Speaking as a native West Virginian....you can't insult us

[theboss]

All this hand-wringing over insults about WV and such make me chuckle quietly.

Do you really think this stuff is new to us or is going to make a lick of difference one way or the other?

I'm enjoying my little vignettes on WV, so you are getting another one. Here are some facts:

1. You can't insult us. Honestly, we've heard them all and are pretty good at blocking them out by now. Incest jokes. Hillbilly jokes. Deliverance jokes (even though that took place in Georgia). Trailer park jokes. Heard 'em all. (For the record, I grew up in a pretty large three bedroom house with a back yard. I am an only child. And I've never been hunting).

Water off a duck's back.. In fact, we revel in it. When WVU plays in a bowl game, we are going to put six to eight in a hotel room, get drunk, and throw things at the opposing cheerleaders. Why? Because that's how we roll. So, I find it hard to believe that any self-respecting West Virginian is going to be overly swayed by anything an Obama supporter or Hillary supporter or talking head says about us.

2. You aren't going to change our minds. As an Obama supporter, I'm simply not going to argue with anyone in West Virginia. I will correct anyone who makes the "He's a Muslim" comment. But I live here. No one has changed anyone's mind since 1981 when Lee Williams of Hedgesville finally admitted that Tommy Wildfire Rich was not the greatest wrestler in the world.

We never change. I got involved in a zoning proposal about a decade ago when I was working in government. After being told in no uncertain terms that it is every West Virginian's God-given right to build a 500 foot radio tower on their property if that is what they want to do, I've basically given up on the "convincin'" thing.

3. You aren't going to inspire us. Besides that the fact that he is a Black African American Negro, Obama's biggest problem in WV is his message. We aren't a state that is going to be inspired by anything not involving the next life.

Why? Because nothing happy has ever happened here. If you live in West Virginia, odds are that you are going to work in a dying industry. And if you manage to get through 30 years without dying in an industrial accident or getting layed off, you will retire. And your pension will be inevitably cut three years in.

Your best friend in high school probably died in a hunting accident (5 deaths in four years at my school, thank you very much). And one of your relatives is going to lose a limb at some point (Grandpa lost his leg in the steel mill, thank you very much).

Major corporations are always going to exploit the land. And if they don't, it's going to collapse in mine subsidence.

Your kids are going to ride a bus two hours on a two-lane road to attend a consolidated high school that you voted against. And the governor is probably going to be indicted at some point.

This is really what West Virginians want:

1. The promise that their retirement is not going to be completely miserable.
2. The right to hunt and fish to their hearts content.
3. To - in general - be left alone on their property.
4. Rich Rodriguez' still-beating heart on a platter.

[Eurobabe]

1. I think WV gets a bum rap.

I used to take the small highways from Charlottesville over through WV to reach Cincinnati when I was moving there. Not only is WV a very scenic state, I found the people to be very hospitable. The highways are a hell of alot better than most of the interstates in the Northeastern states, esp. my homestate of PA.

People really need to stop generalizing and being mean to West Virginia! :hi:

[EFerrari]

2. We're the same everywhere.

lol

Thanks.

[theboss]

3. Do you want to behead Rich Rodriguez too?

That's awesome.

[EFerrari]

14. As a vegan, I don't know if I'm allowed to want that

but I trust your judgment completely.

:)

[quakerboy]

21. Its ok as long as you don't plan to eat him.

[NaturalHigh]

4. As a Sooner fan...

I had some pretty harsh feelings toward West Virginia after the Fiesta Bowl last year. :hide:

Kudos to your post, though.

[NeedleCast]

22. As a Longhorn Fan

West Virginia is sitting pretty in my books right now.

:P

[SoxFan]

52. Sooners: the Hillary of the BCS

"Shame on you, Boise State! Shame!"

[Gore1FL]

5. Anyone who has to drive in those mountains...

has to be pretty damned smart to just to deal with it.

Not to mention pretty damned crazy to choose to do so!

Both of those score high in my book.

[NewHampshireDem]

6. Great post ... thanks for the perspective

It reminds me of a friend of mine from college. She was from Morgantown, WV. When we first met it was one of those, 'Oh, where are you from' type of conversations.

"West Virginia," she said.

Then stuck out her hand, giving me the full-fledge 'f-you and the horse you rode in on'. "You know how West Virginia looks like this? Well, I come from right here," she said, pointing at the knuckle on her middle finger.

:rofl:

I still chuckle thinking about it now, nearly 20 years later.

[theboss]

7. The knuckle is actually Wheeling

Morgantown is where the index finger is flipped over.

[NewHampshireDem]

13. Way to ruin a good story with the facts!

:P

It was 20 years ago. I may be wrong about where she was pointing or where she was from. Coulda sworn it was Morgantown, but I could be confused b/c I considered applying to grad school there. :shrug:

Thank you, though, for keeping me honest!

[Art_from_Ark]

23. One of my best friends in college was from Nitro

and he had a shirt that read, "There's nothing quite like Nitro High".

[theboss]

41. Ever been to Nitro? I don't understand how anyone lives past 30 there

The town should really be called "You Will Get Cancer Here, WV."

[Art_from_Ark]

92. Maybe that's why my friend wanted to get out so fast

As soon as he got his high school diploma, he was gone.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

8. I learned how to drive on some crazy ice/snow covered hills in WVA

some where you were on top of a steep hill, covered with snow, so you tried
to start out with your wheels already touching the edge of the curb,
to help you slow down if/when you started sliding.

There was one hill in town that even in good weather was scary, 5th street we
called it.

The hill was so steep at one point that you almost felt as if the car's front end would lift
up and the car would roll in a backwards somersalt.

Near the top, you couldn't see if another car was coming, you just gambled.

Oh, and driving around in WVa, at least where I grew up - kept your
stomach muscles in shape because of all of the curves.

Horseshoe curves.

[WildClarySage]

25. Huntington, eh?

We are Marshall. Even us WVU folks.

[Cant trust em]

9. Frankly, I never really thought about W. Virginia until today.

I've driven through it on way to Virginia from Maryland, but never really thought about it much. Coming from California, it's not really something I've heard a lot about in a tourist sense. I've never even seen an travel insert for it in a magazine. I have seen them though for Arkansas, Missouri and North Dakota. I never realized there was so much animosity towards this state until I started reading a few posts.

[babylonsister]

10. I love you post and recommend it! But please,

dare I ask who Rodriguez is? Because he's a 'exican, or a downright certified dirtbag?

[theboss]

11. He's a native son of West Virginia and the spawn of Satan

Look him up on Wikipedia, though that won't tell you the full story.

[TahitiNut]

17. Go Blue!

:evilgrin:

[babylonsister]

18. My NY Giants? Yes, always. nt

[muryan]

68. Go Blow

:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[AspenRose]

83. Ooh you are bad, you're going straight to hell for that one.

:spank: ;-)

[mahina]

12. If that is so,

then Obama is right, we have more in common that what divides us. Most people that I know here care about all that stuff too, except the last one. Oh, and education.

[hfojvt]

15. Does that mean

we can hit the Republicans on privatizing social security?

And who was the greatest wrestler in the world, if not Tommy Wildfire Rich? Kenny Jay?

[SwampG8r]

80. it can only be

RICK FLAIR

[StClone]

16. Yikes! my son just accepted a position at WVU

West Virginia is a beautiful state but therein is hidden many secrets.

[theboss]

43. Morgantown is as "normal" as any place in West Virginia

You are still definitely in the Mountain State, but it ain't exactly Nicholas County.

[StClone]

72. That's what my kid says

He says not to worry. Thanks for the reassurance the experience should do him good.

[TheDonkey]

19. LOL. I'm sorry but WV is pretty lame

:( Not trying to be mean, I thought your post was 100% on message. I lived many years in Western PA and that is like WV Jr. when it comes to local culture or lack thereof. It is a sad, depressing, regressive place with many people who only want to be left with guns, booze, and chew.

[quakerboy]

20. So If Obama had delivered

#4 on sunday afternoon, do you think that would have helped enough to win tomorrow?

[rateyes]

24. Hey, if you really want to experience WV folks' hospitality go to

Jolo. Just don't stay past sundown. I went looking, and found after asking around, the rattlesnake handling church there. Folks in those parts don't care too much about visitors to their little hamlet.

I bet I've traveled the WV turnpike 1000 times, back in the 60s and 70s. Well, not that many times...but once, at least back then, felt like 1000 times. Seems like it took 10 hours to go from Princeton to Charleston...and, it was ALWAYS under construction.

Beautiful place, though.

[WildClarySage]

26. Oh puh-leez

We don't have any more snake handlers than any other rural state, we just have the reputation for them that the others don't.

The OP has it right, we aren't any crazier, or stranger than anyone else, and we're not insulted by the implications that we are. Besides, we get to live in the most beautiful mountains that ever existed. Even Don Blankenship can't take that away though Gawd knows he's trying. We know everyone who picks on WV is just jealous.

And yeah, if Obama had managed to bring Rich Rodriguez's head to Manchin's mansion over the weekend, it'd be all over for Hillary. But don't count Obama out yet. I don't know anyone who's a dem who isn't voting for Obama. Course, that's not a scientific poll... but still.

[rateyes]

27. Check out this youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSP_ZDV3htk

[redqueen]

37. Offtopic but...

LOVE your avatar! :D

I used one like it before... nice to see Cheese again. :loveya:

[WildClarySage]

77. TY I think I remember your Cheese

and yeah he's great!

[OnionPatch]

74. I agree about the mountains.

I've been around and seen some mountains. W VA has the prettiest I've seen so far. Not just the mountains, but the forests and wildlands are absolutely gorgeous. Actually, the fact that there is not much work in W VA saves it from an influx of people like me. If I had work there, I'd move there in a heartbeat. Somewhere on the New River would suit me just fine.

[shadowknows69]

28. Yee haw!!! Viva La West Virginia!!!

Sincerely, that post rocked. Good to see someone with a sense of humor. I agree southern states get a horribly bad rap.

[flpoljunkie]

29. Great read, Boss! Have been rafting in West Virginia. It's beautiful country.

But, I have to ask, if West Virginians want to be left alone, what do they think of Bill Clinton haranguing them with his pleas to come out and vote in overwhelming numbers--like an 80% turnout?

Are West Virginians polite to ex-presidents, as well?

[Ian_rd]

30. OMFG, that was awesome.

A wonderful blend of heart, drama, and laughs.

"... Because that's how we roll." HA!

[PBS Poll-435]

31. When is your book coming out?

SERIOUSLY

Great Stuff!

[LiberalAndProud]

32. K&R

[The Great Escape]

33. I Don't Want Dick Rods Heart....

the four million that he owes us will do quite nicely.

[WildClarySage]

78. I say he owes us for the National Championship he tanked.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

34. Being from Texas and having been posting on DU for four years

I can say I feel ya. I've grown so accustomed to the bashing, the digs, the burns and the generalizations that I no longer even flinch. What can I say really? The majority of our voters are idiots. I can't deny that. :shrug:

If people think that by attacking me or my post (which happens much less than it used to) for my being from Texas they're going to somehow correct the problem they're wrong. However, if they want to call the majority of voters out for being idiots who voted against their own better interest, then I'll stand right beside them and agree.

[Scurrilous]

35. K & R

:thumbsup:

[redqueen]

36. What about Mountain Top Removal?

I thought that was a big issue there and that there was some public interest in seeing the practice stopped.

It's ruining those beautiful mountains. :(

[theboss]

39. I honestly don't know how widespread it is

I think, yes, in general that West Virginians are against it.

However, I'm not sure how many people have ever actually seen the effects outside of Youtube.

The thing about coal mining is that there aren't all that many people involved in it any longer and where it takes place is extraordinarily isolated.

In all honesty, without youtube, I would not know that the practice was taking place.

[redqueen]

45. I hope it's not widespread...

it's so sad... all that beauty just... gone.

[theboss]

57. You know what though, in a lot of places former coal mine sets are the only developable land

In some of these places, the only flat surface to build a supermarket may be an former coal mine site.

My hometown has run into this problem repeatedly. We could pretty easily turn ourselves into a low-tax, low-crime suburb of Pittsburgh if we had any open spaces. But we can't expand beyond a two-lane highway because the river is on one side of the road and a freaking mountain is on the other. And we can't build any real shopping centers - which hate them as much as you want - are key to suburban-type development, because the only flat land is probably a future superfund site.

[redqueen]

58. Yeah but it's SO harmful to the ecosystem...

I mean, it'd be nice if they'd just at least not dump all the crap into the streams... but they do.

[theboss]

59. Well, it's two different things

I don't think anyone wants a mountain blown up.

I'm just pointing out that our love for the land is sometimes tempered by a deep frustration with the lack of options granted by the land.

[redqueen]

60. Yeah...

maybe a happy medium would be best. :)

[MadAnne]

69. Why not? Last year every major magazine in

the US did a piece on it.

[WildClarySage]

76. Mountaintop removal mining is a blight on WV perpetuated

by Big Coal companies who aren't even located in WV. They are literally tearing our mountains down and selling them out of state without adequate compensation. Coal is killing WV because while it does provide employment -much of it in the form of hired (purchased) public officials!- machines do much of the work anymore and there are fewer people needed to mine it... especially when we have machines cutting our mountains and exposing the veins- which results in even lower employment levels. Reclamation hasn't been done long enough for long-term safety to be determined. And the state is having to pay huge amounts in Workers Comp and medicare/medicaid to retirees who have developed black lung, lung cancer, etc. and to employees who have accidents on the job.

[nichomachus]

38. I used to live in NH

If you take away the high-techers who move over the line from MA to escape taxes (so they think) and the retired military double-dippers who move there because the state has no income tax and no sales tax, NH is pretty much like WV. The high-techers live in an area that the rest of the state refers to as Northern Massachusetts -- not really part of NH.

I used to joke that in the town where I lived "fuckenqueer" was still one word, and the accepted designation for homosexuals. It was a town of 55 sq mi, with 2,000 people, no stop lights, two general stores, and three baptist churches. That was pretty much it.

[theboss]

40. I've been to New Hampshire and it is a different place...but there is no place differenter than WV

NH is 9,350 square miles. WV is 24,000 square miles.
NH has a population density of 137 people per square mile. WV is 75.
And we don't have Exeter.

What makes West Virginia different is a lot more than just small towns that don't cotton to gays. Hell, Ohio has a million towns like that.

It's really a combination of near total isolation from the rest of the world and a miserably sad history.

You know who West Virginia has a lot in common with? Albania.

[rox63]

50. Try inland northern Maine

My best friend's brother lives in Fort Kent, Maine, near the Canadian border. That's the middle of nowhere.

[theboss]

53. Northern Maine is very close to WV, I imagine

Though I wonder if they have been as horribly exploited as West Virginians have.

[AspenRose]

84. Exploitation

So true

Part of me wants to like West Virginia, it really does. The hospitality of the folks I met; the wild strawberries and fireflies in late spring and early summer....and my heart goes out to folks because, indeed, WV HAS been exploited terribly.

I just can't reconcile it with the discomfort I felt as a woman of color living there. :shrug:

[theboss]

86. There's a line in the Departed that probably applies to WV as well

"You are black guy living in Boston. You don't need my help to be completely f---d."

Like I said in other posts, I simply can't imagine living as a black person in West Virginia. I don't know who you talk to, socialize with, or date. And I am sure that 95 percent of the people are friendly enough, but most of them probably keep - at the very least - a subtle difference.

My 8th grade glass had about 120 kids in it - two were black. One guy. One girl. Both were pretty popular (I remember going to a huge party at the girls' house). But I also remember the fact that everyone assumed that they should date each other. I mean, it was the only possible option as we saw it. And this was 1987.

[AspenRose]

88. I'm in an interracial marriage.

One of my good white friends in WV adopted two black children. She caught hell, as did the children.

[Thrill]

42. Wait until the media highlights the statistics in the state tonight

Not a good night for WV. lol

[Alhena]

44. That really is a great post. I was all set to mock it, until reading it all ...

nice job.

[msallied]

46. 4 words

I love your posts!!

[BeyondGeography]

47. Seems like a soulful place in its way

The place has a great musical tradition, and people there are obviously serious about it, too. Our best music has always come from harsh places like West Virginia.

[hisownpetard]

48. K&R for a terrific post - informative, quirky, well-written and funny! You are a star!!

:headbang:

[truebrit71]

49. Great post! Funny and interesting insight as well...

:thumbsup:

[jazzjunkysue]

51. I can't decide if this is funny or sad: "We aren't a state that is going to be inspired by anything

not involving the next life."

Do WV's think other people have it better than they do? Do they believe that money or living elsewhere would be preferable to the status quo?

Also, I think the uneducated thing explains why strangers aren't as welcomed: It's not intelligence. Getting educated means leaving home and interacting with many cultures. It also gives you time to learn about the larger world, than it does if you just attend high school and immediately start you lifetime career in hairdressing or auto mechanics. Studying the larger world is a luxury many can't afford.

But, no, college does not make you smarter. All that beer's gotta kill a few brain cells...

[theboss]

56. I'm not sure how much time is spent pondering those questions

Did you have a parent or grandparent who grew up during the Depression? Have they ever sat you down and given you a blow by blow description of their daily life then?

I have. All four of my grandparents talked about the Depression so much, I felt like I lived through the Depression. I tell people that all the time: I am the only 34 year old with a living memory of the Depression.

Anyway, I don't think my grandparents thought about college or moving or how other people lived or travel or other cultures or things like that. I think they just thought about making life as bearable as possible.

Life in West Virginia is not quite like that; it's not about survival (though maybe in Mingo County, it is). But there is a mentality that you are dealt a certain hand of cards at age 18. And you will play those cards. And if you are particularly clever, you will do better than some with the same cards. And if you are stupid or unlucky, you will do worse than the people with the same cards. But you are never going to get new cards.

My folks are college grads so they had and still have employment options. But most of my dad's high school friends graduated on a Friday and began working in the steel mill on Monday. And they worked in that mill for the next 35 years. And if they were lucky they got promoted to a jAnd then they retired. And that's it.

Now that's true of a lot of urban centers too. The difference is, in Pittsburgh...there was also the option of hopping on the turnpike and heading "Somewhere." Or maybe you got a football scholarship at Pitt or Duquesne. Or maybe your neighbor's uncle taught at Carnegie Mellon.

Until very recently, it wasn't easy to escape from West Virginia.

I grew up in a fairly urban area - at least by West Virginia standards. My childhood house is 35 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh as the crow flies and maybe 65 miles from WVU.

To this day, a trip to Morgantown requires a 35 minute drive on a two lane hilly road frequently traveled by coal trucks. From the age of three to nine, I never traveled on that road without getting car sick.

Until I was 13, a trip to Pittsburgh required literally driving through a steel mill and crossing three sets of train tracks, one of which was in near continuous use. You always had to give yourself an extra 1/2 hour because you never knew how long you would be stuck at the train tracks.

[Barack_America]

54. Your schools need hunter safety courses...

If they don't already have them.

Seriously.

We all had to take hunter safety in the 6th grade. It must have worked as I don't remember anyone dying. Of course I'm assuming that you all are just hunting deer. And that you all actually hunt, rather than just get drunk off your asses.

ETA:
Also...Go Blue!

[theboss]

55. Most of the accidents took place in cabins or during gun cleanings

Three brothers were killed by a leaking kerosene lamp that killed them all.
There were two separate accidents where someone was cleaning a gun and it went off.

[Jed Dilligan]

81. Could the latter have been covered-up suicides?

[theboss]

90. I doubt it. People shoot themselves cleaning guns all the time.

The one case was actually a brother cleaning a gun and shooting his brother across the room because he failed to clean the chamber or something. (I don't know from guns).

[Jed Dilligan]

91. I don't know either. It always sounded fishy to me,

but I'm not a gun expert.

[RiverStone]

61. From a local perspective...

For those who do not support Obama in WV, any clue what folk there see as the difference between a Dem and a rethug?

Great post, BTW! :hi:

[theboss]

63. We don't have any Republicans

So...I don't know.

West Virginia is essentially a one party state.

So, why do we occasionally vote for Republicans as President?

For one, the President has really very little impact on the day to day economic life in West Virginia - or is at least is seent to have little impact. Our economy falls and falls by its own cycle. As long as you pander to some type of protectionism, you are going to be ok. Free Trader George W. Bush raised tariffs on steel and that probably was enough for WV on the economy. Our relationship to the federal government in regards to the economy pretty much begins and ends with Robert Byrd.

So...since there is this sense of defeatism on the economy, West Virginians don't have any qualms in voting on guns or social issues.

[WildClarySage]

82. Oh yes we do too have republicans... my dad for one...

is a Fox News watching Bill O'Lielly quoting republican who sincerely believes that terrorists are gonna get him in his trailer in the hills.

Seriously. And a lot of my fundy family are just like him. They sincerely believe that Gay people have an agenda and that God should be Governor, if not President. They see the republican party as the party of Christians.

Democrats in WV are those who generally favor labor issues or who see Dems as the FDR got-us-out-of-the-depression party, republicans tend to be the same fundy weirdos as in any other state.

ed to clarify

[JuniperLea]

62. That still doens't make it right... eom

[IDemo]

64. The week I spent in Northern Virginia a few years ago woke me up to the anti-WV sentiment

One example: a co-worker from WV announced she was going to enroll her daughter in piano lessons and was asked "shouldn't you just buy her a jug?"

Ouch.

Hello from West West Viginia (Idaho) :hi:

[rucky]

65. Will West Virginians settle for this, instead?...

[MadAnne]

66. As a native West Virginian I

found your other post kinda hurt my feelings.

[theboss]

70. Why?

I've been emailing some friends today - all of us ex-pats.

We've been sorting through the posture we get in of defending WV at all costs against outsiders while still trying not to defend the more nasty aspects of the state.

I'm just trying to work through all that.

[RoseMead]

67. I've loved reading your posts the past couple of days

But I have to confess, as a Marshall grad, I don't really harbor any ill will toward Rodriguez.

Blasphemer, I know. lol

[WildClarySage]

79. Look at it this way, WVU is a state school... that $4million

has to come from somewhere. And state taxes don't differentiate between WVU and Marshall grads...

[theboss]

85. Typically, Marshall gets screwed in funding, and I think most "football" money comes from donations

I think most "football" money comes from private funding now.

Whatever happens, it will probably come out of Bob Reynolds' pocket.

[jackster]

71. thanks Boss

that was beautifully eloquent. Straighforward and easy to get.

I came from rural north Florida - which is actually the stupidest state in all the nation. I left there and sadly watch her drown in her own idiocy from afar, but that doesn't make it hurt any less. One's birthplace has a stong hold on some I think. West Virginia has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, but some of the saddest circumstances.

[Coexist]

73. great post.

[Spiffarino]

75. My one trip to WV amazed me.

It reminded me of where I live in Western North Carolina, only 20 years ago. It's still rural and unspoiled, like I wish WNC was.

[XemaSab]

87. How is this different than the West?

:shrug:

'Cause if you change "West Virginia" to "Montana" and "inbred" to "crazed militia-supporting Unabomber" this sounds like the west. :shrug:

[snooper2]

89. so to sum up..

Your state is a shithole, everyone knows it, nobody gives a shit, companies abuse you, and nothing is going to change;







and all you want is to be left alone and go catfishing :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:





Got it... :rofl:







GOBAMA!