And the rocks they were staring cold and jagged.
Where explosions of the powder had torn away the side,
Where we drove through the hills of West Virginia.
And the orange sun was falling on the southern border line,
As the shadows of the night were now returning.
And we knew the mountains followed us and watched us from behind,
When we drove from the hills of West Virginia."
I remember some old woman in West Virginia telling me stories when I was a kid. My parents had a cabin there and we went there in the summer sometimes. She used to yell at me while I was riding my bike to come sit on her porch with her, which I did mainly because I was afraid to disobey her. She told me one story about a neighbor of hers who was bitten by a "rabid coon". She said that they chained her to her bed and she barked, howled and growled at the family members and the doctor and nurses, and foamed at the mouth until she finally died. I had nightmares about it for years.
Sounds like a true story to me, Jason...2 points...but old women, from time to time will tell a story like that...just to scare little boys...
We had a similar story, but it was true...branch of the family on 'Eight Mile Ridge in Wetzel county needed a well in a summer of drought...witched out the spring and dug the well...a grave from the nearby family cemetery had been used and a lot of rock had been chopped out of the hole...The workers lined the well with that sandstone..The well filled and the family used the water...five of them died from cholera...the sandstone had held contaminants from the other graves and they were poisoned with the water. All the men folk died and only one daughter survived...that was the end of that branch of our family in that area..
Many of the towns look exactly like they did 40 years ago, maybe just quieter
That is exactly what I thought when I moved to Bluefield, WV almost 2 years ago. It seems like a throwback to a quieter, more simple time. The houses are all different styles (unlike the 'burbs of large cities) from 1900 - 1970, the streets are tree lined and quiet, high school football games are a big deal, I know my neighbors and talk to them across the hedge regularly, people complain about the traffic if they wait more than one turn to get through the stoplight. There are some fast food chains but Dairy Queen seems to be the favorite. Bluefield may not be the most traditional town but to someone who comes from a large city it sure feels like stepping back into 1955...and I love it!
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