mountaineer

Is our way of life unique?

            West Virginia is a state the does not get much positive recognition.  I was born in Wetzel County, West Virginia.  My father got stationed in Norfolk, Virginia when I was 2 year old, and we moved to there.  I don’t remember West Virginia as a child, of course I was too young.  The first time I remember my mother mentioning West Virginia, I had always remembered it as Western Virginia.  I grew up in white suburbia.  We ate at the dinner table.  Our clothes were always washed.  My mother taught us how to use silver and helped us grasp the concept of religion.  I was also given opportunities that a middle class family would grow up in.  Things happened in my life and I had to move back to where I was born, Paden City, West Virginia.  It was a huge culture shock to me.  For one, there were no other races in my home town but white.  The Ku Klux Klan still had members there.  My clothing style, my accent, and their actions were different from what I had been used to.  It seemed everyone shoved me into an outcast society, pretty much ostracized.  It wasn’t until about 2 years later I had assimilated myself into their culture.  I noticed everyone had family ties.  Everyone knew everyone in town.  People in the town new we were from the beach so they just assumed, like I assumed, we were all different.  That wasn’t the case though.  I was a naturally born West Virginian.  After the town people found out that I was born in the same hospital as most of my new forming friends, I was accepted.  I was invited to many homes for cook outs, which were just a little different from what I was used to.  They were eating deer steak and deer burger.  Also, I learned my favorite cultural sport of West Virginia, “muddn.”  Family life is the biggest tradition that I was aware of.  Heck the longer I live here the more my accent changes to the West Virginia slang.  I love it. 

Understanding the stereotype

            I remember growing up at the beach and thinking about West Virginia, knowing that my dad’s mother and father lived here.  I used to make fun of these people because that ate spaghetti sandwiches.  My brothers and I grew up saying only “hicks” and “rednecks” ate spaghetti sandwiches.  That was one stereotypical attitude I can think of.  I always thought that “Western Virginians” had no teeth, no shoes, dirty clothes, and always thought of inbred yokels.  When I first came to West Virginia these people had more racism or stereotypical attitudes than I did.  They hated me for being an outsider.  I used to have to run home from school so I would not get beat up by the local bullies.  They used to scream, “go back to your own town.”  And I remember saying, “Those stupid hicks are mean.”  As the years progressed I was eventually accepted by them.  I guess the realized I could take a beating.  Now everything about me loves this state.  I get excited when I hear her name.  Actually, West Virginia’s name was going to be Vandalia.  I love that many important people are from this state.  It doesn’t bother me about fictitious characters.  I enjoy it, because it gets people to think about our state. Not very many people do, if they are not from here.  Another cultural tradition would have to be the love for West Virginia as their state.  Every family that is true West Virginian would fight for this state until death.  Many families lost sons in every war.  Because in every war there was one West Virginian soldier in battle.  There is “poor white trash” everywhere in America, not just in West Virginia.  You know what they say, “You take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.”