North Marion grad Jim Birdsell, grandson of Byron Birdsell, Class of 1947, and nephew of Bill Birdsell, Class of 1950, knows how to enjoy life.

He’s in Florida with wife Angela and bouncing between Daytona Beach, where NASCAR was born because the sand is packed so firmly and where Paula and I parked our Honda Accord on a 6.5-mile long parking lot on the beach that was one car wide, to Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando. And, for a break, Kissimmee, with its fabulous lake.

On a previous vacation, Jim and Angela cavorted at the Hidden Springs Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Jim is one of Monongah’s Company 10 Volunteer Fire Department members. He works in parts at Leslie Equipment and lives in Millersville, West Virginia with Angela.

Jim’s dad is Edwin Birdsell, who grew up on Park Avenue by Mount Calvary cemetery with Jim’s grandparents, Zelda and Byron Birdsell. Byron was a long-time Monongah mailman.

Jim’s uncles are Bill Birdsell, Class of 1950, and Bill’s brother, Byron, Class of 1947, a long-time Monongah mailman. Jim, who married Angela in 2011, works for Leslie Equipment.

The late Bill Birdsell was in my 1950 class at Monongah High and achieved fame by riding me double on his bicycle handlebars down 50 streetcar station steps in Monongah without crashing the bike or smashing my head into the concrete or plowing into stationmaster Ted McDaniel’s workplace.

All this fun in the sun for Jim Birdsell, mind you, after heart surgery which kept him off bike trails, but only temporarily.

When he’s not galivanting around the country on vacation, Jim works out with Angela Birdsell at Fairmont General HealthPlex Fitness Center, plays pinball at Monongahfest and enjoys Davidsson Brothers music at the  Mannington Fair.

I get tired just trying to keep track of the traveling Birdsells! J