Mountain State Matters

The Associated Press reported today that Dick Cheney took a shot (pun intended) at West Virginia. It turns out there are Cheneys on both sides of his family.

“And we don’t even live in West Virginia,” Cheney quipped.

“You can say those things when you’re not running for re-election.”

Haha. Hilarious. I hope someone takes the liberty of adding Vice President Cheney to the definition of “inbred” at Urban Dictionary.

UPDATE: Cheney has apologized. Here’s the Huffington Post’s coverage of his monumental gaffe. My favorite West Virginia politician response to the whole debacle is definitely Rep. Nick Rahall’s, as reported in The Washington Post’s blog:

“We may owe the vice president a debt of gratitude for yet another great West Virginia slogan: Dick Cheney is not from here,” Rahall told us.

Photo by: World Economic Forum

The death of a man from Connecticut on Sunday marks the third whitewater rafting fatality in West Virginia in a week. Whitewater rafting is amazing, and is something that West Virginia is known for (the Gauley River is one of the best advanced whitewater rivers in the country), but carries a ton of risks. In case you’re lucky enough to get the chance to raft (whether in W.Va. or elsewhere) here are some safety tips, with help from essortment.com.

1. There are a ton of rafting companies operating near whitewater rivers. Therefore, you have a choice where to spend your (large amounts of) money. Check safety records, whether you have to go to the owner of the company or local authorities.

2. This should be obvious, but don’t go without a professional guide. Most people can’t get away with jumping into the river with a rubber raft. You’ll probably die.

3. Make sure you get the proper safety equipment when you get on the raft. You should definitely have a Coast Guard Approved life jacket that fits snugly. Helmets are also a very good idea, though not required by law.

4. Wear shoes. I know you’re in the water, but find some sandals or old sneakers that you don’t mind getting wet. If you get out of the boat, you’ll need something to protect your feet.

5. Choose a trip that’s appropriate for your skill level. If it’s your first time on a raft or your swimming skills are questionable, don’t go on an advanced trip. Also make sure to tell your guide that you’re a beginner at the beginning of the trip.

For a bunch of instructional videos on whitewater rafting, check out the selection at Expert Village.

Photo by: James Sullivan

Let’s talk about moonshine.

This potent beverage, also known as “white lightening,” “’shine,” “corn likker” and “rotgut” is still technically illegal in the United States. It used to be brewed in the light of the moon, hence the name, in old-fashioned moonshine stills (like in the picture). Today, however, it’s just as likely to be brewed in someone’s kitchen. Depending on the distiller’s taste, you can get many flavors, ranging from apple to cherry to peach.

The truth is though, that moonshine tastes like very strong liquor, regardless of the flavor. So why the allure? Is it a desire to get drunker while drinking less, or curiosity about moonshine? It sure isn’t cheap to buy, and will definitely set you back more than a cheap bottle of vodka.

A recent article in the Knoxville Voice addresses the mystique surrounding moonshine. The whole article is really interesting, but here’s a snippet:

The average jar of moonshine ranges between 90- and 140-proof. The masters say once beyond the 100-proof level, 50 percent alcohol content, the fun component begins to wane and the headaches increase exponentially. Everclear grain alcohol is sold at 190-proof. Southern Comfort whiskey is 100-proof. Moonshine can be made stronger than those, but it usually isn’t. Even if it were, most wouldn’t want to drink it, as it would contain a flavor similar to lighter fluid — which it practically is; 190-proof alcohol is highly flammable.

Although I couldn’t find the fabled land of moonshine bars and open stills, I’ve still seen plenty of jars passed around at parties and gatherings in the area. So why do some go to the trouble of obtaining it, paying cash and risking arrest or fine? Why do people still risk everything they have to make it?

“Right now, there’s a whole lot of nostalgia involved,” says Stephen Feinstein, East Tennessee moonshine maker and historian. “My grandfather did it. He got sick, but then his uncle was one of the largest bootleggers in Nashville. It’s a family thing, and it’s very important to me. My grandfather was a legend, and that’s why I got into the whiskey.”

And that is a common answer: People who make moonshine are celebrating their family’s history and culture. Perhaps people who drink moonshine want a piece of that history, want to be a part of that narrative.

“People buy it now out of curiosity,” says Feinstein. “People call other people to say ‘I got moonshine.’ It’s expensive, but people want to say they have it. I don’t think most of them like it. Some just buy it to have it at a party. It’s the allure.”

For anyone who wants to try their hand at manufacturing it, here’s a convenient video from YouTube. I’m not a huge fan of the music choice (”Banana Boat Song” and “Eye of the Tiger,”) and I have no idea how accurate it is, but I suppose there’s only one way to find out.

Photo by: Bluegrass Annie

One of the most common things you’ll hear when talking to a West Virginian about the state is that the young people all move out. Indeed, West Virginia has a hard time holding onto its population, which is perhaps why 15.3 percent of the state was over age 65 in 2006 (the U.S. average is 12.4 percent). That number is closely tied to the economy; if there are no jobs, it’s hard for people to justify remaining in the town they grew up in. In a Wall Street Journal report last December, West Virginia had a 0.2 percent population growth between 2006 and 2007. This is far from the giants in the west that grew anywhere from 2.5 to 2.9 percent, but it’s not at the bottom of the list either (Michigan and Rhode Island had negative growth).

The thing about West Virginia is that even when locals move away, they always want to go back. I’ve heard that it’s something in the water. A New York Times article, written two years ago, does a pretty good job of talking about the efflux of people from the state. Even better, the accompanying multimedia piece tells the story of three West Virginians who left but ultimately came home.

Photo by: Carol von Canon

In the first of a several-part series about some West Virginia (specifically Wyoming County, in the southern coalfields) folklore, below is a recording of Bugs Stover telling the tale of the Wyoming County Courthouse Ghost.

Bugs is the county’s Circuit Clerk, and knows more about local legends than anyone else I’ve come into contact with. He collects the stories of others and tells them around a campfire at Twin Falls State Park when the weather is warm. He’s a wonderful guy, and a great storyteller. More from him next week…I’ve got a recording of him telling the tale of the Poke Gap Monster.

Please excuse the quality of the recording–it’s not great because I was in a public place. The transcription of the story is below, too.

Download Bugs Stover–The Courthouse Ghost

Transcript:

In 1935, the circuit clerk of Wyoming County, for whatever reason, turned up a bottle of carbolic acid, a pint jar, and drank enough to end up killing himself. It dissolves your insides. He was a likeable guy—everybody liked him and would bring things to him. Moonshine or elderberry wine or apple cider. Just bring things. And he was friendly and young and 30-some and quite popular. And there was speculation of why he did this. It was, of course, in the heights of the Great Depression and the Republican Party was in a collapse. In fact, he is the last Republican clerk until me…from 1935 when he died until now.

The two speculations are that he was just sad and ended up committing suicide, and the newspaper articles don’t use that word, but they do imply it. The other thing is that they were getting ready to build a road through a little town in this county called John McGraws. There was a 100-and-some thousand dollars worth, and most of that money ended up disappearing. And there’s some speculation that he knew it, knew who did it, or participated in it, or didn’t but knew about it, and was about to come clean and someone killed him. And if you’re a guy who simply appears one day and there’s a pint jar on your desk and that’s just normal and you turn it up and drink a little moonshine out of it. But he turned up and drank enough what he thought was moonshine, which would burn going down anyway and it turned out to be carbolic acid. And he ran out into the courtroom and apparently died in his wife’s arms…she was the assistant clerk that was in the courtroom that day.

Which is a neat little story, but didn’t end there. Because almost immediately, employees began to hear things moving around the courtroom, both in the upstairs where I am now, and in the courtroom itself. Doors would open, people would walk, some folks even claimed to have heard someone screaming in pain and dashing about. That’s been going on ever since.

In fact, in the 1970s, I was here at a political meeting about clean government or something—I was a fairly young guy. The door burst open and I looked up and didn’t see anyone. We were sitting out in the courtroom. And I assumed because I didn’t see anyone and the door burst open that they had gone out. So I asked a man who was sitting there, Mr. Moler, who was quite a colorful figure, an attorney and former prosecuter, and said ‘Mr. Moler, who just left in such a tizzy?’ And he goes, ‘Aw, no one left, that was just the courthouse ghost!’ That was my first understanding, but people don’t even react much to it now.

But anyway, it did happen and is still said to have occurred. And I still hang around here on the, maybe it was January 18, I’m don’t remember the date for sure without looking it up, but I always anticipate that date and hang around a little bit. We do have some odd things occur around that date. The phone will ring, no one’s on it. You hear people walking, but you know, I’m not sure it’s any more than other times too, those kind of things occur. I don’t know anyone who’s actually walked up and had a conversation with it. But the rumor persists that the courthouse ghost still haunts the courthouse. So that would seem to imply that he probably hadn’t committed suicide, but someone had got to him and he needs to have that solved, I guess.

Today is Mother’s Day, which many probably know was started by a West Virginian.

Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis lived in western Virginia in the nineteenth century (which later became West Virginia during the Civil War). To ease the tensions caused by returning Confederate and Union soldiers after the war, she organized a Mother’s Friendship Day to bring together soldiers and neighbors from both sides. Mothers Friendship Day became an annual event for several years. After Ann’s death, her daughter, Anna, dedicated her life to establishing a national Mother’s Day in honor of her mother. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a congressional resolution marking the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

Jarvis’ old church in Grafton, WV is now known as the International Mother’s Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark).

Happy Mother’s Day!

Photo by: Daniel Ross

Hot dogs are representative of America, and perhaps more American than the reliable fall-back apple pie. Each city and state has a different way of enjoying hot dogs (and according to an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, each baseball stadium has a unique way as well).

Hot dogs in West Virginia are different, as shown by two connected websites dedicated to the dog: W.Va. Hot Dog and The West Virginia Hot Dog Blog. The West Virginia Hot Dog is a “uniquely delectable gift from heaven,” according to the blog, which should be accompanied at all times by mustard, slaw, chili and onions. Ketchup?

There are many reasons why one shouldn’t eat ketchup on a hot dog any hot dog. First, the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council’s “Hot Dog Etiquette” rules dictate that no one over 18 should never eat ketchup on a hot dog. Ketchup is destructive of all that is right and just about a properly assembled hot dog since its sweetness and acidic taste overpowers food and disguises its true flavor.

In the film Sudden Impact, San Francisco detective Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) launches a tirade while conversing with a cop who’s munching a ketchup-topped dog at a murder scene:

“Nah, this stuff isn’t getting to me — the shootings, the knifings, the beatings… old ladies being bashed in the head for their social security checks[.] [...] Nah, that doesn’t bother me. But you know what does bother me? You know what makes me really sick to my stomach? It’s watching you stuff your face with those hot dogs. Nobody… I mean nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog.” We agree with Harry.

Possibly the coolest thing about this already-cool site is the slaw map. Cole slaw is something that isn’t typically put on a hot dog outside of the state (in fact, when I sent a friend this website his response to a picture of a loaded hot dog was “is that egg salad?”). I think this map accurately shows the cultural divides within West Virginia. You can get slaw throughout much of the state, but the northern and eastern panhandles are a bit “slawless,” perhaps because they are culturally closer to Ohio and D.C. The northern counties are also a bit different, and sometimes don’t offer slaw.

Yum.

Hot dog photo by VJ Beauchamp

The Beckley Register-Herald reported last week that the Beckley City Council is considering tightening an ordinance to limit the number of cats and dogs people can have outside their homes. The ordinance would restrict homeowners to “three cats, three dogs, period.”

According to both [City Manager Bob] Cannon and Mayor Emmett Pugh, this comes after the city has handled numerous complaints about some residents having extremely large numbers of pets. Some of these pet owners, they say, have caused grief for their neighbors with noise from barking dogs and the smell of feces coming from their properties. Cannon said he receives about five complaints about dogs per day.

Excessive pets are often problems in poorer areas. The New York Times published a story about pets in Tennessee last July, reporting how in impoverished communities pet owners often can’t afford to spay or neuter animals, and local governments may not require licensing or provide animal shelters.

But is Beckley’s solution the answer? If this proposed ordinance becomes law, I can see the most common solution being abandoning or killing stray animals. As far as I can tell, the proposal doesn’t put into place free spaying and neutering programs, which would probably be a more effective way to control the city’s animal population. Actually, this reminds me vaguely of China’s one-child policy, though I’m not going to make a comparison between a stray dog and a child.

Photo by: *MarS

The New York Times printed a recipe for the risotto Pope Benedict XVI was served when he arrived in New York last week. The Pope, it turns out, was a bit picky.

Mostly, the Vatican’s instructions reflected the digestive needs of a man who had just turned 81 and was at the end of an intense road trip.

He wanted food that was light and seasonal. And the two formal dinners he ate in the wood-lined dining room at the five-story town house of the papal nuncio to the United Nations on East 72nd Street were to last only 80 minutes.

Besides security checks as each dish was prepared, the most important edict was this: The pope couldn’t handle spices.

The best part? Though there was no mention of this in the article, when you check out the risotto recipe, it contains RAMP PESTO. What a great idea, but I hope the Pope can handle pungent flavors and aromas. I wonder how his subsequent meetings of the day went.

Ramps: if they’re good enough for the Pope…

Rusty Marks from the Charleston Gazette is on his way to Iraq to report on West Virginians’ war contributions. He’ll be stationed with the WV National Guard’s 111th Engineer Brigade. He seems to definitely have a digital camera, but I wonder if he’ll be able to send back audio and video as well. Anyway, check out today’s dispatch from the field and his blog.