Dear West Virginia
"One Man's Dream" by Cheryl Tarrant. Used with permission.
This post is for anyone who has left home. I don’t mean to go to the grocery store or even for vacation. This is for folks who have packed their possessions, hugged their mammas and daddies, and pulled away from the curb with their cheeks wet and their eyes on the road because if they glance in the rearview mirror, they might not go. It’s for those who bookmark their hometown newspapers and like their native accents. It’s for the homesick, the diehards, people who would charter a plane or ride a mule, whatever it takes to go home at the holidays. This post is a love letter like no other. It comes from Jason Headley, today’s guest blogger.
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Dear West Virginia,
I suppose this has been a long time coming. Looking back, it must have seemed abrupt. Twenty-two years we spent together, then I up and left with no real explanation. I probably owed you more than that. So I’ll try my best to explain it to you now.
We were perfect together at first, weren’t we? As a boy, I couldn’t have asked for a better playmate. Your hills and trees, your railroad tracks, rivers, and run-down factories. You could have killed me a dozen times, at least. I seemed to be asking for it. I was rough on you, but you gave as good as you got. My blood in your soil, your splinters and gravel under my skin. This is how we did it, becoming more and more of one another every single day.
I drew your initials in my notebooks in the sharp angles of the university logo. They weren’t just letters. They were you. I wore blue and gold, but those weren’t your only colors. You were green and white, too. Just like my Paden City Wildcats. You were orange and yellow and red, your hillsides alight with fire every autumn. You were the purple of the Ohio River, the sun’s last rays drawn deep. You were black, a night sky as endless as my imagination.
You were everything to me. My mom and my dad. My brother and my grandparents. My home and my school. All of my very first firsts. It was perfect while it lasted.
I wish I could tell you when things changed. That I could point to one moment. Maybe the first time I saw the ocean, standing there with my pant legs hiked to my knees, staring at the end of the earth. Maybe it was something I saw on television: a bionic man, a talking car, a chimpanzee sidekick, a girl in her underwear. Maybe it was the books, one of the stories that seemed so wild and strange and far beyond anything I could ever imagine happening while surrounded by the steadfastness of you.
That might be part of it. I knew, as sure as I knew anything, that you were never going to change. You’d spent lifetimes building mountains from flat, solid ground. You’d grown forests, had them taken from you, and grown them again. You were strong, stalwart, and set in the ways that worked for you. But I slowly began to realize they wouldn’t work for me.
I can’t actually think of a time beyond boyhood when I thought I was going to stay. It’s strange. Ungrateful, I suppose. You were the only thing I knew and somehow you weren’t enough. But my interests and ambitions grew beyond any realistic expectations. Far beyond the reach of your panhandles. And I suppose that changes a relationship forever.
The question is, did I begin to stand out because I knew I was going to leave? Or did I know I was going to leave because I was beginning to stand out? I fished your streams, but with little frequency and even less success. Friends and family stalked your forests for hours in the hope of bringing home deer, quail, squirrel. The interest never took with me. But there were bigger things. Ideals I didn’t recognize, some old-fashioned, some simply old. Disagreement with common-held beliefs. Those I saw as wrong-headed, and those I knew were just plain wrong. All of that combined to leave me somewhere in between. There, but not.
I know your state bird, your state flower, your state tree, your state animal. I know your state fish, for crying out loud. Every fiber of my being was forged, formed, and intricately woven by the experience of growing up with you: my basic values, my ingrained suspicions, my belief that good things can always happen to you, but don’t hold your breath.
You see, I’ve never had a problem being from West Virginia. I just had some difficulty being in West Virginia.
Still, now, the places we knew together are like songs to me. Just the names bring a flood of memories: Dolly Sods, Canaan Valley, Oil Ridge, Buck Run, Bickles Knob. And then the places that had no real title: the rope swing on the north end of town, the outfield of the far baseball diamond, the attic of my best friend’s house, and, of course, the few square feet of my bedroom. I papered those walls with dreams. That town. I sought your best places and poured endless meaning into some of your most ordinary corners. I did all of this, day after day, for over eight thousand days. And then, one day, it was time to go.
You probably didn’t see it, because my back was to you as I drove, but I cried when I left. And not just because I was in Kentucky. I cried because I missed you already. I cried because I’d never been away from you for longer than two weeks. I cried because I was afraid. Because if I wasn’t a West Virginian, then what was I?
I had a tape recorder on the front seat to capture thoughts as I drove, alone, toward a new life. This is what I said as I left you behind: “If California is half as good to me as West Virginia has been, I’m going to be in pretty good shape.”
And I was right. But a dozen years here has taught me just how wrong I was about something else. I never stopped being a West Virginian. There are some things that can’t be undone. Not by all the gods in all the heavens. Geography be damned.
The other day someone wrote to me and said, “I’ll be coming to your state next week.” And I thought, “I wonder why he’s going to West Virginia?” He wasn’t. He was coming to California. But I still, in my marrow, think of you as “my state.” I only hope you still think of me as your son.
I have grandparents and great-grandparents buried in your ground. I have family living in the curves of your hills. I have pieces of me scattered all across your land. And I have the best parts of you locked here in my heart.
Maybe that’s not enough. Maybe all these words can never explain away what I did. Maybe abandonment is too great a sin to be absolved. Maybe. But I like to think not.
I like to think all your countless years have given you unbridled understanding, the likes of which I’ll never understand. That on a cold autumn night when the air smells like burning leaves and small town football, you miss me a little, too. I like to think that when I come home, you’re as happy to see me as I am you. And that the few days we get to spend together each year are like a gift, a time machine. Proof that old friends never fade.
That’s what I like to think.
Forever yours,
Jason
Jason Headley does some things for art and some things for money.
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Thanks for this. I left my home in Colorado, where I had lived for 20 years, a year and a half ago, and moved to North Carolina, and it is hard to explain to people how you may love your new home and have no intent to go back, but still, you miss the familiar sights, sounds, smells and places that have become so much a part of the fiber of your everyday being.
Laurie
Thanks so much for this letter. I grew up in rural Oklahoma and moved to Seattle for 8 years and this describes my feelings very well. (I know the state reptile) I left it, and yet found myself getting extremely angry if anyone in Seattle said anything against it.
I went back for a few years and it was some different. have relocated again. but i’m always from there.
I am from West Virginia myself. Moved to South Carolina three years ago for school and got married. So I’m going to be stuck here for a while. This is exactly how I feel about those mountains. There is nowhere else like it. So thank you for putting into words what I’ve been feeling.
This made me cry. I am from southern WV, getting ready to head up to Morgantown for med school. Although it’s still WV, it feels like a whole different world up there.
There really is nowhere else like WV. <3
I left WV 22 years ago. I have been away from the state longer than I actually lived there, however, when people ask me where I am from I always say “oh we moved here from WV. or I am originally from WV” or something to that affect. I have large WV decals on my vehicles and a WV flag flies freely from my front porch. I love my blue and gold. and the red white and black of my high school. I love its people and their friendliness which you truly don’t find any where else in the world. My address may have changed but my home will always be WV. I hope we can get back there someday.
I left WV in 1998 to serve in the US Air Force. I have only been back a handful of times since then, mostly for funerals (sad, I know.) I find myself relating very deeply to this letter. I still shop the online sports stores for my WVU gear (hard to find in Georgia), fly a WV flag from my front door, WV decals on my truck. I have long identified myself as a West Virginian, and will until the day I die. I hope to make it back to my hometown some day without the need for mourning, even though it is becoming a ghost town. The last time I was there I went under the old overpass and found some old markings left on the underside of that bridge by myself and some friends in 1992. It took me on a long journey down memory lane. This is a wonderfully composed piece and it sums up my feelings almost perfectly. Thank you so much for this!
Laid off in August of 2010. Moved to Chillicothe, Ohio. This letter speaks to”NO PLACE LIKE HOME”!!!
Tears.
Even though I was 7 when my mom and step dad wanted to move to Fl, I still consider myself a Mountaineer. My dad and grandparents still live in WV and I used to go to visit at least once a year but haven’t been able to make it up in a couple of years. I have do many memories of hiking the mountains of the New River Gorge, or camping at a lake all week during the summer. I still wear WV shirts and have stickers on my car. If I see someone on Fl wearing a WV shirt I will stop and talk to them. I truly miss WV all the seasons. There really is no other place like it.
I love this. I grew up in East Tennessee, and I have a deep love for Appalachia. These mountains are home. But I can’t stay here. (I’ve fallen in love with New England. It’s so painful when my family calls me a Yank and a traitor because, as much as I love it up there, I’ll never be a New Englander; Appalachia’s in my blood.)
I am from Landisburg WV, graduated from Meadow Bridge High School class of 88. I left two weeks after graduation for USCG Boot Camp in NJ. I have missed home so much!! I returned home to pack up belongings of my Grandparents home in 2000, and haven’t been back yet. I live now in Selinsgrove PA, and miss the hills so much. I would do anything to be back home again. I hope to retire there someday.
I also left WV in 1961 to serve in the US Air Force. I was stationed in Texas when I got out and decided to stay. I have never regreted that decision, but, I still enjoy wisiting relatives who will always live there.
I always tell people I am from WV when asked where I am from.
Very moving and so very true. I like to think of it as being just like parents. It is the fiber that made me what I am but I too had to leave, just as I had to leave my parents when I became an adult. They still run through my veins and are a part of my soul. So do those Mountains and everything about them. I love to see them just as I would my mom and dad. I am me because of it all.
Beautiful. Thank you for putting into words that I cannot.
omg thats soooo true i love wv i love goin to vist but movin back no chance bc there is no jobs thats the only reason but i do love goin back but things n people change over the yrs but dont everyone everywhere
Made me cry and im still living here,,, Awsome God inspired…
Beautifully written images of the roots we left behind so many years ago, only to return a few times a year when possible. As for me, I departed from the deep southern Applachian terrain nearly 28 years ago to seek a new beginning. That step was one of the hardest moves I ever made…to leave the only thing I knew and the only place I ever called home. I enjoy visiting just to view the beauty of those mountains, rivers, and the people I left behind. My heart forever holds those southern memories.
I was born in West Virginia in 1967 and moved to Georgia in 1986. I`ve been here 26 years now and I too answer – “where are you from?” with West Virginia. My kids were born here in Georgia and now this is my home. I suspect I will be burried here in Georgia one day. But I still dream of my mother and my home away from home. Verner, WV.
I was born in Man,WV in 1959. I remember the first time I moved out-of-state, I cried for two hours until I felt sick. I remember singin John
Denvers, “Almost Heaven” everyday. I eventually returned for a short while only to leave again. The old saying-”Once a West Virginian, by
God, always a West Virginia is so true. I still have family in those hills and try to visit as often as possible. West Virginia is a wonderful place to be raised and “TO BE FROM”.
Jason, lovely words and they speak volumes! I grew up on the same street as you in our wonderful little “one-stoplight town” of Paden City, with our brothers in the same PCHS class. I, too, will always refer to WV as “home”. My young daughter still wonders, with a somewhat confused look, when I say “We’re going ‘home!’” and asks me why I’m not taking about the only home she has known…here in Maryland, but about the hills of WV–MY real home! Congrats on having such a wonderful gift! Your words touch many.
Great words and so very true. I am not from WV but the feelings are exactly the same about my state, New Jersey, yes that’s right I love NJ. Moved to Florida 18 years ago but this Jersey girl loves going home to visit family, eat corn and tomatoes and see the ocean. The small town where people know you and your parents, the Main Street where merchants decorate their stores at Christmas, the memories of schools and teachers, churches and pastors, parties and people, hometown. Thank you for writing “To Be From”.
when we are in a small town we can’t wait to be rid of it ..then we always want to go back….because it is home.
A West Virginian living in NC
Could not have said it any better Jason. I am from Southern W.V. myself. (Princeton) Thanks for sharing!
WOW! I was raised in the southern coal fields of Mingo and Wyoming County. This was very emotional and makes me proud to be a Hillbilly! It’s good to have those good morals from WV!
Wow! You put into words my thoughts exactly. I am from the southern coal fields as well. My parents and other relatives are still there. I have brought these thoughts to Shanghai, China. It is so hard knowing I will not be able to return to WV for two years. But I have plenty of Blue and Gold WV gear to keep until I get back.
I was really enjoying this until I read the KY put down. My husband is from WV and I feel like crying everytime I have to go there. I have traveled to many states and countries and I am always happy to come home to my Blue grass state. I am so glad my husband ripped his roots out of the dark muddy grounds of WV. Great expression of a love for home but no need to put down KY.
Having left the southern coal fields in 1966 at the request of Uncle Sam and never returning except for occasional family visits and school reunions, I still answer the question of where are you from with West Virginia. When they say western Virginia, I reply with, “No, it’s West by God Virginia”.
There are different versions but the basic saying goes that you can take the boy out of the mountains but you can’t take the mountains out of the boy. I believe it.
Love this !!! I’m from West Virginia & Very Proud of it !! I couldnt think of any other State I would of rather spent my childhood !! Alot of Great memories !!! I moved away 21 yrs ago but it’s still my home ! When I go visit , it’s always sad when I’m driving over the mountains leaving my hometown & family !!
I to grew up in WV, but did not realize I miss “home” until I read this article. Jason, you did an excellent job touching so many hearts. God Bless you!
My husband & I grew up in Fairmont W.Va. We’ve lived in Los Alamos NM for 54 years. We picked this place because it’s sorta like West Virginia, mountains & mesas instead of hills. When someone asks me where I’m from, I still say W.Va. I’ll always be a West Virginian ’til my dying day.
We have lived in Wv all our lives. As adults we settled in Paden City. Our children had the privlidge of growing up in a most secure town that truly cares about it children..Your words are beautiful and really go straight to our hearts. I have read this before but don’t remember where. I bought your book Small Town for both Mike and Andrea. Hope for the best of everything for you and Thanks for saying what the rest of us cannot put into words….They are just beautiful.
I remain conflicted about this essay. It is very well written, and clearly speaks to many people. It even speaks to me on some level. I was born in WV, moved away, and am now home.
The question those of us how stay or come back have is, how are we supposed to feel about folks who give up? Because there is an element in this that is about a conscious decision to leave, based on a feeling of incompatibility. And it is about giving up and moving on. Yes, there is sadness, but it is clearly about giving up.
Any other thoughts on that?
Great site. How do I send pictures for the album?
We left W.Va. because husband is a nuclear scientist & no jobs for that in W.Va. Sister’s husband is a nuclear engineer in CA; brother- finance, got a job as vice pres. @ Varian in CA. You have to go where the jobs are.
To be honest, you want to see more than JUST W.Va. Life is exciting!
I am a West Virginian who has moved. I moved to Nashville TN to Perdue a music career and although things are going amazing for me. What I wouldn’t give just to drive home to Nitro again. You whole story is so true. I do the se thing when people tell me they are driving through TN and say my state. This isn’t my state. WV will always be my state. I am so proud of it that every day when I’m on stage at some bar down on Broadway I say it. Then sing Country Roads
Loved this piece and I’m sharing it with everyone. This helps the homesickness 
Today I turn fifty eight years old. Like so many, I too thought that I had to leave West Virginia after college. Hearing all the claims that the only way to make it in life was to seek “greener pastures” that may be offered anywhere but home. During my relatively short separation from this land that I love, I had the extreme pleasure of meeting some wonderful people and living in some fantastic places. But for every moment I spent enjoying my new life…I missed the people and the places here in West Virginia. I came home in 1976 and although I’ve had job offers in other states that would pay considerably more than I can make here..I knew leaving again would have the same result. I needed West Virginia far more than West Virginia needed me and I found out that it’s not all about the money. The mountains, the people and most of all my family were here. For those who are not so blessed as to be from West Virginia, it is very hard to understand I guess. As West Virginians, we learn how to appreciate what we have and we were taught that life’s pleasures are not taken for granted. I would gladly trade just one afternoon of standing in Mountaineer Field and singing Almost Heaven with 60,000 of my closest friends for all those wonderful times that I experienced when I ran away from home. Did I give up? No. I left to learn one of life’s lessons and I learned it well. Almost Heaven West Virginia…I believe it’s so.
Beautiful words. I think all native sons & daughters feel it too. I know my husband & u both do.
Another West Virginian here, now living in NYC. Though I’ve been away much longer than I lived there, I still go back to visit family a couple times a year. West Virginia will always be an integral part of who I am. Thank you for the beautifully written tribute!
Elizabeth–I don’t feel that it is as much about giving up as it is about accepting things for what they are–both in yourself and in the state where you grew up.
Speaking personally, I strongly identified with this piece. I don’t feel like I gave up on WV. I just chose something different for the time being.
But, I always appreciate your take on things. Sometimes you see things from an angle I have not considered.
I moved to Pittsburgh from WV 7 years ago. While I love my new city in every way, I am still steadfastly proud to be a West Virginian! I don’t necessarily want to move back, but I always want to go home! Proud people, gorgeous geography & a mystique that few other states have, are what make WV what it is…thank you for the memories!
This story really touched my heart. I am from Summersville, West Virginia and have always longed to move to another state and to a bigger city. This story really made me question that decision. I’ve never been away from West Virginia for longer than two weeks and I have lived here since I was 5 years old. I was born in South Carolina but West Virginia is home and will be until the day I die. I know that while I’m here I may have big dreams of tall sky scrapers and the diversity in a large crowd. Deep in my heart though I will always long to be sitting in the woods near that trickling creek bed admiring the scenery. My great, great, great grandparents came here many years ago and I too plan to grow old in this amazing state. There is no place like West Virginia and my blood will forever run blue and gold.
Elizabeth,
I think what Jason has written truly underscores what being a natural born West Virginian is all about. I used to chastise freinds and family that moved away but the simple fact is it’s not easy to earn a living in our state. As I watched people move away, I eventually came to the realization that we’re all different and are driven by our own unique needs and desires.
After the war that created this great state my great great grandfather moved from Winchester, VA to Hardy county, WV to “raise his boys away from the evils of city life” Today he has hundreds of living decendants less than half of which still reside in WV. Many do still live in Hardy county & I hope to retire to that same mountain soon. In 8 years of service (the only time I’ve lived out of the state) I saw many beutiful places that I would have liked to live & work, but during that time I realized that my roots ran deep and unlike Jason my desire to be home and with family far outweighed any other ambitons I had and as a result I tailored my life to accomodate living in West Virginia. I have a BS in Aviation Management, but i’ve been in mining for 21 years. I cannot fault another fellow statesman for following their dreams, whereever they may take them. What I have learned is to be grateful for being from a state that seems to deliver so many wonderful ambassadors to the rest of the country.
Could Jason have been as successful living in WV? Perhaps, but I suspect he would have had a much harder struggle to get there, but I don’t see what he did as giving up. Though WV is a beutiful state and is inhabited by a unique set of Americans, its geography alone prohibits strong economic growth & will never support a large population, which, by the way, is one of the things I love about it, as did my GGG. To me Jason has just pursued his dream in a place where it could grow while never forgetting where his home truly is (or he’d have never bothered to write this).
LET’S GO MOUNTAINEERS!!
Beautiful!! I left more than 43 yrs ago and still miss home every day!! Don’t know what it is but those hills and mountains live within us and there is no replacing them. Thanks for saying what I feel but couldn’t put into words!
This is how I feel every day. My childhood here was beautiful and so much like Jason’s.
I’m so conflicted about leaving…
I moved to CA from WV 4 years ago and I can completely relate to every word you wrote! I always knew in my heart that I was meant for bigger things, but I will never forget growing up in the hills of WV, playing in the creek or goin to the pond, catching tadpoles as my dad and brother fished. Those images are like a picture book, engrained in my memory forever.
When is the book coming out? Is it your talent as a writer that made this so good or did WV take over your keyboard? Born in Wheeling, graduated from WVU, summered in Webster Springs and live in appreciation of my roots. Gone since the 70s, I return for football, family, and things that matter. Thank you!
Some of us want more than we experienced in our hometown, and we go and get it. I think Jason will come back one day to his home. I envy him for a having a home to return too. I have been a nomad all my life, settled in East TN……….but it will never be home. Only my farm and gardens here will be home. I cannot visit the graves of my ancestors here, cannot meet the folks who knew my family in MD and PA.
I say Jason has gone to see the rest of the world, one day WV will reclaim him.
Live now Jason, you will go home again one day.
I lived in WV for 26 years and just moved to NC on Jan 2, 2012. So I’ve been here 10 days. Each day as I begin to miss my family and friends more and more. I wonder did I make the right choice. Its just not the same. I know that this was a good move for me in so many ways but WV is like no other place. For me it was like cheers….”everybody knows your name”. I dont care if you are in Huntington or Morgantown you will see someone who knows you. I miss you WV!
I am one of those who just couldn’t leave fast enough. It did not take me very long to realize I took my WV home and values with me no matter where I traveled. It has been over 30 years since I left but I still “go home to WV”. The safety and stability I was afforded as a youth was priceless. I am more than very proud to be from West Virginia. I am also more than happy to verbally pillage anyone who is rude enough to make fun of my home state. John Denver’s “Country Roads” is the second national anthem in my opinion. We are a great people. Let’s keep up the good work!
I am from West Virginia and could never leave for the very reasons you love the state. I invite you to COME HOME. West Virginia still offers everything you love about this state and MORE.
First off, thanks to everyone for all the kind words about the essay. It really is amazing to hear how much West Virginia means to all of us. We each only get one home.
Elizabeth, you are exactly right. It’s a conflicted piece. My relationship with home is a conflicted one. I love it there. I love my family who still live there. But I’m happy to be in California now. It’s the right place for me at this stage in my life.
“Giving up” isn’t the right language for it, I don’t think. It’s not an all or nothing game to me. It’s finding a place that suits you without ever giving up on the place that made you who you are.
It’s subtle. But the subtleties of life are what make it worth living.
Thank you for noticing the conflict, though. It’s an important part of the essay.
I grew up in Virginia and moved here nearly 30 years ago. I remember crying for weeks as I was forced to adapt to the culture changes. As I adjusted to the life style of West Virginia, I raised two wonderful children; who after graduating from college, found that they needed to leave to find employment.
At some point in our lives we must make decisions which may take us to other areas of our great country. Although, my children live in another state, they proudly support the Mountaineers and claim West Virginia as home.
We all have a favorite place that we are proud to be from.
I did the same adventure from NYS. Not NYC, rural western NYS where theauturms are crisp and you pull the boat dock out Labor Day weekend. Where going to college there meant longjohns and shitkickers and a snorkel coat from Oct. til Apr. Where summers were shorter than springs. But where I learned that small town America is just that: WV OR NYS. The Catskills are so like WV. The western NY farms like Monroe Co. Bottom line is home courses through our veins and roots us into a secure foundation so that we can take flight and see the world, whether the journey is long and tedious or short and quirky. I love both my homes: NYS and West by God Virginia.
What a touching article. I too had left West Virginia for an extended period of time and felt the same things that drew me back here. At times I question if I did the right thing…..WV is always home no matter what I guess!
Hey, Mark,
I so enjoyed reading this letter. Many of the sentiments expressed here certainly hit home with me. I am living back in my hometown in West Virginia for now and don’t know if I’ll be able to stay. I guess that will depend on whether or not I find employment here. It seems I have always had to move out of state for this reason–to find employment, as so many have to do. Time will only tell, I guess.
Here’s wishing you the best for your thoughtful writings, memories, and love for West Virginia from another West Virginian!
Marylander by birth. Garrett County. Self identified through family, topography, geography, experience, and heart as a West Virginian all my life. It was California for me as well. My taoe recorder had “DON’T PANIC” taped on the front. I’m assuming you tutored yourself out of your accent as well. Funny how it resurfaces when you cross that river. Wonder if you had lunch with the same road runners I did in Amarillo on the way West. Thanks for the letter to… home.
Thanks for this moving article. I moved away from WV years ago and have lived in several states since (now in CA). I grew up in WV, and went to college and graduate school there.
I didn’t really want to leave, it’s just that there are literally no jobs in my field. Not a single one. I’d love to come back….maybe one day I can bring my experience back and teach at WVU or something. I like to think that is a possibility. If any jobs in my field open up there, I will certainly be applying.
“Every fiber of my being was forged, formed, and intricately woven by the experience of growing up with you: my basic values, my ingrained suspicions, my belief that good things can always happen to you, but don’t hold your breath.” …love the last part of this. Hate that people in other areas call me pessimistic over it.
I was thinking recently about how I felt as you did – always, from the beginning that I had to go somewhere else. …that’s gotten to be a mined mountaintop of musings about the hows, whys, and whos of staying vs. leaving. Why do I think I’ve accomplished something by leaving? Why did I always assume that this was an accomplishment? Why do people have this idea about leaving small towns everywhere when in cities, the latest push is for more community? Why do we think that city people are so gosh darn smart? And, why do city folks get so smart about it? And, when not getting smart about it, why do city folks romanticize small town life? And where did that romance go in small towns? Did it go to Walmart? Because, the reality is that Walmart is something that city people get all smart about and most people from small towns (Southern WV) can still clearly remember as a marvelous place that took 2 hours to get to until (for some larger small town folk) they finally built a Walmart out on the interstate and; thereby, provided us with a place to buy nail polish at 2:00 AM. There’s a terrible run-off here.
I grew up in Lewis Co., but left when I was 18. The state is one of the most beautiful in the entire US (I’ve traveled most of them.) In the fall there isn’t anywhere more beautiful with the fall leaves ablaze. Nostalgia aside, there were few job opportunities and the entire state was depressed. I wanted something more than mediocre. I found it in AZ and grew to love the desert, the saguaro cacti, and the purple mountains in the Valley of the Sun. It is nice to go back and visit family in WV, however.
I moved to Moundsville, WV in 1969 from Washington DC. After only a few weeks here I realized I had found a place I wanted to raise children. I found a new sense of freedom, caring neighbors and a feeling that this is where I want to be. It was “home”; my roots are here.
Beautiful! LET’S GO MOUNTAINEERS!!
I left WV in 79,but love to go home to visit.Parkersburg what great memories
I’m from Greenbrier County, and although I’ve lived in Virginia for the past six years, I refer to WV as home. Jason has perfectly captured my feelings of leaving. No matter where I live, WV is a major part of my identity. You can take the girl out of WV, but you can’t take WV out of the girl!
West Virginia will forever be my home sweet home! The folks, environment, mountains, neighbors but the thing that always bring a smile is my wonderful family that remains in the mountains that only a person from afar can imagine. I am a TRUE WEST VIRGINIA NATIVE AND WILL ALWAYS BE PROUD OF WHERE I COME FROM….ALMOST HEAVEN WEST VIRGINIA
LOVE,
A TRUE NATIVE OF MY PLACE I CALL HOME WVA
PENNY
I agree to a point.
Awesome! I am from St. Mary’s, just down Rt 2 from PC, and I left in 2002 for the Air Force. Though I am only three hours away in Dayton, Ohio it sometimes it feels so far away. Thanks for putting what so many of us feel into words.
I left West Virginia in 1996 to move to the UK. I married and had a child there, but I always dreamed of home. Whenever I was asked where I was from, I never said ‘America’, I said ‘West Virginia’. Sadly, my marriage didn’t last,m but now my son and I live in West Virginia again. It’s good to be home.
I was really moved by this. I moved away 1998 to move to Arkansas where I went to college. I always loved WV and as the years go by I feel my love for it grow stronger. I am thankful to be born in a great town like Wheeling and I will always be a Mountaineer!
Excellent article…having been born and raised in WV (Huntington,Beckley and now Charleston) for 50 of my 53 years I LOVE my state. I say I’m gonna move somewhere warmer when I retire, but WV is home to me. I’ve spent my summers in our State Parks hiking, boating and camping, day trips to visit other counties, fishing in our lakes and rivers, and to me there is no place else I’d rather be! I’m proud to be a West “by God “Virginia girl! Take me home Country roads!!!!!
Left WV for work just out of high school. It will always be my state. Currently living in VA and go home frequently. Spend the month of Sept there to see the fall foliage. Could not do without it. Will be buried there on the family property of which I now lay claim 52 acers of. Love the state and people. No better anywhere and I’ve lived in VA, TN, NC, OH and DE. I can just never get enough of the mountains especially in Oct. Thanks for reminding me how great it is.
I did not grow up in WV, but I lived there for five years. Whenever people ask me where I’m from, I always feel obligated to say, “Well, I grew up in Wisconsin.” WI never felt like home though, so I always add, “…but I lived in West Virginia for five years.” This is usually met with some wise crack about family trees and toothlessness. I chuckle, with a hint of sadness. I know better. “People on the ‘outside’ just don’t get,” I think, “They can’t see the forest for the trees.”
I left WV fifteen months ago, feeling it was time to move on. Since then I have traveled the world searching for a place that felt like home. What I’ve come to realize is I was already there. I miss the hills, the mountains, the rivers, the misty morning commutes on the winding country roads. I miss the people, the stories, the storytellers, my friends, my “family,” my home. Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.
WV is a magical place. I did not grow up there, but it is in my blood now.
Elizabeth, there are so many reasons why someone might leave. Probably career oriented for most. I am one who never left. Living in my small town and raising my children here is a wonderful and fulfilling life. As someone mentioned, the security of knowing so many caring people is one of the world’s greatest gifts. I loved the essay. I may even know some of the author’s relatives, as some Headleys from PC lived in my hometown, Williamstown, at one time. There truly is no place like home.
Hi Bill, Glad you’re enjoying The Revivalist. It would be great to see your photos. Just click “See and Share Photos” on the homepage. On the next page, click “Add photo.”
To Lisa-
I do not beleive that he meant what he said as a “put down” to your state. I think his logic was closer to he cried because he was in another state, almost as if he was cheating on his state with another. Don’t make something this beautiful about yourself. Lose the sensitivity and read things with an open mind. Someone puts something like this in front of you and there are a million good things you could take from it, but you pick something and turn it into a negative. And please, do us all a favor….stay in your state, we don’t want you here!
Cardinal, rhododendron, sugar maple, black bear, brook trout… This made me cry like a baby, & I didn’t even cry when I saw Titanic or Love Story or even Bambi. I grew up in Charleston & left for Ohio U at 18, then got married, graduated from UVA, & have since lived in Northern VA, AZ, CA, GA, NC, & TN. Left WV 46 years ago, but when people ask where I’m from, I never hesitate. Actually, I take that back. I make them guess. I tell them that my high school offered 4 years of Latin, 4 years of Spanish, 4 years of French, 2 years of Russian, & 2 years of German, & then they have to guess where I’m from. (I’m now a linguistics professor in TN.) “Somewhere in Europe?” they guess. “Chicago?” “New York??” “LA?” Then I love the look on their faces when I say, “Nope. Charleston High School, Charleston, West (By God) Virginia.” (You know, that place with all them ignorant barefooted hillbillies.) Then I tell them I’m a hillbilly & darn proud of it. I can still hear my mother’s sweet voice singing “Oh the West Virginia Hills, how majestic and how grand, with their summits bathed in glory like our prince Emmanuel’s land…If o’er sea or land I roam, still I think of happy home and my friends among those West Virginia hills…”
I moved from Diana West Virginia, at the age of 18, that has been 46 years ago, it is still the place we go as offen as we can,West Virginia will always be home
Well done Jason.
Thanks so much for putting on paper what so many have held wordless for as many as we have been away from West Virginia. I traveled the same path you did, only my journey began nearly 40 years ago.
I escaped SoCal 20 years ago to the Northwest, but it will never quite be the same as the hills of WVa.
Cheers…..Pete
I, too, am a born and bred West Virginian. When I say home, I still mean WV. We’ve been in Clemson, SC for 12 years, but I still have a lot of family in WV. I go “home” about every other weekend to see my Mom, who is I’ll. People can’t believe I make so many trips, I have for as long as we’ve been here..gettin back as often as I could. I miss my State and someday I think I’ll go back for good…I wear my blue and gold, fly my WV flag and have the stickers in my car. There’s no place like home…wild and wonderful.
I left WV when I was 15. Not by my choice. I still value the friends I had while living there, think often of the people.
And I can still recite the names of all of the counties, in alphabetical order, 20+ years after learning them.
This letter was so touching and eloquent. I don’t believe truer words have been written, at least in my eyes. I also left WV at 22 to move to the Golden Coast. I’ve been here for 3years. I’ve cried myself to sleep so many nights, wondering if I made the right decision. I miss my mom, my town, and the pride that comes with living among the hills. When I was promoted to an office, I chose WV scenery for my walls, have a WVU mug for a candy dish, and proudly explain where I came from to every coworker who will listen. But there are things I will never be able to fix, so moving on is the only way to move up. It’s nice to know I’m not alone.
Wonderful piece! My people have been in western VA since the first white settlers came, long before WV became a state, but I left in 1985 as a young adult. WV will always be home, but I have no desire to live there again.
I have often wondered if it is something about those who leave that is different, and thus we leave, or if it is the experiences we have in other places that make us different. I have observed significant differences in those with whom I grew up who stayed in WV and those who left.
Someone in a post above this asked if those who leave have given up. I don’t feel that way at all. I made a positive choice that perhaps my ancestors might have made if they had the means, which they did not.
I continue to support progressive movements in the state, and I send money to WVU, my alma mater. But, I realized in the ’80s I had only one life to live, and it was important to live it where I could pursue my dreams and live the life I chose, not one that I inherited. My connection to WV is not an all or nothing relationship. I will always love the place, the people, the culture and the land. I will always “come home,” but I don’t expect to ever make it my current home again.
There is definitely a strong Mountaineer nation outside the state borders. We have the flying WV on our cars, and we connect whenever we see each other, though we have never met. And we will always have your back, West Virginia.
I was born in these hills. I became intimate with the land. I remember planning to go away, chase some wild fancy, and rebel against the restrictions of my heritage. Ten years later, I’ve traveled, but I could never quite bring myself to leave for good. I married a WV boy. Sometimes I wonder if that is failure, not following through with all those plans, all those dreams. I gave up shiny lights and faraway places for moonlit nights and familiar faces. When I walk hand in hand with my young son through the moss covered woods, and recite to him the names of flowers and trees, it feels right, like there is no other place I should possibly be. Congratulations to those of you who made it out, I will see you in 50 years when you retire.
I wasn’t born in WV but my dad was, when I 9 yrs old my mom put me and my bro on a plane to WV to visit my dad for the first since they divorced, it was suppose to be just for the summer but it turned out to be for 11years I always wanted to know what it would he like living somewhere else when I was 20 my mom asked me to come visit her in Texas for two weeks and it’s been 13 yrs that I have lived in Texas, I’ve been home twice. Its been 8 yrs since I’ve been home and in the last couple of years I’ve been really home sick I wanna move back but I’m getting married in June so it s gunna be awhile longer til I get to move back and even tho I wasn’t born and raised in WV my whole its still home to me and always be home. I love the way the air smells in the fall and the leaves are on the trees its my favorite time of year in WV.
I’m going home for the holidays, vacation, etc. Home will always be WV.
I’ve lived in several different places but every grain of my being resides
in the hills, rivers and valleys of “almost heaven”
I am from WV. and proud of it as so many are. I tried to leave once. was gone about 2 months and came home. While reading your essay you mentioned a few places that I myself have had the pleasure of exploring. I am from Friendly WV. went to High School in Sistersville. I lived many years in St. Marys and now in Williamstown. Though I work out of state I will never leave my home, my mother again. There really is no place that can hold a candle to her. her beauty still takes my breath away even today. She is my mountain momma.
Like the song says “Almost Heaven West Virginia”. I have been away and back several times in my life. Mostly long term and not always my choice. I am always amazed by the feeling of returning home and the loss when I leave. She is a beautiful state and the people who continue to and have by choice chosen to stay with her are rewarded. One of God’s best creations in my opinion and if I close my eyes I can still see and feel her presence. If you are born there then you too were blessed with deep roots that go with you and make you feel firmly planted no matter where you sit down. It’s a state of mind, not just a state in the United States.
Lovely words. I lived in Parkersburg for a brief 8 yrs. It is a beautiful state. I am a New Englander born and raised. I still find myself referring to my days in WV and enjoy seeing the people that have become my friends from WV. There is truly no place like home. Almost Heaven WV.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories of our home state. I was born in Clarksburg, WV. I have lived in other states due to the economy, but I am finally back in WV and I will never leave again. I went into a deep depression for four years and no amount of money to me is worth the value of being at home. The economy is bad everywhere, and I can be home and happy in WV, and able to survive than be in another state making better money and miserable. I don’t think you really understand the depth of your roots and love for WV until you actually experience the loss of living here, missing family and friends and home. Forever in my heart, I will never leave WV again. God Bless WEST VIRGINIA and it’s people!
Thanks to those of you who addressed my question about “giving up.” I appreciate knowing your take on that.
I was being provocative, because this is a real dynamic those of us who stayed here or came back here have about people who leave and then essentially say they had no choice. (Which, by the way, I don’t think is the writer’s position. He goes much deeper than that.)
We’ve sacrificed, changed careers, started companies, run for office to make change, lowered our economic profiles, and even faced environmental danger in some communities. We’re here, fighting for this beloved place every day. So often there is not a huge well of sadness for those who left and blame the economy or some factor external to themselves. You left because something else was more important, and that’s fine, but be honest. The pool of people willing to sacrifice their own dreams for West Virginia is very, very small.
Part of my personal conflict is why do we do this? Will anything ever change? What is this crazy place all about, and am I crazy to come back here?
I don’t know.
We always have choices. Always. Sometimes I think, though, we don’t want to own up to the choice we have made and the real “whys” behind them.
Any piece of writing that stirs this level of emotion and dialogue is tops in my book. Thanks again to everyone for sharing.
I have read the comments by others, from other states, who agree with your assesment. I, on the other hand, was born and raised in Illinois. I married a West Virginian and moved to WV at the age of 24. I have now lived in WV for 41 years and do NOT consider myself an Illinoisan. I do not feel the tug of Illinois in my marrow. I am a West Virginian! There is no place on earth I would rather live. These hills are now my hills. Last summer I joined the March on Blair Mountain to protect my hills from the ravages of mountaintop removal coal mining. My parents and grandparents may be buried in Illinois, but I’m thankful my bones will rest for eternity on a hill in Lincoln County, West Virginia.
I do appreciate your perspective, though, as I have a son, who like you, left for California many years ago. It has been hard for me to comprehend his desire to live anywhere else but West Virginia.
Thanks for this moving essay! I’ve lived in WV most of my life (after returning here in 2007 from a few years in W. KY and OH). I have at least 8 generations of ancestry here – dating into the late 1700′s. I really can’t imagine living anywhere else. The fact is, though, outside forces – multinational extractive industries – are destroying the state and heritage I and many of the rest of you value. Please – if you love West Virginia (& the rest of Central Appalachia) – know that we need your help! Learn about issues of Coal and deep-well gas extraction; these two industries have already destroyed hundreds of mountain tops – via Mountaintop Removal coal mining – with surrounding communities becoming ghost towns, or also destroyed. Thousands of miles of headwater streams have been buried or polluted by the coal industry, and the deep-well gas industry (with all their toxic fracking fluid) is now causing major rivers to be SO polluted that city water intakes have had to be closed or diverted into less polluted areas. AGAIN, we need your help!!! Learn what you can via websites like: http://www.ohvec.org . Contribute what you can by calling your elected officials and asking them to support the EPA’s efforts to regulate coal and gas extraction in our area (state regulatory agencies and WV elected officials are highly corrupted by these industries). If possible, contribute money or time to our efforts to combat the injustices and destruction that’s being wrought upon central Appalachia. Come “home” to see the damage and destruction. Our “homeplace”, folks, is an endangered place.
I too left home in Morgantown W.V., where I taught first medical technology and later medicine, at nearly 50 to finance my children’s education . There has never been one day I have not missed W.V. Each time I cross the Ohio river on the way home I begin to breathe easier and smile .I know I will at last rest at my beloved W.V. U. as I long ago donated my “left over ” body to W.V.U. God willing ,Iwill return before age 70, to tecch at practice medecine for several years .One of the proudest days of my life was the the day my daughter Rebecca Berger was elected to Mountain for her service at the Office of Disability Services.
This also made me cry. I grew up in West Virginia and moved away right after college, and I will always consider it “my state” as well. Thanks for writing these feelings down, I think so many people can relate to these memories and thoughts.
Thank you Jason for “Dear West Virginia” I too share your feelings about about our wonderful state. Even though I have moved, I will be coming back home for an eternal rest in “those West Virginia hills, how majestic and how grand.”
Beautiful <3
I married and left WV for PA almost 49 years ago. We have worked and raised our 3 children here in PA but my ‘home’ will always be in WV. I’m so thankful for the small town upbringing and realized a long time ago that the “town” played such a big part of shaping my character. I’ll always love WV and am so proud of being a ‘little WV hillbilly’!
I LEFT WV AT 19 TO MOVE TO LOS ANGELES, CA.I HAVE BEEN HERE FOR 35 YEARS. EVEN THOUGH I AM HAPPY TO BE IN THIS BEAUTIFUL STATE, I SURE MISS THE WARM FRIENDLY PEOPLE OF FAIRMONT WEST VIRGINIA.
I absolutely love West Virginia. My husband was transferred to N. Miami Beac, Fl. for 20 years; I hated every day I lived there. When my youngest child went off to the u. of Florida (GO GATORS) i DO love ‘dem Gators, anyway, I took the first plane back to ‘God’s Country’. I have never regretted it. A lot of people think it is cold here all Winter – Most of the last two weeks have been in the 60′s. It is cold today – 33 degrees; anyway, it is just great to be home where you grew up and when you are in Walmart or Shoneys, etc., you usually run into some folks you know. I used to do large craft shows in South and neveer one time did I ever see anyone I knew down there. ‘Country Roads, Take Me Home’. Beautiful, beautiful. And a lot of folks think we live in shacks. My daughter in W. Palm Beach visited me back a few years ago and was veery impressed with my beautiful home. She said my house in W. Palm Beach would sell for $500,000. I have friends who live in million dollar homes and it hasn’t changed them a bit. They are still great, down-to-earth folks with whom you can carry on a conversation with about anything. My ashes are to be scattered over my Daddy’s garden when I die. That is where I belong. I am so glad I am home.
I’m still a West Virginia native and work for Marshall University, I have so many friends that live out of state and still long for home, we’ve been connected through Facebook lately with our own pages, of “Just Missing Huntington” and “You knew you grew up in H-Town if…” each day there are daily reminders of the “Good Times” and memories of our childhoods, places we played, the food we can still eat that no one else has, Cam’s Ham, Gino’s Pizza, Stewart Hot Dogs, Heiners Bread, Snyders Chips, and to many more to include, to all of our wild & crazy antics we shared either at school or home. As I see our students graduate and move on, of course to other states, it’s the hardest thing for them to do, I tell each and every one of them to take their degrees and show everyone who they are and where they come from, to wear their school colors proudly. I keep hearing an old song in my head from Crsoby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Teach your children well” and Jason this is what your parents have done for you. Come home soon, we miss you.
Wow, just beautiful. Thank you for moving me today. I am from WV (19 yrs) and now have been in VA for 14. I still marvel at the beauty of WV everytime I drove through it.
My dad was in the USAF, my siblings and I have different birth states, yet his home town was lil ol wayne, west virginia, and as I grew older I always knew I wanted to attend college here, so he retired and we moved back to his home town 10 years ago…
Married now with two children of my own both born at the same hospital, I find our family conflicted to leave the state for jobs. My husband has never lived anywhere else and we find it hard to make a decision. The farther away we go, the better the jobs but something continues to hold us here.
West Virginia was always my home as growning up a military brat offered me wonderful experiences as we moved every two years until I was 18 years old. But my “home” will always be here no matter where our career may take us! Love WV <3
Having lived outside West Virginia for 26 years, after my first 32 years as a native living in state, it is puzzling to me why some of those who remain seem to feel a very personal rejection because some of us moved away by choice. It is as if we are considered deserters from an army in the midst of battle, leaving those who remain to wage an even more difficult struggle without us.
My moving away was about affirming other choices that make better sense for me, things as simple as wanting the joy of living in the sunshine year round, to as complex as building a career I could not pursue in West Virginia. It was never about rejecting or judging WV in a negative way, or even walking totally away from the fight. Thank God my parents were supportive when I left. My dad, I think, wished he had been able to do the same thing when he was younger, to find a better life than he had in the chemical plants of the Kanawha Valley.
Someone above noted that few people are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and dreams in order to stay and fight for WV. I would ask why anyone should do that? WV should not steal your hopes or dreams. We can support WV wherever we may be, every time we vote for national office holders, support legislation, or contribute to groups that help WV and the people who either opt to or see no choice but to live there. (And there are plenty of both, at least among my friends and extended family.)
I retired this year, and no, I am not coming back to live in WV, as someone above suggests I might. I am where I choose to be, and I will always do what I can from this distance to support the state. I love the state and love the people, but will continue to do that from afar. Montani Semper Liberi. That freedom includes the freedom to leave.
I never knew I felt this way until I read your love letter. Some loves never die!!
I left WV 40 years ago, but “I’ll be a West Virginian til I die”…
Thank you so much for reminding me (today) just how much I miss home & family & WV every day of my life.
Thank you for stating so plainly what I have been trying comprehend since I left West Virginia 5 years and 3 states ago. I thought I grew up in a town too small to to contain my dreams. Turns out, my best dreams are of West Virginia. Who knew?
I too ws raised in WV in a small town called Richwood. I spent the 1st 32 years of my life there, half in richwood and the other in Huntington. I do miss the state and have had a chance to live near 2 big cities in Cincinnati and Cleveland and that experience is priceless. Not that living in a big city is better but it makes you realize how much you miss the wilderness. I do love the places I have been especially Cleveland but I still miss being home in WV. I am blessed to be able to have the option to move back if I choose and even own some land in Wayne Co where we plan to build our dream home one day.
As time goes by, the disappointment of having to leave to pursue my education in anesthesia has helped numb the dissatisfaction of leaving in a way. It was God’s plan for me and it has been wonderful! I am thankful I have gotten to experience being away but I still see myself coming home one day.
I got my education at Marshall University as did my wife and we bleed Green and White but even though we wear the rivals colors we are all West Virginians and we never forget where we came from. We have our Marshall stickers in our car windows and fly our Herd flags around the Cleveland area during the football season which always brings some weird looks and we have our Thundering Herd flag flying in front of our home! We are quick to tell of the pride of where we are from and where we were educated because we will always be West Virginians wherever we are.
For those who are trying to decide whether you want to leave the state, I say do it! Some who live there or want to be back will say I am crazy but you need to experience different things in life. You’re only on this earth for short period of time so you need to get away to broaden your horizons and even if you fall in love with place you end up, you will always be a true West Virginian. There is a lot to see in this world but WV will always be my home.
Jason, thanks for your beautiful article about my beloved state. I grew up in Morgantown, and my husband and I moved to Paden City and lived there for 4 years in the 80′s. What a special little town!! Some of my fondest memories are rooted in that little town. Everyone knew everyone else, and neighbors were so very friendly. Our first two children were born while we lived there. Our church family became like our own family. After leaving Paden City, we moved to Bridgeport and then back to Morgantown. Several times over the years, my husband has had the opportunity to advance his career and move out of state. We have always turned down those opportunities because of our love for WV. What a wonderful life we are having in this place. They say “Home is where is the heart is”, and believe me, my heart is in West Virginia.
Thank you so much for this letter. I have left WV to live elsewhere in the country, gone back for a few years, and left again for some more “exotic” locations. I couldn’t agree with all of the sentiments more. I love the memories of times spent at home and am proud to tell the world that I am a West Virginia. It plays a big part in making me the person I am today. I also cherish the opportunities to go home and visit, and while I love my life outside of the Mountain State leaving never gets easier.
I lived in WV for a number of years. I am not originally from WV and don’t like to say I lived in WV. Only because if the people in that beautiful state were as kind and gentle as the peacefulness of the hills it would’ve been a wonderful stay for me and my kids. Not saying all people were unkind but to many for me to stay and raise mine. It’s sad people can’t appreciate all of WV’s beauty and I will go back from time to time because like I said I did meet a few people that were kind.
I left WV at 18 for college and then married and moved to California. Several moves later, we have settled in VA and we are only about 4 hours away. I knew from a very early age that I would never remain in WV. The beliefs that I accepted as a child were stifling as I got older. I can definitely relate to the not fitting in that he speaks of. Every time I go visit, people ask me when I am coming home and I just smile and say I am happy where I am now. It’s hard, but I know I could never be happy going back. WV is still a part of me though.
Thank you so much for this. Even though I am sitting here crying my eyes out. I moved to NC 10 yrs. ago. I miss my home and am very proud to be a WV girls. I display it proudly!!
I started to cry before I even made it past the title… I’ve been in Alabama for 13 years now. I long for those hills and the drive down Short Creek Road (right outside of Wheeling). I can close my eyes and see those tree-topped hills, a green more vivid and lush than any I have ever seen since leaving, and hear the quietness of the evenings and the gentle gurgling of the creek running out beside the house I was raised in. Every time I have driven home (see? Home–always Home means West Virginia), I roll my windows down when I am approaching the state line because the scent of my beloved West Virginia is so sweet I can smell the difference between its air and Ohio’s. (No offense Ohio, but my fellow West Virginians can attest to that fact.) You have certainly filled me with remembrances I will savor all day, Jason. Thank you.
“We’ve sacrificed, changed careers, started companies, run for office to make change, lowered our economic profiles, and even faced environmental danger in some communities. We’re here, fighting for this beloved place every day. So often there is not a huge well of sadness for those who left and blame the economy or some factor external to themselves. You left because something else was more important, and that’s fine, but be honest. The pool of people willing to sacrifice their own dreams for West Virginia is very, very small.
Part of my personal conflict is why do we do this? Will anything ever change? What is this crazy place all about, and am I crazy to come back here?
I don’t know.”
Perhaps there’s nothing much to add to this conversation at this point, but–much in the spirit of Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher’s post above–I want to add that there’s another side of this story: the side of those who, like Jason, left WV at a young age in search of bigger things and broader views, but who have also made a conscious choice to come back–not out of nostalgia, but rather to bring the opportunities and experiences we’ve had elsewhere back with us, to “be the change,” as it were (my PhD is from Yale University and I recently turned down a job in Washington, DC to come to Wheeling). And let me tell you, it ain’t always easy….
I truly appreciate Jason’s beautiful piece, and by no means do I say this as some kind of moral condemnation–I understand and deeply sympathize with those who feel like “there’s nothing there for me” in terms of professional opportunities, intellectual life and culture, or who are reluctant to leave family and friends and communities elsewhere–but only to say that, whatever way you slice it, there are struggles and sacrifices. Some of you miss it here and feel the ache for the mountains and the rivers and the gold and blue in your blood, but there are different aches for those who have been other places and decided–naively perhaps–to come back and try to make it a little less difficult for others to do so.
Am I crazy to come back? Like Elizabeth, I don’t yet know.
Your post truly echo my soul. As a WV native and a WVU graduate, I can honestly say that I beam with pride when my home takes national attention and go into attack mode when someone says something disparaging against it. Leaving WV in 2007 was difficult for me, moving from strange and unfamiliar place to place where not only landscapes seemed foreign, but the people were too. Never had I been pushed around on city sidewalks without a quick apology, or honked at for not jumping on the gas once the red light changes. The way people spoke, with underlying meanings and smoke-in-mirrors when I just wanted someone to speak to me plainly, was such a shock. I am a simple mountain girl who longs to walk in the back yard barefoot, but also wear my Jimmy Choos out at night.
My husband, also a WV native, will pay top dollar for cable channels just to see the Mountaineers vs. rinky-dink basketball teams. When I became pregnant, He and I lamented over the fact that our son wouldn’t be born in WV. Our families mail us WVU sports gear so we can show our pride in good times and in bad. We left for opportunity, but want to return for memories. At times, I look at my son and wonder if he will be able to form the same memories I had- trudging down (and back up) the steps at Blackwater Falls just to escape the summer humidity, or running as fast and as hard as you could in the deepest snow of the season. What can we give him here in nondescript-east-coast-state to make him feel forever protected as the mountains did for my husband and I?
Thank you for sharing a little bit of your soul with us, and reminding us that no matter where we go, we will always have a little piece of WV in our hearts.
Left WV twice now. Grew up in Hampshire County and then left for Pittsburgh. Came back for 6 years and just left again for Wisconsin. No place will ever be home, but even home sometimes doesn’t feel like home. Seems like I’m not alone in this limbo.
I have lived in WV for approx 56 years. Tried Alaska once, last but a couple months or so. I once worked at a college in WV and lunched with a counselor and admission rep, both out of state. They could not understand the bond that WV families have and their unwillingness to leave the state. For me, the bond was “family and friends.” That is where home is….Beautiful article.
Born and raised here in WV. Left for several years then returned HOME. There’s no place like it, i love the land ,the people, ALMOST HEAVEN WEST VIRGINIA
My husband Bruce and I left WV in 1985 after my husband accepted a job offer in Charlotte, NC. The day we left, I cried from the time we left Nutter Fort until Beckley. Then as we were going thru the tunnel leaving WV, I started crying again. Each and every time that we have made the trip home and as leaving, I cry again. But my heart leaps for joy as we come back to WV and come out of the last tunnel and see the sign, Welcome to WV. WV will always be home to me and my two oldest sons. My youngest was born in NC, but he would move to WV in a heartbeat. Since my parents have passed away and are buried in Shinnston, we don’t make it home very often but when I do, I hate leaving all over again. We now live in SC and I love it here too, but it is not home and never will be. I loved what Jason has wrote and it made me cry, again. Sad tears. I know a lot of people have had to leave the state just to be employed but some day maybe they will get the chance to move back. My father was with me in NC, after having surgery for a brain tumor. When they told me he did not have long to live, I wanted to make sure he made it back to WV so he could die there. I am glad I did that for him.
I still wave my WV flag, wear my WV clothes, have my stickers on my autos, and watch the games and cheer them on. I am a committed West Virginian for life.
Please take care of my state.
A great and moving essay. I too moved to CA for a long time for career advancement. I can only promise you this, West Virginia is always home. The day will come when you too will get homesick enough to return. It is in our blood. And for me, returning to WV will always be a great day…
This is beautiful. I too left WV at 23. I’m grateful for the experience, the fact that I’m grounded and rooted and the fact that I’m humble. It appears you too are in CA – I moved to LA 3 and a half years ago. If you’d like to reach out – my email is BrittanysellLA@gmail.com
Would love to connect with another WVian!
Born and raised in WV for 25 years. Moved 3 years ago to southwest PA. Only 60 miles north but might as well be 600. Your sentiments mirror my own. God bless for this and may one day you find your country road home.
I was born in West Virginia and have lived my entire life here. Who I am today has been forged by the influence of these beautiful hills and I will forever be grateful that I grew up in a place like this. Your letter made me cry…not because I ever left but because I had a son who crossed that Kentucky border driving a U-Haul truck which held all of his possessions. His father and I stood watching with tears rolling down our cheeks and, like you, he too cried as he drove away from the only home he had ever known. That was about 10 years ago and he has only been “home” for short visits since then and at times I fear this will never be his home again. You wrote that sometimes you wonder if West Virginia still sees you as a son and I will assure you it does and you are missed. You see, West Virginia is more than just land…it is people not a merely a place, that’s what makes West Virginia so special. Those of us who have been given the blessing of remaining here at “home” still miss those of you who have gone, will always consider you “one of us” and will always welcome you home with open arms.
Born in Welch WV. Left many years ago, I also have grandparents and many family members buried there. It’s where I grew up, where I learn respect, pride, hard work, and most of all love. No one can ever take away my memories of my childhood and how I wish my grandchildren could experience the simple way of life that only the mountains and people from WV can give. It’s true Almost Heaven! How blessed I am to have those memories. Thank You God and WV.!
Beautiful post! I left WV in 1994 but still consider it my home. Still wear my Green and White with pride.
How blessed I am, to have read this! Thank you so much for touching my heart. I am sure that my makeup is now washed far beyond the areas that it was placed this morning. I haven’t cried so hard, for quite some time. I too, moved away years ago – for many reasons. The older I get, the memories of “home” become stronger, and much more important. Although I live in the sunshine, among the palm trees and beauty of Hilton Head Island in South Carolina – I know that as soon as I can, I will have a “summer place” back home in West Virginia. It’s true, those mountains are forever in your heart. God Bless the Mountain State, our home among the hills !
I currently live in Parkersburg, WV but am originally from the mountains (Webster County). It’s a whole different place in Parkersburg. I long for the mountains, rivers you can swim in, and the beautiful scenery. One day, I will return to the mountains permanently. Until then, I will visit when I can and yearn to be there the rest of the time. Thank God I am a Mountaineer.
Our dearest friend, Doug Stemple was West Virginia’s “Biggest Fan”. I would like to post this comment on his behalf, as he passed away – his head in my hand, two years ago (in August), shortly before his 42nd birthday. Doug was born and raised in Philippi, WV. He attended Fairmont State College, and loved his homestate immensely. As we were living here in South Carolina (and had been for many years), my husband offered Doug a job. The lure of sunshine and a great economy brought him down here, and away from his beloved West Virginia. We used to smile everytime he wore his WV hat, and / or one of his many WV shirts or jackets. We used to tease and say “you’re not in WV anymore”…….but he still wore them…….often. Just days before he died, I asked him if he was glad he came here (to South Carolina). He told me…….”yes and no”. Every one of us who have read your story here, knows what that means. I do know that Doug is now among those Mountains, and still rooting for his favorite WV Football team. Thank you West Virginia for giving us all a wonderful foundation, and for always being there to welcome us home, when we finally get back.
This is me… I left home at 22 or 23 headed for North Carolina. I’ve been everywhere, NO, not in the military but the other “M”, the media… I move just as much but without the benefits!
Let’s see, 4 years Raleigh, 2 years Charlotte, 4 years in Peoria, Illinois… back to Charlotte for 3, then to Richmond for 1, on to Atlanta for 7 and now, Virginia Beach for the past 8 years.
But I’ve become something I could never have imagined all those years ago… maybe something of an inigma! After 29 years abroad. which I’ve come to realize is anywhere outside of the Mountain State, I actually am trying to go back.
People wonder if I’ve lost my mind! “Wait, you live at the BEACH, and you want to come back to WV?” My answer, a resounding YES!
A trip home recently told me why. I went to watch my old high school football team, and not just any game, it was Homecoming. Could it have been any more appropriate? And that’s not all! I was there sitting along side of my biggest high school crush, a woman I was too chicken to even talk to 36 years ago and now, at the tender age of 52, I’ve found her in my life and WV calling me home… home to my mother at age 82… home to my brothers living not so far away, something that the past 29 years hasn’t allowed me… home to a new, NOT-SO-NEW love… and home to those beautiful mountains, “hills” we called them.
Is there anything more comforting than after a long absence finding yourself back on those windy. crumbling roads? Serioualy, there’s something so kind in even the pot holes that jar you back to reality, a realization that time hasn’t even stood still here. Now, the store fronts say “CAFE”, and I’m told there are slots behind those signs. The streets are packed with cars that weren’t there all those years ago, when we played football right there in the middle of the road, taking time out only to allow the neighbor to drive by.
The faces are no longer recognizable, the old schools are finding other uses. Even the old field where I played colt league, junior high and high school football saw it’s last game, the Homecoming game I just happened to attend. But all of this not withstanding, I still feel a sense of being home there. I still find myself looking for a face from “back then”. and even finding one here or there. Sure, the hair might be grey, the faces might be a bit wrinkled, but this is still home… and these are still friends.
This is one Mountaineer begging to be back home and trying with all my might to do so… it is, as the song says “Almost Heaven” and it is MY West Virginia, my home.
Very moving essay. I am from Kentucky and will always be a Kentuckian. I moved to South Dakota in 2000, and will always miss my family and the hills where I grew up. I now have the husband and son I had always longed for here in SD. I know I will never move back to Kentucky, but Kentucky will always be “home” to me. My parents and grandparents are buried there and two of my brothers still live there, but although my life is here I will always bleed BLUE. Go Cats!
Well said! (& written) I watched my oldest child struggle with these same conflictions. Sad to say, but leaving her home state was the best move for her personal life and professional career. I’ll never forget the day I watched her pull out of the driveway in her worn, green Jeep Wrangler, packed with EVERYTHING she owned….what wouldn’t fit was sold in a yard sale. California freedom was her dream throughout adolescence and now her reality as an adult. But like you, she never forgets what state to call home! Love ya, Ashley!!
Jessica W, drop me a note on my blog, would love to chat more. You totally understood my comments. Thank you.
As I read your words I could see what you wrote. West Virginia came alive again for me. It is my home & I hope it always be! Thank you for your words that painted a picture for me. Thank you for letting strangers see how much you love your West Virginia. It is also, how much I love her to. West Virginia is my home and I am proud of her. I hope she is proud of me. The song says,” Almost Heaven West Virginia.” Written by John Denver, came from his heart. This State of West Virginia is in my heart & in my blood, & I am so proud to be called a West Virginian.
I lived in WV the first 18 years of my life and couldn’t wait to leave and have never considered going back. Even though I had a happy childhood there, I have no affinity for the place. My town was physically isolated from the larger world and therefore the people were narrow minded. Only if asked directly where I grew up will I admit it’s West Virginia, but then I quickly point out how long I’ve been in my current city to make up for the embarrassment. It fascinates me how proud people are to be from WV, in spite of its isolation, poverty, and truly depressing weather. This is a lovely essay, but I just don’t get the affection for WV.
I’ve enjoyed reading the comments almost as much as the article itself. West Virginians are passionate about our state. I miss home so much. It’s been 8 years since I left and I still visit my hills in my dreams at night.
Wow. I can relate to this so much, I felt like I was reading something I myself had written. Damn.
Thank you, to be reminded of my home in the mountains.
I left WV almost 15 years ago, and I too still tell anyone who asks that WV is my home. I still get homesick often. I miss the hills, the leaves in the fall, the flowers in the spring, and the sound of the springs and the river in the summer. It brings tears to my eyes to read this, but only because it feels like it’s coming from my heart instead of yours! Thank you so much for writing it!
I’m from WV & I actually left TWICE when I was young & foolish (20s-something). I spent nearly 20 yrs. in TX & when I finally decided to come back “Home” in the late 80s, I brought my Texas husband with me. He thought he’d been dragged to a Third World country @ first but little by little he grew used to the fact that the sun no longer rose over the horizon @ 5 a.m. & nor did it wait to set till after 9 p.m., like it does in flat-lander TX.! Over the 20+ yrs. he lived here with me, he first grew fond, then comfortable & finally he grew to love the rugged terrain & the even more rugged people in the state. When he passed away in July 2010, he made me promise to scatter his ashes in several of our favorite spots in WV so that, as he put it, he’d never have to leave “Home” again!
WV seems to have that affect on some people who aren’t perhaps “Native” Sons or Daughters as much as they are “Naturalized” ones & love this place just as much as anyone else. Thank you for the beautiful article.
This is a gorgeous piece of writing. I was born and raised in West Virginia for 11 years. It is absolutely my home and one fo those places you just never forget. Every bit of what you said hit home, I’m so glad you shared this with us! I love and miss West Virginia every single day of my life, and having lived in two different states since my childhood in heaven, I have never truly considered them home. West Virginia is amazing and I’m glad to know there are others who feel just as passionate about it as me! Good luck in your life and wherever God takes you!
OUTSTANDING. You have captured the essence of it.
Here I sit on the other side of the world, in Japan, and you have so very eloquently said what has long been in my heart.
I left West Virginia 26 years ago to come to the land of the rising sun. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about going back…why did I leave…how can I get back. I always say that “jobs” is the reason I can’t go back; yet i wonder if we can really ever go back?
I went to WVU, and even my high school was green and white, like yours (which, incidentally, beat my high school in the state playoffs back in the 70s). You would think I would be totally focused on this place, where I have now spent over half my life, but today, as I drive through the streets and concrete canyons of Japan, there is an odd, flying WV on the windshield of my tiny Japanese mini-van. It reminds me of my home, far away.
As a child, I remember my other far-flung relatives who would come back home for Thanksgiving (I lived with my grandmother at the “home place”) and would reminisce and praise the hills of WV so much. I was always left with the question, “Why did you leave then, if you love it so much?”
I had no idea why anyone would leave something they professed to love so much.
And then, life happened. I grew up. History repeated itself.
Now, when I go back, my relatives-those who I left behind- just look at me with a genuinely perplexed yet simultaneously knowing look. I know what question runs through their minds too. It is the question of a 10 year old boy, at Thanksgiving table, listening to his uncles and aunts…
Wow! you really hit home with this. I left home when I was 18 to go to college and then again when I was 38 because my husband and I just couldn’t raise two kids on what state employees are paid in WV. We are now in North Carolina and have been there for years. I now consider North Carolina home. I live in the foothills and can see the mountains but, these are MY mountains and I still miss them dearly. My son went to Marshall for college but, he considers himself home so, I don’t expect he will return to NC. Maybe it just takes the next generation to return?
I have lived in Illinois for 7 years now, but I will always be West Virginian. I will always make love to my vowels when I talk ( I just can’t bear to say them all sharp and quick…biting off words like they don’t much matter). I will always say ” I reckon” when non-committal and “see ya’ll” when I leave a room. I will always love brown beans and cornbread. I will always look out my window at folks passing on the sidewalk and think how lost they would be in those gnarled old woods I grew up in. I just can’t help it. I feel more West Virginian than American. Even traveling abroad, I tell folks I am from West Virginia instead of the U.S. My first time out the country, I traveled to the Netherlands and met a man singing “Country Roads” in Dutch. Brought a tear to my eye. I was, and will always be, proud to be West Virginian.
I grew up in Clarksburg WV and graduated from WVU. Right now I’m In the process of moving to FL but I’m really conflicted and heartbroken over the decision. Your words sum up exactly how I feel. I’m gonna miss the mountains, the snow, and most of all the beautiful autumn nights. It makes me sad but I want something more. I’ll always be a Mountaineer from WIld Wonderful West Virginia.. And I can always drive those country roads back home
thanks for writing this.
Four years ago this past November, I too left WV. The move was not for a career or wanting to relocate, but I fell in love with a man who has lived in Pittsburgh all his life.
After selling my townshouse and boxing all of my personal belongings, I started heading towards Charleston, I realized that I had tears in my eyes. WV is a beautiful state filled with friendly people, rolling hills, my family and friends that I left behind. I do miss them as well. The good point of view is that I’m on 5 1/2 hours away. I do get to travel back home more often than I thought.
Jason did a wonderful job in describing WV. I also am proud to say that I was born and raise in WV. I lived there for 48 years. It is a blessing that I live so close that I have an opportunity, unlike others that have moved away, to visit more frequent.
I grew up with my beautiful colors of green and white, both high school and college. I am proud to say, WE ARE MARSHALL.
Just today, I learned one of my Maryland history student’s father is from Parsons. She and I had a wonderful time talking about all the little places she knows from visits to her family in WV. She can’t wait to go to WVU. I know the feeling–after 25 years living in MD, I’m still a West Virginian. The place name and like Jason said, the smell of a small town on football night, tugs at my heart strings all the time. Left for a better economy, but the price has been very, very steep.
Thank you for writing this. I moved away from WV in 2001, and this article really touches me. I always knew that I would never stay there, even as a young girl I dreamed of moving away. But the years I spent there have somehow shaped who I am today. I am and always will be “from WV”, I just happen to live in IL now. I visit home at least once a year, and nothing there ever seams to change.
Again, thank you!
Jason, this is an absolute masterpiece. Your description of your love for WV mimics my own feelings. I left Webster County WV in 1970 and have moved back twice. The only reason I don’t move back permanently is my husband is a diehard Clevelander. Blue and Gold will always be my colors and WV will always be my home. The feeling I get when I cross over the state line into beautiful WV is that the mountains wrap their arms around me and hold me close and protect me from the elements of the rest of the world. It is truly God’s country. I can’t understand how anyone can gaze at the beautiful WV hills and mountains in the fall of the year (or any season for that matter) and NOT believe in God. For only God could have created such a peaceful, loving, and spectacular place as WV.
Jason, I still live in WV but you have opened my eyes to the fact that I made the right decision in my life to stay here in WV. I am also glad that you still feel a great part of you is still in WV. I hope that I knew you when you were a child. Momma had red hair and Daddy worked in coal mines. You were an adorable blond haired little toddler who unfortunately had to wear casts on your legs. If this is you, I was a neighbor across the street that has often wondered where you were and what you were doing.
What a please is is to say that I know a young man that express himself so eloquently. You have grown into an amazing man and I am proud to have been part of your life.
West Virginia will always have a place for you and so will some of the residents.
Good luck to you in whatever you have chosen. God Bless you. If you are the young man that I knew, then much love to you.
Mighty Fine words young Mountaineer. Brings back memories when I was forced to leave our beautiful State for a couple years duty for Uncle Sam. West “by God” Virginia was always in my mind and heart then and your elegant writings do justice to that Glorious Lady we call home
I am so glad to see that so many people
love West Virginia. My husband and I grew
up , went to school , met and married there.
We moved on for better jobs and a wonderful life.
We are proud to always call West Virginia our
home. The state gets bad press but that’s from
people who do not know her like we
do. She is the fiber of our youth and a
wonderful place to have grown up.
We are from the Montgomery – Gauley
Bridge area. My parents later moved to
Fairmont. It is still always fun to go back
to the hills.” Oh the hills beautiful hills
How I love those West Virginia hills.”
I was never sad to leave her. That is what
she raised me to do. I always knew we
come back and that was a comforting feeling.
I met the love of my life there! It has
been a wonderful part of who we are
and always will be. It is a love that goes
on forever! Thanks West Virginia!
Thank you so much! This is perfect and it warmed my heart.
I am also a West Virginian, who lives in Florida.
Being the youngest of five boys I was the last to move away from WV, I couldn’t think of a better place to grow up but…….. If you stay there you get caught in a time warp and never really get to see that there is a whole, huge world outside the borders of good ‘ol West by God, almost heaven. smile when you say that, Virginia. and the people there, although they are the friendliest I have met anywhere, are really kind of backwards and narrow-minded when it comes to the wider world and it’s wonders. I recently moved back to WV to clear my head and ended up helping my mother, who was taking care of my father by herself, Dad was sick with alzheimer’s disease. He passed away in Jan of 2010 after 12 years of decline,and after the funeral my mother asked: “now you’re not going to move away and leave me here all by myself are you?” so how could I leave right away? I will eventually move away again, probably back down to Florida where I lived from ’88 until 2003. I really love the sunshine state, and it is good for my health as well, because I suffer from depression and obsessive/compulsive disorder as well as S.A.D or seasonal affective disorder, which gives me no trouble at all when I am in the warm weather and sunny climate of the deep southern U.S. I love West Virginia but as my father always said: “Our biggest export in WV is our children” because there are not alot of good jobs and there is alot of cronyism and environmental degradation due to the unscrupluous mining and lumber industry. It is rife with the carpet-bagger, robber-baron mentality and the people there, for some strange unknown reason, are voting for the Republicans, even though it is abundantly clear that the repugni-cants are NOT for the poor, or the middle class, or the hardworking mountain folk.
What an outstanding job Jason did in writing this. Those West Virginia hills… how majestic and how grand, and they ALWAYS beckon me back!! I moved to North Carolina in 1978, but go back “home” at least 3-4 times per year. I still have family and close friends there, and if all goes as planned, I want to retire there. I’d move back now if I could! When you’re from West Virginia, it’s in your blood, so it stays with you forever. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thanks for a beautiful tribute. I have been away over 45 years and I still get a huge lump in my throat and a tear in my eyes when I hear “Country Roads”. Also when asked…..”i am from West Virginia”. Hard to explain why……you have put into words….but really have not explained the WHY……..not sure it is possible. I loved reading this. Thank you.
OK… this has touched me. These words are perfect and bring to life every feeling I have ever had about leaving WV and moving to NC. It was so bittersweet… hating to leave, yet excited to go. Twenty years in NC and I get just as teary when I think of my home… my state. I forget sometimes that I don’t live there anymore because I am as strong a West Virginian than ever. When I see a WV license plate here on the coast of NC, I get SO excited. Thank you for giving literary life to the beauty that is our state.
OK… this has touched me. These words are perfect and bring to life every feeling I have ever had about leaving WV and moving to NC. It was so bittersweet… hating to leave, yet excited to go. Twenty years in NC and I get just as teary when I think of my home… my state. I forget sometimes that I don’t live there anymore because I am as strong a West Virginian as ever. When I see a WV license plate here on the coast of NC, I get SO excited. Thank you for giving literary life to the beauty that is our state.
I love this! I moved away around 1991. I miss my home more than anything. It makes me sad that I can’t be home. They have a saying home is where you hang your hat not true. Home is whats in your heart and once West Virginia is in your heart it is always.I am a West Virginia girl you can take this girl out of WV and she will not be happy about it but you will never take the West Virginia out of this girl. My heart is the shape of WV. Most of my clothes have WV on them I have shirts , pjs ,hats, coats, purses, boots, anything I can get with my true loves initials or the whole name on something to make me feel close and not so far away so my heart don’t hurt so much to not be home anymore hoping someday I can go home. Always A West Virginina girl. Tina
I left home, West (by God) Virginia, when I was 22 years old. I have lived in Texas, Alabama, Virginia and North Carolina and no where is home like the green rolling hills of WV. My family is about 200 years deep in those old hills and I feel them calling me back all the time. I am 52 years old now and I am trying my best to figure out how to go home. It truly is ‘Almost Heaven!’ Thanks for expressing in words what I feel in my heart.
What a wonderful tribute to West Virginia and all of it’s citizens wherever they may live, their hearts are in WV!!! The essay and (almost) all of the responses to the essay are a book in the making: For the Love of West Virginia. It is almost heaven and it is and always will be home.
Beautiful Jason ! Just perfect, in every way. You have written every thought that enters my brain. Thank you so very much. West Virginia will always be HOME !
This letter hit home with me. I left WV at 23 and moved to NC for job opportunities and a better life. I am extremely happy in NC but still refer to WV as home, although I have been gone for 9 years. Like so many others we fly the WV flag at our house, have stickers on our cars, and wear more blue and gold than anything else. As my brother says “WV is a great place to be from,” in reality these days its not a great place to make a career and go “places.” I am still extremely proud to be a Mountaineer and will always take pride in the way things are back “home”
Wow…a little teary eyed right now. At 18, I left WV for college in KY. I had never lived anywhere but in Grafton, WV. I cried then. When I returned to WV after graduation, I spent only a few months looking for a job before crying again during the 7 hour drive from Morgantown to Charlotte, NC. I have been away for 7 years, making it home for funerals and one week out of the year to visit friends and family. I get excited every time I pass through the tunnel on 77 headed north, and am I sad each time I get onto 79 headed south. In high school, I couldn’t stop thinking about leaving. Now, just wish I could go home. Will always be proud to be a West Virginian. Thanks!!
Wheeling WVa born in ’81 left in ’99
CRIED MY EYES OUT……
You see, I’ve never had a problem being from West Virginia. I just had some difficulty being in West Virginia. DID IT FOR ME…thanks so much for sharing this.
Almost Heaven is where I want to be, either by walking or by my ashes. I left in “72 and came to Miami, Fl., for the same reason as everyone who leaves.. This year I took my granddaughters to visit, there 5 and 7 it was are family reunion..These children have been to every theme park in Fl. when they came home, they told everyone that WVA was the best place on earth..WHY?? The love of there large family, lighting bugs, hide and go seek, hay rides and of course riding horses..The Freedom, to run and play outside after dark, which is never done in this city..The smells of freshed mowed hay, pepperoni rolls baking and hot dogs, saw dust saloon floors with spilled beer and orange pop..and attending my family church on Sunday..These are my memories and your essay touched my heart..we from WVA, stand tall and proud no matter where we go..
I am 63 and I left West (by God) Virginia in 1994 when my husband was transferred to Texas. I was born and grew up in the Potomac Valley in the eastern panhandle. I was graduated from WVU. My children were born in Charleston… Texas is the flattest place I have ever seen. People here talk about the “hill country” near Austin, but they don’t know a thing about hills. I miss those West Virginia hills with every fiber in my body. My soul yearns for the fiery autumn wooded paths and babbling brooks of my childhood. I miss the way the mountain landscape changes with each season. I miss the people. I miss the passion of being a mountaineer; of persevering and succeeding against all odds. I look at the weather channel to see what’s happening in WV. Thanks to Union Carbide, there are many West Virginians in the Houston area, so I can always share a little nostalgia. West Virginia is not a place as much as it is a condition of the heart. to borrow a line from a song, “There’s a land of rolling mountains, where the sky is blue above and though I may roam, I hurry home to friendly hills I love.” Thanks for the essay and the responses!
I was born in Cleveland OH, because my Father couldn’t find work in WV. It was home for him and generations of both sides of my family. Fortunately we came “HOME” when I was 6 months old. I grew up about 5 miles from Fayetteville, WV home of the New River George Bridge in a small community of Gatewood with old fashioned values & pride of where I live. I too left this state in my 20s to live up North for work. It was hard trying to tell them how beautiful my state is, when you live two blocks from Norte Dame you learn to grit your teeth when they make fun of your accent. The ones that knew where WV actually was didn’t understand that Mountaineer spirit, pride and loyalty. I fought and won the right to wear my WVU shirts at work on Irish days. They do not understand growing up with old fashioned values, sayings, words, phrases, such as it’s an old “wives tale”. You learn to smile when you say your from West Virginia and people ask what part of VA? Are you close to VA Beach? Then you say noooo.. I am from WEST VIRGINIA not VA, it’s a state away from VA. Then when they give you an odd look you wonder do they teach geography here? I left a good paying job with a promise of more pay and benefits. Telling them, you have never seen a homesick hillbilly have you? I remember coming home and that week when James Dent aka The Gazettener wrote of WV being like a “Mother” holding you in her arms meaning her mountains, I cut out the entire little story and mailed it to the place I had worked. I left my home once again to go North to PA be closer to my growing nephew and nieces. Homesickness once more took over and I came home again. I returned to PA a yr. later to help family. I was there for 5yrs. I returned home as often as possible this time. I thank GOD that I could return to WV. I have lived in several places here the state since then. Fortunately I can continue to live in WV at “Home” in Gatewood, straight across the road from my “Home place” that my Grandfather had built. I am proud and happy to be a WV Mountaineer. I hope all that have left and are homesick can one day return to their “Mountaineer mothers arms” of the mountains that have been called “Wild and Wonderful” which describes it well, but not as well as “Almost Heaven” so I am close to my final home.
Like so many of you who have responded to this beautifully written tribute to WV, I too left “almost heaven” 15 years ago. I can honestly say that the longer I have been away the more I have longed to go back. I travel back to visit family sometimes twice a year and as my plane is landing i marvel at the beauty below me and it never fails, I get as excited as a little kid on Christmas morning knowing I’m almost home every time. It’s been said home is where the heart is and my heart will forever be in WV. Thank you for this absolutely phenomenal tribute to WV. You are truly a gifted writer to be able express what so many of us who have left WV feel. For a brief few minutes it took to read this article, you made me feel like I was right there.
This really describes it perfectly. Thank you
I left West Virginia in 1995, at 20 years old. When I take my kids to visit friends and family, I tell them we’re going home! My Daddy is buried there, my Mother will be too, and I’ll be darned if I don’t have a plot reserved right next to them. I wear my WV shirts & jackets with pride. I have a silver WV on the back of my car and I want to wave to everyone I see with a West Virginia license plate! It will always be home! This is very well written, you are speaking the heart of many! Thank you!
Thanks for putting in such beautifully eloquent words what so many of us have felt for years. I’m in Vermont now, but everyone here knows I’m a West Virginian.
I love this “letter”. I left West Virginia when very young. I was born in those beautiful mountains and even though I am in my sixties, I have very vivid memories of the sounds and smells of the air.
There is a feeling of serenity there. I have not been back for a few years,but West Virginia lives in my heart.
Ahhh….West Virginia. I’m not far from home….not even an hour….but nonetheless in another state. I have had the best of both. Just far enough “away” but close enough to go if I have the need or urge. I grew up within a stone’s throw of VA, was actually born there, but was raised in Monroe Co where the sweetest memories of sounds, smells, and adventures still will me home. I need only to close my eyes… It was the best of childhoods and never really thought of “leaving”, and in my soul never truly have. But time changes us in ways we cannot always know. I don’t think I’ll ever live there again. This Virginia home belongs to my children. If I left, I would feel like I was leaving them…and they would feel that their home was gone. That’s how I feel since my mother’s passing….she was my “home”. And even though my “home” is gone, my West Virginia will always be there for me
. My tears are blue and gold.
Well Jason, you have really stirred up something amazing here. Your letter is truly touching in so many ways. I have spent the last hour and a half just reading the replies. All very interesting from my point of view. Before moving to WV I had never had a “home”. Born in TN, spent childhood mostly in AL, and have moved 38 times in my life. lived in 8 states. From that it goes without saying that I was never in one place long enough to call it home. Some places I like better than others. Occasionally I will think I can still smell the Honeysuckle at dusk in the warm southern evenings in AL, but those times are fleeting. We moved to WV in 92 and I was in love almost from the first day. Finally, I was “home”. Sometimes I have to stop and say, “pinch me, I must be dreaming because I have lived in the same house for 20 years!” Most of you W. Virginians are right, there is something about this state that can’t be explained. It gets in your blood and becomes “home”. Thank you WV, and thank you Jason, for the “letter”.
I grew up in Martins Ferry, OH; right across the river from Wheeling, WV. I raised my oldest son in the hills of WV, and still feel the mountain call. Although I only live 2 hours from Wheeling, I dont get there as often as I would like.
Your essay really touched my heart!!!! Thank you for this expression of love!
I would like to say My Name is ETCHED into the side of that Mountain .I will Always Be Proud to be a West Virginian A MOUNTAINEER. I was taken from all that I loved and cared about but I still went Home to Grandma nad grandpa.I was Like the last Child at Home with them (I lived with them from the time I was Born til My Mother Married Again)but WEST VIRGINIA you will always be my HOME I LOve you and all that you have given to me you are buried Deep in My soul I carry you with me everyday.
American by birth…West Virginian by the grace of God……
I heard it said years ago that our forefathers settled in West Virginia because of the mountains. They were so much like the homeland, wherever that may have been. We have a inherited need for the mountains. Without them we feel naked and vulnerable. Flat land scares us because we have no protection. I married into the military and because of that I have lived in a lot of places and none of them were ever home. Retirement will take us back to the hills we love, the people we love and we will finally be home.
So many years ago, due to being married to a man in the military, I left West Virginia for a while. Every time we came home to visit, my heart broke a little more each time we had to leave to return to our ‘temporary’ home. At long last, the military let go and we were coming HOME to stay. I have had people ask me “what part of Virginia are you from?”….. I think that question makes any Mountaineer’s blood boil. I am from the GREAT state of WEST VIRGINIA. We became a state in 1863 and still remain a wonderful place to live. Sadly over the years our young people have moved on due to lack of good paying jobs here, but there are MANY more who always long to come ‘home’, and many have.
This tribute to WEST VIRGINIA will bring home the spirit of every true Mountaineer….WEST VIRGINIA will ALWAYS BE HOME…..Once a Mountaineer, ALWAYS a Mountaineer…
May GOD continue to bless the great state of WEST VIRGINIA!!!!
I lived in WV for 30 some years and had to leave due to job transfer. I was uprooted from my home in India once to come to US but what I miss more is my WV family, music, arts and crafts, people, even more than India. WV taught me to love, persevere, to be strong, to be mature, to be adventurous
and to give selflessly. my heart aches every time I think about WV and I want to go home.
What a beautiful tribute to our state. I left my beloved state for one year to attend graduate school in Washington DC. I traveled home to see my parents and boyfriend a few times that year so I didn’t get to the point that I missed it too much during that year. When I finished school though I briefly entertained the idea of staying in the DC area because I had been offered a job there, but not yet at home in WV. I decided that with the cost of liviing there that I wouldn’t make any more money and of course there was the boyfriend waiting back home too!!! One day after I moved back home, I was coming down the main street of my hometown and I came to a short line of traffic that had stopped at a stop light. This particular stop light was at the top of a very steep hill and was the one stop light that if you were learning to drive a stickshift, was not the one you wanted to stop on. That day a elderly man in an old pickup truck was the first in line at the stoplight. When the light turned green he started to go, but he stalled his truck, he started it and began to go and stalled the truck again. The sequencing of starting and stalling continued through another 5 instances. I looked behind me to see the line of traffic was getting longer and longer. I also made another observation. While we were alll waiting behind this man, no person was yelling or screaming at him. No one was honking on their horns or threatening him with words or weapons!!!!! I said to myself that day, “This is why I love my town and my state, and this is why I came home to West Virginia and why I will stay!! Thank you for your tribute and for reminding us why we love WV so much!
I’ve been gone from W. Va. for 13 years now. I got transferred as a result of my job moving out of the area. Some days it seems like I’ve been gone for a lifetime … others it seems like a minute. My families roots are deep in that area, and I fully intend to move “home” some day in the future. It’s good to know that those mountains I love so much will be there to welcome when I make that trip home.
Wow! What an amazing piece of work… I was born and raised in West Virginia and graduated from Marshall University (Go Herd!). There is a chance that I may have to move seeing as my future husband can’t find a job here. It breaks my heart to think about leaving WV, I absolutely love it here and I am not ashamed to say that I was always the person who said I NEVER wanted to move away. I don’t want to lose that part of me, I don’t want to leave my family, and I really don’t want to lose that country accent that West Virginia has given me. Thank you so much for sharing this, as it as made a potential move much easier…
I chose WV. I wasn’t born here but I looked for a place to call home. WV is that place.
Thank you so much for that jason I lived in (Buckhannon, W.V.) For 13 years and have
Felt this way about my home for years. And youve expressed what I couldnt. I live in Florida with my wife and kids and I always say im happy here but im truthfully not. Maybe when my kids are grown and I aint got a worry in the world I’ll be back in those mountains with full happy heart cause I am home again
Thanks again for this. Always a proud Mountaineer
I lived in a small Arizona Mountain town for the first 35 years of my life. After 9 years of marriage my husband decided it was time to move to California, where he was raised. That was a hard move. I know what you mean about not looking back or you might not go.
We have now lived 22 years in Virginia. I’d miss it if I left, but Arizona is still my home. The places I played are not the same, except in my memory. To me there will always be a place “across the road” where I can hike and explore. The big tree, now cut down for many years, will still be in the middle of the road.
Just writing this makes me homesick.
I feel exactly everything you have said. I left Sunbeam/Fort Branch in Logan County West Virginia in August 1979 for Washington State. I have never returned, but I want to. I live in Texas now, but I always am remembering growing up and playing in the hills, creeks, streams, lakes, parks and even on the railroad tracks. The memories of childhood friends and very distant relatives whom I long to see just one more time. My favorite spots I would love to visit one more time. I am 48 years old now. I must make plans to return to West Virginia. Land that I love. If only for a visit. I must go there at least one more time. Bobby Ashworth
You have put my thoughts in writing. I moved to Va in 1985, with family still in WV we do get back home but not as much as I would like. As I sit this morning and read this essay, wearing a WVU sweatshirt and drinking my coffee from a WVU mug my heart longs for those West Virginia hills. What a truly moving essay. West Virginia is truly my home!
I came to this state 15 years ago and fell in love! It’s the beauty, the age, the slowness, the sky, the forests and her streams. It’s everything and more. Thank you for your words. I AM proud to be a Mountaineer (in training)
I just want to say from one west Virginian to another very well done. I am fortunate to live in central WV. My life started in a very small town in Randolph county, just east of Elkins called Harman. It was a few months later that my family up and moved to Baltimore. For 14 years we traveled back and forth visiting family. Fortunately at age 14 we moved back to Elkins. Since then I have lived in buckhannon, Hurricaine back to Elkins and now in buckhannon. Every one of these cities is just a small town, but they all made me feel welcome. Most of my adult life I have talked about leaving for something better but lo and behold I am still here at age 52. I have a 8 month old boy and after reading this he is going to grow up West by God Virginia.
Beautifully written, Jason! I’ve been in West Virginia since I was six years old and am lucky to have a wonderful job that allows me to stay. I can’t imagine living anywhere else! Each member of my family moved out of state at some point and one by one are coming back. There’s nothing like growing up in a small town in West Virginia and living the life you described. We are lucky people.
What a beautiful article!!! I was born and raised in WV, and have lived in South Florida for
11years. All who visit where I live say its “paradise.” And they are correct, however, WV is
Heaven!!!! I miss WV, like crazy and pray to move home someday!
I lived in Huntington W Va for 22 years Fl for 26 and W Va is and always will be my home. Nothing like the People and Friendships you make at home. I don’t think I can or will call any other place home then HUNTINGTON WEST VIRGINA. Miss You more then you know. Terri
I’ve moved to Atlatna shortly after college and while many good things have happened for me the 10 years i’ve been in the South – it will never be called home. Home will always be Wayne County. I hadn’t been home in quite awhile until this past Christmas and I was quickly reminded of how the area is still a part of me. It’s the immediate comfort and peace i get turning onto the road where i grew up. it’s the drive out to my grandparents house although they’ve been gone for several years. The river, the hills, the people, and our culture make me feel grounded and find balance. I am not sure if I could return to live there, but I know there is something about those ‘West Virginia hills’ that I cannot live without. Thank you for this beautiful article. The tears came fast and steady as your words expressed everything I feel about the area.
I often try to explain the Appalachain culture to my friends and how different the people are – we’re not yankees and we’re not southerners…..we’re our own kind. This article is a perfect example of our people and kin. I plan to share it with them……
Thank you for making me feel a little closer to home today.
What a wonderful article-it is amazing. I read it to my husband and we both cried!
I am from Southern West Virginia but live in Central West Virginia!!! I luckily went to college here in WV and even a internship at Walt Disney World in Florida but I needed ‘home’… So here I am at age 25 back in the place I grew up!! I even lived in Paden City for almost a year after college… it was a great little place and your letter not only describes there but also my part of the state too!!! West Virginians are everywhere because its not about where you are its more of a state of being… something that makes you wave at passerbys and nod and say hello to those you pass on the sidewalk…
I’m a transplant. Not originally from WV but once there I thought I would never leave. Well after 30 years of being a contractor in the state and seeing all the little towns along the way from Hamon to War, Welch to Charlestown and all the towns in between. Each trip through Durbin I would think ” When I’m out of business this is where I will live” and the I would go through Rainell and have the same thoughts. But the economy threw us curve ball and my business ended two years ago. Now I am working in another state but trying to keep my 30 acres in central WV. I’ve only been back once in two years but it is and always will be my home. Miss you West Virginia……
Man o man did this hit home or what… Man o man wish I was home! Miss my Mom, Dad, and all my relatives that are STILL there. The times I had growing up, I wouldn’t change them for the world, well maybe some of them I would. Overall I had a great childhood. All of the first’s. Then joined the military and it took me away.
West Virginia still runs thick in my blood, still proud to say I AM FROM WEST VIRGINIA.
I will get back to her one day.
This letter brought tears to my eyes! I lived in the Huntington area for 25 years, moved away for a few years, and then moved back. I do not ever want to leave again! Thanks for sharing.
I am a proud West Virginian… I left the state in 2005 and would kill to move back every second of each day. I have been in South Carolina, Manhattan and now South West Florida… I am grateful for the experience and life lessons these other places have taught me, however my heart will always be in the hills and valleys of the mountain state.
This is so wonderful. I’m a West Virginian too even though I don’t live there anymore. It’s who I am. Thank you for putting my feelings into such beautiful words.
Thank you Jason for this!!!!! I am from WV and love it here. Have left several times in my life (My husband is in the Air Force) so we lived all over which was hard because my family has always lived there I was the only one that ever left. We lived in Texas for 10 years and only made it back home a few times due to the fact that hubby’s from NY so we’d have to make one trip to WV then one to NY and it was long trips.
Four years ago my hubby got a job offer in Martinsburg WV ( he had previously gotten out of the service but was offered a job in the Air National Guard here. I was thrilled we were finally coming home. We r 4 1/2 hours from my family and 5 1/2 from his so it’s easier to c all. No matter where God sends us I always say am from WV.
Beautifully written. As so many have , I sit here with tears in my eyes and an ache in my heart for my “home far away”. Despite having now lived in California almost as long as the 31 years in WV – born and raised a West Virginian – always a West Virginian. My best friend here is a West Virginian and anyone who knows either of us knows from whence we come and what we will die being-West “by God” Virginians.
What a great piece! This was shared to me by my sister in law who like you moved away from home with my brother and their child. They made a new home in GA and are raising a beautiful family there. Several times a year they make the huge effort to bring their family home to WV to reconnect with their family, friends and roots- for which I, who chose to remain here am so grateful.
Recently, I watched an episode of “No Reservations” about a town in Maylasia that sends all of it’s youth away with the challenge of going out to find something new that will be of value to their community when they return. My hope is that many of you expatriots with such fond memories of home will find a way to do just that- come home with your new experience and help to make our state and home an even greater place to live!
Jason, you are very talented. I was amazed at how much this article touched me and brought tears. I was born and raised in Barboursville, WV and my family has been in this area since the 1700′s. Like you, I also had the yearning to leave from the time I was a teenager. Of four kids, I was the only one with that unquenchable desire. And, I did leave. I earned a law degree, I served in the Navy and saw many different places and met many different people. I fell in love with a U.S. Marine, and saw many other places with him. I have lived and worked in big cities in all parts of the country, Southern California, Florida, the DC area, Oklahoma City, Virginia. Yes, the money I made was better than I could have received in WV. But as Dawn above said, the price was steep, on me and my children. I never really belonged in any of those places and I knew it. I was never really happy in any of those places. They weren’t home, where everything is familiar, and the people, whether you know them or not, are family. I was away for 26 years but was always a West Virginian. Finally, I decided I had enough of the rest of the world 5 years ago and moved home. One of my better decisions in life. I make less money, that is true. But, it is also true that I am happier, my kids and now grandkids are better off (they can chase tadpoles in the same creek I did), I can smell and enjoy football Friday nights and Saturday afternoons (Go Herd), I don’t spend three hours of every day commuting to a job (what a waste of precious time stolen for years from my family), and life makes sense again. And, lets face it, if I want more excitement than my hillsides give, I can visit anywhere for a week of that (that’s about enough, anyway). Thank you for your thoughts. I bet you find your way home too someday.
Great piece, Jason! Having lived in WV nearly all my life, I understand your feelings well. I moved away once, but was joyous when an opportunity presented itself to return. We understand why people sometimes feel the need to seize opportunities elsewhere, but always welcome them home when they’re able to come back — even if it’s just for a brief visit. Thanks for sharing your reflections, my fellow West Virginian!
Thank you for this lovely site. I grew up in Weston,WV and left in 1966. I still live in Wv but on the Ohio river border and this area is relatively flat by comparison to Weston. This has been such a great state to spend my life in. We were taught values and respect for others from a very early age. It is a beautiful state. I loved the other states I have visited but have no regrets to call WV my home. Thank you so much for what you are doing to keep it alive. Terri
Dear Jason, I lived in West Virginia longer than I’ve been alive. You are right…it’s memories do not leave you.
i left mcdowell county 1963, and like lots of the others, when people ask where am i from. i say w.va. and proud of it. it was a well written article and stated so much for all of us.
THANK YOU !!!!!!! I grew up in Wellsburg, WV., which is on the Ohio River north of Wheeling, WV and it will always be HOME !!! I’ve lived different places throughout my adulthood, some wonderful places, Knoxville, TN; Dayton, OH; Washington,PA; and the list goes on. Presently living in South Carolina since 1995. It as all the others, “just a place to be”…… West Virginia will always be … HOME !!!!!!! Thank you again, Randy
Jason,
Would like to thank you for this touching essay. WV is a beautiful state. It has great mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, streams, and endless blue skies. My husband and I have fallen upon tough times since the plant he worked at closed 3 yrs ago. We are now looking at leaving our families, our home and moving on. I commend you and all others for making that decision, because it is quite possibly the hardest one to make! Thanks again for sharing your thoughts on the subject!!
When I was 18, I got married, finished school and moved to Oklahoma where my husband was stationed. I left my Mom, Dad, Sisters and a bother. It’s been 35 years and I now live in Georgia. I go home a couple of times a year for a week or so. I have to make a living and that is the only reason that I haven’t moved back. I MISS it so much and am crying now as that is my HOME and I really miss it and my family. When people ask where I am from, I state that my home is in WV but I have a house in GA. I love its people and their friendliness which you truly don’t find any where else in the world. My address may have changed but my home will always be WV. I am the black sheep as all my family has stayed there in Lost Creek where I grew up. I will be back one day permanently as that will be my resting place along side my Momma.
I grew up in Huntington, WV and left for the USAF at the age of 18. Even though people had “a different idea” about what it was like … always explained how proud I was of my home town & state. I’ve lived in Dallas, TX for several years now, and I still tell folks about how beautiful the springs and falls are there. A few years ago I attended my high school reunion (HHS) and it was great to see all the familiar places, mountains, hills, trees, and wonderful people. This will always have a special memory tucked away inside of me forever…
I also grew up in WV – and wore the colors of the Paden City Wildcats. WOW! Your blog touched me! My father always sang the state song when we went back to visit and entered WV…and now I cry when we enter the state because he is no longer here to sing to me! I also have a lump in my throat every time I leave WV, always wondering if I will get to return again. There is something VERY special about those beautiful hill!
So well written and heart felt. I was born in Florida and raised in West Virginia and proudly consider myself a West Virginian. Your words brought forth such emotions. Thank you!
I left West Virginia for the Army when I was 24. I will never forget when I drove into Ashland and looked in my rear view mirror at West Virginia. It was a tearful moment. I live in Texas now with my wife and daughter and hope they will one day see West Virginia like I do.
Having grown up in Ohio, but not far from Paden City, i read this and reflected on my youth. i wanted nothing more than to get out of the area and see the world. i have a job that i travel cross country building water towers, but there’s no place like home. in 2001 after 3 yrs of traveling and only returning home in between work or holidays my grandmother passed away. without hesitation i spoke up and told the family that i would buy the farm. a choice that i appreciated at the time but in the 10 yrs since have learned to appreciate even more. as much as i wanted away from it as a child when i am away i long for nothing more than to roam the hills, and to soak up the beauty of it all. thankfully the Ohio River Valley is still home to me.and i know i will see her again soon
I cried, out loud, sobbing , by the end of this. I have always tried to explain, when I am asked the inevitable question” where are you from?” My stock reply to my big city inquisitors, who have never known me as anything other than their big city peer, is that West Virginia is a great place to be ‘from’, just not a great place for me to ‘be’. Thank you for putting into words the love affair I have always held dear.
I too left my beloved state of WV but not by choice. I left because my husband had a transfer to TX that he could not turn down. All my family remain in WV and I am the only one who has left. I have lived in TX for 21 years now and though I have grown to love the “hill country” I will always be a West Virginian. It will always be home!
Aside from an internship in Youngstown, Ohio, I spent my first nearly 24 years in West Virginia, a native of the Charleston area and a PROUD Marshall University alumna. I was downsized and looked to warmer pastures, landing in Raleigh, NC, in February ’99. Some people never find “home,” so I’m a lucky person to call two places home — WV is where I began, where my parents still are, where I realized I bleed green, but Raleigh fits and holds the pieces of me that needed to leave. When asked where I’m from, I name Raleigh and WV. I’ll never live there again, but I hear her voice, in the morning hour she calls me …
Thanks for Sharing…Martinsburg WV…I was 17 when I left the first time but knew I was coming back and 19 the second and unbeknownst to me came back 3 years later only to leave again in another year. Now, almost 7 years gone again, I still got tears in my eyes reading this because everytime I leave its like leaving for the first time again. No matter what I hate saying goodbye. I know theres nothing there for me as far as work and the things I have grown to need and love in life. However I still believe theres magic in those mountains. Its a special place. I think we all know the true meaning of work, love, and diversity because of that state. Im thankful to have been raised there. Thank you so much for sharing this!
i come to mich in 1964,and not a day goes by that i would give my eye teeth to go back home to wv,still have family there but i imiss wv as much as i miss my family,thank you so much for all this ,nice to know i am not alone.
Home is where the heart is. Mine is still in Davy. Everywhere you go in this country and run into someone from West Virginia; have some spare time. Conversation will converse. Like talking with a family member. Mountaineers are all family. Born into our souls. I also left for job. Miss place totally but I do return often. Love McDowell County my home sweet home. WEST VIRGINIA is “ALMOST HEAVEN”
You have put into words what i believe many people who have lived and still live in this great state, feel deep in their heart and soul,myself included. Their truly is no other place on earth that i could be more proud to say where i am from. If only the rest of this country could truly understand what its like to feel that much pride in their own state and it’s people. To this day the people from WV carry their heads high and proud and rightfully so,we as a state have always endured the ridicule and sometimes outright nastiness from outside these beautiful mountains that we call home. I welcome all who wish to see for themselves what this state and it’s people are all about, to see for themselves that we are strong,proud,and yes sometimes set in our ways. To know this state is to love it ,but once you come to know it may it and its people leave an impression in your mind that will carry with you for life. Your story does say so much thank you and keep up your great work!! GO MOUNTAINEERS!!!!!!!!
Then why did you leave dear son? We need you here, you younger generation to understand what needs to change. Don’t abandon us, or The Gauley, or the Gourge. Come home. We need people like you that have seen the difference the world makes and teach us. Why did you leave home?
My grandparents had a farm in Harrison County. Daddy sold it to another relative. I remember my Grandfather saying to me, “Invest in the land”. I did. I honor my relatives and their words. Why don’t you?
My own sons live here and work hard to make a change. Why did you leave us dear son? I’m so sorry you did, because WV is one of the most fiscally responsible states in the union. We have wealth, both fiscally and recreationally. You can’t get a life better than this, my son.
Come home.
Hey, we’ve gotta be related if you are a Headly from Paden City. My grandparents were Wilson and Carrie Swiger. And Jean Headly is a cousin or aunt of mine, not sure which. I have a grandson whose almost 34 so I’m old enough to be your grandmom. You are an excellent writer.
Loved this! I grew up in Huntington and graduated from Marshall. My husband’s job with CSX transferred us to Savannah in 1987. Have missed itest for 24 years. Take me home country roads…
I moved to WV with my husband in the 70′s he is from WV. I loved the country life. I am from Hampton Virginia. While living in WV we raised 3 children, worked the family farm, I worked for the local newspaper and the local TV station, he worked for the local natural gas co. we both served on city council, supported the local church, and the local school system. We gave all we could to WV and we loved the state, but when I wanted to serve on a local Homecoming committee, I was told no because I was not from WV…after 30 years of serving my community they still viewed me as an outsider……one reason why I left. Typical WV..they will take and take but you will never really be one of them.
I have been in Ohio for 31 years. I still get home to see my parents and rest of my family about every 4-6 weeks. I cry everytime I have to leave. My Mom stands in the driveway to wave me off everytime. I went to WVU and go to as many football games as possible. I love everything about my home state West Virginia. I get made fun of for my sayings and my accent but that is me. I am proud to say I am from WEST VIRGINIA!!!!!
I absolutely loved growing up in West Virginia. I have been in Pennsylvania for 40 years and still own West Virginia. I am so touched by your article and it almost made me cry. My Mother used to say there are 2 kinds of people in the world the ones from West Virginia and the ones who wished they were. Thanks so much!
I was gone for 30 years and luckily, had the chance to move back 10 years ago. Life is good, especially since I came back to the North Central region of the state which is growing and WVU is so close.
I take a lot of vacations so I can live in my mountains but hope a plane be somewhere else exciting for a week.
Best decision I ever made. Home again.
I grew up in WV. I moved to Columbus for college. I can’t even explain the feeling of emptiness when I opened the back door of my dorm and didn’t see any hills….just flat corn fields. After Ohio I moved to Winston-Salem, NC for my husband’s job. Every moment that I was away from WV, I was always thinking of ways to get back home. I’m happy to say that we have made it back to WV to stay.
Left West Virginia in “53. Been back many , many times. Family reunion every year near Parkersburg. Many family members buried in those hills. Slate W.Va. will hold a special place in my heart forever.
I grew up in and around Parkersburg, WV. I married a soldier, and left here for 20 years. We both always spoke of “coming home”, to WV, after he retired, and we did. Our two sons chose to stay in GA, the state he was stationed in when we retired. Our oldest son, made his way “home” in 2009, as he always felt the same way. His wife is from a small town in GA, and she goes home to visit often, as she feels the same way about her home in GA, as we do about our home state of WV. She likes it here, but it’s not home for her.
Our youngest son still lives in GA, struggling to care for his family, I would love for him to come home too, and maybe he will when the time and circumstances are right. His wife would love it here she said, so hopefully, someday they will be able to come and bring my only granddaughter with them, before she grows up. I truly believe, “Home is where the Heart is”, and mine is and always will be, in WV!
Beautiful piece of work! Loved reading this, it brought back wonderful memories of my childhood. I am nearly 35 and have lived in WV my entire life. Born in southern WV where I spent the first 12 years of my life then moved to northern WV as a teen (actually the neighboring town of the author, Middlebourne and later, Sistersville where my parents currently reside). Went to Marshall (Go HERD!!!) and reside in Morgantown now. I have been fortunate to travel and have a job that allows me to go wherever I please but I do not plan to leave my beloved state. I feel lucky to be able to raise my 2 beautiful daughters here in this state, among the trees and mountains. They, like I, will know the joy of wading through a mountain creek, picking a juicy blackberry and eating it right from the bush, roasting marshmallows around the campfire in one of our many national parks, the thrill of the bass drum at Marshall and WVU football games, being awed by the beauty of the fall leaves and growing up nestled safely in the hills of WV.
We recently took some of our family to Disney and my 5 year old, though she loved being a princess for a week, said to me one day as we walked around the Magical Kingdom “mommy, I miss West Bur-ginia.”. It was then that I realized that she appreciated our home as much as I Do. I felt blessed to have this moment with her but also that we had WV to return to and that we loved it so much!
I won’t lie, there are days during the gray, snowy winter that I long for the sunshine and green trees and often make the comment to my husband “lets move south or east.” He agrees from time to time but then we sit back on our mountaintop with 10 acres of untouched woods and enjoy the sweet smell of fresh mountain air and hear absolute silence and we both abandon the idea completely.
I don’t know the future or what it will bring but as of now I will never leave West By God. I plan living here until the day I die. Nicely put Jason, you do us proud!
WV will always be “home” to me, no matter where I go. West Virginians everywhere feel the same way. A few months ago I was staying at a remote lodge in the Amazon jungle in Brazil and I met a girl at breakfast who was wearing a WVU t-shirt. We made cliched small talk about how small the world is. Another of my favorite travel memories is requesting that a German folk band at an inn in Garmisch play Country Roads. They knew it and the whole restaurant sang along. The spirit of Appalachia is everywhere.
My husband, son and I moved to Florida about 15 months ago. Having lived 48 years, all my life, in northern WV, leaving was and still is very emotional for me. We left for health reasons mainly, but without the incredible job offer my husband received, it would not have been possible. Your words and description of and about our beautiful State really moved me. Thank you for putting in writing so much of what I have been feeling. I do foresee moving back to WV within the next decade and so look forward to that day.
I was born and raised in these WV hills and except for a period of about 4 years after getting married, have lived here my whole life. We raised our Sons here, and we are all West Virginians tried and true. Being from Wetzel County, like Jason, this really hit home. Over the past 2 years, I have traveled to and worked in a few large metropolitan areas. Not long ago, someone in New England asked me why I wanted to live in such a rural and poor economic place. I thought a bit before I answered, trying to come up with the right words. The answer that I gave him was this: “The only way that I can possibly describe it to someone not from here is that when you are “from” WV, that place is engraned in your soul. It’s not just where your from, it’s who you are.” This story says exactly that!!!
Cried. Moved two years ago after college and still hold on to dear life all of my WV-isms. Accents, mason jars, barefoot in the grass and all. It’s a simple life I still sometimes why I left for a busy, crazy city life eight hours away.
“Radio reminds me of my home far away.”
Well put, Jason you are my friend. As i have said before, you have the amazing ability to put into words what so many of us are feeling. Check out the many comments on facebook, everyone loves the blog. And I promise to have a GPS or at least a good map, if ya come home.
What a tear jerker. I am from the northern pan handle of west virginia; born and raised. I currently reside in columbus ohio, I get so home-sick. Thanks for not making feel so alone; I owe you one.
Well said Jason,
I, like my only two brothers, left Moundsville following our graduation from college. Today we find ourselves scattered across Ohio, Indiana and Alabama. Twenty years have now passed since I left on October 15, 1991. I’ll never forget the significance that day played in my life. It was a culmination of more than 10 years of preparation that began for me in 6th grade when I knew that I would not live near my folks when I grew up. It was a bittersweet celebration for me and a man that pulled coal out from under the hills of Marshall County for 38 years to know that his son would not spend his days doing what his daddy did. It was a day filled with optimism about the unforeseen opportunities that would eventually occur for me in Alabama. Leaving was a painful experience that I’ve relived each of the 50 plus visits I’ve paid home since 1991.
I love the state, my town and my family in West Virginia. I’ve celebrated the 3 BCS victories and the Final Four. I’ve mourned the death of men I never met from Sago and wept as another West Virginian and Huntsville resident delivered the eulogy for these men at Wesley Chapel on the campus of my alma mata. It was, it is and it always will be my home.
Thank you Jason!
You never know how good something is, until you no longer have it. It wasn’t until after we moved to the dessert of Texas, that we realized how beautiful the mountains and trees of WV are. We were so glad to be back home.
CALLING ALL WEST VIRGINIA NATIVES HOME! A facebook movement has been started. Start making plans to go home to celebrate the 150th anniversary of statehood on June 20th. Organize and plan your family reunions for that weekend! Cities and towns…plan celebrations and activities to welcome your native children back home! Spread the word!!
My husband and I are probably one of few people that moved to WV 30 years ago for jobs and as a conscious choice of living in these mountains.We have noticed that people born here take these mountains,rivers,trails,beauty for granted…..Just recently took a 25 year old hiking with us 15 minutes from home in the most wonderful forest……and he had never been there….so yes,I’m transplanted…..and yes,this will always be who I am….part of these mountains,people,culture and wonder.Let me always be a cheerleader ,tour guide,advocate for the wonders that are WV…..
I was born in New Martinsville and raised in Weirton. We own a home in Florida but I’ll never move there. This is HOME. I had 2 children and one lives here and the other in Ohio, just 15 minutes away.
I couldn’t imagine moving away. I’ve had several opportunities but just couldn’t leave home.
My husband’s friend who now resides in Maryland and has been there for over 30 years came back to visit. His comment was, “It’s like going back in time when I visit Weirton.” That comment went through my heart. He has found a home in a bigger place and obviously is very comfortable there. Our relationship dwindled to nothing since that day and not because of that comment or me, but he has nothing to do with us, even though he was the best man in our wedding.
The article written was very moving……. Thanks.
June, 1961 just out of high school, I got married and moved to Il with my husband who also grew up in WV. We return 2-3 times a year to visit his mother. I have parents and a sweet grandmother who are buried there. Every time we cross the state line into WV, I truly feel as if I am home, and the words of the song “Almost Heaven West Virginia” cross my mind. “Country roads take me home, to the place I belong”.
I first read “Hill Daughter,” “Gauley Mountain,” and “Milkweed Ladies,” by Louise McNiell, about 10 years ago. Her wonderful poetry and prose about West Virginia will always be in my heart, and I think everyone from our beautiful state will love her work. The first time, I read it for a class, but now I keep her books on my bookshelf, because sometimes I just have to go back in time with her.
Jason, I cant find the right words to say to you about this article, Maybe just saying I hate you (jokingly) for bringing back old memories, many exactly as you have written, made me feel so sad and cry for what I left behind there, or praise you for the wake up call that I got when I found your story. God Bless you Jason !! Your story is so spot on with my memories of growing up in WV. You may not know me, but I may know you, or at least I think I may have grown up down the street from your family and went to school with your older brothers, My memories of WV start being transplanted from Cleveland, OH. in 1974 just before my 9th birthday, weeks before my fourth grade year, and within the first month or two watching from across the street at my grandma’s house as our beloved high school burnt down, and for the next few years going to school in the local churches while the high school was rebuilt, this is where your story fills in the rest for me, until I, just like the other posters here, moved away, for me I left at 16 for California, then back to WV then Florida and back to WV again then settled back in Cleveland, where my wife of 25 years raised our children, My wife, also not originally from WV, has her ties as well, but perhaps not the same love I have for WV and all it gave and taught me, Everything I am today, I owe to the 7 plus years growing up in Paden City WV. Short of raising my family, the best years of my life, Except for my children, my friends and family I love the most still live their today and although my visits over the last few decades have become less and less frequent, I still miss the beauty and peacefulness and simple life of the WV. I remember, Over the years and my visits back home I know that there was not one time that I wasn’t trying to think of a way to stay longer or stretch out a weekend to stay with the place and the people I love, If not for the love of my wife of 25 years, there’s no question about it, my home would be back in Paden City WV. with my family and although I’m now nearly 47 years old I can say that I would still be running through the woods and hills as I did as a child, fishing and swimming its rivers and streams, my curiosity to see the all the hidden beauty again that Wetzel and Tyler counties showed me in my youth is still alive in me even now. I still hold on to a dream of going back home to stay.
Thank you for a wonderful story and bringing me back down to earth.
God Bless
It brought me to tears, I grew up in WV and left to go away to college. i miss it every day. I still tell people i am from WV even though i live in TX
and lived in maryland for a long time. I wish i had never left and there is no where like WV. Thank you for writing what we all feel.
Jason – So beautifully said.
Another Paden City Wildcat for life.
This article brought tears and I left WV over 50 years ago, but like so many, I still call WV home. Once spent a very interesting evening discussing why people from WV feel so deeply about it being their home even though they leave it, while people from other States don’t seem to have this characteristic. There’s a beautiful song by some artist from around Parkersburg that says “I was born a West Virginian and I’ll be a West Virginian till I die. I’ve decided that I’d like that song played when I finish my journey in life. Sorry, I can’t recall the artist, but it describes why many of us were born a West Virginian and in our minds and heart, stay a native of that beautiful State.
I had Dr. Louise McNeil Pease for freshman English at Concord College (now University). This “letter” reminds me so much of her eloquent descriptions of our State that I could just visualize her giving a “reading” from her books. Thanks Jason for wonderful tear-filled memories of moments spent with her and remembering her passion when reading from her works about our wonderful State.
Not to get political here, but there is a problem here with everyone leaving West Virginia. We could have the best state in the union, but the politician are killing West Virginia. Over regulation. Over taxation. You name it. West Virginia biggest problem is the state capital. Until this changes, this website will continue to be written by folks who left.
Claire Says:
January 13th, 2012 at 3:31 pm
I lived in WV the first 18 years of my life and couldn’t wait to leave and have never considered going, Can’t back. Even though I had a happy childhood there, I have no affinity for the place. My town was physically isolated from the larger world and therefore the people were narrow minded. Only if asked directly where I grew up will I admit it’s West Virginia, but then I quickly point out how long I’ve been in my current city to make up for the embarrassment. It fascinates me how proud people are to be from WV, in spite of its isolation, poverty, and truly depressing weather. This is a lovely essay, but I just don’t get the affection for WV.
So very true and I can’t wait to see these mountains in my rear view mirror for the last time
Claire Says:
January 13th, 2012 at 3:31 pm
It fascinates me how proud people are to be from WV, in spite of its isolation, poverty, and truly depressing weather. This is a lovely essay, but I just don’t get the affection for WV.
So very true and I can’t wait to see these mountains in my rear view mirror for the last time
I left WV 54 years ago at the tender age of 17 to go to college out of state. I had a 2nd hand VPI cadet uniform on coat hangers across my shoulder and a cardboard suitcase with a change of clothes and some underwear and a tooth brush , razor, and a can of shaving cream. As I walked over the hill from my house toward the Trailways Bus Station, it suddenly dawned on me that I was actually leaving home. I got a big lump in my throat, but I never looked back, because my teachers and my parents had said that this is what I needed to do. I had enough money (from my parents) in my first bank account to pay for my school bill for one quarter and buy books and supplies. I worked my way through school on the Co-op. Program, alternating working a quarter with Southern Railway and going to school for a quarter. When I graduated, I went to work in the space program for four years and helped to put people on the Moon, and then I worked in the Naval Nuclear Program for almost 38 years. Time seemed to fly by and now I am retired. I still love to drive through WV on my way to visit relatives, but it’s always just a visit. This article brought up a load of memories, but the reality in life is that you can’t go back, except on your mind.
I left West Virginia in 1971-I can relate to all you wrote! Thanks for stirring up fond memories.
I too left my heart in West Virginia, the exact time was January 1984. Left her for a man no less. Well the marriage didn’t work out but now my life is so ingrained in my adopted state (UT) I don’t see myself returning to my birth state except for short but very beloved visits. I was born and raised in the tiny town of Spencer. Just a dot on the map but in my heart it is where I have the fondest memories. Catching lightening bugs in the summer, climbing trees, picking black walnuts for the Black Walnut Festival, fishing in Spring Creek, going to the movies at Robey’s, and just hanging out with my 3 sisters and all my friends. I return (not as often as I would like) and it almost feels like I never left. My accent comes back, the merchants still call me a ‘local’, I visit all the happy places of my childhood. I am and always will be proud to be a West Virginia Girl!
Jason – as I once admired your music, I appreciate this eloquent and poetic description that captures the true essence of the ambivalence that many of us feel in relocating our lives away from our roots.
Having grown up in WV since I was a toddler with a well-known family (for in a small town, everyone knows everyone else), I often did not appreciate my struggles being in the spotlight. As a teen, I often traveled to the “big city” of Charleston to quell a longing for more excitement and was inspired artistically, learning to play music & dance. In college, I fell in love with the Monongahela National Forest – a magical place that became my solace.
My youth [a reflection of life in this oddly-yet-uniquely shaped Appalachian state] was full of paradox. The love and comfort of home, mixed with the tragedy and trauma of life-experiences (such as: depression and rape). I had also become disgusted at the reinstatement of mountaintop removal, destroying what I held most dear. There was much that pushed me away – such as prejudice and bigotry, but then -after living elsewhere, I found that such people can be encountered any place.
As part of the “brain-drain” and in seeking what I perceived as a more diverse and accepting environment, I left WV to move to GA in pursuit of my career goals. After 10 years in the south, however- I found myself unable to find a professional job. Once the recession was declared, I began to consider another relocation. Believe it or not, after about 3 years of barely being able to stay afloat and searching for something better, I was offered a job “back home” in WV within 3 days of applying! Apparently, thanks to the “isolation” and “poverty” in WV, the economy did not suffer as much of a loss… the rest of America just became more level.
After a great deal of personal growth and soul-searching, considering how I missed my family, recognizing that the Appalachian Mountains desperately need protecting (potentially less effective form a distance), and feeling a pull deep inside when thinking of the natural beauty of “Almost Heaven” and the surviving-nature of her people or generally liberal/creative/intelligent citizens (in comparison to other regions)…
I decided to return. For the first time in my life, I feel content.
Wow! Jason really touched me with this article! I left WV for college and then for a job 28 years ago. It came as quite a shock several years ago when I realized that I had been residing in PA longer than I had lived in WV! I will always say my home is WV-and as a teacher I have always spent my holidays and summers with the people I love the most in the state I love the most-beautiful West Virginia. I truly feel that there is something compelling, mysterious and lovely abput this state and the people that reside there. I will spend my retirement years there and be laid to rest in those awesome hills when my time comes. God bless WV!
Jason are you from the Fairmont, WV area? I grew up in WV, left to live in Cleveland, Ohio for awhile and could not wait to get back home. Cleveland was a terrible place to live. We moved back to WV and have not considered living any where else. There are positives and negatives to every state in this great country. I think you will find that most people from WV are willing to help anyone who is struggling, we see it everyday. Employment is difficult to find, but there are people who don’t want to work. We love our state of WV.
I’m from West Virginia and studying for a year in Holland. While reading this I found myself crying as hard as I did when I was leaving my parents and my best friend at the airport. I really can empathize with what you said about wanting to leave but still having that connection. Thank you for this. You’re an excellent writer.
West Virginian by Choice –
Beautiful article that has elicited an amazing response. Thank-you. Yes, I echo much of your sentiment and so many of your experiences growing up. Only tears did not fall from my eyes when I read this article because West Virginia called me home — with all its current and past struggles, beauty, vulnerability, and possibility. I left home at age 17 in much the same way that you, Jason, mention — and returned 12 years later. There is nothing I enjoy more than being with family… walking through the woods on a fall day or paddling one of our many rivers. And the mountains bring me a peace I have not found elsewhere.
I feel unbelievably blessed to be West Virginian by upbringing and now by choice. All of your who feel that longing to return to WV and desire to care for our people and places — West Virginia is here for you. We are especially excited for entrepreneurial people of all ages to invigorate cleaner, greener local economies all over the state.
im from wv and loved it . moved to south carolina in 94 work at hospital for 14 years my family still in wv and go home every year to visit. people from here know that im not from here and ask me where im from i say west virginia and they say oh virginia i say no WEST VIRGINIA THATS MY HOME AND WILL ALWAYS BE HOME TO ME . TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS STILL IN WEST VIRGINIA YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN BY ME ….BECAUSE IT IS TRULEY HOME SWEET HOME LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD AND MY FAMILY….. AND THE GOOD OLE WEST VIRGENIA HILLS
I was born in WV, too. I lived in Huntington until I graduated from high school and then went to Marshall U. I met my husband there and when we got married, his job transferred us to TN, then back to Huntington, then to various other places, landing in Tampa, FL. My family is pretty much still there, and I visit as much as I can – which is less now than in the past because of financial restraints. But I completely identify with your heartfelt emotion – When we left, I remember looking back out the rear window of the car as we crossed into Kentucky. Another responder thought the comment about KY was a put down – but I don’t think so – the only thing wrong with KY was that it was on the way out of WV and you were no longer there – and the future is so uncertain at that point. I live now in South Florida and have for many years – 35 to be exact. I love it here as my daughter/family are here and I can’t imagine leaving. But when I die, my daughter’s task is to take my ashes and spread them in my favorite places in the world – WV, the cemetery where my parents are and will be, some of the places I have lived and visited. A piece of me is everywhere that I have been – but WV is the only place that I cry every time I reminisce about my childhood.
Never really thought about my state like this before. I was born and raised in these hills and at the age of 18 I joined the USAF leaving behind everything I have ever really know. I spend 6 years away and have sense moved back to West By God Virginia. I didn’t want to start my family any where else. I look forward to my son exploring these hills just like i did as a kid. Thank you!!
I was born in Charleston, WV back in ’72. Traveled all around the state. It wasn’t until 2000 that I moved to NY for work and future family. Only 1 year up there, the wife and I moved back to my home. We raised our family there for a few years, then moved back towards Pennsylvania. A few years there, and WV, like a magnet, brought us back. My wife is hooked on this state that I have called home, as have I.
Born and raised in Greenbrier County in Ronceverte but since I’m from there I can make fun of the name. I won’t tell you what I call it in private to friends. A lovely place in the Summer and sloppy wet, cold, dreary and muddy in the Winter. In between there are short periods of natures beauty that I do miss. Green growing things it is delightful to see.
I’ve been gone 54 years just about and have rarely gone back except as one or two other posters have noted, for funerals.
There is still the old house that now my Daughter and I own up in Teaberry but I’m not so sure I have an awful lot of attachment to it. No indoor plumbing until after I left for the Navy in 1958. Funny thing is that I spent many hours practicing sticking a big Bowie Knife in the side of the outhouse. Just a few yards out into the field behind the house to practice shooting tin cans with my 22. Can’t do that in Los Angeles and that’s for sure. Have some Aunts and an Uncle still there who have gone out side and have come back. A comfortable place and pace.
Some here have brought up politics and the EPA. You are to be pitied for your attachment to a government lifestyle that instead of protecting you, keeps you mired in the mud of winter. You are the reason that West Virginia is so backwards and stuck firmly in the 19th century. If your State Government in all it’s wisdom would get out of the mode of stifling creativity and progress by their backwards and leftist political leanings you would see a new beginning for prosperity in West Virginia.
I see a lot of similarity in the mountains of Japan to the mountains of West Virginia. But when you see the extensive agriculture and manufacturing up those Japanese hollers you will see the only similarity is the mountains.
There is a reason there are more people from West Virginia than there are residents of them there hills. Some of those reasons are expressed here and I agree with most.
Thanks to everybody who commented. I enjoyed reading the comments.
This wasvery well writen and it brings back a lot of memories for me too. I left Steelton in the spring of 1950. This little place is now part of New Martinsville.I thinkprobly like most young men was go forth and seekj your fortune. although I returnedmany times some of those times just so sad to think of because so many relativews have passed away yet this summer I will try to find a way to get to the family reunion at New Martinsville
Thank you for a very thought provoking essay. I was born and raised in Fairmont WV, graduated from Fairmont Senior High and Fairmont State University. I left Fairmont in 1973 to become a Naval Aviator. My active duty tours took me to Pensacola FL, Corpus Christi TX and finally to the San Francisco Bay Area where I still live having recently retired as a Captain with American Airlines.
My fondest memories were hunting, fishing and water skiing on the Tygart Valley River. West Virginians are so blessed with abundant recreation, a very low cost of living, low taxes and an economy which is vibrant and growing. Although I really like the year-round climate in California, I am getting very tired of being over-taxed and over-regulated. There is much to be said for the WV State motto, “Mountaineers always free”. I really miss the fun, food and friendly people of my home state of West Virginia.
Just wondering when you graduated Paden City High School. You see I’m from California and I moved to West Virginia and married a man from Paden City! I’ve actually met some of your family over the last 17 years. It’s a small world huh! My husband graduated in 1987!
I grew up in a small rural WV town. In fact my town didn’t even have a stop light and still doesn’t. This letter touched me. I left WV 4 times. Three times to move to FL and once to move to SC. It was always the place I returned to when I was broke and needed mending. Going home felt safe and secure no matter how many times I went back and forth. This last move to FL looks like a keeper as we put the ball in motion to adopt/foster a child here. Although I still plan to take her to my home state. To the state that I proudly recognize as mine. I identify with so many of the people on this response and can’t quite put the feeling in to words why I left or why I only visit once every few years. I can only say no matter how far from WV I might be– it will always be home. Thank you Jason for writing this wonderful letter, and to other who responded for sharing your thoughts.
Jason, thank you. This essay really moved me. I’ve been living on the South Carolina coast over half of my life now, married a Carolina girl and have Carolina kids and grandkids. Yet, like you, whenever someone asks where I’m from, the answer is always “West Virginia.”
Once a Mountaineer, always a Mountaineer.
Never left…never will. My brother left immediately after he graduated high school and joined the Navy. He never returned until at the age of 59 he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Then he came to live with me, where he wanted to be, back where he fished, hunted, played high school sports, met his wife, and loved being a WV boy. He lived back here for 10 of the best months of his and my life. He’s gone now to never leave again.
West Virginia Hills
Words by Mrs. Ellen King,
Music by H. E. Engle
1. Oh, the West Virginia hills! How majestic and how grand,
With their summits bathed in glory, Like our Prince Immanuel’s Land!
Is it any wonder then, That my heart with rapture thrills,
As I stand once more with loved ones On those West Virginia hills?
CHORUS:
Oh, the hills, beautiful hills, How I love those West Virginia hills!
If o’er sea o’er land I roam, Still I’ll think of happy home,
And my friends among the West Virginia hills.
2. Oh, the West Virginia hills! Where my childhood hours were passed,
Where I often wandered lonely, And the future tried to cast;
Many are our visions bright, Which the future ne’er fulfills;
But how sunny were my daydreams On those West Virginia hills!
CHORUS
3. Oh, the West Virginia hills! How unchang’d they seem to stand,
With their summits pointed skyward To the Great Almighty’s Land!
Many changes I can see, Which my heart with sadness fills;
But no changes can be noticed In those West Virginia hills.
CHORUS
4. Oh, the West Virginia hills! I must bid you now adieu.
In my home beyond the mountains I shall ever dream of you;
In the evening time of life, If my Father only wills,
I shall still behold the vision Of those West Virginia hills.
CHORUS
Even though I haven’t lived there in 26 years, I still, and I will always call WV home.
Jason, With tears in my eyes hardly able to type this but here goes. I have always felt as if i had left my first love. Growing up on a farm in Wadesville was a wonderful experience teaching a young boy the ways of life. Taught to always give your best and never give up. I too moved and spent most of my adult life in the Carolinas. Raised two sons who love their wives and children. They too have the same WV spirit. Have returned now for several years but again the South is calling me back. One thing though my blood runs blue and gold no matter the state I’m in. I’ll always be an a proud Mountaineer.
I just turned 54 last year and have lived in West Virginia all my life. I love it here and don’t plan on leaving.
This blog spoke to me in volumes and brought me to tears. I’m 55 years old and left the hills of West Virginia in 1989 for the beaches of Cocoa Florida. I’ve never forgotten the beauty of the State and like the author, many pieces of me are scattered in those magnificent hills. God, how I miss it.
I left West Virginia when I was 25, newly married and committed to making a new life in Ohio. I felt as you so tellingly describe — so much of me was embedded in those hills and pockets of beauty that thrive despite the deterioration of industry in the state. I could leave, because what beckoned in my future was so much more than what I was leaving behind.
I would be only twelve miles away from the home I grew up in, separated from it by the Ohio River — and that quarter-mile of glistening, fast-flowing water might have been an ocean. I adapted well, as one does when young, and happy, and busy with a husband and growing boys. But there were many mornings I rose and looked out my kitchen windows through the pearly mists that rose off the water, and saw my West Virginia hills, and felt a little ache around my heart that they were no longer mine.
I could see them across the water, watch them flush with spring’s first green, deepen to the dense blue-green of summer, explode with color in the fall, and fade to the grey-brown of winter, and know that they would repeat their glorious performance again and again, because they would ALWAYS be there.
I could go home, and visit, I could travel further down through the state, and for a little while feel the peace of those hills and valleys, the forests and quaint little towns. But I couldn’t stay; my life was in Ohio.
It took years, great tragedy, and even more years — twenty-six in all — before I could return to stay, build my house surrounded by pine and oak and maple, have deer graze outside my windows.
The night I moved back home, there was no sense of strangeness in a new place, no heightened awareness that the life I’d known was over, and I was starting a new chapter. The walls of french doors across the back of my house let the forest, the animals and the birds be a part of my existence. There would be grass to mow, soil to turn, flowers and trees to plant. I could go to my bed each night knowing that a little, two-acre slice of this glorious state was once again mine. I had changed, the state had changed, life had changed — but I COULD go home again.
I was — and am — at peace.
You express it well. I have just written a book of my memoirs 601 Mary Street Hill. We were located in Charleston, WV. I moved, for a time to Michigan,but my heart was always in Charleston and the fine people who filled my childhood. I’ve read my book a thousand times, and each time I read it, it takes me back to that time, that place, and those people. Oh the West Virginia hills, how majestic and how grand; with their summits bathed in Glory like the Prince Emmanuel’s Land. If o’er sea of land I roam, still I think of happy home, and the friends among those West Virginia Hills. As one reader commented on Kindle. They were the greatest generation and this book gives many examples of why . Thanks for a fabulous read! Signed Hurricane.
I still love WVA. I was born in Logan,or to you who know Henlawson..I would not trade one day of my childhood for any other place to be reared. I got to play and roam the hollar , which is now Cheif Logan State Park long before it ever was a Park…graduated from Logan High School in 1960, left for the Navy after graduating,,,and have not lived in WVA since,,I did get to visit Logan many summers, while my parents were alive and still living there….
There’s just somthing about those mountains, that moves your heart HOME….to meet another West Virginian any where is like meeting family..a friendly smile, awesome hand shake and what about them ERR’S
I hate how WVA people are made to look,,,dumb,and stupid…. which we know is not correct….
I love being a Hillbillie and proud of it…
Blessed place, Wild and Wonderful West Virginia….
God bless WVA,,,,
Wow! What a powerful story! I moved from WV 6 yrs ago fot Fl and since have lived in Hawaii and now Colorado. My husband is. In the military so we won’t live in WV any time soon, but I’ll. Always call it home! Thank you for this!
Ps I was born in Sistersville, raised in New Martinsville, and married in Paden City.
I left WV in 1977, my mother left in 1981. It was only home for me for 10 years but of all the fourteen states/countries I have lived in, this is the only one that got into my blood and worked me from the inside out. Someday I hope to go back. My mother used to call it magic. Mystical. Thanks for the beautiful essay. It spoke volumes.
Thank you so much for this. I left WV in 2003. You say it so well. I went to Magnolia High, so our school colors were the same as WVU.
I was back there for the first time in 2010, and it has changed oh, so much. My heart will always be in WV.
A very inspirational essay. Over thirty years ago, I left West Virginia after graduating from C-K H.S. and Marshall University. The Green & White colors were appreciated by many of us as well as the Gold & Blue. All of us have West Virginia blood in our veins. God has given you a wonderful talent. Thank you for having shared it with us. Go Herd! and Go ‘eers!
How lovely. And I’ve loved reading all these comments! WV will forever and always be my home. KY has been a nice place to hang out for the past 11 years, but now it’s time for me to come back home to my mountains. There will never be another place like West Virginia. A good friend always says, “WV is about 10 years behind everyone else…and that’s alright with us.”
I love the slower pace of my hometown, even though you can be “plugged in” as much as you want these days. It’s great to see that so many others feel the same as I do.
I was born and raised here, left the state for university, have been back ever since. I’m one of the lucky ones!
I grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee. I moved to SC in 1990. I go home every few months for what I call my soul rejuvenation. There’s nothing like taking your coffee out to the porch on a foggy mountain morning and look out over the valley from the top of the mountain, watching the children play in the creek, or going sledding in the winter time. There’s something about the smell of the smoke coming from a wood or coal burning stove. As a kid I would catch lightening bugs and keep them in a jar by my bedside over night. There are none in Charleston. The look on my little man’s face when he caught them for the first time this summer while on vacation was priceless.
Jason,
Thank you for this… I have always loved my state, yet yearned for something more. I thought that my ambitions couldn’t be accomplished in West Virginia. My last year in college proved me wrong. With the help of the wonderful people at West Virginia University, I won a Fulbright and am now 14,000 miles away living in a developing country. It is funny how your expectations change when you see the situation that other people live in. This experience has taught me to be thankful for everything I have–to cherish my friends and family–and to be proud of where I am from. I love West Virginia. It is my only home and I am counting down the days until I return.
Thanks for this. I do sometimes feel like an ungrateful child or a cheating lover since leaving those bosomy hills at age 17. Although I have found adventure, drama, stimulation, and love in the halls of academia and the streets of the big city, my dreams at night still drift home, to the mountains of West Virginia.
Jason, You have articulated what so many of us West Virginians feel, those of us who left the hills for a different life so many years ago. I left my home at age 19 and am now sixty. West Virginia will always be home and I will always be a Mountaineer. I still return there at least once a year, though I have no blood family there. What I have is a history, a familiarity, a comfort which no other place in the world can replace in my mind or my heart. Though I’ve been in Florida for 38 years and love living here, Almost Heaven will ALWAYS be my home. And that is where I will be buried someday. Thanks for your beautiful words.
well said. You know our heart. I left WV 52 years ago but go back at least once a year to walk the dirt roads, climb a hill (smaller ones now) and sit on a rock and just let the peace roll over me.
Appears Jason got into my head! For sure, we may leave WV, but WV never leaves us. Thanks, Jason. P.S. Thanks to my sister, Carole Lee, who shared this with me.
West Virginia will always be home to me. Thanks so much for this..every West Virginian knows what good the peace that comes from the rolling hills can do fpor your soul.
I to am a West (By God) Virginan. Grew up in the coal mining town of Madison in Boone County. I moved out of WV in the early 1980′s and ended up in Arkansas. I still have most of my family there but I also have married a Razorback and have 3 little razorbacks. They know where I am from and all who know me know where I am from. I was able to go back this past Aug. and took 1 of my daughters, she now wants to live there!! LOL Thanks for the essay, really makes me proud to be a Mountaineer!!!
Jason,
Thank you for your essay; the words have touched many souls from east to west. WV will always be a part of who I am and where I am going. But the memories of my home state will always be bitter sweet. I have thought about it often over the years, since I have been gone. I miss most the connection with the land, rivers, hills and valleys. The smell of the air in the fall and the cool breezes of the evening. While I miss these things very much, I’m effected more by my memories of poverty, disfunction, depression and hopelessness. I can not blaim WV for my personal experiences and family life. My situation could have happened in “anywhere usa”, but each time I return I am constantly reminded. I have the deepest respect for the ones that have stayed and make WV their current home. At times I feel guilty for leaving, perhaps I just was not stong enough to “make it”. But in 1990, with nothing but the clothes on our back and a piece of a car my wife and I left. We make choices in life and this was the best decision for my family. I’m quick to tell others where I’m from and proud to do so. I fly my WV flag, and sticker my auto, but I’m afraid I will never return home…
Surely there is something unexplainable about West Virginians. It is difficult to find people from other states who feel the same way West Virginians do about their state. It isn’t all about those tall mountains and deep, green valleys, or the beauty of the vibrant trees in autumn. It isn’t all about the winding country roads and clear running streams. It isn’t all about the peaceful, mountain living. It is about the people. We are “hill people.”
Most of us come from a long line of West Virginians. Our grandparents and parents were born, lived, and died here. This is where our roots are. This is our heritage. WV can be compared to our parents. It doesn’t matter if we love them or hate them; if we acknowledge them or disown them; if we live close to them or far away; they will always be our parents. That fact can’t be changed. We have their DNA.
It doesn’t matter if we leave the state or stay here forever; it seems to be a part of our DNA. It is something that cannot be explained – only experienced. Is it because we are “hill people”? I don’t know. But, there is an identity we share. It is a special blessing that binds our hearts together. It is something to be grateful for. And, Jason, you have so effectively expressed these feelings that many of us have. Thanks for touching the hearts of most West Virginians.
Wonderful sentiments in this essay! I still live in WV after 58 years, and plan on being buried here in the most beautiful county in the most beautiful state, Fayette County, West Virginia! I live a couple miles from “the bridge”, and have no desire to be anywhere else. I only left my home for a 2 year stint in the military, but , came back as soon as Uncle Sam was through with me. My family traces it’s roots back to the 1840′s during the Irish Potato Famine when many Irishmen settled in what is now WV to work the mines. My father , his father and his grandfather were all born here and have all been buried here, the hills will never be out of our blood. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister and none of us have ever lived more than 20 miles from where we were born.
Very proud to be and always be a West Virginian, there is no place on earth like it, and I say this after visiting numerous states, and 8 foreign countries. None hold a candle to my home.
Love West Virginia one of the most beautiful states, but not everybody gets to stay to avoid unemployment some of us can only visit and that’s ok because there is a lot of beautiful country out there. West Virginia is home no matter what happens.
Jason,
Very nicely written sir. Like so many the tears rolled as I read your moving words. I left home 20 years ago this past September to attend college. Until that time “home” was was an indicator of were I lived but since tha “home” has become the designation for where I am from. Those of us who call WV home are an odd bunch. I discovered this when I left home for college. I looked like all the other “white people” but I was not the same. When WVU play I am far more invested than I ought to be. When Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, and every other espn type bad-mouth the eers before the orange bowl I was livid but not surprised…my wife does not understand. But why would she? When the Sago mine caved in I wept like a baby. I know every famous person from home…why? Because they are “my people”. This Christmas we traveled the 9 hours home to see my grand parents. As I was leaving my 89 year old grand father held my hand and said, “Don’t stay gone so long son. Don’t stay gone so long.” I’ll try poppaw…I’ll try
Wonderful essay. Thank you, brought to mind the wonderful Shel Silverstein book the Giving Tree.
That tale is so representative of the self-sacrifice of this Wild and Wonderful state. Stripped and exploited of Lumber, Coal, and now Natural Gas…I go home every year for the holidays and was shocked by all the “fracking”, though I’m only 34 (having left at 22 as well), I don’t want to sit on WV’s stump in my golden years. Thank you for reminding me that though I reside in a different state, I can still be a voice from afar.
I’ve not known but a few native West Virginians who don’t long to come home. The mountains call our names offering their warmth and security while the people give their unconditional love. There is an unspoken tie that bonds us no matter where we may be. I also left for more years than I wished, but made the decision to come home when I realized leaving West Virginia was like leaving myself … impossible !
There’s nothing like sitting on the banks of the Potomac river with a line in the water, or experiencing a Mountaineer football Saturday, the autumn leaves driving up I-79, untouched woodland. I left west Virginia in 2009 to join the USAF and move to Alaska. For the first year it was ok, then the world seemed to happen so fast. I barely get to slow down and enjoy life and on the rare occaisions I have down days, I find myself day dreaming of our great state. Non-West virginians just don’t understand what it means to be apart of something small, yet has the biggest impact on one’s life. There’s not one thing I do not love about the motherland, people frequently ask me “If you could go back to any time period, where would you go?” I simply smile and say 1863.
“The summer’s gone. The ground’s turning cold.
The straws one by one ther a foldin’.
My children will go as soon as they grow. . .
for there ain’t nothin’ here now to hold ‘em.”
— Bob Dylan
What young West Virginian hasn’t experienced all of these thoughts and emotions that you describe. I found myself looking for something more than a $7 an hour job. I never cared much for school so I knew I was going to have to work my hind end off to get anywhere. I took a job with a contractor that gave me the opprotunity to see the country with little expense on my part. I worked in California, Arizona and from Maine to Florida. I did this for over 5 years and in 2006 it led me back home. I landed a job with a great company and have been home ever since. I guess what I am saying is that this state has a way of bringing it’s sons and daughters home, sometimes it just takes longer than we would like. I have lived in a lot of beautiful places but WV is my true love.
I too left Wv a few years ago due to circumstances. This poem states how I feel too. I was raised in Wv but my family is all gone but my baby brother. You just cannot forget the “Wv Hills”.
Beautiful and honest story by Jason and such amazing art by Cheryl. Thank you both.
I grew up in Sherman WV on a hillside farm. Learned all I ever needed right there on Road Fork Road to be successful for the rest of my life. I moved to NC and for one solid year I lived “Dear West Virginia”. I moved back to Sherman, WV 15 years ago and reunited with my beloved West Virginia…till the day i die.
Moved to Florida 12 years ago. Love it here, but WV is home. Hard to even listen to County Roads at times without shedding tears. Not sure if I will ever move back, but will always be a Mountaineer. Lived in Elkview, Charleston, and Lewisburg, WV. Nothing can compare to the feelings that I get when I return to the mountains. A true sense of calm. It is nice to go home and see that a lot of things have not changed. Pround to be from WV.
This has got to be one of the most beautiful “love letters” i’ve ever read! I still live here, but nearly left at one time. I love it…it is home for me and always will be, regardless of what plans God may have for my future. Thank you, Jason, for sharing your heart with us all…and for putting into words what so many of us feel & know to be true. West Virginia… she truly is Almost Heaven
God bless…
This brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t have said it better, the same with my husband. His increasing interest in the world of Academia led us through Marshall University, to Ohio University, and now, to Siena College in the Capital District of New York State. We’ll always consider ourselves West Virginians, we’ll always be defined by our accents, but we, too, love our new home. It’s bittersweet. This was absolutely perfect – beautiful writing.
I only lasted two years in San Francisco myself. I could never get used to the weather. Sitting around in a cable knit sweater in August was just too much for this old mountain girl. I knew I had had enough when I was talking to my sister one Auguste evening and she was complaining about how hot her apartment still was at 10pm. She was sitting on her front porch trying to catch a breeze while drinking her ice tea. I, on the other hand, was watching the fog roll in over Twin Peaks, huddling by my radiator hoping the super would turn on the evening heat. I think it was the sound of the ice rattling in her aluminum cup that put me over the edge.
I hung the phone up and put in my notice at work the next day. I was home in the August humidity and hot summer nights two weeks later.
I was living in one of the greatest cities on Earth and I missed West Virginia every day.
I raised my own children to leave here and, like you, one is in California, the other will leave too when he’s finished with college. He’s on his way to go to school in Europe right now. Out of the four children my husband and I have between us, two are in California and one in New York City.
If my children decide to live their lives out here one day, I will be happy and I will understand. But I wanted them to at least see what was out there first.
Why do we in West Virginia have to raise our children to leave? Why is it considered a certain measure of success to leave here when we all love it so much? And why do we West Virginians love our State so much more than people from other states?
These old mountains are like sirens to us and they are in our blood. I don’t think any one else can understand but those of us who were born and raised here.
Great letter. I’m sure she understands. After all, it was her own people who sold her out. But now she’s a sad old gal who’s been under attack for a long time. I’m sure she’s tired now, like a grandmother who’s still raising children.
Thank you for this moving letter. I moved to Texas at 45. First time living away from my parents and four siblings. I get to travel home frequently and it still draws a tear when I see the mountains from the plane. No matter the season, they are gorgeous, peaceful and always touch my heart. The beauty of the land and its people are beyond special. The State of WV simply put, is a Gift.
Thank you for this moving letter. I moved to Texas at 45. First time living away from my parents and four siblings. I get to travel home frequently and it still draws a tear when I see the mountains from the plane. No matter the season, they are gorgeous, peaceful and always touch my heart. The beauty of the land and its people are beyond special. The State of WV simply put, is a Gift.
Perfectly captured! I moved from West Virginia 14 years ago and you captured the feeling then and today exactly. Ironcially I was driving across Illinois yesterday as I went from county to country and did not recongize the names, my thought was if I was in WV I would know each and every county by heart: Kanawha, Mercer, Raleigh, etc. Nice to know WV breeds like hearts! Valinda Scarbro Kenndy
Just, thanks, really.
As a twenty-one-year-old West Virginian who crawled into the backseat of a Jeep four days shy of her eighteenth birthday to move her little world to Pittsburgh to become a writer, thank you. You “get” it on a level that is as unique to those who go, who leave, who look over their shoulders and sigh as the feelings set deeply in the loam of where we left (Monongahela siltloam, to be exact). You and me, we’re far-flung seeds.
So many stay, so many go. It’s hard to say from this side of things which is more difficult. I build my own homes these days– on rooftops and front porches, in the spaces between the vowels of the friends I make, the lovers I leave. But nothing is every quite like hitting that dip in the road infront of the elementary school where I grew up. It’s jarring, it’s sad, it’s comfortable in the way your warmest sweater is always also the itchiest.
And, you know, I’m not coming back. I will always come home, but I’ll never stay. I can’t. It’s not fair to either one of us. It’s the dirt under my nails, though. The pen bleeds that stain my cuticles. I’ve taken all I can, and that’s okay. It’s hard to go home when the things we built ourselves upon are brown dirt and construction zones. My family has lived in the same area for hundreds of years, without hyperbole. I carry it all in my back pocket, now.
There is a feeling I get everytime I dirve the many miles as I return to my home in West Virginia. With every mile closer an urgency stirs within me to go a little faster to make it back home. As I near on the familiar foothills of the mountains and cross through the Bluefield tunnel I come alive! From somewhere inside, a part of me that has laid sleeping is fully awkake now. A feeling like no other. These mountains know me, they held me in their arms for so long. As a child I played in their embrace oh how I would pass the days wondering in their wood, along creekbeds,lying in their fields thick with goldenrod wathching puffy white clouds and the summer sun warm upon my cheeks. On the top of the hill where heaven bends down and becomes one with the mountain I have stood and shared many secrets, dreams and prayers. I have shouted out into those mountains and they answered me back with more than just an echo’s voice. A feeling of belonging overtakes me as I roll my window down and yell out to those all too familiar mountains I’m Home!!!!! And they look to me as if they have been waiting for my return.
Thanks!! Have never and will never be ashamed be from West Virginia. I don’t live there anymore either, but it is and always will be in my heart. Great words!
“Once a Mountaineer, always a Mountaineer.”
How beautifully you captured the spirit of West Virgina and those who hail from the Mountain State. I left 30 years ago to pursue my career, but get back often to visit my family who still resides there. I still smile and utter “I’m home” under my breath when I see the “Welcome to West Virginia” sign spanning the interstate, and after three decades I still go through the torn feelings every time I leave. Thank you for putting those feelings into words.
I might live in Ohio, but my home will always be West Virginia!
I always love the family trips to WV., and still have a love for my family and the state. There is something serene about the visits, although some things have changed, and I can never bring back the past (a love of my life). Thanks for sharing . Take me Home West Virginia.
Other than a few years in Morgantown, I’m living in Grant Town, the town where I was born and raised. I’m 51, married to my high school sweetheart, live near my children, babysit my granddaughter, live a few houses away from my Mom, live in the same town as my sisters, have an incredible bond with about a dozen of my cousins, and just finished reading your article for the third time today. The first time I read it by myself and cried, the second time I read it with my college roommate and dear friend (who grew up here and now resides in Atlanta) and cried with her, and the third time I just read it to my husband and cried again while he teared up. I like to think that if offered a beach house somewhere that I would leave skid marks because the beach makes me so happy but the truth is that WV has a pretty good hold onto my heart and even though I was pretty sure about that, you pretty much helped confirm it for me with that article. Beautifully written, you made me especially proud to be a Mountaineer today. Best of luck in Cali…..I hear it’s beautiful there. Maybe I’ll visit someday.
I love WV, I left here for about 4 months. I lived in TN. The people were horrible there. West Virginians are a different breed, it is called Nice! I love to travel, but I will never live anywhere else.
Great Job Jason left Williamson 52 years ago and still say I’m from Wmson and flare for flower, go to far not fire, and worsh not wash…….love my visits and took grandchildren to enjoy a week a few years to let them enjoy the spirit of the Mingo County. I have always wondered what if I would have stayed in WV could I have made a difference, I look around at all the talented folks who left WV what if we all would have stayed………could we have make the same difference we have made in the world. And our great kids we talk about on face book could they have made the same difference. Almost heaven………Always HOME
I was born and raised in WV. Growing up I couldn’t wait to leave. As an adult, I’m glad I have stayed. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. I love to travel and take vacations, but my home will always be in West Virginia. There’s just no place like it.
i just couldnt finish reading all of these stories was too sad.. for the ones having to lerave their home to go get work because there wa nothing here,
I, too, grew up in upstate NY, but my mother and her people were all from Charleston. I tell people I’m half southern. We visited at least once a year, and I still summer there. I cry when I cross the state line on my way back to Ithaca. I never cry when I leave Ithaca to go to Charleston! I also have to leave the room if “Country Roads” starts playing so I don’t turn into a weepy mess.
My husband & I were born in WV as well as all the families on both sides, We moved to FL in 1967 & we have been here ever since. We still call WVa home & we always went home either in October or November. As soon as the weather cools off down here we start yearning for the mountains. My parents both moved down here in 1974 to be closer to their grandkids. They are both buried here. They loved Florida but it was breaking their hearts that they weren’t going to be buried up there. Every time we came thru the tunnel on our way “home” we played a cd of the Wild Wood Flower & cried all the way down the interstate. When we get really homesick we google the town we grew up in and look at all the houses on our street. Things haven’t changed much but it is still HOME!!!!
These word made my heart ache for home. I had tears in my eyes as I visualizedgrowing up throught the eyes of the writer ~ the descritions so beautiful and poignant. I was there for a visit recently with my only surviving immediate family member, my sister. I desparately want to find a job there and move back. I have tired of the rat race in which I currently live in Maryland. Life is so much simpler there in West Virginia, my true home.
These word made my heart ache for home. I had tears in my eyes as I visualized growing up through the eyes of the writer ~ the descriptions so beautiful and poignant. I was there for a visit recently with my only surviving immediate family member, my sister. I desparately want to find a job there and move back. I have tired of the rat race in which I currently live in Maryland. Life is so much simpler there in West Virginia, my true home.
Your home town and state speaks to your heart no matter how long you are gone from it. I grew up in Central Florida. At age 24, having gotten married and we were looking for more than our home town had to offer, we left for greener pastures. But, we were still in Florida. Ten years later, we moved to Maryland for a better job and career offering. The new area was different and interesting, but we also missed Florida a lot. We grew to like it there, but the pull of my home state never left me. After 27 years and the loss of my job and career due to the economic downturn in 2000, I returned to Florida. Sometimes I miss the changing seasons and occasional snows of Maryland, but now I feel more complete being back where I started.
Even though i have never lived in West Virginia my family roots are deeply rooted there around the Capon Springs area… I was born in the Shenandoah Valley Virginia but my grandparents were born and raised in West Virginia and even though i never have lived there i still call it home I long to go there and find the resting places of my forefathers and hopefully move there one day to finish out my life and to be buried in her soil
I’ve been away for 46 years and still say I’m from WV but I do love NC, my adopted state. Have heard many a comment here about how beautiful WV is and how people love to visit there. My heart is always in the mountains.
Thank you for sharing. I grew up in the mountains of Southern WV. A Proud Coal Miners Daughter. To be honest, every male member of my family (and one female) except for one, was a coal miner. The one non miner, was a timber man that delivered timbers to the coal mines. We moved to North Central WV, due to college, and stayed due to our careers. My husband and I have lived in North Central WV, for twenty five years. Although, this is STILL WV, this is not the same, WV, as those Southern APPALACHIAN mountains. People here are different, they talk different and have a different way of life. We are all West Virginians, but there is just something about those West Virginia Hills! Again, Thanks for sharing!
When ever I say I’m from West Virginia, someone will invarily say, “Oh yes, I have a brother in Richmond!’ To which, the angist of my bride, “That’s WEST BY GOD VIRGINIA!” “Always Free” jr
Basically I lived in charleston,WV for 2 years playing college baseball. The time i spent there was some of the most interesting in my life. I dont know if it the toxic chemical plants, pollution in the kanawah river, or just bad genetics? seemed like everyone native to the area has some type of serious flaw either physical or mental or both. It could be just very low intellegence, quick temper, red hair, aweful teeth, speech impediment etc. But it had to be from the pollution or just years of terrible stock breeding from the area. I never in my life lived in a dirtier more uncomfortable city in my life. The city of charleston itself was voted the worst city to live in America and im sure the other cities arent far behind. Lack of civilization leads to a group of people who cant function in a modern city due to inexperience or just fatal flaws cause by the environment they live in. If it werent for mississipi or Arkansas WV would be the door mat for the US.
Sorry about the previous post but i had to tell the truth, there is nothing awesome about mountain after mountain with crazy people everywhere who never grew out of the wilderness age. Perhaps some flat farm land to have crops on or be able to build something on stable ground instead of on the side of a steep mountain?? I never anywhere heard of the state of WV being praised for its beauty just its odd people and slow unprogressing lifestyle. But u can look anywhere in history to the present and see compliments of anyone who ever laid foot in my home state of Kentucky as being one of the most beautiful areas of land anywhere in europe and america. it was once know as the most fertile and breath taking state and area of land during the time of the settlers. Thats why everyone wants to settle there. From the bluegrass plateau, to the Kentucky long rifel, to the exellence of bourbon making and tobacco Kentucky will always be the jewel of the Appalachias just like Daniel Boone explained.
I am ignoring the comment above, because I have something to say about my LOVE of West Virginia, my home. I was born and raised in Georgia. I never felt at home there. In fact, people have always asked me where I was from with the statement, I know you’re not from here! I really don’t feel connected to the people there…values, ideas and world views are very different than here in WV. Interestingly, I have met many wonderful people in Georgia, half of them turned out to be from WV. One of those friends was Topaz Dragonfly who commented here before me. We met in college and became the best friends. She couldn’t get a job after graduation and neither could I. In my field, you have to know somebody to get a job in Georgia. I moved to WV and got the job I had wanted within a month along with two other offers. But that is not why I LOVE WV. I love the land, but I really love the people. They are not ignorant, even the ones who can’t read well. There isn’t as much “Southern Hospitality” that is often syrupy and disingenuous. There is real kindness and concern for ones fellow man here that I never saw in Georgia. Interestingly, people don’t think that I’m from somewhere else now. They ask me if I’m related to so-and-so from this holler or that. I really feel like I have found HOME. My child and her husband (who is from NYC) moved here less than a year ago and love it as well. We may not have been lucky enough to be native West Virginians, but my 5 week old grandchild now is. I hope she loves West Virginia as much as her Grandma and parents do.
You hit the nail on the head. Everytime I fly into CRW I look over the Kanawha Valley I am flooded with emotion as I remember a past as vivid as yesterday. The hills, valleys, rivers, streams, and hardwood forests bring back that true sense of HOME and the 26yrs I spent enjoying the beauty that is WV. Cory Wigz…GO TO HELL!
I grew up and was educated in Fairmont.My Mother still lives there and so do realitives and the best friends I ever had.
I still hunt and fish there and go back as often things permit.
Their a lot of things that can be taken from me but they can’t take my birthright.
I will die a MOUNTAINEER
‘GO MOUNTAINEERS’
I was raised in Buckhannon, WV and moved away 48 years ago. I return to WV for family reunions, class reunions, and any other time I can find an excuse to go back. I have VERY fond memories of my time at BUHS and Glenville State College. Although I have traveled to all 50 states there is only one WV and I will LOVE it and my friends/family there until the day I die!!!
I grew up in Fairmont WV and left in 1964 my Mother still lives there and have many relatives and my best friends ever.I go back often to visit MOM and be with my friends. A lot of things can be taken from me but never my birthright.
I will die a Mountineer.
This is so lovely! Grew up in WV, grand-daughter of a coal miner. Mom and youngest brother still there. I moved away many years ago, but I still love the mountains of WV- no place quite like them.
BTW Cory, you need to head back to Kentucky to be re-educated, your posts are so full of misspelled words, you clearly did not go to school in WV. We were better educated than that!
You are an awesome writer, and I know this b/c I’m trying to “make it” as a writer myself. I love the way you captured how WV could’ve killed you a dozen times over. That’s the irony of West Virginia. It’s dangerous, yet comforting. When I left, I didn’t think I’d ever come back. But now I’m praying we can return, so my kids can grow up there. GREAT article.
I grew up in Williamson, down in Mingo County. Left for Ohio in June 1960. Returned to Williamson in December 1960 after
deciding I wasn’t ready for the Big City and University life. Joined the Air Force in January 1961. After 30 years in the AF and many tours of duty overseas, I retired to Texas and Louisiana. Miss WV but the political climate in WV has not changed in all of these years. Come back for family visits every year but do not think I could ever move back for good.
Its true you can never go back. Love those Mountaineers and the Herd.
My memories from South Charleston (up on the hill) are a big part of my life even today. I graduated in ’57, so you do the math. The gang spent many an hour at the PARKETTE (later known as SHONEYS ), in THE BLACK EAGLE,and at BARLOW’S SKATING RINK. We rode the bus from Charleston on Saturday night back across the river and thought nothing of it. Our parents did’nt either. These are just some of things that stand out about my childhood in W. Va. Others, are my family and friends, which I still visit as often as possible. I love going home and wondering if the leaves will change while I am there or maybe it will snow. I wish my grandchildren and great grandchildren were able to do a lot of the things that I got to do, but that is not possible even in W. Va. I love to go back and see everyone and reminisce about the ‘good ole days’,
BRAVO Jason, I’m so proud of you and what you have accomplished here. You will nver know to what extent your words have reached in others. Who knows, you could cause a mass influx of people back to the land they love. You Must do something wonderful w/all this feedback! I have spent the last 3 hours reading ALL of these testimonies because I knew that the impact of these words would start an avalanche of heartful outpourings. I have been “coming home” for 34 YEARS in summer and at Christmas, reunions, etc. Wv people are absolutely the BEST! We are REAL and we have TRUE compassion and love for each other. Don’t EVER shy away from admitting that you are from WV, it is something you can be very proud of and everyone seems to have a “good friend” from WV. Each time I come “home” it gets harder and harder to leave, …it won’t be long. I like the idea of bringing back what you learned “out there” to the community. One day I will be a permanant part of her too, but for now and forever, my heart is on Josephine Avenue, Madison, West By God, Virginia
For all the reasons you left, I stayed. Beautifully written! There is no place in the world, like HOME!
GOD lives & breaths ….in wild wonderful west virginia……
I grew up in southwestern PA and northeastern WV (Preston Co) graduated from WVU. I live in eastern KY. I consider myself an Appalachian American and anyone born and raised in the Appalachia area is a bred apart. They have a self reliance, a sense of family, a standard of right and wrong and love of their roots. When I am ask my ethnicity I claim I am Appalachian American. There is something special about West Virginia.
I have lived in West Virginia all my life. When I am gone from the mountains for more than a week, my skin begins to crawl, such is the draw of those beautiful peaks. Mountaineers are never away from home as long as they have another Mountaineer to talk to. They say there are 6 degrees of separation, but for West Virginians, it is more like 3. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who knows someone, whether you are in Charleston, WV or Charleston, SC. Wonderful article.
Born and raised in Paden City, WV and knew your dad as my high school teacher. I moved away in 1975 to Wheeling and then on to Pittsburgh, PA. I now live happily in Phoenix,AZ. My happiest childhood memories are from Paden City because it was safe, fun and beautiful. There is nothing like growing up in a small town in WV where kids have total freedom to be kids. I am very proud to say that I am from West Virginia. I just wish that the state had more to offer career minded individuals.
Awesome article.
My goodnes, what a well written article! I left home (WV) many years ago after growing up in Bluefield. I have returned ‘home’ many times over the years. I now live in Dallas, TX and plan to move to the east coast soon (South Carolina). I miss those hills and will visit the relatives and friends in WV again soon. I plan to make one final trip to WV some day…………………and will return as nothing more than letters on a stone to be with my Mom, Dad, sisters, brothers, relatives and friends who have made the mountain soil their final resting place.
And so…………………….with a teardrop I write ………….take me home, country road.
WOW JASON
WOW JASON YOU JUST PUT IN TO WORDS, WHAT’S IN MY HEART i TO LEFT WV 20 YEAR’S AGO BUT IT WILL NEVER LEAVE ME!!!!
Just like many of the posts i have read i lived in good ole WV (Kenova to be exact, just near Huntington) til shortly after HS and joined the military. came home for a short spell after i got out in 2002 then had to move on as there was no real prospect for good work.
As i now have a wife and 2 kids and we are nearing a point in our lives that we can move from our current home in WI i have been trying to figure out where to settle down, for good i hope…we need a place that our kids can learn how to be a good, honest and hard working people. KY (you could have used Ohio and that would have been fine:-), the hills of Tenn or back to West BY GOD Virginia were the first places that came to my mind to settle down in. i need those hills back in my life for sure, i think of them all the time and sitting here in Shanghai, China reading this i now know that i must move back home to those Country Roads where i belong in West Virginia, MY Mountain Momma forever!!!!
Many thanks for such a perfectly written piece and for helping me see the light!!!!!!!
I am originally from Beckley, WV. Left 40 years ago for the Army and still do training for the military in VA. I am also the Director of a non-profit charity organization called “Gathering of Mountain Eagles.” We bring military wounded warriors (“Eagles”) from hospitals and rehabilitation facilities (“Gathering”) to West Virginia (“Mountain”) for adventure therapy (whitewater rafting, skiing, zipline courses, etc.) and to be thanked for their service to our nation. Naturally, these young Americans come from all over the US. They always have a great time experiencing the recreational opportunities in our beautiful state. However, it is always the warmth and welcoming attitude of the state’s people that really stands out for them. One wounded soldier told me that the adventure experiences were great, but “it seems that the whole state of West Virginia came out to say thanks.” All the other soldiers agreed. That says a lot about our character. No wonder we are all proud of our state, no matter where we are.
Thanks Jason for your beautifully written letter.
Woody
I used to travel all over the world, but then I left WV for law school in Richmond (where I found my husband to be), and we spent the next 18 years or so vacationing in WV. (Where else could I possibly go since I no longer lived at home?) After passing the patent bar, working in DC and New England for several years, I decided to go home. Thanks to the Internet, I can work anywhere I want (so can almost everyone else). I no longer have to burn up every summer in some hot humid city, and now, I can vacation anywhere else in the world. I live in a cabin, in the middle of the woods, in paradise.
As for the business environment, WV is located in a fabulous place, and is unbelievably inexpensive to live here. We have unmetered Internet for our business/home and do not pay extra for speed or bandwidth. Water is ubiquitous in WV, and can be very cheap. The state is located close to DC and fairly close to Atlantic Ports. It has raw materials, and a stable workforce with lots of Universities and former military personnel. The only reason not to put a company in WV is simply bias. The state has done better over the past ten years, then any other state. Remember WV has only two million people, and a tremendous amount of resources, open spaces, and roads less than two hours from DC.
When I was a child, you could not get to WV from outside of the state without experiencing a terrifying car ride: As an example, the turnpike (shudder) was a three lane switch back death trap, a truly terrifying drive. Now the state has good big roads that can handle truck traffic, and the time to travel outside the state and within it has been reduced dramatically. The only reason companies have not moved here is because of simple bias or not realizing that you can now drive to WV.
The state has a lot to offer people who might move here including a wonderful college system, and a high rate of spending on pupils in the schools. (We also have anti-bullying rules that are fully inclusive). Unlike other states, the children actually get to study music. Music is one of the strongest educational forces for mathematics and science, but most states have gutted their music programs. The State pays the tuition for good students (B average and above), and has a very low rate of violent crime, murder or rape. The air in most of the state outside of Charleston is pristine making breathing much easier then elsewhere. It is a beautiful place to live and to work and to study.
Thanks Jason for your gracious letter. I read it and I read picture myself in it! I left West Virginia at age 17 and returned at age 42. I was away serving our Country in the US Army. I always longed one day to return to the Hills the echo my calling. I missed my state for very same reason you wrote about. Once after being asked Where are you going to travel to when your Retire? “I simply said”, GODS Country, And the response was, Oh I see that means “West Virginia”? I replied, “, “Yes”, West Virginia. So Jason Thank you for taking my mind, body, and soul back in time.
You brought back so many memories. I am truely proud to be a Mountaineer from Southern WVa. I have sent your site to my sisters and my best friend from years ago. Please continue with your work as it will certainly brings joyous memories to many who have physically left the mountains but are still bound spirtually to its beauty.
Thank you Jason. A thoughtful piece that well sums up the conflict I too once felt when I reached the decision time to stay or go (not a well defined point, as you point out). In the end, I was not strong enough to leave WV and returned after Army service. I knew well that I could do much better financially elsewhere and that the rest of the world is a much larger place; but for me, the pull was too great. I have no regrets for staying and no distaste for those who could not. We all take those WV values and memories through eternity with us as a part of us wherever we are. I find it odd that some folks from elsewhere find that concept so alien and feel obligated to put down that which they don’t understand. Thank God that my daughters were born and raised in WV. They are both recent grads of WVU and may have the strength to break out of the physical boundaries of WV, but I know they can never leave WV in their hearts or souls, wherever they settle.
Altho I now reside in a different County, here’s a shout out for the Free State of Preston!
Thank you for sparking this discussion line. It is rewarding to see this subject so dear to so many and to get folks talking. Mountaineers are Always Free!
Jason, I truly understand your feelings/thoughts about WV. I, too, left WV for 30 years and value those years apart and the great adventures I experienced. I, too, knew I’d leave WV for the larger world, but was always amazed and impressed by those who stayed and did just fine. Each choice is personal. I’m glad I’m from WV, left WV, and now have returned to WV. No one can take away the wonderful childhood memories here in WV or my time in the larger world. BUT, it really isn’t true…”you can’t ever go back.”
I did return to WV in time for my 50th birthday, marry a neighborhood boy (man), and be ever present for my aging mother. Whether by circumstances or the Good Lord’s Hand, I’m loving being back in “Almost Heaven West Virginia.” Go Mountaineers!
Jason,
I enjoyed your writing. I attended Fort New Salem, it was there I realized my wonderful hertiage. I had excellent teachers who instilled in me the love of homeplace, family, community and the joy of creating something with my hands. I now have a studio where I teach old time arts such as weaving, spinning, knitting, crochet and other skills of our forefathers. My goal; since my retirement as a public school teacher, is to keep the old-time crafts alive. I am a native West Virgniaian, grew up in the small town of Cedarville (Gilmer County). I have lived all my life in WV. I have one living in Maryland and one son living in Missouri. They both werre educated by WV schools, but went to find work. Both are engineers. God bless West Virginaians everywhere.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories which are so very similar to my own.
We moved to Arkansas in 1979. Even though we had our sons here & have lived here for over 30 years, home is where the heart is & my “home” will always be in those beautiful mountains of WV.
I’m proud to be from WV & love the state & the people there!
Never be ashamed of your roots.
Peace & blessings.
Nancy Dobbins
I have never left West Virginia, but always wondered how a native West Virginian could stand living anywhere else. It’s good to know that those who have left the state still feel it in their soul. What you wrote is beautiful and touches me deeply.
I left in March 1974 miss the mountains! From the small town of Cass. Not a day that goes by that I don’t think of West Virginia.
I am from Fairmont and still live in Fairmont. I have visited many other states, countries and even studied abroad. During my masters program, many of my fellow students tried to convince me to look at job opportunities out of state because I speak another language. They couldn’t understand why I would want to stay when I could make more money by leaving. Even though four months was the longest period I have been away, this letter resonates. The majority of my family lives within a 5 mile radius of each other. I used to think why? Now I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather live.
From someone who left home, thank you for this piece. I left in 1997 to serve in the Air Force, I still serve today. It happened a little differently for me though, I was always the one who said I’d never leave while everyone else couldn’t wait to. Now, they’re the ones still there, and I’m the one who left. I’m counting down the days until I can come home, it’s weighing on me a little more every day how much I miss it.
Yes, I will be one of those who, in fact, finds a way to come home to WV, whether be in the next year or six years from now….I will be home, and I will take a deep breath and revel in the fact that I am.
Thanks for putting these words to paper. I left when i was 19 to join the Marine Corps. I watched the coal mines kill my grandfather and take its toll on my father. And when the economic downturn happened in the early 80′s i knew that i was destine to go other places. I am very proud to be a West Virginian. I just wish the leaders of our state would do more so those of us that want to come back, could come back to opportunities and be prosperous. The petty politics of the state prevent any real industrial growth other than the coal and chemical industry.
EXACTLY! Tears as I read this. I am in my 50′s and left WV a year a a half ago due to a job that my husband took in Florida. My parents, daughter, step-children, sisters and grandchildren are still there. It is home. I think I was too old to leave. Everyday my heart still hurts and wishes to return. I do not know how to not anticipate the change of seasons. I do not know how to walk down the street or go to the store and not run into many people I know. I do not know how to function outside of my small town where I had an identity. I do not know how to not cook a great big Christmas dinner and have all of my family there. I used to think that I did not want to grow old there, that there had to be something better than the one strip of highway that I traveled on to go to shop or out to eat, but I miss the easy, effortless way of life. WV you have my heart and I pray to come home to you someday…….
I left Gassaway, West Virginia many years ago and to this day regret my decision. Remembering the mountains are a part of my writing life and I make it a point to go back to visit at least two times each year – in the spring and in the fall – turkey season and deer season.
I tell all my friends in Indiana that I have Elk River water in my veins and I’m running a quart low. I must go back to replenish.
West Virginia has been an inspiration to me so much so that I have written a book of humorous fiction titled HOW TO EAT A WILD GREEN PANCAKE and it has just been published by Publish America. It is about boys growing up in the mountains of West Virginia and what they got into.
I am currently writing two more books to be published soon and they too are humorous ones and West Virginia inspired.
I left WV in 1960. I was an unwed Mom with a son to feed. I graduated from Sissonville High (Indians)not PC now., I was offered by my neighbor (he an engineer & she concert violinest who bought an ajoining farm)a full tuition to Nursing School at Ohio State) They saw my caring for the animals & were sure I’d be happy & good at that. I declined their offer (Saying, “I’m pretty much a party girl”, (Marshalls carrot they offered to me on career day at school was “how many Frats.” they had to offer?) I told them, “I’d waste your money, so let me see what else works, then maybe I’ll take you up on that.” They also moved to FL on retired. Now both passed. The daughter became an RN & did well. My friend but different.
As I had little to offer in experience (just my high school diploma) work was hard to find. Id been empoyed by C&P Tele. for 2 yrs. I helped my Mom supporting my 2 brothers, living in Charleston in back of a bar. The major part of the brick structure that had burned and fallen in but there was still the remains of a small, cheap apt. A narrow walk to the street where with a bar out front. Clean & warm in winter. Our farm was too far from town to get to Charleston & my father was never the marrying kind even thou my Mom was a great family lady & stayed married to him.
Yes. I helped take care of my brothers. Mom could only get work in a laundry at $.45 cents per hr., no AC, & as hot as hell probably will be. She could make $$ go a lot further than any human I’ve known.
Through the years of my fathers whoring around, she still had to support us. He was a man who worked hard every day but partied harded. Spent his money for women & booze, etc. (a country politician back then) A fine man. No one knew?? Just family back then. Not preachers, grocers, employers. People didn’t talk except behind doors. Most outsiders KNEW he was a fine man & now gone. I didn’t attend his rites as I am 1 of his disfunctionals. Others think they are fine. I had years of therapy, mostly bad. If you know a REAL GOOD Psyc. let me know. I manage pretty well.
He was a worker. but mean as hell to my Mom. Put gun to head, cocked & say, ” You open your mouth Ill blow Your brains out”, but at least he gave her credit for having some. Her response was Always, “You’ll not knock me outta many happy days” Terror best describes him to me. He never shot or cut her throat as he said hr’d do hundreds of times, to do, in front of us kids. I thought he’d do it someday but circumstances made it better.
Dad had many occupations (mechanic, salesman, truck driver, paint store owner, grocery store owner,etc.) Never spent much time with her, just made 4 kids. Came home to sleep, after the party. Went sometimes to his Moms (who knew him best, like father like son)in Charleston. That was when his torture of Mom was over. Sister left home at 13 I think. One brother married at 18, 3rd gen. welfare they said? Youngest brother stayed longer then went to Air force. Only I got diploma, then moved on to more disfunctionally uncle s digs in CA.
My hope on leaving was to reach CA. & get a job in modeling or some erll paying work. So after my 21st B-D-(1/8 me & Elvis, Nixon, but he wasn’t known then) my cousin, a carhop & I left on a Greyhound Bus (they still had those then) to find better digs. Her parents had moved 2 yrs. prior to Lancaster, CA (health my uncle quit coal mining). My cousin was there & God forbid had discraced the family by marrying a mexican. He’d been AF at Edwards AFB. I loved his wife and the family which included a baby & helped since I couldn’t bring my son at that time..
Lancaster was not the big city as I recall . We had 1 bus that ran 2 times a day, but Sierra Hwy was the main road to somewheree from LA. We got jobs as carhops on that hwy & looked toward the future. My son with my Mom & dad back on the farm. I was able to save enough to get him out to Ca with my dads. Daddy had a reason to help (found out later)?
Mom came to CA to bring my son but dad stayed & divorced my mom on grounds of desertion (She’d been gone 5 mos.). Oh not so fast daddy (it takes 2 yrs). She came back to WV to get her farm. A little education but lots of horse sense, as I said. She came back to CA with my son, divorced but farm in hand & better life. She, with those brains had a back child support claim daddy & his Atty. friend didn’t know about. He’d paid $.00 since a boondogle whoring trip to Chicago that lasted 2 yrs. She filed Claim.
My years of travel, education, now a BA & marriage to Marine in San Diego plus 2 more sons the death of my husband (Agent Orange) I go back to WV visit. Classmate that treated me badly then, my best friend they called hooker, God only knows what they called me.
She too found happiness in CA. This was a second , or hour of time in our lives. She like, many others returned to WV home in older age. As a tribute to her I write this about a different WV but still home & beautiful. Many ways to be remembered. My best were B4 1st grade when I roamed the woods, telling myself stories & making happy homes from mud, moss & clay . A bit different side of life but still home. I now own 2 places in WV. A home & farm. Only 1 of my kids visit there. My CA raised 1st born has that WV innate in him & lives on my farm. Green hills. trees, deer, turkeys & racoons are his friends now at 52. Raised CA but loves WV.
Thanks for your story but not as close to mine as Dolly Partons life. She had 2 loving parents thou. My Email is >bjzeliff@aim.com< or bjzeliff@yahoo.com
I still live in W. Va. and love it. It is my belief that W. Va. is one of the best kept secrets and hope it stays that way. I have visited many other states and do not find the people there to be nearly as friendly as the citizens of West Virginia. I will be staying.
West Virginia, I love you so. Some of my fondest memories involve fishing your waters from the n. branch of the s. fork of the Potomac to your ice covered lake at Spruce Knob. But what I can’t understand is how so many of your inhabitants gladly let the outside interests take your raw resources and leave you bleeding.
Most in WV would like to think that outsiders consider you wild and wonderful, but sadly many know of the evils of mountaintop removal, fracking and god knows what else in between and just wonder why. So long as the ends justify the means, and mentalities remain the same, it is frightening to think what your mountains and streams will be like in another 30 years.
The rapturous country road that took this Wood County-born and -bred “mountain” mama home was the Pennsylvania Turnpike, to the Jersey Turnpike and northward. Escape! Better than a half-century later I’d rather check out alone in a city gutter, and I well may, than make the return trip.
I’m fully mindful that what I brought with me–maybe even kneejerk candor–was beyond value. And Big City where I settled after graduating from WVU has enough class I’ve never been tempted to deny my West Virginia roots. Folks usually just remark on the state’s natural beauty. If it spreads, however, the syrup treacling down from most of what’s written above the dotted line here is so embarrassing it could threaten that status. The self-righteous passivity would be sidesplitting if it weren’t heartbreaking. Dammit, people, DO something! It’s YOU who are driving out your young, by not hitting the streets to end the endless exploitation.
Notwithstanding your piece’s shameless sentimentality, Jason, I salute your genius at punching the buttons of a targeted readership. That’s a valuable talent; I hope you use it wisely and that it takes you where you want to go.
The best essay I have ever read….period. I am not from WV but have many friends who are. They all selfishly defend their state and are fiercly loyal to those Mountaneers!
I was born in Kentucky, but West Virginia is my home. I’ve traveled all over the country, and the world, but I still blow the horn loud and proud every time I cross her border. I’m always happy to be home, to be wrapped in the loving arms of her mountains. I feel safe here. I love her.
left for navy in 64 married indiana girl and settled down in south bend but never gave up my love for wv she will always be my home state in my heat love you wv
I was born and raised in WV. Went to high school in Princeton, (Go Tigers), and college at Concord. (go Mountain Lions). Upon finishing College had to move away to find work. Lived in Va for 34 years and upon retirement, looked for a place to settle down. Looked in Tenn and NC, but upon coming back to Princeton for a family reunion, decided that there is no better place to be. And so here I am settled back where it all began and wouldn’t want to be any place else. Thank you Jason for you moving letter.
I moved to Florida last June, and I am so homesick for those West Virginia mountains. I grew IP in Pocahontas county, and I love being from there. People in Florida just don’t understand. Theydont know what its like to earn your summer wages bailing hay, hunting for food bc a grocery store is over a mountain in the snow. I will always bleed blue n gold. I felt so blessed that the orange bowl chose us to come to Miami. West Virginia came to me!! It was amazing to see flying dubvee. Stickers and hats and shirts. I will definitely be back to visit, but my childdhood will never forget those old hills and mountains. Thank you for sharing your feelings. They are shared by so many others.
Well said, Jason. Although my husband/I have lived in Roanoke, VA, for over 20 years, we were born/raised in West Virginia, which was & will forever be….home. We’ve told all our ROA friends that time & time again….we only live in Virginia but home is West Virginia. Our families/siblings still reside there & we keep the roads hot between ROA/WV every year. We own a farm outside Cross Lanes, WV, & hope to retire there. We attend a home WVU football game every year, have WV signs in our front yard in ROA, WV stickers on our vehicles, & brag loud/clear about the most wonderful state in the whole union – West Virginia!
To all fellow West Virginians
I love W.Va and all it stands for…….
I was raised up the holler, (Elkridge, Powellton and Kimbely), attended Montgomery High School and then West Virginia Tech. Left school and in 1953 joined the Air Force. Spent 3 years in Alaska and then came home to the greatest state in the U.S.
After several misadventures in marriage left W.Va and moved to Florida. For 25 years I traveled the U.S. teaching salesman the How-To’s of selling Life Insurance, from Key West to Seattle and Northern Pennsylvania to San Diego. Not once in those 25 years did I find a place that could replace W.Va in my heart. All my family, since deceased, reside in W.Va soil and I know they love it. Everyone I know, know’s that I am a hillbilly and I am proud of it. I loved the GreenGreen grass of home as It was and always will be
ALMOST HEAVEN. Go Mountaineers…..
Once a wildcat always a wildcat!! I am lucky enough to be a Gregory and we never stray too far from home. I graduated a blue eagle but was always a cat at heart!!
It is good to hear from all of those that feel contentment from having West Virginia as home. I was born and grew up in the southern Appalachian Coalfields of West Virginia, a region that has the highest population loss in the country. And an area that is at the bottom of many of the bad statistics on the National census scorecard. At the age of 67, having good health and a modest pension from working on the railroad, I decided to do what I could to help family and friends back in the coalfields strengthen their grip on the most pleasing culture I personally have been exposed to. Although I left West Virginia in 1971 to follow a railroad career, which ended in Roanoke, VA in 1991, I have never relinquished my claim to the Mountain State as home and wondered if it might be possible to go back and leave a footprint in the place that had left such an imprint on my soul. I joined forces with other volunteers and we founded the Rural Appalachian Improvement League, Inc. (RAIL) (www.railwv.org) a nonprofit Corporation that put priority on initiating programs that enhance community and economic development. Our mission is to help families help themselves improve their life quality. At 77 I still volunteer and each week make that three hour trip from my home in Roanoke to Mullens for a day on the job. Our mission has been blessed with a solid volunteer base from the community as well as other parts of the country. A couple in Richmond are leading efforts to save Beartown two room schoolhouse as well as maintaining our web site. A former West Virginian in Georgia has led the effort to save our beloved Wyco Church. Our biggest supporter is the local school board that lets us use a former grade school. Our most exciting program is employing our at risk youth in a work training program. The youth, ages 14 to 22, work after school and get paid minimum wage and must put time toward improving their education and their community. Their entrepreneurial appetite will be whetted through Junior Achievement. We know our youth are our future and however we prepare them will regulate how we fare on the census scorecard. Dewey Houck, RAIL President Mullensproject@aol.com
Jason – A fine piece of work. Worthy of the attention it is getting. I was born in Wood County and raised in Harrison. I left WV three times. First, temporarily to attend college; second to serve in the military and finally, to earn a living and raise a family. If you are really in “The City” I have lived 40 miles south for the last 50 years.
When I moved permanently to CA in 1962, my mother “guilted” me by subscribing me to the DNR publication now called “Wonderful West Virginia”. I have renewed the subscription annually. (Mothers are powerful people) Since I retired some 15 years ago, I have driven across the U.S. every Spring. I meander back to Harrison County where I still have siblings and many friends who never left. Based out of a cottage on Lake Floyd I have explored and seen more of WV than in the first quarter century of my life. I bring my children and grandchildren back each year to celebrate Independence Day and mingle with their cousins.
I travel the states east of the Mississippi throughout the Summer until the first snowflake falls. Then my CA “Wuss” kicks in and I turn west once more. While Northern California has been my residence for half a century; and my immediate family will never leave here; and I will be buried alongside my wife here; it has become imperative for me to cross the Ohio River at every opportunity. I may or may not share all of your experiences and feelings about our home state but something drives me home every year. My kids call it the “304″ DNA coursing through my veins. I journal my travels periodically with ~100 of my closest friends. I have recently pointed them to this website and your article and received many kudos on your behalf.
Thank you for expressing so eloquently whatever it is that lures us “home” even temporarily. Continue to pursue your dreams. You are an excellent wordsmith.
A friend of mine on Facebook shared this post, and it brought tears to my eyes. My husband and I both grew up in Wheeling, went to school there, married there; unfortunately he could not find a job there. We ended up moving to Florida (his parents had moved down a few years earlier and helped us get on our feet) and we’ve been here now for almost 12 years. When we moved, I cried for the entire 25-hour drive and then for about a month thereafter. Florida is so FLAT! Where are my beloved mountains to cradle me? Where is the snow, or any of the seasons for that matter? I’ve made a tentative peace with my current residence, but I still say “up home.” It’s odd that I had to leave the home I loved to find the career I love. One of those sacrifices we all have to make sometimes. But once I am out of school I’ll be able to find a job in pretty much any state. Guess where I’m going to start looking first?
LET’S GO MOUNTAINEERS!!!!!!!
Oh my gosh and Holy Cow … what an incredible article! Can’t tell you the last time that I read something and felt like it was me talking. Every word spoke to my heart and I get it. There is something about West Virginia that always has a hold on you and just will not let you go. I am 58 years old and moved from my hometown (Princeton, W. Va) to Roanoke Virginia when I was only eight years old, yet there is this deep rooted connection and feeling of pride in being born a West Virginian that never leaves. It was really a strange experience, but this past summer I was mowing our yard and all of a sudden I started thinking about my late Uncle Charlie that was from Princeton and moved his family to Miami Florida years ago. He passed away a few years ago and was brought back to West Virginia and buried on top of a hill in an old family cemetery in Athens. As I thought of being there and the rolling mountain views … I started crying so hard that I had to stop mowing and go sit down. There was such an overwhelming feeling that came over me as if from a spirit and kept saying until I get back to West Virginia I will truly never be home. There was such a sense of I want to be sure that I get to go home before I get to heaven. Because of family, work etc. I will probably never leave Roanoke as it is my children’s home. However, I have spoken to my mother and mentioned to my wife that when the time comes to leave this earth … I need to seriously consider making arrangements to brought back to West Virginia to be buried. I want to make sure I get to go home again before I leave this earth.
Karl
Thank you for saying what so many of us feel. I love my home but there is a part of it that pushes me away and still I yearn to go back. Sadly, there is nothing for me there but very fond memories and–all too often–small mindedness. I admire those that stayed to change the culture but I was unwilling to make that sacrifice. Thank you for saying that leaving is a viable option and that it’s okay to want home without wanting to stay home.
I lived in West Virginia, Wheeling Island, in the middle of the Ohio River. And when I lived on Wheeling Island from birth until I was 27 years of age. Wheeling Island was a wonderful, safe place for children and adults of all ages. My father walked to work every day for 30 years, he never owned a car or a house, but we had a wonderful life there. We walked to school and rode the public bus to high school. We endured countless floods there, but we never left because we loved our Wheeling Island on the Ohio River. I moved to Columbus, Ohio 28 years ago and have worked 27 of those years. I go home for class reunions every 5 years. It is oh so sad to see Wheeling Island, and the city of Wheeling going down hill so fast. It is such a shame and a waste, because no one cared enough to save it. I’ve traveled the the state and love it’s beauty as well. I would love to live on Wheeling Island again in the future, but I don’t think that would happen because no one cares about it or West Virginia. Thank you Jason for saying what I could not put into words. But I will always be a mountaineer, and love West Virginia.
I began my growing up in Wheeling, going to Oglebay Park Day Camp, sitting on Santa’s lap at Stone & Thomas, taking West Virginia History in 8th grade at Woodsdale, hearing my mother call me home for dinner from the most wonderful, big front porch. Teen years passed, working my first job at the Oglebay Mansion Museum, eating DiCarlo’s pizza, swimming in one pool tucked into the valley of mountains and another pool at the top of a mountain, learning to drive with a wall on one side and a cliff on the other. I spent two years at WVU, then married and moved to the Midwest. There is nothing, nothing, nothing like the clear mountain creeks of West Virginia — the knowledge that a black bear is right out there, so close — the rich diversity of how humans survive in the towns or the resorts or the hills, “how majestic and how grand.” Thanks to all of you, and especially Jason, for an hour of meandering through the West Virginia in my heart.
I left WV in 1992 and lived in North Carolina until 2001. I for one am fortunate to have gotten the chance to move back to the place I call home. I get to raise my daughter here & she has been given the chance to grow up with the same values that were bestrewn in me. I hope each of you get the opportunity to live here again some day if you so wish!
Thank you, I too left WV when I was 17 for College. I am now 38 and live in Ohio. Your words hit home in so many ways. I go home as often as I can, but it doesn’t seem enough. Again Thank you, for these words.
This was absolutely amazing. It sums me up exactly. I couldnt’ wait to get out of West Virginia after college. Now 19 years later, I want nothing more than to be back in good ole WV. Glad I’m not the only one that feels this way. Thank you for writing such a great work.
i left w.va. in 1960 at 18 yrs have lived in california for over 40 yrs i still consider it a major part of my life. Even though i tend to be more liberal than most w.va. residents i will never forget as a child its majestic mountians, and post card beauty. It taught me to love nature and respect it. Thanks for bringing back memories.
First, bravo Jason!! I was born and raised in the eastern panhandle of WV. At the age of 18, I too thought I needed to leave to find more. After only being gone for 3 months I realized that WV was where I wanted to raise my family. I moved back to WV and have never left.
I have read many of the comments and agree that there are not a lot of opportunities here, but there won’t be unless “we West Virginians” stay here and make a change. I have two children, one who still lives here and one who has moved to Maryland. I chose to get active in my local government to try to make a difference. You can say what you want about MY state but you will not find a more beautiful, and safer place to raise your children.
I am very PROUD to be from WV and I pray that some day my children will raise their children in this lovely state. For those who have left, I understand and hope that you will again return HOME…we will keep the light on for you
Mountaineers are ALWAYS free!!!!
I truly enjoyed the artical, when a person is born and raised in Wv. You may wonder away for one reason or another, but your heart and thoughts always remain in Wv. Even after death, to have your ashes spread over the mountains as your final resting place…… Cc
Fantastic, beautiful, and so true. I too am from Pendletion County, WV
and there is no place like it. I left in 1972 after college and return whenever I can. Now own the family farm in Germany Valley and don’t
know exactly what I will do with it but I could not live without it. It is my home and I will die there someday.
Now living in Largo, FL for the past 3 years and absolutely love it here! However, I do miss the beautiful State of West (by God) Virginia and SMILE when you say it! LOL Born in Moore, WV in 1941 in a lovely “old” house, which is still standing. Really enjoy getting back north whenever I possibly can to visit friends, relatives and smell the good, clean, fresh air and the mountains. ALMOST HEAVEN!!!
Nice article and thanks for sharing it.
I am from Palestine, not from WV, but i lived in WV for 3 years, and i can only say that its almost heaven. I left the US last year but i still miss WV like crazy, its warm, beautiful and breathtaking . Country Roads, i simply, miss you and i cant wait to come back <3
Reading you article brought the tears.
My home was in the western part of Virginia, but I have been living in Florida for the last 30 years. Here is where I have worked, lived, made friends, and raised my daughter & son. They love Florida for all it’s wonders & beauty, and because it is their home. For me the beauty of Florida has never replaced the wonders of Virginia. There has never been a time in all those 30 years, that when I went back to Virginia that I did not cry upon having to leave. In our youth we may give up what we have, knowing that what we find will be better. In later life we give up what we sometimes have, hoping we find something better. As we get older we often times find out it was right there where we were…in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia!
Thanks for reminding me of the beauty of places and people who helped make me who I am.
How beautiful. I am a retired WV Hisory teacher. I tried to instill in my students how wonderful our state is. I also told them that if they leave, they will do whatever it takes to come home. I presently work at the New River Gorge Bridge and thank God every morning for another beautiful day here as I drive across this magnificent stucture and get a small glimpse of our fabulous state.
I too left in 1986 to seek greener pastures and found them but something was missing. I missed the creeks, the mountains, the winding roads, the Fall, snow and many more things. Christmas was never the same anywhere else. I left Georgia and moved to NC to be closer to my family in 97 and felt a little more like being home. I would find myself going to Lake Lure, Ashville or in the North Georgia mountains when in Georgia. It helped but never filled the void that was always knocking. I always felt that maybe in retirement I could move home. I lost my parents within two years in the mid 2000′s and the void just grew and grew. I finally moved back home almost 2 years ago and I realized that I was missing WV. It can not replace the feeling of losing your parents but I can sit on my porch in the morning and listen to the crows, watch deer play in my field and at least I know I am home.
West Virginia has changed considerably from my childhood. The ghosttown that I grew up in is riddled with drugs and several generations of lost souls. Some family still lives there and it is good to see them but sad to see the idyllic place that I have in my heart as my home. I always felt guilty for leaving and finding a good way of life and have some anger that we can not have it here but I have realized that not all is lost. Many good people stayed and haved tried very hard to save their neighborhoods and are hanging on. We have to turn the tide. The very things that we cherish are the things people in the big cities are looking to get away to. The rivers, the camping, white water, hiking, farming, skiing, etc. Ther is truly no place like home.
My dear West Virginia,
I left you also, In 1979 I was 16 years old and I left in a 1ton truck. I sat beside my boyfriend from Cleveland Ohio. My mom was in a car with my brother and his family who had moved away some years earlier.
Oh how sweet your memories are, the smell of dirt and water from the creeks I practically lived in. The breezes and shadows from those majestic mountains I spent many days running through, one to the other. The smell of coal burning stoves that fed me and tried to keep me warm. Knowing the names of every family member in every house for miles around. Roads so hot that burned our bare feet in the summer. Snow sledding on card board boxes down the graveyard hill by he church. Picking blackberries by the buckets for mom to make cobbler, and not seeing one snake while doing it . I have spent the last 32 years remembering you. I come visit family that is still there., I get in my car and head South on I77 thinking I’m going home again. Something has happened through the years, everything is familiar but I feel like a stranger. It makes me sad to say that my West Virginia that raised me does not seem to be there anymore. I don’t say this with a nose up in the air, I say it with my face in my hands with tears steaming flown my face. Drugs have siezed my hollers and my hillsides have been stripped of all theory life, laying there naked and brown.
I love you and miss you, you will ever live in my heart.
I a West Virginian now living in WI. Funny I moved up 1 in the state ab. alphabet. I too left because I wanted something more after graduating WVU in 2008. I just cried reading this because I have roamed all over the world and am least likely to call any other place home. I still have a home in WV…its hard to think of selling it…it would be like cutting open a vein. I am looking forward to one day moving back closer to “HOME”. In the mean time I’ll keep dreaming of hot chocolate and hot dogs at Laidley Field, boating on the Kanawha, and watching the ‘Eers play in my grandmothers WVU shrined den:)
Jason,
Thank you for a wonderful essay. My heart is swelling with pride. Being a lifelong West Virginian, I loved reading all the comments. Yeah Marshall and WVU. For 62 years I’ve never moved away and never intend to. Just in case ,I’ve already written a note for my children to play at my funeral a song by Carol Spaulding titled Take Me Back To West Virginia.
I will never stop missing it.
I’m amazed, I have to admit. Rarely do I encounter a blog that’s equally educative and amusing, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The issue is something which too few folks are speaking intelligently about. I’m very happy I came across this in my search for something relating to this.
When asked by someone here in North Texas, “Where are you from?” I pause to ponder and usually reply with something like, “I was born in Ohio, but blessed to grow up in WV, I lived in South Florida for 16 years, and have been in Texas for 8 years now.” That answer is usually followed by the question, “What in the world are you doing here?” to which I reply with a smile, “It’s a God thing.”
You see, I love and appreciate the unique beauty of the rolling hills dotted with horses and buggies of my birth state, the winding streams, thick forests and deep valleys that mark the center of WV where I lived for 12 years. When I close my eyes I can still hear the sea pound against the jetty, feel the sand in my hands and taste the saltiness of the air, and now I love and appreciate the mighty Red River, hills painted with Blue Bonnets, and all the wonders of Dallas. So the answer to the question Where are you from? is too complex to understand with logic and geography, for I am from Here and Now, mixed with There and Then.
This is my first time to your site, and it was a wonderful way to be introduced! I’ve never been that far away from WV, but I sure do understand how he feels.
Born and raised in WV.. Moved away once to Tn. and came back, tried moving again to Chicago, had to move back..there is no other place than WV for me..Love my state and proud to be a true West Virginian..Love taking trips and traveling through our Wild and Wonderful state.. I could never live anywhere else..
hey did you sing
BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
;( love me
BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
boring stupid to do jk
That was beautiful, thank you!
I have been reading this for hours.I have smiled and cried.So many memories come to mind that I had forgotten.I moved away more then fifty years ago but go back in my mind almost every day.The house is gone but I shall always go back home in my mind.I will always be a West Virginia Girl.Thank you for that beautiful story.
I left WV 10 years ago when I joined the Marine Corps. My family and I are finally coming home for good!
Your post made me cry also. I am from West Virginia and am finally moving back home after almost 35 years away. I am moving to Charleston on June 9th and can’t wait to see those hills of home.
Thanks for the letter. – Anita