Subject: tinypass

Finding Dewey: The Search for West Virginia’s First Poet Laureate along the Backroads of US 219

January 4, 2013 | Roxy

He would write on a green Oliver typewriter, seated on a child-sized armchair with rollers at the bottom. Each day he would write, hour after hour, facing the trains that rushed past him on their way to the Blackwater Canyon. He’d write a poem and if he didn’t like it he would crumple it up, start over again. Day after day. Often, he would drink. It didn’t take but a few beers to drown him because Karl Dewey Myers never weighed more than 60 pounds.

The Hefner General Store at Mill Point

December 28, 2012 | Dan

In the days before Wal-Mart, the general store was a fixture of most rural communities, like those along Route 219. Here was your post office, grocery store, gas station, and hardware store. Listen as Bill and Richard Hefner talk about their family’s general store in Mill Point. Meandering through the Allegheny Mountains, US Route 219 […]

Memories of the Traveling Carnival

December 7, 2012 | Dan

“In the days before television and the internet, traveling carnivals brought a more exciting world to the modest lives of regular folks across the country, including the rural towns of the Alleghenies. These traveling carnivals roamed from town to town, offering a brief glimpse into the extraordinary world shows, games, rides, and displays of the exotic […]

Byrd Couple Buried with Pet Parrot named Polly

December 2, 2012 | Roxy

photo of Jesse Holesapple by Burke Shires. Early in the 1900s, if you were to find yourself walking into the old Second Creek store in Monroe County, you might see a flash of green ruffled feathers as a parrot takes off above your head, over the barrels of rice and beans and out through the […]

Strange Weather From the Memories along US 219

October 29, 2012 | Roxy

Last fall, a friend named Mike came to visit Pocahontas County on his red BMW motorcycle. Emily the adventurous one asked Mike for a ride, and I followed in my car, and the three of us adventured onto the Highland Scenic Highway. Shadowed by giant red spruce trees and honeycomb rocks, we stopped at one […]

The Mill Man: Remembering Aubrey, with Dixie Lee

October 25, 2012 | Roxy

Friday evening of September 29, 2012, I recorded an interview with Dixie Lee Hoke, in Monroe County. Neither of us realized it at the time, but September 29th was the 23rd anniversary of her uncle Aubrey’s death. I’ve heard too much about this Aubrey not to wish with all my heart that I’d been able […]

Backbone Mountain, WV / MD

October 18, 2012 | Dan

Before crossing the state line into Maryland from West Virginia, US 219 follows a high ridge overlooking the mountains and valleys of Tucker County to the west. During the first weeks of October, the colors of the fall foliage create a brilliant sea of red, oranges, and yellows over the rugged landscape of the Alleghenies. […]

Subterranean Voyage down Sinking Creek

September 25, 2012 | Roxy

FROM THE ARCHIVES of the West Virginia Writers’ Project, Greenbrier County: “I was plowing on General Davis’s farm in 1856, unsuspicious of being on insecured ground when suddenly the earth seemed to fall beneath me. I saw the horses descending, but was too frightened to let go the plow handles. When I landed, I fell […]

“The City of Rivers” (Poem for Parsons)

September 24, 2012 | Roxy

FROM THE ARCHIVES of the West Virginia Writers’ Project, Tucker County: The City of Rivers ** Here, where two rivers, born of highland springs, Wed to beget another, greater still, And where peace hovers on untroubled wings Amidst the song of factory and mill, ** Here, […]

Pocahontas Woods

September 24, 2012 | Roxy

Pocahontas Woods is a non- profit educational center in downtown Marlinton. Work is showcased and sold at multiple galleries in Lewisburg, Thomas, Beckley, and Snowshoe W.Va. as well as online. Mike Hefner, a 34-year-old former construction worker learns wood-craftsmanship after a life changing injury. Six years ago, he began volunteering at Pocahontas Woods in Marlinton, […]