A Festival of Memories

I have taken a hiatus from writing this blog, realizing that very few of the subjects which I have written has happened in this Century.

So this gives me the opportunity to write about something current that in fact is more about the Twentieth Century.

This weekend my first born son, Derek and I took a trip back to New Martinsville, West Virginia a town that we moved from in 1990. I had been back once briefly, Derek had not been back to this town of about 7,000 people on the banks of the Ohio River.

Coincidentally the Community was presenting, what has now become annual, Festival of Memories.
I made the drive west from Fairmont , West Virginia over US 250 and West Virginia Route 7 from Hundred, West Virginia on into New Martinsville. It is about a 55 mile drive that takes 90 minutes to make and longer on the return after dark.

When you finally reach New Martinsville it is such a relief to get on WV Route 2 after a drive that truly takes all the romanticism out of John Denver's Country Roads.

The Festival is all held on Main Street, so parking was at a premium after finding a place on the River.
I walked over to Witschey's Supermarket, which is a New Martinsville landmark, to check out the place that I was in at least once everyday that I had lived in the Town. With three growing boys, I was told after we had moved from the town that Bill Witschy the Proprietor and friend, had said not only was he sorry to see us move, but the family had been one of his best customers. Which was confirmed when Derek later said that he may go back there to see if they still had Garbage Pail Kids. 

After leaving the much changed and larger Store I walked south on Main Street to a side street where classic cars were being displayed there I ran into Derek and his friend Kate. We continued our walk down Main Street running into Santina Vigliotti, who while in high school had been a part time employee at my radio station,

Santina and me on Main Street New Martinsville

 After being a teacher she is now a Main Street merchant with her Presto Lunch and very active in several community improvements in town, she was joy as a teenager and is now a great asset to the Community as an adult. As I had written before I have been very fortunate in having good young people working with me.

Kate, Derek and I continued our trek down Main Street with Derek surveying the building that we had owned that his mother's fabric shop had been located and then on to the Court Restaurant which is the landmark eatery across from the Wetzel County Court House. The Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, all of the latest gossip and really good home cooked food can always be found at the Court. Derek had memories of the place, which had expanded and changed. Breakfast with he and his brother Wes was a tradition for the three of us on Saturday mornings.

We proceeded back north on Main Street recalling times while there, where Derek as a little boy was just  in a class by himself in all the big wheel races on Main Street and recollections of his fifth and sixth grade basketball skills where he almost always won all the games in which he played, but also usually individually scored more points than the entire team of his opponents.

Not only had I operated both radio stations in town, but had been involved in almost every civic activity there was. Chairing the Hospital Board, President of the Chamber of Commerce, was President of their Regatta, on the Rotary Board, and for a period the State Senator. We were dug into the community.

The three of us took a pleasant respite from the walk at the lovely riverfront home of Sherron Winer, whose husband Sam was downtown promoting his speedboat races which is his and her passion.
Kate, who is skilled at fixing things, wanted to visit the Ace Hardware, this is a very good thing in that no Thomas men are handy, it also allowed us to walk east on North Street passing several other memorable landmarks including the old radio station building and the site of the old train station, which was unmercifully torn down while we had lived there.

Kate and Derek left to do some independent exploration and I went back to Main Street in that the activities were not scheduled to begin until later.

I was able to chat with the regionally famous and recent inductee into the West Virginia Broadcasters Hall of Fame "Uncle Dougger" who had done afternoon shifts at the radio stations there in the Eighties

                                    

Uncle Dougger and I catching up

He and I always had great fun working together and he truly is a legend in the Northern part of West Virginia where thousands grew up listening to him and going to his dances.

A day well spent getting to spend time with good people I had not seen in well over twenty years
No apologies for reliving fond memories, in fact it was rather festive,
Thank you for the memories, New Martinsville.