Ties to West Virginia?

[Griffis]

If you just want to be a West Virginia, just get in line like everyone else.

Well, I guess I'll take a number and stand in that line.

I really have no connections I know of to WV, though there are a lot of families with my (rather obscure) surname in nearby parts of Pennsylvania, so I imagine I have some ancestors who at least made their way through there.

I've lived all over the USA and traveled pretty far abroad. For a few years I was stuck in Oklahoma, which I hated. I got my master's degree in early 2007 and was fortunate enough to get a good job in SW Virginia (I'm in Roanoke) and my entire family loves the beauty of this area. I could never be a Flatlander again.

Anyway, I recently put in for a job in Charleston. I am qualified, but I don't know what my chances are. I would love to relocate there. I know it has its troubles; what place doesn't? While I am happy enough with my current job, the position in Charleston would be much more to my liking--it's something I have hoped to move into.

So please, hold good thoughts and wish me and my family luck. Maybe we'll be able to get wild and by-god wonderful here pretty soon.

PS-- I've really enjoyed this thread. Good information, even though there are some mixed feelings.

[anniemcu]

My ties with WV are currently rather unfriendly. A former friend has moved there and is making life pretty darned miserable for another friend here.

[Flyingcursor]

I had an Uncle and Aunt who lived there for awhile in Huntington.

I've been rock climbing and hiking and caving in or near Dolly Sods.
Very pretty area. I even had the opportunity to herd sheep.

[Meadhbh]

I was born in Huntington (location of the hospital) and raised in Milton. My parents and brother along with his family still live there...and of course various other "kin" from my mother's side of the family. I lived up a holler and my paw paw had a gas well on his property. He was lucky enough to receive free gas and once he passed away, my parents received that benefit . I look forward to moving back some day. I still call WV my home.

[Jack]

Milton, land of the pumpkin festival and International Headquarters of the Church of Wicca? I've been there many times. Or does Hinton have a pumpkin festival too? I always got them mixed up on the map.

[Meadhbh]

Milton, land of the pumpkin festival and International Headquarters of the Church of Wicca? I've been there many times. Or does Hinton have a pumpkin festival too? I always got them mixed up on the map.

Yep...Milton has the Pumpkin Festival, is home of Blenko glass, and the state's largest indoor flea market. Now, I didn't know about the Church of Wicca...that sounds like the "goin's on" of the ridge runners.

[gonzo914]

Thankfully, none, although my ancestors likely tramped through there back in the late 1700s on their way from North Carolina to Indiana. There is an entry in great-great-great-great-great-grandpappy Joshua Gonzo's diary --

Spent pert near a month in West Virginia last week. The likker was quite good, and the womenfolk were most amenable to suggestion, even the ones with teeth.

It is quite purty here, and we found lots of nice places whar you could bury a dog. It's all mountains, though, and don't look like it'll grow nothing but stones. It's so hilly that most folks have one leg longer than the other from walkin on a slant.

Fortunately, we left afore any of the young'uns managed to breed with the local stock.

[dwest]

[gonzo914]

BTW "West Virginia" didn't exist in the 1700s.

I'll take "The Bloody Obvious" for $1000, Alex.

Of course, West Virginia existed in the 1700s. There wasn't a big hole there between Virginia and Ohio, although there are those who would argue that there should have been. It just wasn't called "West Virginia." To those who did not have to go there, it was known simply as "Virginia"; to those who did have to go there, it was better described as "Hell on a Hill." I personally think it should have been called "Southeast Ohio."

My knowledge of U.S. geography extends beyond that of the average person because unlike most scholars, I have no compunction about making things up. Perhaps you have read my geographical treatise on the history of East and West Skonsin.

How's the down hill skiing in Kansas

The best skiing in Kansas is on Mount Sunflower, the highest point in Kansas. With good snow cover, you can ski downhill all the 22 miles to Colorado.

[Denny]

The best skiing in Kansas is on Mount Sunflower, the highest point in Kansas. With good snow cover, you can ski downhill all the 22 miles to Colorado.

and a strong....ah....tail wind

[sbfluter]

To me it looks like it might be a tad higher to the right of Sunflower hill.

Did you know someone did a study that proved Kansas really is flatter than a pancake?

The only connection I have to WV is I know a guy who is from there way long time ago. Now he's a Santa Barbaran like me. I hear they've destroyed the land in WV with mountaintop removal mining. Sounds like a terrible waste of beautiful real estate.

[Jack]

Milton, land of the pumpkin festival and International Headquarters of the Church of Wicca? I've been there many times. Or does Hinton have a pumpkin festival too? I always got them mixed up on the map.

Yep...Milton has the Pumpkin Festival, is home of Blenko glass, and the state's largest indoor flea market. Now, I didn't know about the Church of Wicca...that sounds like the "goin's on" of the ridge runners.

The Church is in Hinton. I don't know why I always get them mixed up. One time I went to the Pumpkin Festival and bought some gorgeous dried colored corn art.

[dwest]

[cowtime]

A friend of mine was doing post doc research in WV back in the seventies and literally had the soles of his shoes melt as he was crossing a stream that recieved runoff from a tailing's pond

Oh but they tell us it's not harmful.....of course they told my husband that too when they had him work in a flooded underground mine that was saturated with pcbs.

I use to haul mail on a mountain that has been removed. The families who'd lived there for generations finally had to give in and sell out to the mining company when their water was "sunk" by underground mining. Then they were able to just remove the mountain top to get the coal.

Talk about depressing...... That's something that really should be illegal.

[pancelticpiper]

Well I'm a Mountaineer.
All four of my grandparents were born in log cabins in the hollers.
My parents were the first generation of either family to be born in a town.
I spent my earliest years in that town, Chesapeake, boasting a population of 1,000 souls "on a good day". (For those that don't know, Chesapeake is on the Kanawha river near Marmet.)
My father, not wanting to work in a coal mine like his father did, brought the family out to California in the 1960's.
I still visit at least every other year. My mother is in Hurricane, my grandfather (still plugging along at 97) is still in Chesapeake.
The first Cook arrived in Virginia from London in 1762, fought against the British in the war, and was given a land grant (in lieu of pay) after the war, along the Guyandotte river, where many of his descendants remain. The epicentre of the Cooks is Oceana. Pineville boasts a statue of my great-great-grandfather's uncle, William H H Cook.
In the Civil War we fought for the Union. One company of the 7th West Virginia Cavalry boasted a large number of Cooks, including my great-great-grandfather Leonidas Hamilton Cook. His company commander was a Cook. His sergeant was a Cook. (There's got to be a joke in there somewhere.)

Some West Virginia jokes:

How do we know that it was a West Virginian who invented the toothbrush?
Because if it had been anyone else, they would have called it a "teethbrush".

What do you call a roomful of 32 West Virginians?
A full set of teeth.

And then there's West Virginia's unofficial state motto:

"Two million people, ten last names."

or:

"West Virginia: we're just one big happy family. No, really!"