Ties to West Virginia?

[Congratulations]

My grandparents (on my mother's side) grew up in West Virginia. We still have a lot of family up there. They talk funny.

[cowtime]

My grandparents (on my mother's side) grew up in West Virginia. We still have a lot of family up there. They talk funny.

Nah, y'all down in South Cackylacky are the one's that talk funny.

I was born in Bluefield, WV and lived in Mullins and Matoka (coalfields) until I was almost 6 when dad took a job down here in the coal mines of southwest VA and so we moved. My grandaddy lived in Keystone, I still have an aunt and uncle that live in Kimballand a cousin, who broke with mining tradition and became a lawyer who's in Athens.

Last month we visited my aunt and uncle. I can't imagine a more desolate or depressing drive as the one from Bluefield to Kimball. All the once booming coal mining towns are mere ghosts of what they once were. From the rows of identical miner's homes to the mansions of the bosses and mine owners, most are in their final days and are barely habitable. Many of the houses and buildings would be prized and treasured examples of fine architecture anywhere else but there. It is just very depressed and is depressing to look at, much less to live there. They do need help. What they have is a unique picture of a way of life that is gone. Unfortunately there is obviously no incentive or push to preserve this. When we got back to Bluefied, I felt like I had come up out of a hole in the ground back into the light. Very very sad.

[Jack]

My grandparents (on my mother's side) grew up in West Virginia. We still have a lot of family up there. They talk funny.

Nah, y'all down in South Cackylacky are the one's that talk funny.

I was born in Bluefield, WV and lived in Mullins and Matoka (coalfields) until I was almost 6 when dad took a job down here in the coal mines of southwest VA and so we moved. My grandaddy lived in Keystone, I still have an aunt and uncle that live in Kimballand a cousin, who broke with mining tradition and became a lawyer who's in Athens.

Last month we visited my aunt and uncle. I can't imagine a more desolate or depressing drive as the one from Bluefield to Kimball. All the once booming coal mining towns are mere ghosts of what they once were. From the rows of identical miner's homes to the mansions of the bosses and mine owners, most are in their final days and are barely habitable. Many of the houses and buildings would be prized and treasured examples of fine architecture anywhere else but there. It is just very depressed and is depressing to look at, much less to live there. They do need help. What they have is a unique picture of a way of life that is gone. Unfortunately there is obviously no incentive or push to preserve this. When we got back to Bluefied, I felt like I had come up out of a hole in the ground back into the light. Very very sad.

This is true for the entire state (I have been all over and have family all over). I'm convinced WV is one of the most spiritually poor places on earth.

[swizzlestick]

I lived in western Virginia for several years, so I had a lot of wonderful back country experiences in the mountains of West Virginia. Some of my early rock climbing took place at Seneca Rocks, there was snowshoeing at Dolly Sods and I spent a total of several weeks underground in some of the lesser known caves.

Economically, West Virginia is one of the poorest states, but in terms of wilderness and outdoor resources, it is one of the richest. Some of the most friendly people in the world too.

[emmline]

I can't imagine a more desolate or depressing drive as the one from Bluefield to Kimball.

That's been true for some time, to an extent.
We used to fly into the Bluefield airport, then drive to Tazewell. Even as a kid I could always immediately pick up on the fact that we'd passed the stateline into Virginia, because suddenly everything was groomed and prosperous-looking.

[missy]

as I said in another thread - Tom grew up in Parkersburg and his dad still lives there. His step-mom is a HUGE Mountaineer fan.

We had Noah convinced he had to take his shoes off the first time we crossed the Belpre/Parkersburg bridge!

[mutepointe]

I can't imagine a more desolate or depressing drive as the one from Bluefield to Kimball.

That's been true for some time, to an extent.
We used to fly into the Bluefield airport, then drive to Tazewell. Even as a kid I could always immediately pick up on the fact that we'd passed the stateline into Virginia, because suddenly everything was groomed and prosperous-looking.

I agree about the differences right at the state line but I don't know why this is true. Even when the road on WV side of the state line was the most recently paved, the other side (excluding the road) still looks better.

[mutepointe]

I'm a social worker, WV is the land of opportunity for social workers.

When I was a kid, my social worker ended up being one of my dad's clients. My dad lead a drug ring.

This isn't the whole picture of WV but it sure is a perfect picture of that part of WV. When I'm walking my dog and I see one of my fellow social workers in my neighborhood, I've learned to just nod my head. They're still at work.

[missy]

All the once booming coal mining towns are mere ghosts of what they once were. ............Very very sad.

Although it was written about eastern KY, it still is appropriate (along with Black Waters - one of my favorite songs of hers....)

The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore
Jean Ritchie

When I was a curly headed baby
My daddy sat me down on his knee
He said, "son, go to school and get your letters,
Don't you be a dusty coal miner, boy, like me."

[Chorus:]
I was born and raised at the mouth of hazard hollow
The coal cars rolled and rumbled past my door
But now they stand in a rusty row all empty
Because the l & n don't stop here anymore

I used to think my daddy was a black man
With script enough to buy the company store
But now he goes to town with empty pockets
And his face is white as a February snow

[Chorus]

I never thought I'd learn to love the coal dust
I never thought I'd pray to hear that whistle roar
Oh, god, I wish the grass would turn to money
And those green backs would fill my pockets once more

[Chorus]

Last night I dreamed I went down to the office
To get my pay like a had done before
But them ol' kudzi vines were coverin' the door
And there were leaves and grass growin' right up through the floor

[Chorus]

[dwest]

[Jack]

Even when the road on WV side of the state line was the most recently paved, the other side (excluding the road) still looks better.

I have lived there it seems longer than anybody here, and I am convinced this is because WV is in a terribly deep psycho-spiritual sickness right now.

[izzarina]

2 of my children were born there.

[DCrom]

For better or worse, I was born and bred in West Virginia. As I have talked about with Walden, West Virginia is on or near the bottom of the list of poorest states (meaning it's super poor) and also curiously on the list of states with the fewest higher-educated people. West Virginia is the ONLY state or province entirely within Appalachia, and it is often overlooked because the poor there are mostly white, rural, and not a gay black hispanic lesbian kind of audience (i.e. one whose cause it's politically correct to work on behalf of).

What's "curiously" about the correlation of "poorest states" and "fewest higher-educated people". There tends to be a significant relationship between the two.

No real ties to West Virginia myself, but the situation there sounds like a more severe version of the area where I grew up (Shasta County, in northern California). The economy there always had two linchpins: logging, and tourism. Due to several things (environmental regulation, labor cost, foreign competition) logging in the US in particular, and California in particular, have been on a decline for several decades - not gone, but (except for pulpwood) much less significant.

Even when I was growing up (60s/70s) and logging was still reasonably strong, the handwriting was on the wall. And there was a trend that sounds very much like the trend in West Virginia: an ongoing drain of young people. Generally, unless you had a guaranteed job out of high school (often a family business or through family connections) everyone who wasn't planning on college moved away after graduation.

Many of those who left for college hoped to return - but there weren't that many job openings for new college graduates (or jobs that required college training, period), so the majority of college graduates from the area never returned, either. I'm a case in point - not much demand for embedded systems engineers back home. I'd love to be able to live there, but unless I'm willing to train for a new career (that will likely be less secure and a lot lower paying than my current one) I can't really move back. I still think seriously about taking weekend classes to get a teaching credential, then spending the last decade or so of my working life as a teacher. Or buffing up my technical credentials a bit and looking for a job at the local community college. But that's about the only way I could do it. And many of my high school classmates have no urge to return at all - they feel that they escaped a trap by leaving.

Because it's a relatively low cost area (for California, at least) a fair number of retirees move there, but the working age population tends to be both poorer and less educated than the rest of the state. And yes, because it is mostly rural and white it gets a lot less attention than politically active urban minorities.

[Jack]

What's "curiously" about the correlation of "poorest states" and "fewest higher-educated people". There tends to be a significant relationship between the two.

Sarcasm.

[Paul]

My people settled in Kanawha and Fayette counties in the late 1700s. They were Palatine Germans who came to New York in the Winter of 1709. They married Scots-Irish gals along the way and migrated there after the Revolutionary war. One of my ancestors, Enoch Light, had a homestead on Loup Crick somewhere around there. Most of his sons, My GG Grand father included fought for the Union in the Civil war. One was a Confederate soldier. My other ancestors emigrated to West by-God Virginia at and around the turn of the century from Hungary, Italy and Slovakia. My parents both left from there and ended up here in Atlanta back in the early 60s but most of my extended family still lives up there.