Saturday, September 26, 2009

Contents of a Billfold in the 40's

1. Young Democratic Clubs Membership Card

2. WVa Drivers License - printed on stiff paper like a business card of today.

3 and 4 - Perry Como Collector's Card and the back of the card with a fortune like a crackerjack prize.

5 and 6 - Junior Mercantile Card and back of card. The Junior Mercantile Store was a top of the line store in Logan WV. You would be surprised by the availability of upscale, fashionable clothes. When I was growing up the Mercantile was still there as well as stores such as McCormicks and Peerys. All those store (except McCormicks which has scaled back) closed in the 80's when the coal companies pulled out saying there was no more mineable coal in WV.

Actually it was just a move to bust the unions (which they did) and also to force the state of WV to forgive 100's of millions of dollars worth of fines and back taxes which were never paid so that the mines would open again. Thereby bringing back jobs and mountaintop mining which makes strip mining look like childsplay. A move that will be repeated if coal companies are not allowed to run mountaintop mines because they don't want the added expense of underground mining.

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