It’s Official(ish) – Moundsville Ranked as One of West Virginia’s Most Exciting Cities!

Finally! The recognition I've been waiting on for 41 years has arrived. Moundsville, West Virginia has been ranked the 6^th Most Exciting Place to Live in West Virginia by some real estate website I've never heard of. Sure, it's not U.S. News and World Report, or even USA Today, but I will take it! After all, Moundsville is where I was born, on Olive Avenue straight across from East End Playground. It's where my father was born too. On "Spanish Row," just off Jefferson Ave. It's where most of my family has always lived and worked, all of my grandparents, my aunts, uncles and cousins. My Uncle Larry opened and ran Pink Door Pizza (still going strong today). My Grandma, Mary, and my Aunt, Ramona, opened and ran the Flavor Mate soda shop. And though we moved up the road a little ways when I was still young, on balance I'd venture to say I've spent as much time in Moundsville as any place else. At least enough time to know that to grow up in Moundsville is to love it.

For me Moundsville has always held a certain All-American mythos. I feel both peaceful and optimistic when I'm there. That feeling was born through my Dad, who still has great stories to tell me about being raised in Moundsville. My Dad grew up at the height of Moundsville's population, when East End Playground teemed every night with the electricity of a community fully engaged in youth sports, when the Moundsville field house would boast the likes of basketball players like Hot Rod Hundley and the Harlem Globetrotters or famous wrestlers like Gorgeous George. When real hot rods ruled on Jefferson Avenue, lines formed around the block to take in the latest picture at the Strand and the Spurr Pool teemed with teenagers from everywhere for the weekly Swim Dances. My guess is when Jimmy Stewart came to Moundsville to film Fool's Parade he felt a lot like he'd entered a living, breathing Frank Capra set. After all, Moundsville always felt like the best parts of Bedford Falls to me. In an era of sock hops and soda shops, Moundsville had it all. Working class sensibilities with a strong sense of community and togetherness. Americana writ large.

I was fortunate enough to get some time in the afterglow of that vibe and it was just as magical for me. In many ways, the Moundsville of the 80's and 90's was the same place as my parents' Moundsville. From the dances to the Strand to the nightly ballgames at East End, I was lucky enough to catch that wave, even if it wasn't quite the monster my folks got to ride. I can remember many summer nights when the fence line would still be filled with parents, fans, and girls (apologies to my wife) watching us hoop or play baseball. I still got to spend many a night at Spurr Pool, just on the basketball court instead of on the dance floor. Moundsville is where I learned to drive a car, date a girl, play Pinochle and swing for the fences. Moundsville taught me about hard work and respect. Moundsville gave me confidence. And wonderful memories. And a lot of good friends.

And Moundsville also taught me how to become mentally tough and compete in a healthy way. Starting from the time I was about 14, my friends and I would bum any ride we could get to Moundsville to play basketball at East End or Spurr Pool, wherever the best games were (and most nights that was a toss-up). It was there that we encountered the likes of Moundsville natives Dave Ealy, John Harler, Mark Crow, Kent Yoho, Gunnar Rose, Al Ingram, Steve Lavenski and plenty of other legitimate, adult athletes still in their prime. Now you might think those guys would have gone a little easy on us youngsters still trying to learn their way in the game. But you'd be wrong. Those men treated us kids like any other players. They posted us up, muscled us, stole the ball from us, blocked our shots, elbowed for position and did everything else they could to win. In short, they did us the best favor they ever could have. Of course none of us liked it at first. When we were 14 and 15, my friends and I would lose every game, sometimes never scoring more than a point or two. But we stuck together and learned we'd never get very far without each other. Although we couldn't see it at the time, those older players were doing their best to help us build character. And by the time we were 16, the benefits of those hard lessons started to pay off. We'd still lose a lot, but we started to be able to hold our own, to gel as a unit and even occasionally win a game or two. By the time we were seniors, our transformation was complete, and we were the ones dominating the win column.

That street-level education paid off in spades during my senior basketball season when we boasted one of the most competitive teams in Monarch history. We had size, shooters, depth, athleticism and a toughness forged on those Moundsville playgrounds. But more than that, we were bolstered by a community that was genuinely invested in our team; the same way Moundsville always got behind my dad's teams growing up. Something special happened over the course of those summers we spent battling the locals. Even though they treated us as adversaries on the court, those men came to embrace us off it. And by the time we were seniors, the City of Moundsville could boast a legitimate claim to our team. We had three great coaches and mentors on the court and at least a dozen more off it. We had more than just a High School team. It was truly a community's team. And I remain convinced that it was that community foundation that played a pivotal role in our success and helped us to thrive in a hugely competitive sea of local talent (folks who played or followed hoops in '91 know how loaded every team was that season). Dunking in warm-ups was forbidden at the time, so we'd always try to get on the floor as early as possible, before the referees came out (sorry John Artimez), to put on our own dunk contest, and fans would actually show up for that in droves. Whatever energy I'd expended trying to go all out in warm-ups was immediately replaced the moment we came back out of the locker room to a jam-packed house of cheering fans. The Moundsville Fieldhouse was at capacity or more for every home game we played that season and it all felt like one big, happy family. I've never felt anything quite like that special feeling, on that scale, since, and I'll always be grateful to Moundsville for gifting me with that. That kind of wholesale communal embrace has always been in somewhat short supply, but never in Moundsville. And, for me, that embrace was hardly limited to sports. From doctors to judges, to police officers and in practically all other walks of life, this City has always offered support and insight to help me grow in a healthy, positive way.

Today, I've moved even a little further up the road, but I've never truly left Moundsville, and I never will. I remain so blessed to be able to work in Moundsville. To shop, eat, visit, and bring my family to Moundsville. To tell my kids the same kind of stories my Dad told me about growing up in Moundsville. What a gift it is to be able to work in a City where almost every time I walk outside, or down the street, I run into someone I know who is genuinely happy to connect with me, even just for a minute or two. A City where I see still get to interact with many of the same folks who were so supportive of me growing up. To this day, I still feel that same electricity I felt when I was a kid on a Fall Friday night when the Monarchs are about to kick it off, or when the Strand hosts an event or even when I ride by East End on a warm summer night and see the kids playing basketball and the people lining the fence watching a game. As society seemingly becomes more insular with each generation, I think communities like Moundsville become rarer and rarer. But near as I can tell, Moundsville has done its best to stay the course. To my eye, Moundsville remains as in tune with the resonance of its rich history as well as any place. So I'm thrilled to see Moundsville get some well-deserved recognition, even if it is from some obscure website. My hats off to you Moundsville. And take that Charleston (which ranked 7th)! Thanks for everything Moundsville! You got my vote.