Winter whacks West Virginia roads

Author Diana Pisner Walker (“Spaghetti and Meatballs! My family is Italian!” and “I Don’t Want to Sit in the Front Row Any More”), who works for the Marion County Board of Education, couldn’t have been more prophetic about West Virginia’s first snowfall of the winter when she wrote:

Diane Pishner Walker's daughter's car

“Definitely not a good night.  Stuck in Whitehall. Cars everywhere. Drove through a whiteout.

“Stay home!”

Later, she got word that the wintry weather caused her daughter’s car to spin out and wreck.

So Diana wrote:

“This is the car my daughter walked out of tonight. Prayers answered!”

Monongah High graduate Brenda Moore, who works at 3 Ways Inn and lives in Fairmont after growing up in Idamay, chimed in:

“She definitely had an angel on her shoulder.”

Anthony Pulice, Jr., Class of 1945, noted:

"A cinder truck just went past my house. I hope it wasn't a snow plow. NO cars are running past the house now. I'm going to bed and watch the News.”

Tony lives in Fairmont with his wife, Barbara Pulice.

Fairmont East grad Susan Mullenax replied to Tony:

“They have a wreck out here between truck stop and Gabe’s closed off.”

Joyce Ahouse Blake, a widow living in Salem where she graduated from Salem College, blurted:

“Glad to be home tonight!!!”

Debbie Basnett, who is from Monongah but lives in Worthington, reported:

“Salt trucks finally out. There’s a ground cover in places but still very cold today.”

In Marion County, Route 250 from White Hall to Deerfield was closed. So was Husky Highway.

There was heavy traffic on Freedom Highway/19 South on Swisher Hill, which is where we went sledriding in 1950 when 45.4 inches of snow came down in a few days and eliminated all auto traffic.

Icy driving also closed roads in Harrison County -- Route 76 between Ryan Environmental and the county line, Gregory's Run and Route 131.

Cars were stuck on Skyline Hill, making it impassable. I guess that’s their Swisher Hill bottleneck.

My sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, who lives in Rivesville, said there was only about an inch of snow but it kept the cinder trucks busy. Jackie lives in Paw Paw Creek on a curve, so her mailbox gets whacked regularly, even when the weather isn't bad.

She reports that it's supposed to warm up in another day or so, so West Virginia's can breathe a sigh of relief and wait for the other wintry shoe to drop later.

If YOU had bad experiences with West Virginia’s first snowy wintry blast, which hasn’t come to my home in Tallmadge, Ohio YET, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com  and I’ll add it to this article.

Drive carefully, if you really must go out into wintry snow, ice and sleet!