The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." Edwin Way Teale
For winter's rains and ruins are over, And all the season of snows and sins; The days dividing lover and lover, The light that loses, the night that wins; And time remembered is grief forgotten, And frosts are slain and flowers begotten, And in green underwood and cover Blossom by blossom the spring begins. Algernon Charles Swinburne
I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers: Of April, May, of June, and July flowers. I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes, Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes. Robert Herrick
The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth
to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring
forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart
that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May.
Some 400–1,000 students march through Times Square, New York, and another 700 through San Francisco,
in the first major student demonstration against the Vietnam War.
Smaller marches also occur in Boston, Seattle, and Madison, Wisconsin.
Senator Barry Goldwater receives more than 75% of the vote in the Texas Republican Presidential primary.
Died: Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, hitchhiking in Meadville, Mississippi, are kidnapped and beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their badly decomposed bodies are found by chance two months later in July, during the search for three civil rights workers – Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.
Beatles' "Beatles' 2nd Album" goes #1 & stays #1 for for 5 weeks
LBJ and Hubert Humphrey
5/2/64
Telephone Conversation between
President Johnson and
Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
May Basket - Andrew Wyeth
May. The May of 50 years ago brought an end to our public school years. We'd walk the halls of the old brick school building no more. Standing in it's place is an unfamiliar, one story building that a younger generation calls "our school". But it can never be "our school" to the graduates of 1964.
The brick building with the oiled floors and backstair fire escape, "our school", has been gone for many years. Only photographs and memory, as long as we are alive to hold the memory, attest to its existence. We learned there, made friends there, fell in and out of love there, then, left there to go out and make our way in the world.
It was there through it all, that old brick building. It felt the vibrations of an enthusiastic band. It listened to teacher's lectures and to cheers for the red and white team. It heard the laughs and whispers in the hallways and the silence of Study Hall.
Maybe the old school would be proud of us. Maybe the old school would give us a wink, a pat on the head, a shake of the hand if it could, or an arm around our shoulders. But, this is another May, and "our school" became a pile of bricks to be hauled away.
Adieu, Old School.
Try to Remember From The Fantasticks, an original off-Broadway production that ran a total of 42 years and 17,162 performances, making it the world's longest-running musical. The Brothers Four
"Sweet May hath come to love us,
Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;
And through the blue heavens above us
The very clouds move on." Heinrich Heine
Book of Songs
May Day Procession - Anna Richards Brewster
Turn Around Recorded on the Time to Think album released in 1963. It reached number 7 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
The Kingston Trio - 1963
Turn around Turn around Turn around and you're a young girl Going out of the door
May Day - Pal Szinyei-Merse
May
Sara Teasdale
The wind is tossing the lilacs, The new leaves laugh in the sun, And the petals fall on the orchard wall, But for me the spring is done.
Beneath the apple blossoms I go a wintry way, For love that smiled in April Is false to me in May.
Once there were green fields kissed by the sun Once there were valleys where rivers used to run Once there were blue skies with white clouds high above Once they were part of an everlasting love We were the lovers who strolled through green fields
Green, green, it's green they say On the far side of the hill
Green, green, I'm going away
To where the grass is greener still.
May Day in Central Park - Maurice Prendergast
'But I
must gather knots of flowers,
And buds and garlands gay,
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother,
I'm to be Queen o' the May.' Alfred Lord Tennyson
Mist in the Mountains - Grey Darden - Valley Head, WV
When the Children Come Home
Henry Lawson
On a lonely selection far out in the West An old woman works all the day without rest, And she croons, as she toils 'neath the sky's glassy dome, `Sure I'll keep the ould place till the childer come home.'
She mends all the fences, she grubs, and she ploughs, She drives the old horse and she milks all the cows, And she sings to herself as she thatches the stack, `Sure I'll keep the ould place till the childer come back.'
It is five weary years since her old husband died; And oft as he lay on his deathbed he sighed `Sure one man can bring up ten children, he can, An' it's strange that ten sons cannot keep one old man.'
Whenever the scowling old sundowners come, And cunningly ask if the master's at home, `Be off,' she replies, `with your blarney and cant, Or I'll call my son Andy; he's workin' beyant.'
`Git out,' she replies, though she trembles with fear, For she lives all alone and no neighbours are near; But she says to herself, when she's like to despond, That the boys are at work in the paddock beyond.
Ah, none of her children need follow the plough, And some have grown rich in the city ere now; Yet she says: `They might come when the shearing is done, And I'll keep the ould place if it's only for one.'
Little White House - Grey Darden - Valley Head, WV
“How often have I lain beneath
rain on a strange roof,
thinking of home.”
William Faulkner
“Home is the nicest word there is.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder
“In life, a person will come and go from many homes. We may leave a
house, a town, a room, but that does not mean those places leave us. Once entered, we never entirely depart the homes we make for ourselves
in the world. They follow us, like shadows, until we come upon them
again, waiting for us in the mist.” Ari Berk Death Watch “Home is where somebody notices when you are no longer there. ” Aleksandar Hemon The Lazarus Project
Another Day with Larry
Saturday Trips to Valley Head
Driving Through Valley Head, West Virginia
1940 Chevy
Every Saturday afternoon we
went to town, to Valley Head. In earlier times, my family had to walk. I walked
a few times but was carried a lot more. (We didn’t get a car until the
mid-’50’s, a 1940 Chevrolet. We paid $300.00 for it.) It was a distance of
about 2 1/2 miles “down the holler” or 4
miles on the road. Edith, Virginia, and
Mason walked that many times with Dad and Mom. Usually all four of us went.
(Dad, Mom, Mason, and I; by that time Edith and Virginia were married.) If she
were extremely busy, Mom didn’t go, but that was rare.
Valley Head Grocery Building (Wood's Store) & Post Office
I really looked forward to
those trips. It was a break in the routine and a whole lot better than the
cornfield or the hayfield. It was a chance to see other people - there were
many weeks that we did not see anyone from Sunday to Saturday. Of course, there
were no telephones so we were pretty isolated.The trip to town might even
result in a bottle of pop, a candy bar, or a Popsicle. It was an exciting
day.
Site of old Morton Store & Beer Joint
In retrospect, I believe that Dad
and Mom looked forward to the trip as much as Mason and I did. Mom went almost
every week, and I can recall Dad not going only once. He had the flu.
Blacksmith - Edward Henry Pottshast
At that time, Valley Head was
a thriving town. The Hickory Lick coal mine employed about 600 men at its peak.
Most of them lived in the Valley Head area. Valley Head was the home town for
many small farms scattered around it. There were several logging jobs in the
area at any given time. The town had 4 grocery stores, a restaurant, a garage,
a blacksmith shop/grain mill, a beer joint, a state whiskey store, a barber
shop, and two movie theaters. Now there is one store and restaurant combined.
A Mound of Butter - Antoine Vollon
Our first stop was the grocery
store. We patronized Hilborn’s until it closed. It was directly across the road
from the post office. After it closed, we went to Lanta Ware’s store on Rt. 15
at the foot of Point Mountain. When we had extra eggs or butter, we took them
to the store and received credit on our purchases.
Do you have Prince Albert in a can?
Any time we had more value
in our eggs and butter than our purchases, we received a “due bill” showing how
much credit was owed or due to us. We typically bought cereal, salt, spices,
and tobacco, Prince Albert pipe tobacco for both Dad and Mason and Beechnut
chewing tobacco for Mason. We tried to get to Elkins every 2 months or so to
get staples like flour, sugar, and coffee. We went to the A&P Tea Company
supermarket in Elkins.
Scotts Run, WV Coal Mine Tipple
We always paid cash at Valley
Head. It was a coal mining area, and most miners ran charge accounts for two
weeks at a time. When they were paid, they cashed their paycheck at the store
and paid their account up-to-date. Of course, some didn’t - any time there are
charge accounts, there are people who do not pay them.
Hickory Lick Monterville Was Booming When Coal Was King
They were not “company stores”
as Tennessee Ernie Ford sang about in the song “Sixteen Tons.” Company stores
were owned by the mine. The miners were paid in “script” instead of cash or
check. That script was good only in the company store. Many of those mines
probably made more money in the company store than in the mine itself. They had
a forced monopoly; the miners could not go elsewhere, and the store could
charge any prices they wanted.
Sixteen Tons
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Valley Head Post Office
Going to the post office was
always a high priority. We got the mail and the Grit weeklynewspaper
which I read from cover to cover from about the time I was six or so.
There was
also the local weekly, The Randolph
Enterprise. It had a column called “Uncle Ezra from Osceola” that Dad
always enjoyed. I began reading it because of his talking about it and grew to
enjoy it immensely. It was written in hillbilly dialect and had some real
tidbits of wisdom presented humorously.
Troy Swecker was the Postmaster, and
Mary Dot Heftner worked for him. They were wonderful people. They helped so
many people in so many ways. Troy convinced Dad that he should sign up for
Social Security and helped him with the paperwork. Then when he got a reply
asking about the number of mules that he owned, Dad got disgusted with the
whole thing and was not even going to respond.
But Troy talked him into getting
the explanation or correction completed so Dad did receive Social Security of,
I believe, $30.00 per month for the last years of his life. Since I was a
minor, I also received a small check, I believe $10.00 per month. That helped
Dad, it helped me to get through college, and it helped Mom for the 33 years
she lived after Dad died. I owe Troy a debt that I can never repay; many people
do. I also enjoyed just talking to him. He always seemed interested in what I
was doing, and he never talked down to me - he treated me like an adult. He was
an excellent role model of what a professional man should be.
We usually visited Harris
Morton’s store although we rarely bought anything there. He and Dad were good
friends. Harris bought a beef from us on occasion. He could estimate the weight
of any four-legged animal almost to the exact pound. He was almost as good
estimating people’s weight.
Old Man - Reinhold Marxhausen
A Valley Head institution was
a man named “Cutter.” He could always be found in the garage or sitting on one
of the store porches. He didn’t work much, but the only person he ever hurt was
himself. As I grew up, Cutter became a good friend. I’m not sure anyone not in
my immediate family ever supported me more. He was a true friend, both to me
and to my wife. After Dad died, Cutter worked with Mason a lot on the farm so
we spent many hours together. He helped to fill the void on the farm and in
Mason’s life that Dad’s death created.
The Hustler - Arthur Sarnoff
We usually stopped in Lester
Hamrick’s beer joint. Dad started taking me there when I was 10 or less. I
cannot recall anything not suitable for a child ever happening there, at least
not on Saturday afternoons. There were a couple of bullet holes in the ceiling
so I guess things did get a bit wild at times. Lester kept a revolver under the
counter and was known to be willing to use it. He had a couple of pool tables
and both a moose and a buffalo head on the wall. Dad and Lester were good
friends.
The Music Man - Trouble...
right here in River City!
Robert Preston
Unknown
The garage was a must-stop. It
was operated by Clyde and John Beale, two of our cousins. There was always a lot
of fascinating stuff there for a kid. Clyde owned an antique hearse, from the
late ‘20’s, I believe. He had a sign on it “EMERGENCY” and drove it in parades.
They had a couple of seats from a junked car in the back near a pot-bellied
stove. That was one of the primary male gossip centers in town. When Dad died,
Clyde drove the ambulance to Elkins. He took a risk in transporting Dad. Clyde
knew that Dad was dead, and the law precluded his moving the body. But he could
not tell Mom that. He later asked Mason and I to verify that Dad’s chest moved
when we lifted him into the ambulance.
My favorite stop was probably
the blacksmith and grist mill, all under one roof, owned and operated by Wilson
Ware. His grandson, Fred Ware, Jr., was one of my best friends in high school -
we’re still good friends. Wilson ground ear corn for us for livestock feed. He
also ground our shelled corn into meal for corn bread. He had a forge and made
or sharpened many tools for farmers. He made horseshoes, but, at least at that time,
I cannot recall his shoeing horses then.
WWI US ARMY Blacksmith Horse Shoeing 1915
He had shod horses in the Army in
World War I. Wilson was the local auctioneer. What he may have lacked in the
auctioneer’s chant, he more than made up for in knowing who in the community
would buy what and who liked to bid against whom. He was very good. He was the
Master of Ceremonies at the monthly gospel sing at the Valley Head Methodist
Church. And he always had a new story or two - rumor had it that one or two of
them were even true. I loved exploring his shop and listening to him. He was a
real character.
I like to go back to Valley
Head for the annual homecoming on Memorial Day week-end. I recently spent a
couple of hours in the Valley Head Cemetery. It was a bit of a shock to
discover that I have more friends in that 8-acre piece of ground than anywhere
else in the world. I guess that’s a factor of age.
I recently got re-acquainted
with Troy Swecker. We had some great conversations. I lost my father when I was
17. I have often wished I could talk to Dad adult-to-adult, something we never
did. Talking to Troy was a little like that; I was talking as a gray-haired
adult to a respected adult from my childhood. We had some special
conversations. Troy died in January, 2008. His family asked me to do his funeral,
a great honor and privilege.
As I write this, I am saddened
that of all the people mentioned above, only Fred Ware, my sister Virginia, my
wife, and I are still alive. That is the main reason I rarely go back to Valley
Head - the people I would dearly love to see are no longer there.
“Home is people.
Not a place.
If you go back there after
the people are
gone,
then all you can see is what is
not there any more.”
Robin Hobb
Fool's Fate
Wayfarin' Stranger
Johnny Cash
I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger Traveling thru this world below There's no sickness, no toil, no danger In that bright land to which I go
I'm going there to see my Father And all my loved ones who've gone on I'm just going over Jordan I'm just going over home
I know dark clouds will gather round me, I know my way is hard and steep But beauteous fields arise before me Where Gods redeemed their vigils keep
I'm going there to see my Mother She said she'd meet me when I come So I'm just going over Jordan I'm just going over home I'm just going over Jordan I'm just going over home
Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper
Valley Head, West Virginia is the small town where Wilma Lee Cooper, then a Leary, first learned to sing.
Wilma Lee
Cooper (second from left) backstage in 1961 with other Opry stars
including (from left) Minnie Pearl, Jan Howard, Skeeter Davis, June
Carter, and Kitty Wells.
Randolph Natives Inducted into W.Va. Music Hall of Fame
+-+circa+1908.++The+Collins+store+was+a+virtual+duplicate+of+the++Whipple+store..jpg)
+backstage+in+1961+with+other+Opry+stars+including+(from+left)+Minnie+Pearl,+Jan+Howard,+Skeeter+Davis,+June+Carter,+and+Kitty+Wells..jpg)
