10 Years Ago
Week of April 28, 2016
Distracted Driving Accident Staged
In observance of National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and in preparation for Saturday night’s prom festivities, members of county fire and rescue squads posed a dramatic demonstration on the Pendleton County High School parking lot on Thursday.
Members of the junior and senior classes at PCHS were first addressed in the school auditorium by the Franklin Volunteer Fire Department members, Richard Nelson and Doug Hartman, and West Virginia State Police trooper, Derek Bailey.
After the introduction inside the school, students headed out to the parking lot where they witnessed local rescue personnel in action. Members of the FVFD, Upper Tract VFD, and Pendleton County Emergency Rescue demonstrated methods used to extricate victims from a crash car.
The crew also used various tools including the “jaws of life” to remove the doors, hood and dash of the vehicle and described various scenarios that can affect how rescue personnel react in different circumstances.
As the epidemic of distracted driving continues to spread, harsher penalties are being enforced for violators nationwide. Currently ten states, plus DC, prohibit drivers from texting. Awareness campaigns aimed at educating the public about the dangers of distracted driving are on the rise.
Bennett and Cook Crowned Prom King and Queen
On Saturday evening, April 23, Pendleton County High School held its annual junior/senior prom, “Vintage Hollywood.” Crowned king and queen were Isaac Bennett and Nichole Cook, both seniors.
Bennett is the son of Jimmie and Vicki Bennett of Riverton.
Cook is the daughter of Steve and Julie Cook of Brandywine.
FFA Receives Grant From CHS Foundation
The CHS Foundation recently awarded a $500 classroom grant to the Pendleton County FFA. Funds were used to make the chapter’s greenhouse more accessible for students who use wheelchairs.
The CHS Foundation is the major giving entity of CHS Inc., North America’s leading farmer-owned cooperative formed in 1998 with the merger of cooperatives Harvest State and Cenex.
“CHS and the CHS Foundation are proud to support ag teachers in developing leadership capacity in the next generation and helping young people find their purpose in agriculture,” stated William Nelson, president of CHS Foundation and vice president of CHS corporate citizenship.
With CHS’s funding the local FFA chapter was able to purchase a table which a wheelchair can fit under. With the help of Agri of Virginia, Inc., Broadway, VA, a lightweight table with a recess so the students could work comfortably was designed. Secondly, FFA members constructed a wheelchair accessible ramp for the greenhouse. These two projects helped make it easier for any handicapped students to be just another student.
40 Years Ago
Week of April 24, 1986
DAHMER
About Time to Take Those Shoes Off!!
About time to take those shoes off! This varied in different homes years ago. When the writer was a boy, mom was the one to decide if it was warm enough, so that the writer would not take a cold, to go barefoot. In the Granville Blizzard home May 1 was an expected date set for their children to go barefoot.
Going barefoot was not necessarily a luxury, but more a necessity to many homes. Even some women and children when going to church in the summertime, went barefooted until they came within sight of the church. They then cleaned at their feet and put on stockings and shoes, and when going home took them off. Why? They could not afford the luxury of wearing shoes except on special “dress” occasions.
A pleasant feeling of going barefoot was the ticklish spring grass on the soles of the feet and between the toes. Another pleasure was the wading of a stream on a hot summer day. Today, this would not be advisable because of the glass and other debris at the bottom of many streams.
A painful experience was a stubbed toe often bruised to the extent to loosen the toenail. Then, there were thorns, briars and the painful feeling of stepping on a chestnut burr. Then, later a fine sewing needle was used to perform the minor surgery along with the howls and yowls of a boy or girl.
In the writer’s youth, one would no more consider going to town barefoot than a woman would have considered going to church without a hat on her head. Today, many stores post signs which read, “No shirt, no shoes, no admittance.” Whether for better or worse, I will not judge. But, back when the writer’s grandmother was a girl, a woman that wore her dress above her shoe tops was considered a “brazen hussy.”
Truman Arbogast Celebrates 90 Years At Ramp Supper
Paul R. Arbogast, Circleville, honored his father, Truman Arbogast, Circleville, with an annual ramp supper in the Sinks. Mr. Arbogast was 90 years old March 10. The weather was bad, 13 inches of snow, windy and cold, but “Buzz” is very active, in good health and enjoyed his four-day stay in the mountains.
50 Years Ago
Week of April 29, 1976
Man Escapes Fiery Death by Jumping Out Second Floor Window
A Pendleton County man narrowly escaped a fiery death early Sunday morning by jumping from a second story window of his blazing residence.
James Gardner, 52, of the Entry Mountain community near Franklin, said he fell asleep on the sofa in his living room Saturday night and when he awoke sometime after midnight, flames were leaping at him from all sides.
Gardner, who was living alone in the eight-room frame residence, said he was cut off from the doors and windows of the room by the blazing inferno, and the only avenue of escape was a stairway leading to the second floor.
He said he ran to the stairway and pulled a knife from his pocket and cut a hole through a piece of cardboard which he had nailed across the stairway opening to keep the upstairs cold out of the room below and leaped the steps. Without a moment’s hesitation he leaped headfirst out of the window and landed on a glider setting under the window on the ground below.
The fall apparently stunned Gardner because the next thing he remembered was when he felt someone shaking him Sunday morning about 6:30 o’clock. He was lying in a fence corner about 35 yards south of where the house was located.
The Franklin Fire Department had been called to the fire about 2:45 a.m., but the roof was caving in when the firemen arrived and they were unable to save anything. The firemen were informed by neighbors that Gardner was in the house late Saturday night and they and members of the community were of the opinion that he had perished in the blaze. The firemen told residents of the community not to disturb anything until they had an opportunity to search through the ashes the next morning for his remains.
It was not until Gardner was found lying in the fence corner the next morning that anyone knew he was still living. Gardner said he did not know how he got from the house to the fence.
Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Gardner and Fire Chief Charlie Sites, who were present when Gardner was found, called the local rescue squad to check on the victim before moving him. Bruce Minor and Paul Mallow immediately responded to the call and checked him out. They found nothing seriously wrong with him so he was taken to a neighbor’s house for a bath and breakfast.
Gardner is living with neighbors until a school bus can be remodeled sufficiently to serve as his residence. Gardner, who is a handyman and does odd jobs for local residents, had no insurance on the residence and everything in it was destroyed. The cause of the fire had not been determined.
DAHMER
Before the days of vitamin pills and supermarkets, the first warm spring days brought people out of doors to gather the new shoots and leaves of plants known as spring greens. A few common ones that my mother used were polk weed, watercress, milkweed, wild lettuce, dandelion, etc. In the garden grew the rhubarb, asparagus, mustard and horseradish. It is necessary to know and recognize these different plants at an early stage of growth. The polk has a thick poisonous root. The water parsnip or water hemlock roots are very poisonous and are responsible for the death of livestock. The writer has seen several sheep die due to eating water parsnip roots.
The late John A. Pitsenbarger told a story of a son who persuaded his father to make his property to him. When they went to town to have the writing done, the old man rode the horse and the son walked. When they started to go home, the son said, “This horse is mine.” So the son rode and the old man had to walk.
10 Years Ago
Week of April 26, 1956
Trout Season Will Open Saturday With Many Fish And Almost As Many Fishermen
Pendleton County will be one of the most popular places in West Virginia come 5:33 a.m. Saturday morning when an estimated 100,000 fishermen will head for the state’s 200 trout streams.
Local conservation officers say that trout stocking in the county has been in progress many weeks, and that by Saturday approximately the same number of fish will have been placed in local streams as last year.
About ten percent of this year’s stocking program are two-year-olds ranging from 14 to 18 inches in size. The remainder are yearlings, which in the case of rainbows, measure from 10 to 12 inches.
It has been learned that about 60 percent of the trout stocked this year are rainbows. Twenty percent are brook trout, with yearlings measuring nine to 12 inches; and the remaining 20 percent are browns, seven to nine inches in size in the case of yearlings.
Trout streams in the county are in ideal condition for fishing as there has not been sufficient rain recently to muddy the water or raise its level too high for good fishing.
The trout season will continue from Saturday through midnight of October 12. The daily limit per fisherman is eight trout—with no limits on size—but only five of the eight may be taken from trout impoundments.
Approximately 100,000 trout are scheduled for stocking in state waters about two weeks after the fishing season opens.
Week of May 3, 1956
Pendleton Student Learns House Keeping In Wesleyan Home Economics Course
BUCKHANNON, (Special)—Three home economics majors and one department minor will spend 48 days this semester living in the West Virginia Wesleyan college home economics cottage, which is located near the campus on Barbour Street.
The seven-room, brick house has been used for over ten years by the home economics department for the purpose of giving students practical experience in all phases of house keeping.
According to the department instructor, Mrs. Esther McAllester, the four girls will assume, in rotation, four jobs—hostess, assistant hostess, host, and “Cinderella.” The girls will have three terms at each job, changing every four days.
Included in the house keeping problems will be the use of both small and large budgets, and the use of home prepared food and purchased foods.
The two-story house, which was constructed by West Virginia Wesleyan college, includes a laundry with both an automatic washer and dryer.
The students living in the house are Arline Franquiz, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Jose Franquiz, of Lightburn Street; Naomi Ruth Judy, of Circleville; and Martha Hamrick, of Burlington; all majors; and Pearl Yin, of Seoul, Korea, a home-ec minor.
There are 52 enrollments in the home economics department, according to Mrs. McAllester. Twenty-five are majors, including one boy, Frank Dengler, who intends to do work in dietetics. She also states that last semester two men were students in her home economics courses, and that men are encouraged to enroll in the classes.
