Life in West Virginia: SO I SAID NOTHING EVER HAPPENS, SO HERE IS AN OLD STORY

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

SO I SAID NOTHING EVER HAPPENS, SO HERE IS AN OLD STORY

Okay, okay, so I say nothing exciting ever happens around here. So, I am going to tell a story from a long, long time ago. Well, more than 5 years ago anyhow. I was attending the Forest Festival, an annual festival in Elkins, WV. I have friends who live there and had attended past festivities and this particular year, I won a prize package from a local radio station that included a motel room for several nights, which was good, as Alan's mom was living with my friends and their two kids and they had quite a houseful. Joey and I left on a Thursday afternoon (yup, he skipped school for the occasion) and arrived later that evening, checked into the hotel and called Kim and Alan. They came and visited and we made plans for me to go to their "new" home the next day. (I didn't know where they had moved to). Alan also alerted me that some guy from Elkins had escaped from the jail up there, in Huttonsville and the officials were worried because of the Forest Festival. Evidently this guy, nicknamed, "baby-beanie killer" because he had killed his uncle over beanie babies and had said he wouldn't be taken alive and would take out as many people with him as he could. He just told me to be cautious, especially at night, as the hotel was kind of out of the way and poorly lit, but he knew the guy and didn't think he would kill anyone, but desperate people . . . .

Well, the next day, I picked their daughter, Nikki, up at a local restaurant (she had some kind of practice) and she showed me how to get there. We visited for several hours, Kim and I went out on the front porch, smoked a cigarette and she commented that she hadn't seen the guy across the street for a few days. She was suprised that he wasn't out walking his dog, checking out who was at her house because he was nosy, a busy-body.

We went back inside, the kids were playing we were talking and Kim commented again about Mr. So and So and how she thought it was weird. Well, eventually, around 2PM, I figured it was time to head back to our room, to get fixed up for the evening events. Well, I walked out the door went back into tell Kim something and came back out to a guy crouched behind the telephone pole in THEIR YARD with a high-powered rifle trained on something. I didn't know what. People next door (in a trailer court) were coming out and seeing what was going on and people were yelling at them to get back, get back. Then a van pulled up, black, unmarked and 12 guys jumped out of it. All I could think was SHIT SHIT SHIT WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?!?!?! I ran back inside, dragging Joey by the arm and screaming OMG OMG KIM, OMG and shutting the door and locking it. Kim has no clue what I was thinking or doing and I had to catch my breath and tell her to peek at her telephone pole. We didn't know what the hell is going on, so we are behind the refrigerator, thinking that if a shot came through, that was the safest place to be, but still curiously peeking out the side door, to see if we could see what was going on outside. Well, finally, I guess the guy inside surrendered over the telephone. Yup, the Beanie Baby Killer had been holding Mr. Busybody hostage for two days. Right under our noses. Literally. I mean, Mr. Busybody's trailer was across the narrow road from my friends' home. While we had been sitting there smoking cigarettes, talking about him, wondering where he was, he was being held hostage, 60 ft away. Needless to say, anytime I notice anything unusual in the pattern of peoples' behaviors or habits, I look into it.
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In Local News . . . .

The search for "TMB" was called off yesterday around 3:30PM. The bloodhounds from Pond Creek VFD (go Rockport guys!!) lost his scent and they think he may have gotten away by car? Well, unless someone has reported a vehicle stolen, I don't know why they think that he got away by car. I don't know of anyone that would give a "TMB" a ride at 5am, in the middle of redneck, WV.

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For heaven's sake. There was a fire in downtown Elizabeth, WV, which is about 12 or 13 miles from here, going across Tucker's Creek Rd. It runs from Rockport to Elizabeth. Well, TEN (um yes, that is 10) fire departments responded to the fire. (we don't have 4 or 5 or 6 alarm fires, we have mutual aid response, which the local volunteer fire departments from the area, respond to calls for assistance. Well, 10 is quite a large number of fire departments to respond.

Anyhow, the Robert's General Store started the blaze and since it was bounded on both sides by buildings, well, you can see the result. I have been in there and it is the typical old-style family run hardware store that actually carries hardware, in addition to cast-iron pots and pans, canning supplies and just about anything else you can imagine that a frontier hardware store might carry. Horse feed, barb-wire, etc. Yes, frontier, hardware store. It was built around 1876(?), although I could not find documentation to that fact.

Three buildings were destroyed and and two homes, a bank and a church extensively damaged. Our areas here in WV are in the process of 911 mapping. (yea, we are really living in the dark ages here) and one of the buildings destroyed housed the 911 mapping center. Wirt County only has one fire department, so we are assuming the bulk of the other fire depts. that responded were from Wood County, the county in which I reside. Ritchie, Roane and Calhoun county volunteers probably also responded. Wirt County is WV's smallest county and is surrounded by several larger counties. **update** over 100 firefighters from 4 counties, including the Parkersburg Fire Dept, responded to the blaze.

Anyhow, the fire destroyed quite a portion of downtown Elizabeth, also, the county seat of Wirt County. **update** Two 19yo men were arrested for arson. They had broken into the store and then set the fire to cover up the robbery.

Story in the newspaper