I’ve changed this a bit again—I’m doing my quest again today and then next week I will do the 2 different ones—sorry but I had some stuff come up and haven’t been able to complete my 1965 one…DUH…

I left the state of West Virginia when I was 8 years old—I returned off and on—the off getting much longer as the years went by–for many more…My parents returned here eventually, my brother and his wife are there now and my sister has expressed a desire to live there again.  I seem the only one who does not desire a permanent return, but then I was always the one who was — well shall we say different?

I have over the years heard much negative about the state but I have found lovely people, history in excess and all manner of beautiful scenery and while the economy has never been great I feel that W.Va has gotten a bad rap and I am not sure why.

My third day 3rd day of this quest would find me in Cameron, the town where my brother was born and we both  lived in a house that set lower than the street and has long been gone….but here’s more of me and those stairs again.

Almost heaven, West Virginia,
Blue ridge mountain, Shenandoah river,

This information is from the town of Cameron’s Web Site http://www.cameronwv.com/:

A small town with a population of 946 residents according to the 2010 census. Cameron is located in the Northern Panhandle of scenic West Virginia, Cameron is a growing family-based community rich in religious values, heritage and history.

Cameron was named for an Irishman named Samuel Cameron after the finishing of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1852. At this time the honor of naming the town was given to an Irishman named David McConaughey who christened it Cameron in honor of his friend Samuel Cameron, a railroad official of prominence, who in 1853 took cholera at Moundsville, died, and was taken to Charles Town, Jefferson County, Virginia, for burial.

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong,

An area of town that has just recently been restored is the old depot which people I may well be related to I see worked on—I have been gone a long time and my contacts with more distant relatives were always kept straight by my grandmother (who could ramble off genealogies that make the Bible’s seem lacking in detail—no disrespect meant just the way it was) and then on their return my mom who wasn’t as good at it but had a much more in-depth background in it than myself.  My sister-in-law has spent much time doing genealogies but I miss all the little bits of personal items that my grandmother included (I would listen to her and file away stuff I was too young to understand and when I got older and a name was mentioned I dredged it up from my long term memory—connect it with my new adult perception and that was the best part of my grandma’s accounts the people always were humans and not just she begot him type of thing.

But I am way off my subject—the depot.  In the fall of 2006 community volunteers completed installation of the new metal roof on the depot building.

repointing and cleaning of the bricks as well as restoration of all windows and doors. This work, which was finished in late 2008

In September of 2009, Consol Energy generously provided all materials and labor for installation of a french drain needed around the building.

A request for an additional federal grant for Phase III was submitted in January 2009 and approved in July 2009.  It was started in 2011 and is obviously finished now and the building is a lovely center piece of the down town area.

West Virginia,
Mountain mamma, take me home
Country roads

We left town after wandering about and headed to another place—-now I have note two things—Ryerson Station and Beeler Station (both names and one a place along route 250 were both once forts….I have heard these names all my life but had no idea they were historical places.

                                                                    The colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania claimed the land. In 1774, Virginia built a fort at the confluence of the North and South forks of Dunkard Fork of Wheeling Creek. A shelter from Indian raids, Ryerson’s Fort was used until at least 1784, maybe even 1793. It is unknown when Ryerson’s Fort came to be called Ryerson’s Station. The fort was one of many stations used by rangers who patrolled for raiding Indians.    http://www.docs.dcnr.pa.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_003139.pdf

But we were going to visit the Beeler Station area:

Fort Beeler

Posted by:  cldisme

The Beeler Church which is across route 250 from the sign memorializing the Beeler Fort/Station.   The church was organized in 1826. It was named because of its location near the site of an Old Indian Fort commanded by Col. Beeler.

The church is no longer functioning or at least that is the information I was given.  The Cemetery is large and spans many years.  This is another part of West Va. that is a world apart of my life here.  Here are people I remember in their final resting places—here are family members who rests here with other family members that have been here many years before my parents entered the world, but are part of what makes me and my loved ones today.  This part of my heritage and past and many other people’s as well.  It gives me a feeling of belonging and being part of a whole, something I don’t often feel in my busy life in the more modern world.

Beeler Station eventually became a settlement according to Historical Collections of the Counties published in 1879 (by J.H. Neuton et al) , and was built on the farm of Andrew Wilson.   I know the town better as Pleasant Valley—and it is just a small place with a store—no traffic light  or anything like that.  It is of course unincoporated.

Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

So returning to West Va. and the places I had lived and set on steps for cute pictures (OK so you don’t think they’re cute–but they’re me so I have to be loyal) and all of this is part of the final journey of my folks to a place they love and a way for me to re-examine and quest after where I am now and where I came from and where I’m going in the future…..and I hope I haven’t bored you too much with my ramblings the last couple of blogs…..I’ll be back to the 60’s next week—two times to make up for my goof this week.

I hear her voice in the morning hour she calls me
Radio reminds me of my home far away

Biltmore Estate by M Ware Miniature Souvenir Cup (263179329272)  $7.45

Driving down the road I get a feeling
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

Sports Illustrated Magazine Presents 50 years of NASCAR 1… (263179298964)   $6.50

Take me home, that country road
Take me home, that country road

Muffets Kermit Tee Large Kids (11-13 yrs) (263172928647) $14.00

10 days….only one more Sunday without him and then…http://www.ibtimes.com/outlander-season-3-spoilers-sam-heughan-says-jamie-has-changed-2584834

The Old Saying is that you can’t go home again and in my case this has been re-enforced by fate and time…..The house that I lived the first 7 almost 8 years of my life in and that my brother was born at has been gone these many years though nothing was ever put in its place so heaven knows why it was and in fact the house below us was also destroyed my aunt and uncle use to live there when I was a child.  That’s me (next picture) on the steps of that house.  I wonder if it has anything to do with the gas and/or coal which you see so much changes from now in this little town?

The house that I was born in was still standing–just–when I made my last trip there–a farm that had been in the family since 1903 now bellowing to some mining enterprise.  My grandparents and my grandfather’s parents home and my parents lived there a while too—now slowly falling in on itself—I did not go there, no where near I could not bear to see the death of a place that was in my memories still a place of love and happiness where I spent summers until I was 16 or so and where I was loved and loved in return.  Farewell I will keep the memories of you fresh in my minds and thus you can live on at least through me.

A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.

George A. Moore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPqAvgN6Tyw

click here to hear the main Song–sang by the Byrds—Plus other 1965 music

Hey, Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to

Was it a prophecy of the year to come that marked the wreck of the Catala a Canadian Ship that went aground on the coast of Washington State on the first day of the year?  But alas that is how the year got off to its start.

The first half of 1965 brought us the wrath, if not of God then at least of nature for on Palm Sunday an outbreak of tornadoes hit the Midwest with at least 47 funnels confirmed and another four reported in 6 states….and when it was all over there were 271 dead and 1,500 injured and millions of dollars in damages across the land—in May 13 more would die and 685 injured in similar storms in the twin cities of Minnesota.

It was the year that the two killers immortalized by Truman Copote in his novel IN COLD BLOOD, were hung for their murder of 4.

Hey, Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

                                        In the Straights of Mackinac the 3rd largest  (The 2nd largest was the Edmond Fitzgerald made famous in the Gordon Lightfoot song) ship to sink in the area  the SS Cedarville,  sank after colliding with a Norwegian vessel killing 25.

In California a 16-year-old starts shooting at cars and goes on to kill 3 and wound others before killing himself when the police closed in.

No the beginning of 1965 did not bode well.

Though I know that evening’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping

At the first of the new year President Johnson announced his “Great Society” a grand and great vision that would eventually die an untimely death, but Johnson was at the height of his time and a few day later he was sworn in for his first elected term, as he had been completing the term for the murdered President Kennedy before this.

Before half the year is over he would send 3,500 Marines to put the first boots on the ground as combatants in Viet Nam.  He would also send troops to the Dominican Republic intervening in a Civil War there in the name of democracy.

He also sends a bill to Congress that forms the basis of the Voting Rights Act of 1965—this passed the Senate on 5/26 and by July the House becoming law on August 6.

My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming

In London, former Prime Minister Winston Churchhill, truly a Man For All Seasons, who helped England stand on its little Island against one of the worst tyrants and monsters the world has ever known, was laid to rest with the funeral being the largest assembly of statesmen the world had seen up to this point (it was topped in 2005 at Pope John Paul II’s funeral).

India saw much turmoil and blood shed–first in strife over the decision on a national language, on which consensus could not be made and so they continued with 23 different ones.  By March they had worse issues when the Indo-Pakistani War commenced.

While the Canadians had made a decision and adopted the maple leaf flag which they continue to fly to this day.

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
May hands can’t feel to grip

In Spain the body of the Portuguese opposition politician Humberto Delgado and his secretary were found in Spain.  And while West Germany kept prosecution of the Nazi War Crimes open, they also established diplomatic relations with Israel.

In Morrocco a large student protest was met with violent police military action.  In Algeria an unusual bloodless coup occurred but protestors hit the streets the next day in favor of the disposed president.

In the orient China kept busy dealing with the non-communists in Taiwan at the May battle of Dong Yin.  In June a coal mine in Japan exploded killing 237–and there was also a mine disaster in Bosnia that killed 128. And Japan and the Republic of Korea signed a treaty of Basic Relations

My toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering
I’m ready to go anywhere,

Civil rights continue to be anything but Civil:  Malcom X was assassinated in February at a rally in NYC.

In March (7th) some 200 Alabama State Troopers attached a group of 525 Civil Right Demonstrators in Selma, when they tried to march on Montgomery to protest for voting rights,  in a day that would go down as “Bloody Sunday”.  Reports vary, but between 17 and 50 people were injured and hospitalized with one woman, Amelia Boynton, nearly beaten to death.  On the 9th of March a second march led by Dr. King was carried out as far as the bridge where the previous march ended and then they returned to Selma in obedience of a court order.   On the 17th, 16,000 demonstrated in Montgomery.  .

It was the events, in Alabama,  that prompted President Johnson to send the bill to Congress that resulted in the Voting Rights Act that would pass in August.

I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it

In January Gemini one and then Ranger 6 were launched.  Gemini one was an unmanned vehicle preparing for a manned launch while Ranger photographed and later crashed on the moon.  And the Russians beat us again when their Cosmonaut Alerery Leonon became the first person to walk in space.

But we pushed on and with Gemini 3 we placed a 2 person crew (Gus Grissom and John Young) in earth’s orbit.  To be followed shortly by Gemini 4 where Edward Higgins becomes the second person—but first American–to walk in space….made the Commies look.

But 1965 was also the year that we put a nuclear reactor in space—it was our first and hopefully our last–it only worked for 43 days due to a problem with its electrical components—and is still floating around up there in orbit..Now that is scary–what happens when it falls out of Orbit—we just won’t have a section of the world it hits anymore?…on a happier note the first communication satellite also up in May and was working by June and heaven knows how many of those we’ve put up since.

Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun
It’s not aimed at anyone
It’s just a escaping on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme

                                               By March Operation Thunder had started with The US Air Force, US Navy and the Vietnam Air Force carrying out aerial bombardment against North Viet Nam

Meanwhile the Australians in response to a Vietnam request sends their first troops an infinity battalion to the south in June.

And despite all our activity the Viet Cong mounts a mortar attack against Don Xoai and overrun its headquarters and military compound.

To your tambourine in time
It’s just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn’t pay it any mind
It’s just a shadow you’re seeing that he’s chasing

In April The SDS (soon to become one of the most infamous groups to march, not so peacefully, for peace) made their first march against the war when 25,000 protestor made them self noticed in Washington DC.

Berkley was a hot bed of resistance to the war but in 1965 things were still peaceful–in May 40 men burned their draft cards and  then continued on with other students to the Berkley Draft Board.  Later the same month the school held the largest anti-war teach in to date–attended by 30,000 and the next day they marched back to the draft board and burned 19 more cards and hung an effigy of Lyndon Johnson.

Back in Washington, this time at the Pentagon an anti-war protest became a teach-in with 50,000 leaflets distributed.

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow

And what did we have to get us through all this:  Leslie Ann Warren in a new color version of Cinderella (well it did become an annual event but most of my circle were not exactly enamoured.)  The Sound of Music premiered as well.  It was a year of musicals at the Academy Awards as well, with My Fair Lady (8 awards including Rex Harrison best Actor) and Mary Poppins (5 awards  with Julie Andrews best Actress) taking the largest share of the statues.

And in a year of prominent ship wrecks drivers discovering the wreck of the SS Georgiana, a Confederate cruiser exactly 100 years after she was sunk during the Civil War seemed very appropriate.

And it was a year of firsts:

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang on the cover of Time.

  May 22 the first Skateboard Championship was held

Muhammad Ali knocked down Sonny Liston in the first round of their rematch

and in June the Stones (as in Rolling) released their first Number 1 hit single in the US–Satisfaction.

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow

only 2 weeks…..give or take a few hours……Ok if he had been giving an Edinburgh Tour I would have never left the city last year.

My guilty pleasures

Hopefully you have noticed that there have been no entries since 7/27—hopefully someone did….I have been traveling again and anticipated that I would be able to continue with my weekly blog with no real interruptions—WRONG—-Service was horrible at best and non-existence at worst and so I was unable to even notify you of my departure and/or adventures.  I have returned home and am now starting to catch you up on my trip—which I will do on Mondays and continue on my romp thru the 60’s on Thursday.  I hope that works for everyone

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

Confucius

this Saturday

1105 Wheeling Ave

Glen Dale W.Va.

First destination Orlando International Air Port—its nicely designed with thing to do and places to eat…..I was of course traveling alone, something that you who have been following me for awhile have found is typical of me—whether its because I’m independent or rather that no body will travel with me it’s a fact of my life, but being anything but shy I do get to meet all manner of peoples and learn all sorts of crazy things.

This trip is planned to visit the middle of the USA–Pittsburg, West Virginia Ohio and Michigan—blue colar home and working man’s paradise…..or something like that.  And for the most part I am returning if no longer home then as near as I’m gonna get since I’m grown and had moved away a 100 years or so ago.

And as doesn’t usually happen in my adventures there will be cousins, nieces, brother and sister-in-law as well as a few friends and a lot of new people that just shake their heads in mystification at a crazy quest to take my parents to the place they requested to end their mortal remains so many years ago.

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.

Robert Louis Stevenson

This is the part of the Airport that I have to go to when I fly to the UK—I always take Virgin—a lovely flight of 8 hrs. made bearable by free drinks and movies and all manners of comfort and great food—I love Virgin.  But today I’m on Southwestern and for these local flights it’s just fine with me—I’m flying to Pittsburg in 1 1/2 hrs.  No frills, you are welcome to bring your own food—you can get free soft drinks and small snacks (think peanuts) but they like Virgin do not charge you for your first bag and harder drinks (that nasty liquor drinks) are only $5—-so I embrace the skinny seats and limited leg space since it’s less than 2 hrs and they gave me a discount cause I’m old and I was on the special entry thru inspection where I could keep my shoes on and my computer bagged….I love Southwestern.

And we take to the sky a bit late, but an adjustment in our course puts us right back on time and we’re leaving the land of flamingos and palm trees and flying over the south and into the heart of America, where the roads spread like a well organized spider web from the tiny local to the larger intent on a destination Interstates.  In those 60’s I’ve been writing about there were no interstates.  We drove on routes from place to place, some more like puzzles than a way to drive from place to place.  It took much longer, but gave you more of an education on the land you traveled than you receive now—but it took longer much longer.

When I was in my late teens we drove to San Francisco from the lower east side of Michigan and from San Fran down to LA and then on Route 66 and north to Chicago (or almost) before heading back home…..they don’t make trips like that anymore and 66 is a ghost of its former self—merely a memory of the by way that inspired a TV show and song and heaven knows what else.

Traveling it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.

Ibn Battuta

I have began to refer to this as my Quest—my parents while with a low level of funds and 3 children still managed to view some of the world and their favorite place was White Fish point in Michigan’s U.P.  In a group of persons use to conventional burials my parents determined they would opt for cremation and that they wished their ashes scattered at White Fish Bay—and most recently (my dad passed years ago, mom less that 2) my brother called me and requested I determine when I could do this so the Quest could begin.  And thus we decided on August 2017.

For me it was a responsibility that was sorely felt—to carry out my parent’s final wishes was very important to me…..but that didn’t prevent me from planning a trip  that would give me a vacation and a change of my usual life—like my father seeing and doing was important and while he never took it so far as me (I do not have his restrictions either) he still taught me the pleasure of seeing new places and enjoying same.  In today’s day and age family has been said like all the old values—to have been diminished and I guess that has happened with me as well and this was a chance to reconnect and revitalize my life a bit–or at least I hoped so.

So that’s pretty much the whole idea and I will give you some views on life in general from my quest as well as show you some of the places that I saw and things that I did during this period on Mondays as I set before—while maintaining my 60’s narrative on Thurs…..hope you can stand me back for more than one day a week.

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.

Anais Nin

The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands.

Sir Richard Burton

Getting us thru Droughtlander a few more days and home.

It’s almost here (a little over 1/2 a month) check out what to expect: http://us.blastingnews.com/showbiz-tv/2017/07/outlander-season-3-claire-jamies-reunion-episode-revealed-print-shop-news-001889531.html

Looking at Time Travel as it applies to Outlander:  http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/diana-gabaldon-and-caitriona-balfe-explain-time-travels-role-outlander

Handsome but not for us Girls I’m afraid—he prefers Jamie to Claire–well there was that one time—but that’s a later book:  http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/australian-actor-david-berry-lands-role-as-time-traveller-in-us-series-outlander/news-story/a78c2c7ab1152461c3649b3deff31e3b

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I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.

Caskie Stinnett