My Favorite Picture of my Niece and Nephew

Becca was 5 years old and Arny was around 8 months old.

The Flood of '67

We lived in West Logan. There is an alley that dips down over the hill on the right just before the Baptist Church. We lived on the riverbank side of the alley.

I can remember we had a peach tree in the back yard and I used to love to climb the tree and eat peaches. I was around 4 years old when we lived there.

I remember waking up in the backseat of the car one rainy night. The seat was full of boxes and my parents had put Billy and Rhonda and I in the floor in front of them. They were racing back to the house getting as much as they could out of it because the house was flooding from the Guyandotte River.

When I got older my mom told me that the water was swishing around our beds when they carried us out of the house. I of course don't remember any of this.

My dad borrowed Johnny Fortuna's delivery truck to load as much of our furniture in it as he could get. Johnnny and his son's helped my dad get the stuff out of the house. He owned Johnny's Market which was a produce market in Logan in the 60's and 70's and 80's.

They took us to a friends house in McConnell to stay until the water went down. The water was up almost to the top of the refrigerator they said. I can still remember the water line on the walls. It took them a week to clean all the river mud out of the house before we could move back in.

I enjoy it when people cheer when I walk into work!

Of course the fact that it means that it is time for everyone else to go home has NOTHING to do with it.

Remember when the only way to go down the stairs was to slide down on your rear...

...or better yet - on your belly.

2. when you only went up the stairs 2 or 3 at a time

3. your idea of fun was to run down the mountain so fast that there was no way to keep your legs underneath you and you would careen completely out of control.

4. you didn't just walk home. you climbed every fence, walked every rail and jumped any obstacle.

5. you could stand on your head or do a cartwheel and wonder why anybody thought such a simple thing could be hard.

6. I think I may be the only one who did this one. I used to hide my blonde hair under my shirt when we played hide and seek. It helped me to blend in. People always found me by my shiney hair.

7. You would swing as high as you possibly could and then jump out.

8. you would let the waves of the ocean pound you into the sand and just float where ever they took you.

Massey takes the cowards way out -just as all coal companies do

Massey Coal is merging with Alpha Natural Resources. There are so many lawsuits against them for damage done to the environment and deaths of coal miners that they will go the way of all coal companies.

They are selling out. The people of West Virginia and the taxpayers of the United States will be forced to clean up their messes at taxpayer expense which is what happens with all coal companies.

They get millions in tax breaks to do business in WV and then they spend years destroying the environment and working miners in unsafe conditions and then they leave once the financial liabilities get too great and take billions in profits with them.

Buffalo Creek Disaster

On February 25, 1972 a dam burst which had been built by Pittston Coal Company in my hometown. Here are a list of people killed and missing.

Killed, Age, Residence Brookie Mae Adkins, 31, Lundale, WV Lonnie Lee Adkins, 7, Lundale, WV Mary Jane Adkins, 5, Lundale, WV David B. Adkins, Sr., 27, Lorado, WV David B. Adkins, Jr., 4, Lorado, WV Steven Albright, 17, Lorado, WV Sylvia Albright, 39, Lorado, WV Janice Bailey, 32, Saunders, WV Kimberly K. Bailey, 6, Saunders, WV Jason Bailey, Jr., 11, Saunders, WV Rhoda Rene Bailey, 8, Saunders, WV Carla J. Bailey, 18 months, Saunders, WV James Bailey, Jr., 16, Amherstdale, WV John H. Bailey, 58, Lundale, WV Eleanor Bailey, 44, Lundale, WV Milton Baker, 71, Lundale, WV Effie Baker, 68, Lundale, WV Joyce Bartram, 40, Lundale, WV Betty Lee Black, 51, Lundale, WV Edith Blankenship, 61, Lorado, WV Rebecca Broady, 15, Lundale, WV Donna Sue Browning, 21, Lundale, WV Norman B. Browning, 3, Lundale, WV James Brunty, 82, Kistler, WV Dessie Butcher, 57, Lundale, WV Leonard Butcher, 66, Lundale, WV Ballard Carter, 36, Lundale, WV Janice H. Carter, 29, Lundale, WV Matthew Carter, 6, Lundale, WV Lillian S. Carter, 3, Lundale, WV Margaret L. Davis, 35, Stowe, WV Mary Jane Davis, 8, Stowe, WV Willie Dempsey, 42, Lorado, WV Aletha V. Dempsey, 38, Lorado, WV Berma Jo Dickerson, 20, Lundale, WV Steven T. Dickerson, 18 months, Lundale, WV James Dillon, 32, Lorado, WV Thelma Dillon, 36, Lorado, WV

Killed, Age, Residence Curtis Dillon, 10, Lorado, WV Sharon Dillon, 13, Lorado, WV Darla Dillon, 5, Lorado, WV Howard Dillon, 8, Lorado, WV Ruth Ann Elkins, 29, Lundale, WV Judy Ferguson, 27, Lundale, WV Connie S. Ferguson, 18 months, Lundale, WV Martha E. Gunnells, 21, Robinette, WV David Gunnells, 3, Robinette, WV Jessie Gunnels, 1, Robinette, WV Etta P. Hatfield, 60, Lundale, WV Layton O. Hatfield, 50, Lundale, WV Ruth B. Hatfield, 53, Lundale, WV Steven Hatfield, 16, Lundale, WV Albert O. Hedinger, 34, Godby, WV Angela J. Hopson, 2, Crites, WV Margaret Y. Jarrell, 42, Lundale, WV Karen Jarrell, 16, Lundale, WV Patrick Jarrell, 24, Lundale, WV William L. Jarrell, 50, Lundale, WV Lottie May Jarrell, 45, Lundale, WV Andrew Johnston, 73, Crites, WV Grace Kennedy, 71, Easley, SC (visiting relative) Gary M. King, 24, Lundale, WV Sharon A. Lester, 25, Saunders, WV Denise Lester, 3, Saunders, WV Norman Lester, 24, Saunders, WV Dennatta Lester, 5 to 7, Saunders, WV Opal Lester, 45, Saunders, WV Barry K. Lester, 15, Saunders, WV Rita J. Lester, 16, Saunders, WV Mary B. Marcum, 44, Latrobe, WV Diana L. McCoy, 18, Amherstdale, WV Kimberly McCoy, 3, Amherstdale, WV Jesse Messer, 35, Lorado, WV Augusta Miller, 69, Pardee, WV Robert Murray, 71, Lundale, WV Wandell Osborne, Sr., 37, Lundale, WV

Killed, Age, Residence Jeanette Osborne, 35, Lundale, WV Regina Osborne, 12, Lundale, WV Carolyn Osborne, 20 months, Lundale, WV Geneva Osborne, 11, Lundale, WV Wandell Osborne, Jr., 15, Lundale, WV Henrietta Owens, 22, Lundale, WV Thomas Owens, 3, Lundale, WV Herbert Peters, 71, Pardee, WV Martha Peters, 71, Pardee, WV Callis Perry, 81, Pardee, WV Margie M. Prince, 42, Amherstdale, WV Macie Queen, 54, Lorado, WV Otis Ramey, 49, Latrobe, WV Mattie Ramey, 45, Latrobe, WV Virgie A. Ramey, no age give, Latrobe, WV Marvel R. Scarberry, 73, Lundale, WV Goldie Sipple, 38, about 38, Lorado, WV Anita Smith, about 17, Lundale, WV Florencio Sosa, 65, Lorado, WV Mary M. Sosa, 46, Lorado, WV Gladys Staton, 25, Lundale, WV Kevin Staton, 1, Lundale, WV Della Trent, 69, Saunders, WV Johnny Trent, 32, Saunders, WV Gene Trent, 26, Saunders, WV Henry Trent, 49, Saunders, WV Wanda Trent, 39, Saunders, WV Betty Frances Vernatter, 4, Lorado, WV Thomas Vernatter, 65, Latrobe, WV Ethel B. Vernatter, 65, Latrobe, WV Roby L. Waugh, 45, Lundale, WV James L. Waugh, 11, Lundale, WV Grady M. Waugh, 18, Lundale, WV Donald Waugh, 20, Lundale, WV Larry K. Wauch, 5, Lundale, WV April E. White, 11, Lundale, WV Dora Wiley, 60, Latrobe, WV Richard Wiley, 78, Crites, WV Frank Lee Workman, 69, Lorado, WV Three unidentified babies

Missing

Dorinda L. Adkins, 3 months, Lorado, WV
Samuel Carter, 20 months, Lundale, WV
Roscoe Clay, 74, Lorado, WV
James N. Davis, 2, Stowe, WV
Nancy Hopson, 1, Crites, WV
Donald McCoy, Jr., 18 months, Amherstdale, WV
Kathy Waugh, 8 months, Lundale, WV

It's time to take a stand for cheaper gas...again!

The last time gas got this high I joined a group on facebook called "Boycott Exxon Only". There were almost 2 million people in the group.

The theory is that we have to have gas, so a full boycott is impossible. However it is possible to boycott Exxon. If you force Exxon to drop their prices then the rest will follow - it's a domino effect.