THE WI NEWSLETTER 10/06



THE WI NEWSLETTER



Editor: Roleta Smith Meredith Issue 86 October 2006








REMEMBER

Please sign all emails to me with your full name (include maiden name) your school and the year you either graduated or would have graduated. I can not use your email unless it is signed. Thanks----Roleta



FALL IN WEST VIRGINIA


WEST VIRGINIA HILLS

submitted by: Phil Smith (WI '46)
Philmarcia@earthlink.net

A northern Fall is a beautiful time in The United States. I have witnessed the beauty of autumn from Maine to Florida and California to New York - and a few overseas - Germany, Poland, New Zealand, and Australia. This year will be my 78th Fall!

When I was just a kid, West Virginia celebrated the "turning of the leaves" and their beauty by a State Festival that was held in Elkins, the first weekend in October. Since my birthday is the 4th of October, it also celebrated my birthday!

In 1938 we were living in Preston County at Brookside Inn. The inn was on US Route 50, a couple miles east of Aurora, West Virginia. Brookside Inn, had been an old summer resort when it had a large lake, was very active in the late 1890s for those from Washington and Baltimore that wanted to escape the heat and humidity of their homes for the cool and refreshing mountain air of West Virginia. The families came by train to Oakland, Maryland and then by horse drawn carriages to the Inn. Some families had their own cottage - on the south side of Route 50. Today, it is the site of West Virginia's Cathedral State Park. My dad (WI Class of 1920/OSU Class of 1924) was running the Inn. I guess today we would call it a "B & B”. We had less than a dozen rooms on three floors, a huge dinning room and kitchen. There was a casino for dancing. Even in the 30s we had "Round Dancing" on Sundays with a juke box and "Square Dancing" with a local group of fiddlers, guitars pluckers and a beat-up piano. There was a cottage called "Bark Cottage" where my brother and I stayed in the summer, so we could rent our room in the Inn. We had a large barn (we had two horses in the summer for guests) and there were three cabins, under construction, using material from a bowling alley of bye-gone days, all on the north side of Route 50. There was a winding road down through some woods with rocks and a small stream that made you think of a "quiet cathedral". The road led to Mr. Hoses' farm. There was a swimming hole on the farm where we would go swimming. To "encourage" business during the depression, my parents mailed out post cards in the fall to their friends and acquaintances in Clarksburg, Fairmont, and Morgantown, reminding of the "beauty of West Virginia mountains" in the fall and that Brookside Inn offered a "Leaf Peeking" Special Turkey Dinner on Saturday and Sundays for those that wanted to see the beauty of the trees and enjoy an outstanding fall dinner. Mom was a great cook! Since my brother had "hay fever" it was my assignment to cut the grass with, of course, a hand mower' We raked "mountains of leaves" every fall!

It was a beautiful drive from Clarksburg to Brookside. Laurel Mountain with it's "horse shoe curve" and the 33 curves on the eastern slope of Route 50 from at the bottom (Irwin - a few miles east from the old Cheat River Covered bridge) - to west end of Cheat Mountain - several miles west of Aurora. About sixty miles as I recall. We drove it many times to visit my grandparents who lived on Duff Avenue. My last trip on Route 50 was in 1997 when my brother, Keith, and I visited all the places we lived - Clarksburg, Red House, Brookside, Seeder, and even Lewisburg, where I had attended GMS. We had dinner with Jack and Dick Tetrick and Bob Garrett and their wives. When we lived in Vermont (1988 - 1999), our home was about 900 feet higher than the Mad River Valley floor. We looked across the valley to the Northfield range. One beautiful fall day, with the trees and leaves in all their glory, we had a thunder storm, followed by some sun with a classical rainbow. My wife, Marcia, took a picture of this and it made the front page of the next issue of The Valley Reporter.

As the West Virginia song says, "Those Beautiful Hills!"



submitted by: Blair Holden (WI '64)
hold6670@bellsouth.net

The thing I remember the most about the autumn was that I always got out of school (A written excuse by my mom and dad), by the way the kids hated me for getting out of school , but I loved it. We would go to the Elkins Forest Festival. A three or four hour parade. That is the only time that Elkins ever had over 100,000 people . Cars and trailers everywhere. Great memories!


WILLIAMS RIVER IN AUTUMN




WIN SCHOLARSHIP

Thanks to Herb Cashdollar (RW 1957)
Michele Ford Brumage (WI 1961) and Dick Brumage (ND 1961) for their gifts to the WIN Scholarship this month.

If you wish to join the others who have contributed to the scholarship fund, please make out your check to:
Roleta Meredith/WIN Scholarship

and mail it to:
Roleta Meredith
3201 Charles MacDonald Drive
Sarasota, Florida 34240

This money goes into a bank account from which the scholarship is given to one graduate from RC Byrd High School in Clarksburg, WV in the spring of the year.

Many thanks



MISS MAUD YOAK REMEMBERED



submitted by: Bob Griffith (WI '54)
Regr635@wmconnect.com

Your last newsletter mentioned the Maud Yoak Scholarship Fund at D&E College. Stirred up some memories. Perhaps many of your older readers will remember her. I had her for freshman and senior english and her classes were never boring. When I first went to her class she told us, "I have one eye that goes this way, and one that goes that way so don't try anything, I see everything!"

I was glad to get back to her class as a senior after having the "Crayon Lady" Emily Taylor. But I still remember my colors. Nouns and Pronouns - Blue, Conjunctions - Black, etc.

Miss Yoak had a way of getting your attention. Sometimes in the Spring or Fall, when a slight breeze was coming in the window (no air-conditioning) and you were gazing out dreaming how nice it would be to be out there, and/or thinking of a "Special Someone" as I do often. She would stop talking and start looking at you and pretty soon when you would finally "wake up" there would be 25 or more classmates looking at you. We would all have a laugh and she would say, "Come on back into class now".

Miss Yoak died in an accident on US 60 in St. Albans, WV when a car driven by her Sister collided with another car. I have her obituary and it says she was 71 years old and had taught for 40 years before retiring in 1958. But online I find that she was born in St. George, WV December 27, 1892, and died October 31, 1963. I had great respect for her.Perhaps others have memories of Miss Yoak.

Thanks to you all for your hard work on the newsletter.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Do you remember Maud Yoak? Please write your memories to: Roleta1@aol.com. Thanks



6TH ANNUAL WI REUNION PICNIC

submitted by: Judy Daugherty Kimler (WI '59)
jkimler@verizon.net

all pictures submitted by: Sharyn Cottrill McGahan (WI '59)
mtmama41@msn.com

CLASS OF 1959


Front row: Charlie Burkhammer, Sharyn Cottrill McGahan, Beth Twigg Devericks, Judy Daugherty Kimler, Paula Brasseur Riley, Jeanie Werner Davis
Back row: Bernie Bice, Jim Martin, Mike Moore, Ed Hardman, Ron Werner, Dick Hanifan, Dick Frush

The 6TH ANNUAL WI REUNION PICNIC was held Aug 26th at 11am at the Veterans Park in Clarksburg. There were 75-80 in attendance. Even though it was an extremely hot day, everyone had a great time. The food was terrific. There are a lot of great cooks who attend the picnic each year.

Sharyn Cottrill McGahan WI 1959 was in charge of the picnic. Many thanks to those who showed up early to help her with covering the tables, arranging the food and putting up the canopy: Paula Brasseur Riley WI 1959, Phyllis Alton Nichols WI 1957, Beth Twigg Devericks WI 1959 and husband Ferrold Devericks VHS 1957 and Sharyn's husband Jim McGahan Grafton 1956. Judy Daugherty Kimler handled the registration and gave out tickets for the door prizes.

Margaret Ann Heflin Bailey, WI 1962, vice-mayor of Clarksburg thanked everyone for coming back to Clarksburg for the picnic and hoped they would return soon.

The person who graduated from the oldest class represented was Ella Grace (Kyle) Spears (WI '34). Ella is the mother of Dottie Spears Rinehart (WI '60) and Bill Spears (WI '64). Last month there was an article in the newsletter about Ella Grace. She got her 90th birthday present for herself from Chenoweth Ford on May 20th of this year. A brand new, fully loaded red 2006 Ford Mustang. She drove her new car to the picnic. It really is beautiful.


Remember-you didn’t have to graduate from WI to be a WI Alum---if you spent any time going to school there at all, you are welcome to come and join your class as we consider you one of ours! We hope to keep the 4th Saturday in August as the date for our annual picnic. Of course we will keep you informed.

CLASS OF 1957


Frank Muscari, Walter "Sonny" Talkington, Skip Bowie, Jim Brown, Phyllis Alton Nichols, Fred Dunham, Roger Goff, Mike Snyder (the one in the back looking in the wrong direction is Ferrold Devericks VHS 1957...is he lost?)

  CLASS OF 1954       AND       CLASS OF 1955



CLASS OF 1960



Bob Teter, Dottie Spears Rinehart, Pam Wolfe Brown, Emma Lee Hite, James H Campbell


CLASS OF 1956



CLASS OF 1962



CLASS OF 1964



Bob Stealey, Naomi Burnell Burkhammer, Tom Steele


CLASS OF 1961



Steve Toryak, Charlene Rolland Leon, Sarah Gervella Frush, John Teter


SHINGLETON'S



Larry Shingleton and family represented the last years at WI. Larry graduated in 1994.


Attendees who registered were:

Ella Grace Kyle Spears 1934

Wally Brake 1940

Pauline Murphy Medina 1951
Paul Hornor 1953
Joe Boomer 1954
Jack Emrick 1954
Bill Brassine 1954
Lucy Ropp Hornor 1954
Bucky Tustin 1955
Barbara Boreman 1955
Deloris Muscari Alvino 1955
Joe Williams 1956
Mike "Terry" Riley 1956
Patricia Hardman Nicholson 1956
Chuck Thomas 1956
Mike Snyder 1957
Fred Dunham 1957
Jim Brown 1957
Roger Goff 1957
Walter "Sonny" Talkington 1957
Phyllis Alton Nichols 1957
Frank Muscari 1957
Skip Bowie 1957
Phyllis Steele 1958
Paula Brasseur Riley 1959
Beth Twigg Devericks 1959
Sharyn Cottrrill McGahan 1959
Judy Daugherty Kimler 1959
Jim Martin 1959
Charles Burkhammer 1959
Richard Hanifan 1959
Ed Hardman 1959
Ron Werner 1959
Jeanie Werner Davis 1959
Mike Moore 1959
Dick Frush 1959
Bernie Bice 1959

Dottie Spears Rinehart 1960
James H Campbell 1960
Pam Wolfe Brown 1960
Bud Wheelock 1960
Joyce Sutton Cox 1960
Emma Lee Hite 1960
Bob Teter 1960
Sarah Gervella Frush 1961
Steve Toryak 1961
John Teter 1961
Charlene Rolland Leon 1961
Richard Johnson 1962
Steve McGee 1962
Bill Spears 1962
Sharon Dillon Wheelock 1962
Margaret Ann Bailey 1962
Kaye McCall 1963
Richard Iaquinta 1964
Naomi Burnell Burkhammer 1964
Tom Steele 1964
Bob Stealey 1964
Jim Potter 1965

Michael Johnson 1971
Debbie Davis 1976

Larry Shingleton 1994
Chad Davis RCB 1998

Guests:
Roberta Brassine Palmer ND 1957
Ferrold Devericks VHS 1957
Larry Shingleton, 2 guests
Judy Talkington VHS 1964
Jim McGahan Grafton 1956
Marion Martin
Nick Nicholson
Carol Hardman
Linda ? (guest of Chuck Thomas)
Gale Andrick Steele
Jill Snyder
Betty Goff
Fred Rinehart Lost Creek 1958
Jane Moore

Some latecomers did not sign in and are not on the list.



ARCADE SHOPS

submitted by: Fred Layman (VHS '46)
FGL46VHS@AOL.COM

In last month's newsletter several people mentioned stores that were located in the Arcade. Here is a list of shops in the Arcade:

1. Roberts Shoe Store (side)
3. Arcade Beauty Shoppe
4. Arcade Barber Shop
5. Crown Clns
6. Debuteen Shoppe
7. Drexal's Music Store
8. Arcade Shoe Rebuilders
9-11 Frieden Calculating Machine Co
       Heaster, Harold L typewriters
10-12 Lawson, Raleigh H typewriters
13. City Paint Store
       Roccisano, GG Art Studio
15. Christian Science Reading Room
16. Bokey's Alteration Shop
17. L&N Advertising Inc.
18. Sewing Machine Exchange
19. Gabbert Insurance Agency
20. The Rummage Shop
22. Arcade Fur Shop
23. Helen Marie Kitchen (bakers)
24. Real Estate
26-27 Coal Cln Co. (mining machinery)
       Central Oil and Gas Co.
       Standard Gas Co.
       Watson Oil and Gas Co.
28. Vacant
29. Harrison County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Assn. of WV
30. Violet's alteration Shop
31-33 American Health Insuracnce Corp.
       Duncan Insurance Agency
34-35 Voge Dressmaking Shop
36-37 Beltone Hearing Aid Center
38. State Automobile Mutual Ins.(claims office)
39. Girl Scouts (Harrison county Council)
40-42 State Automobile Mut. Insurance Co
       Lewis and Lynch Insurance



REMEMBERING AND SHARING

submitted by: Dian Gantz Hurley (WI '46)
WIHSCLASSOF1946@aol.com

Well, I have many things to write about this time around!! First of all, in answer to Tom Kearns inquiry about Manny Nusbaum's Novelty Shop. We just called it "Nusbaum's" and let it go at that... I remember it well! It not only had many great novelties, but many students were able to sell and purchase their books from Nusbaum's yearly! He bought and sold used school books for many years, and many students were able to save much money for other necessities by purchasing books there. Nusbaum's also had a daughter, Joan, who graduated from WIHS with the class of 1945! The last doll I ever owned came from Nusbaum's. She was in the window for such a long time when I attended Central Junior High School. She was blond and had on a blue Women's Air Force uniform! I would walk out of the way going home from school just to gaze longingly at that doll. I was so upset when she disappeared from the window and went home in tears telling my mother she was gone! My mother sympathized and said one could never count on having every thing they wanted. Of course growing up in the 30's and 40's that was a fact of life. Imagine my delight at finding that very doll under our next Christmas tree!... Mom had hidden it for months!!

Glad someone remembered and mentioned the Clarksburg Youth Center that was located on the right side of Main St. below Palace Furniture Company! It was the place for all of us teens in the '40s to hang out, and a place our parents knew we were safe. Especially on Friday and Saturday nights. It was under the guidance of a man my mother had dated in her youth, he had a daughter Diane. His name was Carl Hopkins. Does anyone else remember them?

I grew up on Locust Ave., in a very large old house where my parents and I lived with my maternal grandparents. The house was built on a hill so the basement opened up on a large back porch and garden. The porch had clothes lines that ran on pulleys. They were great clothes lines, and I remember hanging clothes on them for a long time. There were apartments in the upstairs of the house and my husband Ralph and I lived in one of them until our eldest son was two and a half years old. I hung many a diaper on those lines! The grape vines began in the yard at the back of that porch. They then grew up to the porch above, off the kitchen, providing shade all summer long. There were purple and white grapes. I was not allowed to pick them unless my Grandma Caines or my Mother said it was OK and they were there to instruct the picking. Grandma canned grape juice, made jelly, and my Grandpa Caines made wine.. He would keep it in the cellar that was a part of the large basement, and was kept locked most of the time. I would sneak into the basement with Grandpa and he would let me taste the wine, with a warning not to tell my Grandma!! I never did.. He also made a peach wine or brandy that was also very good.

The Arcade! Oh, the echo's of that wonderful building! A shop a lot may not remember was a shop where the lady did sewing and alterations. She also had a machine that did "hemstitching" that was used on the on the edge of pillowcases and other linens and crocheting could be attached to this stitching. My Grandmother did a lot of crocheted edgings and had me take many items to this lady to hemstitch for her.

Aarons Shoe Store! As I grew older and my feet became at least a size 9, there were not very many shoe stores who carried that size shoe! Back then, Penny Loafers were the big thing with us teens. Buster Brown made very nice adult size Penny Loafers. Each year Aaron's would receive only one or two pair of size nines. Robert Aaron would call my mother and she would send me in to purchase a new pair for the year. These were my school shoes, the old pair would then became "every day" shoes and slippers. Pettreys on Third Street would also get a black suede flat heeled sling-back dressy shoe that would be my dress shoes for the year.... I believe they also called my mother when they received their shipment containing size nines so that I could get a new pair of those yearly. Keep in mind, this was the largest woman's shoe made at that time. As I have grown older, and women's shoes have been made larger, I learned that I was cramming size 12 feet into size nine shoes!!! I have often wondered how many other gals have feet problems due to shoes that were not large enough??

I was most surprised to see the West Virginia Poem! I have always believed my father to be the poet who wrote that poem, but in a slightly different wording! I have it in his handwriting, signed by him. I have copied it with a couple of updated phrases, have printed it and sell it framed at West Virginia Heritage Crafts in the old Quiet Dell Grade School. I am sending an attachment of my fathers version of this poem, with the updated phrases. I feared no one would know what the drink was that was mentioned, and I changed it to Coca Cola.....My apologies to anyone else who might have written the poem!! I was just always told my father did the deed and had not reason to think otherwise...

Now that I have written a "novel," I would like to express my Congratulations on the Seventh Anniversary of the Washington Irving High School Newsletter!! What a great thing you all have done, and how hard you all have worked to keep this Newsletter updated and interesting to all past students of Washington Irving High School, the rival schools, and anyone who attended school in Clarksburg!! God Bless all of you!! Thanks from myself and the other classmates from 1946 and 1947 who have had the pleasure of sharing your ever growing "baby!!"



submitted by: Marolyn Tustin Jett (WI '56)
ma5388@earthlink.net

The last newsletter was one of the best, (possibly the longest) and has taken me some time to read and reread. Once is never enough to digest and enjoy all the news that is in them. Congratulations on starting the seventh year. I have been a reader and contributor to the newsletter for about six years and still enjoy each one. You and Judy are great to do this each and every month!!!

The Mystery Picture is the Ritz Theatre on Pike St. beside the Clarksburg Library. I was fourteen before I paid adult ticket prices as I looked twelve until then. I remember The Ideal Studio and always standing looking at the pictures through the large front windows and also Peoples Store. Was it a Mens Clothing Store? Beside the theatre was a newsstand, I may have this all wrong but it may have been owned by Sandra (Turner) Berisford's parents (WI '56) (or maybe a relation) and Sandy's mother worked there some. I remember her being very pleasant, but business like. John Harrison WI '56 was right when he remarked about Sandy's pretty smile (at our 50th reunion in June), always a very pretty smile just like her mothers.

I remember standing in front of the Ritz Theatre and the Clarksburg Library waiting for the Stealey bus with my mother when a young boy peddling papers came down the street waving and calling out very loudly EXTRA-EXTRA!! The Korean War had started!!! It was 1950. I had just turned 12 and remember being very frightened and holding onto my mothers waist.

I do believe the "Precious Child" in Sept. issue is Don Sager, WI class of '56. Of course the picture depicts him a "few" years prior to that. I don't remember him looking like that nor know what he looked like in Alta Vista, after all It was Central Jr. before us "Stealey-ites" were mixed in with that Broad Oaks "gang"! I am going to feel pretty foolish if this is not Don!!

Some items in last issue I'd like to comment on:
I remember the "precious child' in the last issue, Delores Costlow, the youngest of the family of girls. I would roller skate on Davis Street where the Costlow girls lived. I was not the age of those girls, more like in between them. Sharon Greitzner, Marianna Waroblak and a few other Stealey girls wore our skate keys around our necks on shoe strings and I for one still "wear" cinders in my knees. We'd skate down lower Stealey Ave., up Baker to Duff Ave (EUB Church corner) and on up Duff Ave. to Davis St. (across from Morgan School) and back down to where it intersected with Stealey Ave. again. Costlows lived below that corner. One eve. about dusk we had finished skating and were standing on the corner of Davis and Stealey Ave. talking (in front of Guy and Eleanor Bumgardners home and daughter Donna) when Carol Costlow (now deceased) came along on her way home. We stood and talked and for some reason Carol explained to us the "art" and correct way to shave our legs. Carol was a year older and we listened intently. Am I the only one that remembers this? Funny some things we never forget!

I also remember Palace Furniture, the pretty windows and the little house beside it with the toys at Christmas time and Santa! I would go with my Mother there often and would see Mr. Cubbon and Sam Babb working. I bought my first bedroom suite there and still have a rocking chair my mother bought at Palace. I loved to walk the mezzanine and look at all the pretty home decor. A shame there is nothing like that left in Clarksburg or anywhere around that area. (As the saying goes "they don't build them like they used to") !



NEW EMAIL ADDRESSES


Rusty and Marty (WI '57) Elliott rustyelliott@verizon.net
Biff Trimble (WI '57) bifftrimble@bellsouth.net
Francis D. Muscari Sr. (WI '57) fdmsr@verizon.net
Maryella Muscari Flowers (WI '52) jflowers1@earthlink.net
Judy Waugh Fanning (WI '62) JAWWV@aol.com
Charles G. "Pete" Johnson (WI '60) cgjohnson@jacksonkelly.com
Bill Dean (RW '51) WDean1016@BellSouth.Net
Patty Rogers Hood (WI '50) vprh59@verizon.net
Robin Craig Brannon (WI '80)
and Pete Brannon (WI '77)
robinbrannon@cfl.rr.com
Ionia Urtso Stemple (ND '60) bobandionia@verizon.net
Jeff George (WI '64) jeff.george@cox.net
Bob Schneider (VHS '59) bobschneider@sccoast.net
Debbie Tuttle Yorgensen
(Parkersburg Catholic HS '69)
dyorgensen@hughes.net


EMAIL CHANGE OF ADDRESS

Janice Hall Sorrells McPherson (WI '64)    trykelegs@yahoo.com




ONE ROOM SCHOOL HOUSE

submitted by: Kay Lawson Adair (WI '58)
Kladair@aol.com

This one room school that is located on the Meadowbrook Road is where my mother Janice Sutton Lawson and her brothers and sisters attended school as children. They then went to Bridgeport High School. My mother's sister Katherine Sutton taught school there after she graduated from Fairmont State. The Farm that is located just up the hill and across from Smith Chapel Church was owned by my Grandparents. My Mother sold the farm in the early 1980's. The road to the FBI Fingerprint division goes through the lower meadow. Many wonderful memories of time spent there with my Grandmother. I also have many good memories of the Arcade as my Fathers business was there for many years. Keep up the good work.



QUILT FOR 2007


2006 QUILT

submitted by: Sue Selby Moats (WI '55)
Moatsue@aol.com

"Oh, those West Virginia Hills, how majestic and how grand......"
Autumn in WV is my favorite time of year with all the beautiful colors of the foliage in the mountains. Let's capture that look in the second annual WIN Scholarship Donation Quilt for deserving RCBHS students. Chances for the quilt will be available at the Sarasota Picnic in March 2007 as well as by mail.

Calling all Quilters:
-Please make a 12 ½” block (finishing to 12") of your choice that will convey something you love about Autumn as related to Clarksburg & West Virginia.
-Please use a cream colored background fabric with any Autumn colors you choose. Some ideas for a block could be: Bear's Paw; Delectable Mountain; Log Cabin; any leaf or tree block; Hill & Valley; Moon Over the Mountain; The Harrison Block; West VA Lily; West Virginia Star, or another block which relates to Autumn/WV.

A good reference book for block ideas is The Quilt Book by Judy Rehmel which has 4000 illustrated & indexed patterns.

-It has been suggested that we do not include photos or other embellishments so that the quilt will be more usable and washable.

Please send your 12 1/2" block (to finish at 12" in the quilt) before Thanksgiving 2006 to:

Sue Moats
109 Normandy Drive
Silver Spring MD 20901

Let's raise even more money for Roleta's WIN Scholarship for 2007!



MY ROMANCE

FROM THE EDITOR: It amazes me that only two people would write about a high school romance. Even thought this subject has been suggested by several people. So let’s try it this way!

Write to me about and tell me about a crush you had on someone while in high school. And listen to this---You DON’T EVEN HAVE TO TELL US THE NAME----just tell us about the emotion! Maybe it was someone you wanted to date but for some reason never ask that person. What attracted you to the person?

submitted by: John Teter (WI '61)
Jteter@balmar.com

I cannot remember having any SERIOUS RELATIONSHIPS my first two years at WI, but that sure changed my Junior and Senior years. I do not choose to divulge names, but I think that I must have had TWO really SERIOUS relationships my Junior year that lasted the entire year, but somehow I found myself going to the prom with neither one of those young ladies. I actually went to the prom my Junior year with a Senior girl, and had to double-date with my brother who was a senior at the time.

One thing that I thought was very interesting at the time (and still do) is that my brother and I both dated the same girls from time-to-time; two in particular that I can remember. However, we never had anything bad come out of these situations, as we never managed to date the same girl at the same time.

My senior year, I had one serious relationship after another, ALL WITH FRESHMAN GIRLS (one in particular). It seemed like an era that a lot of the senior boys were dating freshman girls as I can remember 5 or 6 of my closer friends also dating a freshman girl. TODAY I find this to be very interesting as I look back at my 1961 yearbook and the graduating class of 1961 had a LOT OF GOOD-LOOKING girls in that class.



MY FIRST LOVE
Dreams of Yesterday

submitted by: Deedie Swisher Souders (WI '52)
DeedieDesigns@aol.com

I wandered back in my dreams of Yesterday and found so many familiar places in Clarksburg which brought a smile to my face that I could write about them for this October newsletter...

If you were to go into my work room you would find a tall stack of boxes that are labeled: Who's-Who...
In each box it holds someone's life of which are about My dreams of Yesterday...
When you remove the top of the boxes, Their sweet voices jump out as they did years ago....
It still tells me stories of when I was young and in LOVE...with a special person who had a sparkle in his eye...
We watched each other grow into becoming a young adult and we learned how to treasure life together in those days so long ago...
When I looked among the many pictures, I saw his face so dear, it was like he called out to me and it seemed I was a child again....
As I strolled through the years of Dreams, His care and love surrounded me...He taught me many things about life!!
How to be kind and gentle through patience's, joy and wisdom and that I should always share with others, to whom would come into my life and create a lifetime of dreams called memories.... As we traveled down the different roads, The most important,
I never forgot....
In all my dreams of YESTERDAY,
I wandered back, TODAY, to find all the old places to once again hold in my hands, those warm and lasting memories...
TOMORROW, I will close up the boxes and turn out the light, and hold in my heart all those dreams that I call,
MY MEMORIES, of, MY FIRST LOVE....
In Appreciation:
To my Father, who gave me patience and the love of design.
To my first love, who gave me a warm heart.
To my Husband, who has been my true friend and has given me a life time of wonderful memories.
To my sons, who gave me so many precious moments..in the creation of design and the soft words of Prayer.
To my grandsons, who have given me each a different perspective of life and love.
To my great-grandson, who has given me a reason for: Genealogy
To create a DREAM to be Remember.....

submitted by: Dave Gianettino (VHS '58)
DGIANETTINO@charter.net

I’ve enjoyed getting the newsletter for the past few months. Even though I graduated from Victory in 1958, I recognize many of the names of WI students during that era, particularly the ones who were active in sports. I’m writing to say that in the picture of the students in city government in 1959, the unidentified guy in the front row extreme left appears to be Bill Kaska who was in the VHS class of 59.



submitted by: Jim Alvaro (WI '56)
Jalvaro@aol.com

Congratulations to you and Judy on your 7 year anniversary. I know everyone has enjoyed it as much as I have. I don't think we thank you both enough and I don't know if it is possible to thank you enough.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thank you Jim!



submitted by: Cheryl Corder Mclure (WI '64)
mcheryl135@earthlink.net

I enjoyed the new newsletter! I was reading one letter about Mr. Frederick. What about Mr. Duckworth? He was truly wonderful. I was out of school for two months with Mono went back not being a great science student and while I was doing a big makeup test he left the room and put his answer book on his desk. I looked and looked at that book remembering my Father saying you could never trust a cheater. I didn't look and of course I flunked the test. Well he called me in and said "You know I'm going to give you a "C" because you were either too honest or stupid to cheat". I will never forget that as long as I live. He could also find the guys and where they were who skipped school.



submitted by: Penny Christie Johnson (WI '60)
penem@nc.rr.com

It took me over an hour to read all the wonderful stories in this month's newsletter..thanks so much for another excellent issue.

I was looking at the picture of George Cinci's 5th grade class at Morgan and recognized so many of those great kids..One was the first gal pictured...Her name was Kathy McDonald and she was a close friend of mine from the Presbyterian Church...Kathy moved to KY when we all were in 7th grade. Claire Malfregeot and I rode the train from Cburg to Ft. Thomas, Ky to visit her one summer. I have lost track of her so if anyone has any information I would love to have it.

Recognizing friends like John Jones, David Andre, Larry Ammons, Greg Jeranko, Danny Pettrey, Nina Meredith, Alice Steele and of course George brought back wonderful memories of really great people.

To Andy White and Diana Calverly I send sympathy on the death of your mother and aunt, Martha Lou White. Diana I see that you live in Cary, NC. I live near Pinehurst.



submitted by: Steve Limbers (WI '57)
Limberses@cs.com

That picture of the arcade after the fire was a heartbreaker. I was gone after September 1957 so I never got to see the ruins (or maybe I saw them and blocked them from my memory). I loved the arcade. It was a great way to start this very good issue. And I found out I had been spelling Drexal's incorrectly all these years.

I may remember something that a lot of folks don't about that little house beside the Palace. For a time, in the very early days, it was a beauty parlor run by my Broad Oaks neighbor, Lottie Wisener. I'll bet no one remembers that except Don Sager, who remembers everything.



submitted by: Jon Darnall (WI '53)
Jondarnall@dslextreme.com

Trivia picture is Ritz Theater ....that wasn't hard.

Add on to Palace Furniture from last month....Who put the Crosley automobile straddled over the iron railing leading to the basement store entrance of the Palace Furniture? naughty, naughty. I won't tell.



submitted by: Mike Snyder (WI '58)
Mefastwater@yahoo.com

Thanks for the note, thanks for seven years of a great job--here's hoping for seven more! When I traveled to Europe after WVU in 1963 with the Waroblak's paratrooper knapsack on my back, there was a book in my pack entitled "Europe on a Dollar a Day". I stayed overseas for three months and traveled all the way from Norway to North Africa. I had to borrow $13.00 from a Canadian and sneak on a train across southern Germany, but I made it home. Including my Icelandic airfare, my travels cost me $1,000. I came home without a cent, but I count as my life's biggest adventure.

You can print this. Hope to see you next week. Got to run. Sorry I didn't edit--guests at door.



PRECIOUS CHILD FOR OCTOBER 2006



Do you recognize the person pictured above? Write your guess to Roleta1@aol.com. I only print correct guesses so isn’t if fun to at least guess?



STUDENT GOVERNMENT PICTURE FROM SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER

submitted by: Steve Griffith (ND '60)
Sgriff2393@aol.com

The Keeley in the third row of that picture is my cousin, Jack Keeley, husband to The Honorable Irene Murphy Keeley, currently seated on the bench of the Federal Court in Clarksburg.



LETTER FROM OUR 2006 WIN SCHOLARSHIP WINNER

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Brianna Mc Quillan graduated from R.C.Byrd High School in 2006 and was awarded the 2006 WIN (Washington Irving Newsletter) SCHOLARSHIP. Brianna is attending WV Weslyan College in Buckhannon, WV. She wrote the letter below to let us know how she is doing at school.

submitted by: Brianna McQuillan (R. C. Byrd 2006)
socrchic106@yahoo.com

I just thought I would update you on college life so far. It hasn't been too bad. Soccer has been the hard part. My classes are going very well. I haven't had too much trouble. I've got a lot studying to do though. Well just thought I would update you.



CIVIL ENGINEERING ALUMNUS ENDOWS PROFESSORSHIP

Maurice Wadsworth is a native of Clarksburg, West Virginia, a retired civil engineer, and an extremely loyal alumnus of West Virginia University. That loyalty recently led Wadsworth and his wife, Jo Ann, to establish an endowment at WVU to create the Maurice A. and Jo Ann Wadsworth Distinguished Professorship in civil or environmental engineering.

BE SURE TO VISIT THIS WEBSITE TO SEE OUR CLASSMATE.

http://www.cemr.wvu.edu/news/news-details.php?item=714




TRIVIA PICTURE


ANOTHER VIEW OF THE RITZ THEATRE TAKEN IN 1957

submitted by: Nancy Mayer Capilla (WI '59)
Rcapilla@verizon.net

I think it's the Ritz Theater.
I didn't like it as much as I did the Robinson Grand.
Also talking about getting ready for Friday night football I can remember my father spending a lot of hours in his office planning the half time music.
We were a lot like the football team unless it was really storming hard we played. Plus we all looked forward to away games specialty the one to Parkersburg.
Glad you had a nice vacation.....
Keep up the good work on the newsletter.




submitted by: Fred G. Layman (VHS ‘46)
FGL46VHS@AOL.COM

The trivia photo is of the former Ritz Theatre which opened on October 31, 1927 at 404 West Pike Street at a cost of $250,000. It was erected by Jack Marks with a seating capacity of 1,200. On August 1, 1930 Mr. Marks sold the theatre to Warner Brothers. During World War II to get more patrons to attend movies on Wednesday evenings the theatre had a game called LUCKY which was played at intermission time. It worked like BINGO and you could win silver dollars. The last movie shown was on Sunday, April 1, 1973. The Salerno Brothers, contractors, from Shinnston demolished the theatre so as to make room for the new Clarksburg-Harrison public library.



submitted by: Bud Wheelock (WI '60)
hawkewoode708@yahoo.com

First of all, the pic is of the Ritz Theater that bit the dust when they built the new library. Back in the good old days when we had four- the Ritz, the Robinson Grand, Moore's Opera House, and the Orpheum (where I remember seeing the last silent movie "Uncle Tom's Cabin" shown in Clarksburg) in the 1960's. Every time I venture downtown, it just gets worse-more empty or condemned buildings in contrast with the new sidewalks, crosswalks, and street lights. How embarrassing when we have so many people coming in for the Italian Heritage Festival!

Secondly, I am very gratified at the response to my story about Jack Frederick. I have heard from a lot of people I didn't know. Tonight I got an email from my classmate & friend Larry Ammons (WI '60) who informed me that Mr. Frederick is now at the Heritage Nursing Home the other side of Bridgeport. He said that Jack is not in good physical condition, which I knew, but that his mind is as sharp as ever. I will make it a point to see him right away. Deepest thanks to you and yours for the newsletter and the way it keeps us all together when we are so many miles apart!



submitted by: Marlene Parsons Andre (RW '53)
RW53@verizon.net

Marlene Parsons Andre (RW '53) RW53@verizon.net Well I think it is the Ritz theater on Pike St. It was right next to the Library. I spent many hours in there. They tore it down and put the new library there. Waldamore, the former library is still there, thank goodness, every old structure, they want to tear down and put a Gas Station. Spent a lot of time in the old Library too.

The photos of the Arcade are great.



submitted by: Tom Blizzard (WI '60)
Hwysparky@aol.com

It looks like the Ritz Theater. I worked there as an usher after school to make spending money.



submitted by: Frances Tate Barrett (WI '50)
flmom1cat4@juno.com

The trivia picture for September is the Ritz Movie Theater on Pike St. Just on the right of the theater as you look at the picture was the library. Also I see the Ideal Studio down the street. That is the studio that took our senior yearbook pictures for the class of 1950.

Thank you and Judy for the great job you do on the Newsletter. The graphics are fabulous and very appropriate for the subject that follows.



submitted by: Phyllis Alton Nichols (WI '57)
Nmimiphyllis@aol.com

The building in the trivia picture is the Ritz Theater. The new Clarksburg/Harrison Library is located there now, and the whole block is changed..



submitted by: Jody Buffington Aud (WI '77)
Jody.aud@priogroup.com

This month’s trivia picture is of Ritz Theatre. My mother, Helen Bryant Buffington (WI Class of 1946) worked in the box office at that theatre and in 1935, my father Ulysses Buffington was crowned “YO-YO Champ” for the county - a distinction he still reminds his family about every chance he gets!!! Coincidentally, Ideal Studio at one time merged with Sayre studio and my father worked for them before opening his own chain of photographic studios in Clarksburg, Fairmont and Buckhannon. I have lived in numerous places since graduating from college in 1981 and I still run into people who, upon hearing my maiden name is Buffington remember that my father took their senior picture in high school!!



submitted by: Jim Alvaro (WI '56)
Jalvaro@aol.com

The trivia picture I believe is the Ritz Theatre. I cannot remember the times I stood in line for the 21 cartoons they showed every Sat. Not only was I a youngster standing in line to watch the cartoons but when I was going to Wesleyan I would tell a buddy of mine about the cartoons and when they were playing at the theatre. We would drive in on Fri and spend the night at my Mom and Dad's house and then get up and stand in line for the cartoons. The funny thing was that he was 6'-9" tall and a college All-American basketball player and of course I was not that tall but I was taller than most of the others in line. They laughed at first but after a few times they recognized us and we were just one of the kids. As far as going to the movies then we couldn't afford the 21 cents. We had to go to the Moore's Opera House or the Orpheum for 17 cents and wait for the movies to come there from the Ritz and the Robinson Grand.

Oh what wonderful days. Would not trade those times in Clarksburg for anything. Thanks for keep bringing up the "ole days".



submitted by: Mary Virginia Duncan Wilke (WI '55)
Mwdusty1@aol.com

This is the RITZ Theater! Many a wonderful film viewed there & at the Robinson Grand Theater which was on up the street. This was the only form of entertainment that my Mom & I enjoyed together except for the Canasta games. My Mother, Violet Duncan, was a LPN at Union Protestant Hospital & worked most holidays so that other people could have the days off, so it was a real treat to go to the movies with her. I, also attended many movies with my girlfriends, Jeannine Greynolds & Betty Ducouer. These theaters were so lavishly decorated, had balconies & all the plush seating. So different from all the theaters of today.

I am sorry that I missed commenting on the Palace Furniture Store - I have kept my cedar box full of memories, too. The Arcade was fascinating & the records were great & the smells from the bakery were the best, as my favorite bread in the whole world is & was Salt Rising Bread! I believe the little building across from that was the Greek Hot Dog stand, which sold the most unbelievable chili hot dogs in the world! I still get hungry thinking about them.

The skating rink - We went there for one of the parties & I made my skirt with wiring to wear that evening. It was a maroon corduroy & I wore it to class that day & had such a terrible time of keeping it in place, what with the crinoline slips we wore back then & the wiring. Most fun was in Maud Yoak's class. I was not the best skater but I had my shoe skates & went every time I could. Enjoyment!

Of the teachers in WI - I think Maud Yoak & Mr. Frederick were my favorites. She was so great & her sense of humor was outstanding. She had taught my Mother 30 years before. Mr. Frederick & his books of fallacies were the best teaching tools of all.

I, too, have so many memories of Clarksburg & how safe & great it was in the 50's. I was so very disappointed in the downtown destruction areas when I visited last year. I so enjoy your newsletter. Thank you for sharing!



submitted by: Mickie Ford Brumage (WI '61)
and Dick Brumage (WI '61)
micdic324@sbcglobal.net

Mickie remembers the Ritz Theater on Pike Street next to the library. She remembers her aunt taking her to see the "House of Wax". The line was very long waiting along the iron fence to the beautiful library. We both remember the Saturday morning cartoons and Cowboy movies.



submitted by: Wayne White (WI '60)
WaynePawco@verizon.net

This is the Ritz theatre..Located on Pike Street,,,Was the place of many good picture shows..This was a main bus stop also for the students of WI and Central...Would catch the bus to Stealey and Hartland area of Clarksburg. The Clarksburg public library is now on the property after the theater was razed.... The original Public library was housed in the Waldomore and later moved up closer to Pike street as the Ritz was razed. The Central Bus has a stop there now on the same property in front of the Library.



submitted by: Diana Cleavenger Swiger (WI '66)
Mamaswag6@aol.com

I spent a lot of Saturday and Sunday afternoons there. Used to go to the King's Beauty shop up stairs. My 2nd cousin did my hair the day I got married. Her Name was June Hudkins and she now lives in Grafton, W, I think. Just got finished reading the newsletter and it is GREAT as usual. I enjoyed breakfast reading this morning. Sure is a lot nicer than the newspaper, also, not as violent.



submitted by: Mary Sue Clark Spahr (WI '56)
Mssmpahr@aol.com

The mystery picture is the Ritz theatre. It was a great place to spend a hot, summer afternoon because the movies were great and it was one of the few air-conditioned buildings in Clarksburg.



submitted by: Ron Cleavenger (WI '63)
RonCleaven@aol.com

The picture is of the Ritz Theater on Pike Street next to the Public library. I remember attending all four movie theaters in Clarksburg on one Saturday, beginning at the Moore's Opera House, then the Orpheum, then the Robinson Grand, and ending at the Ritz. Total cost then was 017+ 0.17 + 0.21 + 0.21 = $0.76 for all four. Wonder what the cost is now?



submitted by: Joanne W. Tetrick (WI '52)
Fraqgilegranny34@msn.com

I had to look close to be sure this is the old Ritz Theater on Pike St. What a pity that this art-deco theater was torn down. Many a movie was enjoyed there by all of us. My husband, Dick Tetrick (WI '47) said his deceased wife, Becky Wilson Tetrick (WI '47) father had his barbershop next to the Ritz. It was convenient to have Stickman's news between the Robinson-Grand and the Ritz to get our popcorn before the movie.



submitted by: John Teter (WI '61)
Jteter@balmar.com

The TRIVIA PICTURE is the Ritz Theater, previously located on Pike Street next to the original public library. Now the theater IS THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, and has been rebuilt and/or restructured as such. The old library is still located in its original spot, but I am not sure what the old library is being used for.

If you look down Pike Street from the Ritz Theater, you will see the Robinson Grand Theater that was on Pike Street as well, probably 100 yards (at most) away from the Ritz. Interesting comparison to today's movie theaters as most present-day theaters are MILES away from any other theater and a lot of present-day theaters are located in MALLS.

ANOTHER good newsletter, and THANK YOU and JUDY!



submitted by: Doris J. (Jeanne Walters) Webster (WI '59)
Jeanwbstr@aol.com

That's definitely the Ritz Theater, which was located next to the Clarksburg Library. Further down the street was the Robinson Grand. There was another theater close by called the Moore's Opera House. I have lots of memories about all three. I think there was another theater in Clarksburg on Main Street called the Orphium or something, but I'm not too sure about that.



submitted by: Sonja Grossa Alvaro (Bridgeport '58)
Csonja1940@aol.com

The trivia picture is the Ritz Theatre located next to the library. We used to sneak a sandwich when we went to the movies. Those were the days when it was safe for our parents to let a groups of kids go to the movies alone. We would spend the whole day watching cartoons.



submitted by: Deedie Swisher Souders (WI '52)
DeedieDesigns@aol.com

I think the mystery picture this month is the RITZ Theater on Pike Street. This was a short block and the IDEAL Studio was on the corner, then there was a Barber shop where I use to take my boys to get their hair cut when they were little boys. Maybe the late 50's... Then beside the Barber shop was a News Stand which carried all kinds of Magazines, News papers from every where, plus lots of goodies. The theater was an older building and was very large inside, but still had a lot of nice architecture. Many Sat. afternoons we would go to the movies and spend the entire day watching first one movie then the second movie that they showed along with the main feature.

People would catch the bus in front and it seemed like it was always so busy there on that corner, in front of the theater.



BROAD OAKS-NEIGHBORHOOD-SCHOLARSHIP CHALLENGE

submitted by: Don Sager (WI '56)
dks@davtv.com

Last month, my bosom buddy Jim Alvaro reported to me on the Broad Oaks Picnic that was held in Clarksburg. He said that there were over 200 present and former Broad Oaksians in attendance. I really did find this hard to believe until he mentioned hoagies, pepperoni rolls, homemade meatballs and BEER. Then I said to myself “Gee Whiz and Golly Be!” That will probably date me.

However upon contemplating about the old neighborhood and conversing daily by e-mail with my band of Broad Oaks compatriots I got to thinking about the many neighborhoods that made up the Jewel of the Hills. And the competition between the neighborhoods, especially in grade school and Central Jr. School Patrol basketball, church basketball, playground leagues and always the pick-up ball games in each season. As was previously discussed in the Newsletter, it seemed Stealey always had the best of all worlds in terms of facilities. We were always walking to Stealey and then too tired to whack ‘um. Broad Oaks kids (in the really old days) only had Johnson Field, a corner lot; the side of Grow’s Hill for football where you could fall off the end of the earth trying to catch Kenny Lohr on an end sweep; an ash can on a telephone pole (no backboard) on Martin St. for basketball; and the street for touch football, kick-the-can etc. Plus the many playground competitions-my hoops would never be straight for the potholders, so no smiley faces.

Now my sports consist of golf, bowling and volleyball. And no neighborhood competition unless some one wants to bring a team to South Carolina.

So let’s think again about Broad Oaks vs Stealey, Adamston, East End, North View, Kelly Hill, Broadway, Anmore, the Hill and others I may have forgotten.

I PROPOSE THAT THE COMPETION BE BETWEEN THE VARIOUS NEIGHBORHOODS TO SEE WHICH GROUP CAN RAISE THE MOST MONEY FOR THE WIN SCHOLARSHIP. A PROJECT NEAR AND DEAR TO ROLETA.

I will serve as Captain of the Broad Oaks team. We get first “dibs”. I will collect contributions for the Broad Oaks Neighborhood ONLY until November 15, 2006. Then, I will announce the Broad Oaks total in the December Newsletter.

From that amount-the other neighborhoods can try and beat it. Each neighborhood will have to be their own team and elect a Captain and collect monies. How you all do it is up to you, if you wish to compete and NOT WIMP OUT. However try to keep the collections to a 6 or 7 week period.

FOR BROAD OAKS PEOPLE, AND I HOPE THE 200 OR SO AT THE PICNIC HAVE ACCESS TO THE NEWSLETTER, PLEASE SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO -------

Don Sager
29 Plymouth Lane
Bluffton, South Carolina, 29909.

Make your check out to Don Sager………I promise not to head for South America.



MEMORIES AND BROAD OAKS

submitted by: Dave Hornor (WI '59)
Hornorjones@earthlink.net

I moved there from Shinnston in 1949 when I was starting the 2nd grade. We moved to Shuttleworth Street because my father and uncle ran the coal mine about 200 yards above our house. It was a small mine that used horses and mules to pull the coal cars. I liked hanging around the blacksmith shop watching John Alissio shoe horses and sharpen picks and drill bits. There was no railroad siding so the coal was dumped over a tipple and trucked to Glen Elk to be loaded into coal cars. My dad would take me in the mines on weekends to check the water. The mine closed down when I was in junior high.

We lived in the last house on Shuttleworth Street, a 3 bedroom home (about the size of a large living room) that sat 6 feet from the street.

We knew everyone for blocks around, not just the kids; Bob Davis, Kenny McIe, Fred Alvaro, Jerry Paugh, Patty Pferdehart, Ronny Grow, Jimmy Coffindaffer, Babette Holland and dozens more, we also knew their parents and often their grandparents.

I have so many memories from Broad Oaks:
* I think the first time I ever saw TV was at Fred and Jim Alvaro’s house, sometime in the early 50’s. It had color cellophane over the screen so we thought we were watching color TV.
* Frank Iaquinta and his dad taught me how to tie flies.
* A bunch of us tried to smoke Indian Stogies from the trees in Bob Westbrook’s granddad’s back yard. We were all disappointed because they never worked.
* And I’ll never forget Cherokee Sue and Little John, the local country-music duo, heading off to sing at the radio station. Cherokee Sue was always dressed in her white, fringed cowgirl outfit complete with six gun.

I was most connected to Broad Oaks during the years at Alta Vista especially in the summer. In the early grades, we spent the summer playing war (we could turn anything into a gun) in the hills and fields above Shuttleworth St. This is where we also picked berries and sometimes sold them around the neighborhood for candy and pop money which we immediately spent at Iaquinta’s or Doc Stalnakerrs. Fifth and sixth grade summers were spent playing baseball. In the mornings I’d head down the hill to Jerry Paugh’s house or the bridge by Doc’s and join up with Larry Mosser, Mark Garrett, Bob Westbrook, Fred Alvaro on any of a dozen or so others and go play ball.

Broad Oaks was a little lacking in play grounds. There were none! So we would turn any vacant lot into a ball field. We’d go almost to Golf Plaza and use Louis Johnson’s lot where we risk breaking windows in his green house.

For football, we’d use the field above Shuttleworth St which sloped at about a 40 degree angle and you risked getting the wind knocked out of you if you carried the ball around the lower end.

Winter was school, patrol basketball and sled riding for which the hills were perfect. We’d build bonfires and make jumps. Soaking wet, freezing cold and exhilarated, we’d stay out as late as possible risking punishment to get that one last ride.

During the grade school years, Broad Oaks was my world, after 6th grade, my world expanded to the rest of Clarksburg and then when I went away to college, to the rest of the US. I spent 21 years living in New York City. Now, my wife Patti Jones, my 12-year-old son Hart and I live in Seattle, a few blocks from the campus of the University of Washington which has a student body of over 50,000. It’s a sophisticated and cultured area.

But the Broad Oaks of my childhood became and has essentially remained my model for the world, a stable world of community, equality and caring with a good dash of joy and humor tossed in. It wasn’t perfect. I, like all of us, have had my consciousness raised especially with regard to sexual and racial discrimination. but I miss Broad Oaks of the 50’s and as a place to grow-up, I think it was unbeatable.



submitted by: Jim Alvaro (WI '56)
Jalvaro@aol.com


Fred Alvaro WI ' 59, Jim Alvaro WI ' 56, with cousin Rick Matheny

Hey gang, I went home for a family wedding, and to see my mother in law and while I was there I found out that there was a Broad Oaks Reunion, and the Black Heritage Festival. Well, Freddie and I went to the BO reunion and you would not believe the turnout. There was about 200-250 people there when we left to go to the wedding and they were still coming in at 2:00. The picnic was to go from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. We were about the first ones there. We were greeted by Chuck Paul, Danny Stalnaker, and Fenny McQuain's son. We stayed at the sign in table for a while to see who all we knew but didn't recognize anyone until Chuck named them as they were coming in. Some we have not seen in 50 or 60 years. There were the Russell's, Philbin's, Paul's, Lemasters, Don Douglas, Terangos, Rose Mary Medina and sister Joyce Ann. They were from 16 to 90 years old. From all up and down Harrison St, Ross St and all streets that cross, many from up on "Grow's Hill", upper and lower Haymond Hwy. You would have missed a lot of people if you did not read their name tags or have some one point them out as I did. Freddie and I hated to leave early but we had the wedding to go to. The food was all home made. They had two pavilions end to end. In one pavilion were about 10, 8 foot tables full of food such as home made hoagies, pepperoni rolls, hot dog chili, of course, big trays of homemade meatballs in real thick sauce, grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, large tubs of iced down beer and pop, salads and casseroles. All this for nothing except if you wanted to donate money in a jar as you signed in. It was very well organized. They had two large tables with nothing but picture albums, pictures of families and year books that go way back. The young and the old had a blast.

If there is anyway you all could go back and do this one next year, you should. I know if nothing happens, I will be there.

Boy, if Roleta would have seen this one and see how the "Broadoaksians" get together and see just how proud we are of our neighborhood, she would POO POO. I asked them to send me a copy of the people who attended and they said they would and I will pass it on to you.

Hope you all are doing well. I AM NOT!!! I gained 11# while in Cburg. By the way the Black Heritage Festival was well organized and we got to see The Drifters when we got there late. The food was wonderful there also. A lot of soul food of course and believe it or not, there were about 75% white people attending the festival.

Well, that is about all I have to say this year.
Love y'all,


Fred Alvaro WI '59, Chuck Paugh WI '65, Buck (wannabe Broadoaksian) Tustin WI '55





SCHOOL SAVINGS

Did you buy saving stamps and put them in a little book----waiting for the book to be full? Did you save money at school by giving the teacher money and she would write in your little bank book the amount of your deposit and the amount you had on hand at the bank? Did you ever cash in that book? Did you ever receive your money? Some of us tried but were told the time had expired and the account was no longer available….too many years had passed. Did this happen to you? Write Roleta1@aol.com with your experiences. Do you happen to still have your bank book from school?


BANKS

submitted by: David Corsini (WI '50)
DLCOR114@aol.com

I worked for Union National bank for 38 years, having retired there as Senior Vice President in l995 when Bank One took over and it is a shame that a great bank like ours is nothing now. We had 168 employees and it has about 30. When Bank One took over, I retired because I didn't like what was going on. They then sold to Chase Manhattan and it is not much better, anyway, that is the banking industry today and it is not going to get any better.



FALL FOOTBALL

submitted by: David Corsini (WI '50)
DLCOR114@aol.com

I remember one night of football at Parkersburg my junior year. We were four touchdown underdogs and we went there before a full house and beat them. The score was 20 to 9. I gained 187 yards that night and I am not bragging about that. I also had a quick kick that night that went 85 yards. It was a wonderful night. My wife of 54 plus years was the head of the band and there was a parade down Main Street at 1:00 AM in Clarksburg. The Parkersburg papers the next day called me the human tank and I still have people that remember that and say something about it to me. It was a great day for WI football


submitted by: John Teter (WI '61)
Jteter@balmar.com

I was not allowed to play high school football due to a kidney operation I had to have at the ripe old age of 14, but my brother Bob played and I can remember WALKING out Chestnut Street to the Hite Stadium. Somewhere along Chestnut Street there was a path that led down over the hill to the football field, which most people took - unless it was raining, as they figured that they would SLIDE down the hill in the rain.

I can remember my mother (now 90 years young) working the concession stand, making hot dogs, during the games played at Hite Field.

I remember one game between WI and Victory that my brother, along with Bob Secret and the rest of that FANTASTIC TEAM, when it was pouring POURING pouring rain and the stands were still FULL. And the cheering NEVER STOPPED. And the ladies at the concession stand were never NOT BUSY! That is probably a strange thing for me to remember, especially since I do not remember who won the game.


submitted by: Sandy Zickefoose Lindke (WI '56)
Sjlindke@wmconnect.com

I was a majorette with the band. I too remember the cowpath that went from Chestnut Street down to the football field. Not too bad going down but quite a climb going up. Since I did not have a lettered sweater, Mike Tricot loaned me his during basketball season, to wear while passing out programs.

One of my best remembered teachers is Miss Virginia Robinson. At the time I was going steady with my first husband Gene Thomas. He was in the Navy and would come home for long weekends. When Miss Robinson saw his car go by she would call me to the front and ask if I had all my work completed. If I was finished she would let me leave class early since it was my last class of the day.

It was a treat for us 1956 class members who toured the high school during our 50th class reunion weekend. Sure did bring back memories and a few good laughs. Glad you and Bill are home safe. Our Grandchildren will never have the security and freedoms that we did.

Thanks to you and Judy for all your hard work and time that it takes to put out this monthly newsletter. My best to everyone.


submitted by: Roleta Smith Meredith (WI '59)
Roleta1@aol.com

FALL---
“SCHOOL IS STARTING!”
NEW CLOTHES, OLD FRIENDS, NEW FRIENDS, NEW TEACHERS, ETC.


Yes, I have great memories of fall. With both parents being teachers, it meant something different in my house. As soon as the goldenrod bloomed in the fields, my parents started talking about school, planning their bulletin boards, their classes, etc. But as soon as school started, things in the house became an uproar until around Halloween….it took the teachers that long to get the kids in class settled down. After Halloween the house again became a home.

Fall in our home during my brother’s high school years also changed the house! FOOTBALL! New plays were discussed in the living room (This was back when the family was together in the living room-thus the name---we lived in there---pre-family room days). And when I say plays were discussed, they were often played out in the middle of the room. My father played football when he was in high school, so he was more than interested in Roy’s football playing. Friday night was FOOTBALL FRIDAY NIGHT at our house. On Friday night, we went to dinner at a local restaurant-Minard’s, O’Day’s or Ruth’s Corner were typical--Roy usually ate with the team. After the 3 of us (this was before the baby sister was born) ate our dinner, we were off to Hite Field to see the Hilltoppers hopefully run some other team in the ground. My brother was probably the smallest player on the field. He was about 5 ft 6 inches in height and weighed about 132 pounds but he was also the fastest running back! (At least that is the way I remember it!) I remember one night my brother ran for a long touchdown and my father (who always wore a suit, tie, trench coat and hat to the game) got so excited that he threw his new hat in the air! I think he retrieved it but it was in pretty bad shape! We laughed about that for many years.

Yet today when I see I harvest moon, I think of those exciting football nights with great memories of our family and our togetherness. I miss it but I often sit, look at the moon and try to remember the song we often sang at football games..Anyone remember this song? Anyone remember all the words? I DON”T….it goes like this:

Oh, Mr. Moon, Moon, Bright and Shinny moon,
Oh won’t you please shine down on,
Talk about your shine on, Please shine down on me!


Help me out here!



GENEALOGY

Do you do family research? Are you searching for a long lost relative-a person who you know is an ancestor but your search stopped with him/her? Would you like to make contact with someone who might be researching some long lost relative of yours? I would like to start a new section of the newsletter….Each month I will publish a short search for one relative per person…..so send me information on only one lost relative...make it short. I won’t publish it unless you sign your name, school and year of graduation….

We will see how this goes, I know this is a popular subject, I did a lot of researching back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. If this is popular, we will try it for awhile. If it gets out of hand and is so popular that I can’t keep up with it, I may have to cease the project……but right now, let’s try it! Write to Roleta1@aol.com.




PRECIOUS CHILD


submitted by: Jim Alvaro (WI '56)
Jalvaro@aol.com

That wouldn't happen to be my buddy Don Sager would it? FROM BROAD OAKS? I think we were running around together at that time. He was getting me into trouble and I was doing the running. He sure WAS cute. Just kidding, he still is.


submitted by: Mary Sue Clark Spahr (WI '56)
Msspahr@aol.com

I'm probably way off here, but I'm going to guess this is my good friend Don Sager. This must have been about the time he won the "Beautiful Baby" contest. I lived just up the street and don't understand why he won instead of me. I've never quite recovered, but I forgave him and we became good friends as we got older.




MY LIFE

submitted by: Phil Smith (WI '46)
Philmarcia@earthlink.net

I was born "at home" - 211 Ryder Avenue - in 1928. Back in those days, it was a practice for a woman to have her first child in a hospital and if here were no complications - or anticipated problems, subsequent off -spring were birthed at home. I guess Doc Langfitt came out to "help". The evening that I was born, my mom had been at Mrs. Baker's home on Waverly Way, with a group of women who were peeling apples so that on the next days so they could make apple butter. My grandma and her neighbor, every year had a huge iron kettle set up in the their back yard and they made apple butter in the open. Remember, the Stock Market Crash was October 1929! Times were tough economically. Living next door, on Ryder, was Bob Garrett, (WI '45) with the same birthday as mine,. only a year older. Down at the bottom of the hill were Jack Tetrick (WI Class of '45 ) and his brother, Dick (WI Class of '47) Over the years Bob, Jack & DIck and I have had contact and visited at Brookside, or Washington, DC, or Mitchel Field, NY, in addition to the Clarksburg area.

My dad, after graduating from OSU, worked at Lazarus Department Store in Columbus for a while, then came back to Clarksburg and worked at James & Law. Then back to Columbus until 1927 they returned to Clarksburg and he worked at Hartly Round Department Store. My parents built the home at 211 Ryder in 1927. When the Great Depression hung in there, Hartly Round decided to close their Clarksburg store and keep the Fairmont store going. Looking for a job in 1934 was tough. Part of President Roosevelt's recover plan was to establish The Civilian Conservation Corps. (CCC) To provide for the management structure of the CCC, the U.S. Forest Department provided technical support for the CCC and day to day camp management and discipline was assigned to the United States Army. Many reserve army officers were called to active duty to provide the necessary management manpower. Dad had been in the reserves since he received his commission in 1924. He was in the 397th Infantry Regiment "with headquarters in the new post office." (per a 1932 Telegram newspaper article) Every summer he was off for a couple weeks to Camp Knox or Camp Thomas Kentucky for summer duty. During the rest of the time there were scheduled local evening and/or weekend duty. In the spring of 1934 dad was called to active duty with the Army, promoted to Captain, "by order of General Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff." His initial assignment was to a CCC Camp staff with WWI veterans at Seebert, West Virginia, on the Greenbriar River. The veterans were made up of a lot of experienced construction men and it was their assignment to build the buildings - barracks, mess hall, recreation hall, supply building, electric generator building, motor pool garage, quarters for the officers and forest rangers - all needed for a self supported and functional CCC Camp. The site is now another state park. West Virginia had many CCC Camps. I believe that the campers were paid $25.00 a month (the camper got to keep $5.00 and the rest was send to their parents, family, and/or guardians). They were also provided uniforms, housing, medical treatment, three meals a day and were engaged in worthwhile projects - planting trees, building roads, flood control dams, fighting forest fires, etc.There was military discipline that kept people's attention and kept "trouble" at a low level. There are surviving CCC campers, today, who look at their time spent in a CCC camp are thankful for the opportunity it provided and an income source for their family.

So my folks sold their home on Ryder and we moved into a 2nd floor apartment, that had an "outhouse" in the field next to our "new home." It was a great summer for a five year old. Swimming everyday in Greenbriar River. Look out for the snakes!

By September 1934 dad had been transferred to Ironton, Ohio where he was the commanding officer at Camp Dean. In February 1936 dad was transferred again, this time to Wowona, California (Yosemite National Park) where he had about 250 young men mainly from West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. In Wowona we had a one-room school - 18 students K-8th grade, with no electricity and no running water! But the scenery was outstanding. We lived in a small cabin, with one cold water tap, a wood cook stove in the kitchen and a wood burning potbelly stove in the living room and another "outhouse." We had gasoline lanterns and a battery radio. And did we have snow!

In April 1937 dad's tour of duty was up and we returned to Clarksburg and I was enrolled in the 3rd grade at Morgan school. - up the street from my grandparents.

After school was out we moved to Red House, Maryland where dad managed a restaurant called "Chimney Corners" on Route 50 for a year. We then moved west to Brookside Inn. At Brookside Inn, in the lobby near our radio, dad had tacked maps for Europe and China where he marked the lines between the Germans and Japanese and "The Good Guys." As a reserve officer he knew he would be moving again.

He was called active duty on July 7, 1941 when he reported in to Chanute Field, Rantoul, Illinois. He served in Illinois; The Pentagon; Wright-Patterson, OH; South Pacific for the 1946 Atom Bomb Tests; Army of Occupation - West Germany; Mitchel AFB, NY, Berlin Airlift, Wiesbaden, Germany; Selfridge AFB, Michigan; and Reserve Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan before he retired in 1956.

I stayed with my grandparents from October 1945 until June 1946 for my last year of high school. It is not particularly easy changing schools the last year in your senior year. I was fortunate that I did know a few of students. Years earlier, I had done some Boys Scout week-end camping with a Stealey Troop. "Mr. Mac," who had my dad and his three siblings at WI was great. It turned out that my home room teacher, L. Eura Gray, had attended some college classes with my mom and she went out of her way to help me get involved. After graduation, I spent seven months in West Germany, with my parents. I finally got in college, graduated and received a 2d Lt's Commission in The USAFR in Ann Arbor. Michigan. I served as a Budget & Accounting Office at Limestone AFB, Maine. I joined The General Electric Company and had financial assignments in Schenectady and Syracuse, New York; Den Hague, Netherlands; Dayton Beach, Florida; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Louisville, Kentucky. Then there were financial assignments with TRW in Northbrook, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; and northern Virginia before retiring in 1989 to The Green Mountains of Vermont. In 1999 we moved to the Columbus, Ohio area to be nearer one of our three daughters.



TRIVIA PICTURE FOR OCTOBER 2006


pictures submitted by: John Cooper (WI '51)
Mysto99@aol.com

Do you recognize the above plaques? Can you name the building in Clarksburg where they are located and tell us a little memory about the place?

Write your memory and guess to Roleta1@aol.com

Remember----I don’t publish incorrect guesses…..Also, I won’t publish your guess if you don’t include your full name, school and year of graduation.

Thanks



OBITUATRIES

LINDA FERRIN ROGERS

Linda Ferrin Rogers, formerly of Clarksburg, passed away on August 20, 2006, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ms. Rogers was born October 15, 1946, in Clarksburg to Pliny Ferrin Rogers and Elizabeth Anne Windon Rogers. She graduated from Washington Irving High School in Clarksburg, received her B.A. in French and M.A. in Counseling and Guidance at West Virginia University, and earned a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from University of Miami.

Ms. Rogers resided in southern Florida for most of her adult life. She retired from the U.S. Postal Service as Regional Coordinator of the Employee Assistance Program in southern Florida. She received many national postal service awards for her work with crisis management and violence prevention.

She moved to Gainesville, Florida, where she was employed by Florida Department of Corrections in a high-security prison as the manager of the psychologist team.

She is survived by one daughter, Jessica Maddox of Salt Lake City, Utah, and two sisters, Deborah Rogers and Libbett Rich. She will be buried at Floral Hills Memorial Gardens in Mount Clare, WV.



submitted by: Bill Sticker (WI '53)
Sticklerb@aol.com

I have two loses to report to you for the WI Class of "53.

DAN DAVIS was the Senior Class President of the Class of "53. He passed away in Clarksburg on August 13. Unfortunately the Clarksburg Publishing Company's web site had a case of hiccups right at that time and the obituary never made it to the Internet.

Also on September 5, SYLVIA KAY SMITH SUMMERFIELD passed away in Buckhannon. Her obituary was posted on the Internet: Clarksburg Exponent Telegram Online

Both were members of the WI class of '53

Thanks to the Exponent Telegram for allowing us to print excerpts from their Obituary Column.

FROM THE EDITOR: Remember, I don’t read the Telegram on line. I spend too much time on the computer the way it is now. I will not research obituaries. I don’t want to miss someone and hurt a family member’s feelings. So I have a policy, if you care enough about a person who dies and you would like to send me the obituary, I will print it. If you care enough to send it, I care enough to publish it. This is best I can do.










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