Hometown Pride

Moundsville always has been, and always will be my home. It’s true that for relatively brief periods of time I have resided in other areas—Morgantown during college, Atlanta during my first year of law school, and Wheeling for a few years when I got married—but I have never wavered when asked about my hometown.  It’s always been Moundsville.  I’m proud of our town, what we have survived and what we have to offer.  I suppose it’s that pride that causes me to get so upset when someone treats our town with disrespect.

I’m not talking about the folks who just like to run off at the mouth about what a lousy town this is, how there is nothing to do, etc., etc.  Comments like those aren’t really disrespectful, they are just plain incorrect.  The sad truth is that there are lots of people in the world who simply aren’t happy unless they are complaining about something.  It’s pretty easy for me to ignore those folks and to write off their disparaging comments as uninformed blabber.  When I speak of treating our town with disrespect, I am talking about the people who ruin the natural beauty of our community by treating it as if it were their own personal garbage can.

I have been fortunate in my life to have had the opportunity to travel throughout most of the United States.  I’ve seen the beaches of both coasts, the Rocky Mountains, the wilderness along the Canadian border, the Northwest forests, the Southern plantations and the deserts of the southwest, and I can say with complete confidence that West Virginia is the most beautiful state in the nation.  Why is it, then, that so many people seem to have no reservations whatsoever about chucking a sack full of trash out of the car window and onto the roadside?  If you think I am overstating the problem, take a few minutes on your way home tonight to really look at the roadside.  It’s embarrassing to say the least.

Earlier this year, my buddy Rich and I decided we were going to pick up the trash that had accumulated on the side of the road along Route 250 from the top of First Street to Rankin turn, a stretch of less than a mile.  We concentrated exclusively on the west side of the road, adjacent to the hillside.  In a period of two days, we collected nearly twenty-five 40 gallon bags full of trash.  To put that in perspective, the bed of my full-size pickup truck holds approximately twelve 40 gallon bags.  We picked up two complete truckloads of garbage from a stretch of road that is less than a mile long.  That was four months ago, and I can tell you that if we started again today, we would pick up the same amount or more.  It’s sickening.

The economy in our state has been hit really hard over the past 30-40 years.  The coal mines, steel mills and chemical plants that once provided a good living for thousands of families in the Ohio Valley are largely gone.  Experts say that we would be wise to try and tap into the tourism dollars that have flowed so freely into some nearby communities.  We certainly have the resources to do so:  Grand Vue Park, the Palace of Gold, the Cockayne Farmstead House, the Historic Prison, The Strand Theatre, Grave Creek Mound and the Ohio River are only a few of the many attractions available in Marshall County and surrounding communities.  However, if we want to attract tourists and the income that comes with them, we have to present them with a beautiful picture to begin with.  No one would expect people to patronize a restaurant or tourist attraction with an entry that is covered in garbage, yet the major routes that lead into our town are often in that very condition.

Frankly, this shouldn’t be an issue of economics.  It should simply be about taking pride in one’s home.  I love my home town, and it makes me angry when someone treats it with disrespect.  I wish more people felt the same way.     

Moundsville always has been, and always will be my home. It�s true that for relatively brief periods of time I have resided in other areas�Morgantown during college, Atlanta during my first year of law school, and Wheeling for a few years when I got married�but I have never wavered when asked about my home town. It�s always been Moundsville. I�m proud of our town, what we have survived and what we have to offer. I suppose it�s that pride that causes me to get so upset when someone treats our town with disrespect.

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