When you don’t live in snowbird land you can enjoy sunshine and golf even in November.

Brenda Ridenour Graffius, Class of 1974, who lives on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and husband Chuck Graffius enjoyed golf with cousin Eleanor Slavik Varga and Lou Varga, who lives in Brooksville, Florida (leaving behind . They rested up, as you can see, by sitting a spell in rocking chairs.

Ed Graffius, Class of 1971, is Brenda’s brother. He’s from Monongah but lives in the Pleasant Valley area of Fairmont nowadays. Ed retired from Wal-Mart where he has been receiving manager since 1991.

 

Brenda is a Licensed Practical Nurse.

Judy Reighard Graffius is a widow in The Plains, Ohio after living in Akron. She’s a University of Illinois graduate in botany/mycology. The Plains is near Athens and has two dozen Native American burial grounds.

 

There’s also a Jeff Graffius and a Erica Graffius Rife in the family tree.

David Graffius, Class of 1973, fits in the family tree somewhere, too. He is married, lives in Monongah and worked for Consol Energy.

Don and Sandy Hostutler. Senior & baby & 78th birthday photos

Catching up with

Grandpa Don Hostutler

Donald Hostutler, Class of 1955, who grew up on Park Avenue across the street from Monongah’s Mount Calvary Cemetery, lives in Pickerington, Ohio with wife Sandy.

They moved from Lancaster, Ohio, where they had two rental homes, to Pickerington, which is east of Columbus and south of I-70.

Don is a Fairmont State graduate a Boeing Company retiree (he was an assembly planning engineer).

He was in the senior class play.

Don’s parents were Paul and Iva Jane Hostutler. Don’s sister is Barbara Hostutler Swisher, Class of 1956, who lives in Delaware, Ohio.

Don's mother, Iva Jane, and Roxy Sayres were sisters. Roxy lived next door to the Olesky family with husband Paul Sayres on Church Street in Monongah when I was a teenager and a WVU student.

At my request, Don provided more information about his family:

“I married a girl from Barrackville and we have 2 children. Our daughter lives in the Pickerington area and our son lived in Westerville, Ohio. Our daughter, Lisa, is married and had 3 children. The oldest daughter is married and has 6 little ones. Her son is married and has 3 little ones and her youngest daughter is at Denison in high school. Our son is married and has 2 children. The boy is a junior in high school and the girl is in 3rd grade. So I have 5 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.”

Barbara Hostutler was in the National Honor Society at Monongah High, in the same group with my sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, who lives in Rivesville. Barbara was co-editor of the annual newspaper staff.

Barbara’s son, David Swisher, passed away last year in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Eva Blanche “Banny” Hostutler Brzuzy, married to the late Steve Brzuzy, passed away in 2010.

TV appearance to promote Christmas lights fundraiser

The face of Susan Staron Sanders, Class of 1971, an administrative assistant at Personnel, lights up when she talks about Monongah’s Christmas lights project, which will light up the town for the holiday.

Susan Staron Sanders

Susan is spearheading a fundraiser for the lights, which were donated by White Hall but require $1,000 for installation.

Writes Susan:

“My girls and I will be doing a fundraiser on December 12th at the Town Hall. We are having a bake, craft show and hotdog sale to raise money and add more lights to the town next year. Anyone interested please let me know.”

“My girls” includes Valerie Vandetta Aldridge, Class of 1973; Teena Field Ailstock, 1984 North Marion grad; and Mareca Savonarola.

To promote the fundraiser, Susan will do a live interview on Clarksburg WBOY-TV Channel 12 news at noon Saturday, December 7, which is 4½ hours before the WVU season football finale kicks off  in Manhattan, Kansas against Kansas State.

So Thomas Street will be the home of a TV star who is helping light up Monongah for Christmas. She’s the town’s anti-Grinch.

Susan and husband Ron Sanders live next door to Mayor Greg Vandetta and his wife, Janice Manzo Vandetta. Thomas Street is famous (in my mind) for being the childhood home of John Olesky, Class of 1950, once he left the Walnut Street home of his grandparents, where he was born. I got to freeze my butt off every Winter when I visited the two-holer outhouse at the end of our Thomas Street rental, where the alley and the garages were located.

Susan and Ron’s son, Tommy Sanders, is a WVU senior majoring in computer engineering.

Ron is a Vietnam veteran. Susan’s brother Bob Staron, Class of 1967 (deceased), fought in Vietnam.

 

Susan grew up with Becky Urish Anderson, who today lives in Clarksburg, and went to Monongah High with Becky. They are both Class of 1971.

The town of Whitehall donated seven lights it had to the town of Monongah when Whitehall got new Christmas street lights. The cost of brackets to put the lights up in Monongah will be about $1,000, Monongah mayor Greg Vandetta said. The decorations will be put up in time for Christmas.

Other Starons at Monongah High and near Monongah include Diane Minardi Staron, Class of 1967; Dorothy Staron Saunders, Class of 1971; Thomas Staron, Class of 1965; Zana Kay Sanders Nesselrotte, widow of Roger Lee “Butch” Nesselrotte, who lives on Swisher Hill; Timothy “Tim” Sanders and wife Janet, who live on Plum Run; Shirley Sanders, who lives in Number Nine; and the late Harold Eugene “Gene” Sanders, Sr., Ann Christie “Chris” Harley Sanders, Elva Ann Sanders Cox, Richard L. Cox, and Harold Eugene “Skip” Sanders, Jr.

Oh, Brother! What a large Thanksgiving dinner turnout

Former Lions all over the country hosted family Thanksgiving dinners.

When Nick “Brother” Saban, quarterback of the 1968 Monongah High state champion football team, invited the family to his Tuscaloosa, Alabama home for dinner, nearly 200 showed up! The Alabama Crimson Tide football team, coached by Brother.

Terry Constable Saban, Brother’s wife since 1971, was in charge of the operation. The Sabans have a son, Nicholas, and a daughter, Kristen, and a granddaughter, Amelie.

Brother’s sister, Dianna “Dene” Thompson, who gave him the “Brother” nickname, lives in Worthington and is a Monongah Middle School teacher. Their parents were Mary Conaway Saban Pasko and the late Nick Saban, Sr., whose Idamay Black Diamonds Pop Warner football team is legendary. Mary later married Robert Pasko, who also passed away, in Little River, South Carolina.

Betty Quinn’s brother passes away

Richard Craig, brother of Worthington’s Betty Craig Quinn, passed away Monday, Nov. 23 in Shinnston.

SHINNSTON — Richard Allen Craig, 55, of Shinnston, passed away Monday, November 23, 2015, at his residence.

He was born February 11, 1960, in Clarksburg, son of the late Okey Ray and Betty Lee Ashcraft Craig.

Richard is survived by five sisters, Shirley and husband Terry Martin, Pam and husband Mike Drain, all of Shinnston, Barbara and husband Charles Martin of Mannington, Alice Morgan and companion Dennis of Lumberport, and Brenda Quinn of Worthington; two brothers, Bruce Craig and companion Marla, Brad Craig and companion Rhonda, all of Shinnston; and several nieces and nephews.

In addition to his parents, Richard was preceded in death by one sister, Lois Jean Martz.

He had worked for Belasco Mobile Homes.

Family will receive friends at Dorsey Funeral Home, 701 S. Pike St., Shinnston, on Friday, November 27, 2015, from 2-8 p.m. The funeral service will be held on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015, at 11 a.m. with Pastor Brian Plum officiating. Interment will follow at Shinnston Memorial Cemetery.

Online condolences may be sent to DorseyFuneralHomeWV.com .

 

WVU student radio station wins 3 national awards

WWVU, West Virginia University’s student-run college radio station, took home three CMJ awards last month at an award ceremony in New York City. CMJ is a digital trade magazine aimed at college stations.

Cody Roane, who hosts a Hip-Hop show, won for Specialty Show Director of The Year.

Student music director Elizabeth “Emmi” McIntyre, a Nitro High graduate, was named CMJ Music Director of The Year. She oversees about 60 disc jockeys.

WWVU was named Station of the Year.

Extra reason for Tom Fleming to be thankful

Tom Fleming, 1982 North Marion grad who started at Monongah High before it consolidated into NMHS, had an extra reason to be thankful on Thanksgiving.

Oh, it was the usual gathering of family in Bridgeport. But Tom also has his 2014 hospital stay in the rearview mirror.

Helping the family celebrate with Tom and wife Ruby – another North Marion grad who began high school at Monongah before the consolidation -- were Jessicah Fleming, daughter of Lisa Lee Moore, a North Marion grad who lives in Fairmont and is a RN caregiver, and Carol Fleming’s granddaughter.

Jessicah is a TCB Pipeline adminstrator who lives in Fairmont. She describes herself as “a kick-ass stepmom.”

Monongah history is littered with Flemings, most of whom looked down on the rest of us. Because they lived on Fleming hill which overlooked the Booths Creek railroad bridge, West Fork River, East Monongah and West Monongah.

There’s Bill Fleming -- William Fleming III, Class of 1960 – quarterback of the unbeaten Monongah High football teams in 1958 and 1959 who lives in Lynchburg, Virginia.

 

His wife is Patty Sellers, a Fairmont West grad from Martinsburg. They’ve been married more than a half-century.

 

Patty dated Joe Martin, Class of 1959, who lives on Treasure Island, Florida, near St. Petersburg with Arlene Kitchin Martin, a Nova Scotia, Canada native. That was ages go, when both were in college.

Bill’s mother was Meryle Houchin Fleming. Bill’s grandfather and Barbara Fleming Marsh’s father were brothers. Barbara, Class of 1947, lives in Thousand Oaks, California.

Since Adrian Currey married into the Fleming family, and grew up in Monongah with 2 sisters and 3 brothers, that provided a lot of branches for cousins in the Fleming and Currey families. That’s why Jim McDaniel, Class of 1960, who lives in Behoboth Beach, Delaware, thinks he’s a cousin of Bill Fleming. They both are Class of 1960.

Hardly anyone grew up in Monongah without a lot of cousins because the families often were large and married into other large families. My uncle, Renzy Fazio, for example, was one of 13 children and they married into a slew of other families in Monongah.

Bill Fleming came to Lynchburg to begin a private Physical Therapy practice in 1966. It grew into 10 offices in central Virginia [Rehabilitation Associates of Central Virginia] and his youngest daughter runs the Bedford office. He’s been retired for nearly a decade. His daughters are Whitney, Kelly and Harrison.



Boy, the turkeys didn’t stand a chance against the pride of Lions that descended on them for Thanksgiving dinner.

Joy Ross, who lives in Monongah, moving there from Boston, had a visit from her great-grandson Greyson from Pennsylvania, who let his dad, Joy’s grandson, tag along.

Virginia Jacobin, who lives in Monongah, flew to North Charleston, South Carolina to spend the holiday with Joe Jacobin, Jr. Joe’s uncle also traveled with Virginia.

Shane Hurley, also living in Monongah, shared the day with family and his girlfriend, Elizabeth O’Dell. Shane is a WVU grad and does West Virginia Wesleyan football color commentary when he’s not a Shield Operator at ERP Fuel Federal Mining Complex.

Fairmont State Bernie Fullen, Class of 1963, who grew up in Carolina but lives in Massillon, Ohio, joined family and friends in Pennsboro, which is near Parkersburg. He’s in the photo montage with a Pennsboro pair, Shawna Rose and Jimmy Taylor. Bernie’s sister is Geraldine Fullen Ross, Class of 1950, who lives in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Then there's the Manzo clan, who are all over Monongah High history.

Danny Manzo, Class of 1957, is married to Fairmont East grad Brenda Manzo, who organizes reunions of former Bees. Brenda and Danny have lived in Monongah since 1967.

 

Danny was on the 1955 Monongah High state champ football team and was co-captain with Joe Meffe of the 1956 Monongah High state football title game runnerup team.

 Kerri Basnett, daughter of Nancy Riley Basnett, Class of 1960, who lives in Shinnston, was extra thankful since she survived an October heart attack. Kerri, an RN private duty nurse, is from Shinnston but lives in Fairmont. Nancy lives in Shinnston.

Larry Dan Eates, Class of 1970, and his wife, 1971 Farmington High grad Frances Victor Eates, enjoyed eats with the Eates family (sorry, I couldn't resist).

J.D. Eates and Julie Eates live in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Sarah Eates lives in the Pittsburgh suburb of Dormont.  They are Larry and Frances' children.

North Marion grad Jim Birdsell, grandson of Byron Birdsell, Class of 1947, had a passel of family over for Thanksgiving in Millersville, West Virginia. Jim is one of Monongah’s Company 10 Volunteer Fire Department members and the husband of Angela Birdsell.

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.

Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1950, who lives in Rivesville, celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday, the first day they could get the entire family together.

Jackie's brother, John Olesky, Class of 1950, who lives in Tallmadge, Ohio, gathered with family in Brunswick, Ohio with his two daughters, their spouses and host daughter Monnie Ann’s three children. Six Olesky grandchildren are college graduates, all in Ohio.

Addicts’ children clog state foster care system

Innocent children of drug addicts sometimes pay a heavy price.

They get dumped into foster care.

In the 2014 fiscal year, more than 264,000 children entered the system, the most since 2008. Marion County Day Report Center director Ted Offutt says drugs are largely to blame, with usage of opioids and heroin skyrocketing.

"Even though they love their children, at times they love the drug more," said Offutt. "It's worse now than in my 28 years of law enforcement and my six years running the Day Report.”

And for children born addicted to mom’s drugs, their behavior often makes it difficult for society and foster homes to deal with them. So it’s a double whammy for the kids.

Marion County CASA Volunteer Coordinator Melissa Garcia Webb said that there’s a shortage of foster families in Marion County, further compounding the hell-on-earth for the innocent children.

West Virginia leads the nation in drug-overdose deaths, more than double the national average, with prescription drug oxycontin playing a major role. West Virginia averages 600 drug-overdose deaths a year over the past 5 years, when 3,000 died from the misuse.

Cases of hepatitis C, from unsterilized drug needles or unprotected sex, have tripled.

Mary Jane Pulice Constable passes away

Mary Jane Pulice Constable, who was born in Chiefton and grew up in Worthington and Monongah as the daughter of Salvador and Maria Bitonte Pulice, passed away Monday, November 23 in Monongah’s St. Barbara’s Memorial Nursing Home.

Mary Jane Pulice Constable

There are a LOT of branches of the Pulice family tree in Monongah High history from 1936 through 1974. Not in this immediate Pulice family, for example, are Anthony Pulice, Jr., Class of 1945;  Saverio Pulice, Class of 1942, of Elkton, Maryland; the late Genevieve “Jennie” Pulice, Class of 1936; the late James William “Bill” Pulice, Class of 1948; Bill’s son, Jim Pulice, Class of 1969, former principal of Monongah Middle School;  Frances Savereno Pulice, Class of 1948; and Gerald Pulice, Class of 1974.

Mary Jane’s obituary:

Mary Jane Constable, 87, of Fairmont passed away on Monday, November 23, 2015 at St. Barbara’s Memorial Nursing Home In Monongah.  She was born in Chiefton, a small coal mining camp in Marion County on November 12, 1928 and grew up in Worthington and Monongah, a daughter of the late Salvador and Maria Bitonte Pulice. She was the only member of her family to be born in the United States.

She is survived by her loving husband of 65 years, Jack C. Constable, whom she married on July 5, 1950.

Also surviving is her only child, Jacqueline Constable, and her two grandchildren, Gabriella Constable and Adrianna Constable. Several nieces and nephews also survive her including, Lucille Stanley, Rosemary (Paul) Oliver, Judy (David) Sutton, John Urso, Rose (Ronnie) Kann, Sam (Concetta) Pulice, Terry (Nick) Saban, Tina White, Tracy (Rocky) Harr and Jamie Choquette.

Mary Jane was the last surviving member of her family. She is preceded in death by her brother John Pulice; sisters; Rose Urso, Theresa Terrico, and Katherine Reitkovich. Also preceding her in death was her son-in-law David R. Kovach and her granddaughter Mary Goddard Kovach.

Mary Jane was a graduate of Fairmont Senior High School Class of 1943. She retired from Westinghouse/North American Phillips after 43 years and began a second career as the office manager at Community Travel Center. She was an avid traveler and travelled extensively after her retirement.

The family would like to thank the staff of St. Barbara's Nursing Home and Fazio's Personal Care Home for their personal care and compassion shown to Mary Jane during her residence there.

Friends may call at Ross Funeral Home 801 Fairmont Avenue Fairmont on Tuesday from 4-8:00 P.M. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday at 10:00 A.M. at St. Peter the Fisherman Catholic Church with Fr. Robert A. Perriello as Celebrant. Entombment will follow at Shinnston Memorial Cemetery in Shinnston.

Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.rossfh.com       

 

Least effective West Virginia Congressman serves Marion County

Congressman David McKinley is the most ineffective member from West Virginia, according to InsideGov.com ratings.

McKinley represents the 1^st district, which includes Marion County and goes from the Northern Panhandle to Parkersburg to the Eastern Panhandle to Morgantown.

Rep. David McKinley

The ratings are based on the number of bills sponsored that at least get through committee. McKinley has sponsored 68 bills and 7% made it through committee.

But that doesn’t get him close to the 35 most ineffective, many of whom have had NO bills get through committee, but he is last among West Virginia’s delegation in Congress, based on these ratings. There are 435 members of Congress, so obviously you have to push through the crowd to get noticed.

The list includes only members of Congress who have served at least one full term and does not include bills introduced in the 114th Congress, since they still have time to get passed.

Only four men have represented the 1^st district since 1953: Bob Mollohan (D) (1953–1957), former Governor Arch Moore, Jr. (R) (1957–1969), Bob Mollohan again (1969–1983), Alan Mollohan (1983–2011) and Purdue graduate and civil engineer McKinley (R) (2011-present).

Fiscal conservative McKinley was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1981 to 1994, and he was chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party from 1990 to 1994. He lost to Cecil Underwood in the 1996 Republican gubernatorial primary. Underwood won the governor race in that general election. McKinley is a seventh-generation resident of Wheeling.

According to a Gallup poll, public approval of Congress has fallen to near-record lows. On average, 34% of the population approves of a given Congress. The current 114th Congress has a 17% approval rating.

According to GovTrack.us, the last two Congresses have enacted fewer laws than any other Congress since 1947. And the 114th Congress may surpass them all in terms of doing nothing.

Lillie Pearl Bright Fox was laid to rest alongside her husband, Bob Fox, Class of 1948, in Fairmont’s Rest Haven Cemetery.

They are on a hillside that overlooks I-79 and downtown Fairmont from White Hall Boulevard (U.S. 250) near Exit 132.

The reunion and burial took place Monday, Nov. 23. Lillie passed away Wednesday, November 18 in the Parkersburg area.

Their children are Robert Fox Jr. of Vienna, Tina Daugherty (Dave) of Vienna, Rita Tracewell (Allen) of Arnold, Md., Ralph Fox of Parkersburg and John Fox of Vienna.

Vienna is near Parkersburg.

Bob’s sisters are Doris Fox Crislip, Loretta Fox McCombs, Lois Fox Simmons, Mary Jane Fox Hickman, all of the Fairmont area, and the late  Shirley Fox Wilson.

 

We remember Bob Fox as this fearsome fullback on the Monongah High football team, running over defenders and surviving rain drainages lines carved into the Traction Park clay.

 

His family remembers him as an amazing loving father and grandfather and husband.

 

RIP, Monongah's Lion King, and your lion queen!

Donna Devoes’ mom passes away

Four States native Lila “Penny” Gwendaline Cole McFann, mother of Monongah’s Donna McFann Devoes, passed away Friday, November 20 in Rivesville.

Penny’s obituary:

Lila "Penny" Gwendaline McFann

·         BORN: September 14, 1933

·         DIED: November 20, 2015

·         LOCATION: Rivesville, West Virginia

Lila McFann

Lila " Penny" (Cole) McFann, 82, of Rivesville, Passed away on Friday, November 20, 2015, at home surrounded by her loving family. She was born on September 14, 1933 in Four States, a daughter of the late Clarence Ray Cole and Gladys (Cunningham) Cole.

The mother of 9 children, she enjoyed spending time with her family at cook outs and various family get together's. Her many interests included, bingo, painting pictures, having yard sales and going to flea markets. She also enjoyed all football games, horseshoe, and shuffleboard.

Lila worked several different jobs in her lifetime, she enjoyed vacationing in Florida. She was loved by everyone she ever met, she never met a stranger, "just friends she didn't know yet."

She is survived by her husband of 61 years, William S. McFann of Paw Paw Estates; sons, Rodney McFann and wife Crystal of Paw Paw Estates, Reginald McFann and wife Renee, of Fairmont, Randy McFann of Fairmont; daughters, Darlene Radcliff and husband Ronald of Fairmont, Diana McClung of Paw Paw Estates, Donna Devoes and husband Ron of Monongah, Doreen and her husband, Ron Knisely of Morgantown; 19 grandchildren, Misty, Jeffrey, Billy, Robbie, Matthew, Michael M, Duwn, Megan, Autumn, Jenna, Erik, Josh, Michael W., Michaela, Hanna, Anthony, Mckinley, and Candace; 15 great-grandchildren, Patience, Jeffrey, Jr., Kyzer, Butchie, Maximus, Julianna, Tyler H., Tyler G., Madison, Callie, Lux, Alexis, Ryliegh, Austin and Axxel; one great great-grandchild Ryker and another on the way, Alaya.

She is also survived by a sister, Edna Kaase her husband Paul, of Ohio; a brother, Allen Cole and his wife Shirley of Fairmont and several nieces and nephews too numerous to mention.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a son, Ronnie McFann, a daughter and son-in-law, Denise and Mike Willis; a granddaughter, Jessica; one sister, Jean Deberry and two brothers, Carroll Cole and Bernard Cole.

Mrs. McFann's family appreciates the staff of Monongalia General Hospital and Amedisys Hospice.

Friends may call at the Carpenter & Ford Funeral Home, 209 Merchant Street, Fairmont on Sunday from2pm to 9pm and on Monday from 10am to 11am. The funeral service will be at 11am on Monday, November 23, 2015 at the funeral home with Pastor Rex Musgrove officiating. Interment services will follow at Grandview Memorial Gardens.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Carpenter & Ford Funeral Home, 209 Merchant Street, Fairmont, WV 26554

 

Lisa Myers McCombs, Daleen Berry

Author! Author! Everywhere you look

 

Lisa Myers McCombs, Class of 1977, was among 20 authors at Saturday’s West Virginia Authors Day at the Bridgeport Public Library.

 

Six are from Bridgeport: Anna Egan Smucker, Colleen Driscoll, Betty Larosa, Don Hamilton, Regina Allen Parker and Bob Anderson.

 

Lisa is photographed with Daleen Berry of Morgantown, author of the New York Times best seller “Guilt by Matrimony.” Most of her books deal with murders and other egregious crimes.

Other authors filling up the library were Dorothy Ours, Keith Bartlett, Mary Lucille Deberry, Eric Fritzius, Patricia Hopper, Michael S. Lambiotte, Phyllis Wilson Moore, Eliot Parker, Georgeann Swiger, Suzanne Heagy, Barbara Smith and Charlotte Snead.

 

Lisa’s latest book is “I Have MS. What’s Your Superpower?” As someone with multiple scleroris, Lisa qualifies about the subject. She is a Monongah Middle School language arts teacher.

I faceitiously call us The Gang That Terrorized Marion County. We moved the needle way closer to stupid and mischievious than mean. But if you count how many are in the “jailhouse” photo, you’ll see that we were the Dingy Dozen prelude to The Dirty Dozen.

Frank “Bruno” Franze of Everson and Donald “Jake” Halpenny of Jackson Street in Monongah drove the getaway cars. Their fathers’ cars, actually.

Frank would drive one of his dad’s vehicles from their Everson home and pick up Gang members along the way. My house on Church Street in Monongah was the last stop. I could barely get into the back of the pickup there were so many in it. Other times, Frank had his dad’s car that was so old that you had to use pedals to shift the gears, the clutch and hit the gas. It was a three-headed monster to conquer.

Or Don would cajole his father into letting him use the Henry J, which made a lot of noise the night it sideswiped a bridge on our way to Clarksburg so that Duane Harbert could make it to the train in time to join the Navy after a night of drinking and partying. No injuries. The Henry J. got the worst of it. It was Kaiser’s experiment with small cars.

And then there was the night that Duane (I didn’t know his first name was Donald for another 50 years) drove the car owned by his father, Thoburn Elementary principal Frank Harbert. Police tracked dad down from the license plate after we were caught swimming at 3 a.m. in the Fairmont Field Club pool even though most of us got away and walked all the way to Monongah and some even swam across the West Fork River to escape the gendarmes. Rich folks didn’t like the Monongah High kids playing without authorization in their pool.

If no one had access to an automobile, we would gather nightly at the bus stop between the Tropea Grocery and Carlot’s Grill to hitchhike to Fairmont for fun.

We would sneak into drive-ins (except for two who had to be in the vehicle), steal watermelons to eat while skinny-dipping in the river and get thrown out of a Clarksburg theater, but I put that one on Ronnie “Cooley” Delovich, with his “Be nice; don’t fight” retort to the theater manager who had given us a final warning.

Others in the gang were the late Lawrence “Sonny” Godby, Lawrence and Regina Boone Godby’s son and the late Jackie Godby Lusczynski’s brother; Steven “Bucky” Satterfield, who lives in St. Albans after retiring from a long career as a West Virginia Highway Patrolman; Anthony “Tony” Eates, who is retired and living in Fairmont with wife Lucy; Robert “Satch” Kasper, who had a successful career sitting at the bargaining table for Ford Motor Company before retiring to his homes in South Lyon and Grand Lake (Presque Isle), Michigan; Donald “Jake” Halpenny, clarinetist supreme for United Mine Workers and Vingle bands, living in Fairmont; the late Joe Manzo, who survived the Korean war; the late Tom “Judge” Starcher, who began his prowling in Carolina; and me, the runt of the litter, who was the last one to jump into the Franze vehicles when it barely stopped moving as it went by our Church Street home and onto the latest adventures, which included Coal Hole swimming, skinny-dipping in the river with a gallon jug of draft beer and stolen watermelons and sneaking all but two of us into the drive-ins so that we’d have more money for beer.

Those were the days, my friend. We thought they would never end.

Alas, they did. But the memories will last forever.

Seven of the gang are still alive. RIP, Sonny, Joe, Judge, Coolie, Plumber.

The Gang will reunite someday. Boy, will St. Peter be ticked off.