Buckhannon, West Virginia: The Perfect Birthplace

A community in the Allegheny foothills nurtured novelist Jayne Anne Phillips' talent for storytelling

  • By Jayne Anne Phillips
  • Photographs by Jeff Swensen
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Buckhannon West Virginia
A tractor with the West Virginia flag attached to the back makes it way down Main Street in Buckhannon, West Virginia. (Jeff Swensen)

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I grew up in the dense, verdant Appalachia of the ‘50s and ‘60s. For me, “hometown” refers to a small town, home to generations of family, a place whose history is interspersed with family stories and myths. Buckhannon was a town of 6,500 or so then, nestled in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains of north-central West Virginia.

I left for college, but went “home” for years to see my divorced parents, and then to visit their graves in the rolling cemetery that splays its green acreage on either side of the winding road where my father taught me to drive. I know now that I loved Buckhannon, that its long history and layers of stories made it the perfect birthplace for a writer. My mother had grown up there, as had most of her friends, and their mothers before them. People stayed in Buckhannon all their lives. Despite the sometimes doubtful economy, no one wanted to leave, or so it seemed to me as a child.

Buckhannon was beautiful, the county seat, home to West Virginia Wesleyan, a Methodist college whose football field on College Avenue served both the college and high-school teams. Main Street was thriving. Local people owned the stores and restaurants. We lived out on a rural road in a ranch-style brick house my father had built. Two local newspapers, The Buckhannon Record and The Republican Delta, were delivered weekdays, thrust into the round receptacle next to our mailbox at the end of the driveway. My father went to town early on Sundays to buy the Charleston Gazette at the Acme Bookstore on Main Street. The Acme smelled of sawdust and sold newspapers, magazines, school supplies and comic books. Comic books were Sunday treats. I think of my father, vital and healthy, younger than I am now, perusing the racks, choosing a 15-cent Superman or Archie for my brothers, Millie the Model or a Classics Illustrated for me. An addicted reader early on, I first read R. D. Blackmore’s Lorna Doone and George Eliot’s Silas Marner as comics, before finding the original versions in the library, where I’d replenish armloads of borrowed books under my mother’s watchful eye. She’d finished college, studying at night while her children slept, and taught first grade in the same school her children attended.

I looked out the windows of Academy Primary School and saw, across South Kanawha Street, the large house in which my mother had lived until she married my father. My mother had graduated from high school in 1943, and my father, nearly a generation earlier, in 1928, but he wasn’t a true native. Born in neighboring Randolph County, he was raised by three doting paternal aunts. Each took him into their families for a few years, and he’d moved to Buckhannon for high school, winning the elocution contest and giving a speech at graduation. This fact always amazed me. My father, masculine in bearing and gesture, was not a talker. Women in Buckhannon told stories, and men were defined by their jobs. He attended the local college for a semester, then went to work, building roads, learning construction. His first name was Russell; for years, he owned a concrete company: Russ Concrete. My brothers and I rode to school past bus shelters emblazoned with the name. We seemed to have lived in Buckhannon forever.

In a sense, we had. Both sides of the family had helped settle western Virginia when the land was still a territory. My mother traced her people back to a Revolutionary War Indian scout; a great-aunt had spoken of the “bad old days” of the Civil War. Her people had fought for the Union, but the Phillips men, a county south, were Confederates. The family donated the land for the Phillips Cemetery in the early 1870s, when the new state lay devastated in the wake of the war. Buckhannon families still told stories of those years. The past and the present were endlessly intermingled, and West Virginia history was an eighth-grade tradition. Every kid in town knew that English brothers John and Samuel Pringle had turned their backs on the English crown during the French and Indian War, deserting their posts at Fort Pitt in 1761 and traveling south on foot. They lived off the land for three years until they arrived at the mouth of what became the Buckhannon River, following it to find shelter in the vast cavity of a sycamore. The unmolested forests were full of gigantic trees 40 or 50 feet in circumference, and the 11-foot-deep cavity would have provided living space of about 100 square feet, the equivalent of a 10-by-10 room. The brothers survived the frigid winters on plentiful game, waiting out the war until they ran out of gunpowder. John Pringle traveled 200 miles for supplies and returned with news that amnesty was declared. The brothers moved to settlements farther south, but Samuel returned with a wife and other settlers whose names are common in Buckhannon today: Cutright, Jackson, Hughes.

Buckhannon adolescents still visit a third-generation descendant of the original sycamore on field trips. In 1964, my eighth-grade class drove to the meadow along Turkey Run Creek. The buses bounced and groaned, and we all lined up to walk into the tepee-size opening of what is still officially designated the Pringle Tree. I remember the loamy smell rising from the earth, damp, fertile and hidden. Somehow the version of the Pringle brothers’ story that we learned didn’t emphasize that they left a war to found a settlement in country so virgin and wild they had only to enter it to escape the bonds of military servitude. Wilderness was freedom.

The town was truly a rural paradise; even into the 1920s, some 2,000 farms, averaging 87 acres each, surrounded Buckhannon. Such small, nearly self-sufficient farms survived through the Depression and two world wars. Miners and farmers kept Main Street alive, and the town rituals, seasonal and dependable, provided a world. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone’s story was known. There were churches of every Protestant denomination and one Catholic parish. Parades were held on Veterans Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. A week in the middle of May is still devoted to the Strawberry Festival. The populace lines up on the main thoroughfare to watch hours of marching bands, homemade floats and home-crowned royalty. The year my cousin was queen, I was 6 and one of the girls in her court. We wore white organdy dresses and waved regally from the queen’s frothy float. The parade wound its way through town, slowly, for hours, as though populating a collective dream. Though the queen wore her tiara all summer, the town’s everyday royalty were its doctors and dentists, the professors at the college, and the football coaches who’d taken the high-school team to the state championships three times in a decade. Doctors, especially respected and revered, made house calls.

The long dark hallway to our doctor’s office on Main Street led steeply upstairs and the black rubber treads on the steps absorbed all sound. Even the kids called him Jake. He was tall and bald and sardonic, and he could produce dimes from behind the necks and ears of his young patients, unfurling his closed hand to reveal the sparkle of the coin. The waiting room was always full and the office smelled strongly of rubbing alcohol. The walls were hung with framed collages of the hundreds of babies he’d delivered. My mother insisted on flu shots every year, and we kids dreaded them, but Jake was a master of distraction, bantering and performing while the nurse prepared slender hypodermics. After our shots, we picked cellophane-wrapped suckers from the candy jar, sauntered into the dim stairwell and floated straight down. The rectangular transom above the door to the street shone a dazzling white light. Out there, the three traffic lights on Main Street were changing with little clicks. We’d drive the two miles or so home, past the fairgrounds and fields, in my mother’s two-tone Mercury sedan. The car was aqua and white, big and flat as a boat. My father would be cooking fried potatoes in the kitchen, “starting supper,” the only domestic chore he ever performed. I knew he’d learned to peel potatoes in the Army, cutting their peels in one continuous spiral motion.


I grew up in the dense, verdant Appalachia of the ‘50s and ‘60s. For me, “hometown” refers to a small town, home to generations of family, a place whose history is interspersed with family stories and myths. Buckhannon was a town of 6,500 or so then, nestled in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains of north-central West Virginia.

I left for college, but went “home” for years to see my divorced parents, and then to visit their graves in the rolling cemetery that splays its green acreage on either side of the winding road where my father taught me to drive. I know now that I loved Buckhannon, that its long history and layers of stories made it the perfect birthplace for a writer. My mother had grown up there, as had most of her friends, and their mothers before them. People stayed in Buckhannon all their lives. Despite the sometimes doubtful economy, no one wanted to leave, or so it seemed to me as a child.

Buckhannon was beautiful, the county seat, home to West Virginia Wesleyan, a Methodist college whose football field on College Avenue served both the college and high-school teams. Main Street was thriving. Local people owned the stores and restaurants. We lived out on a rural road in a ranch-style brick house my father had built. Two local newspapers, The Buckhannon Record and The Republican Delta, were delivered weekdays, thrust into the round receptacle next to our mailbox at the end of the driveway. My father went to town early on Sundays to buy the Charleston Gazette at the Acme Bookstore on Main Street. The Acme smelled of sawdust and sold newspapers, magazines, school supplies and comic books. Comic books were Sunday treats. I think of my father, vital and healthy, younger than I am now, perusing the racks, choosing a 15-cent Superman or Archie for my brothers, Millie the Model or a Classics Illustrated for me. An addicted reader early on, I first read R. D. Blackmore’s Lorna Doone and George Eliot’s Silas Marner as comics, before finding the original versions in the library, where I’d replenish armloads of borrowed books under my mother’s watchful eye. She’d finished college, studying at night while her children slept, and taught first grade in the same school her children attended.

I looked out the windows of Academy Primary School and saw, across South Kanawha Street, the large house in which my mother had lived until she married my father. My mother had graduated from high school in 1943, and my father, nearly a generation earlier, in 1928, but he wasn’t a true native. Born in neighboring Randolph County, he was raised by three doting paternal aunts. Each took him into their families for a few years, and he’d moved to Buckhannon for high school, winning the elocution contest and giving a speech at graduation. This fact always amazed me. My father, masculine in bearing and gesture, was not a talker. Women in Buckhannon told stories, and men were defined by their jobs. He attended the local college for a semester, then went to work, building roads, learning construction. His first name was Russell; for years, he owned a concrete company: Russ Concrete. My brothers and I rode to school past bus shelters emblazoned with the name. We seemed to have lived in Buckhannon forever.

In a sense, we had. Both sides of the family had helped settle western Virginia when the land was still a territory. My mother traced her people back to a Revolutionary War Indian scout; a great-aunt had spoken of the “bad old days” of the Civil War. Her people had fought for the Union, but the Phillips men, a county south, were Confederates. The family donated the land for the Phillips Cemetery in the early 1870s, when the new state lay devastated in the wake of the war. Buckhannon families still told stories of those years. The past and the present were endlessly intermingled, and West Virginia history was an eighth-grade tradition. Every kid in town knew that English brothers John and Samuel Pringle had turned their backs on the English crown during the French and Indian War, deserting their posts at Fort Pitt in 1761 and traveling south on foot. They lived off the land for three years until they arrived at the mouth of what became the Buckhannon River, following it to find shelter in the vast cavity of a sycamore. The unmolested forests were full of gigantic trees 40 or 50 feet in circumference, and the 11-foot-deep cavity would have provided living space of about 100 square feet, the equivalent of a 10-by-10 room. The brothers survived the frigid winters on plentiful game, waiting out the war until they ran out of gunpowder. John Pringle traveled 200 miles for supplies and returned with news that amnesty was declared. The brothers moved to settlements farther south, but Samuel returned with a wife and other settlers whose names are common in Buckhannon today: Cutright, Jackson, Hughes.

Buckhannon adolescents still visit a third-generation descendant of the original sycamore on field trips. In 1964, my eighth-grade class drove to the meadow along Turkey Run Creek. The buses bounced and groaned, and we all lined up to walk into the tepee-size opening of what is still officially designated the Pringle Tree. I remember the loamy smell rising from the earth, damp, fertile and hidden. Somehow the version of the Pringle brothers’ story that we learned didn’t emphasize that they left a war to found a settlement in country so virgin and wild they had only to enter it to escape the bonds of military servitude. Wilderness was freedom.

The town was truly a rural paradise; even into the 1920s, some 2,000 farms, averaging 87 acres each, surrounded Buckhannon. Such small, nearly self-sufficient farms survived through the Depression and two world wars. Miners and farmers kept Main Street alive, and the town rituals, seasonal and dependable, provided a world. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone’s story was known. There were churches of every Protestant denomination and one Catholic parish. Parades were held on Veterans Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. A week in the middle of May is still devoted to the Strawberry Festival. The populace lines up on the main thoroughfare to watch hours of marching bands, homemade floats and home-crowned royalty. The year my cousin was queen, I was 6 and one of the girls in her court. We wore white organdy dresses and waved regally from the queen’s frothy float. The parade wound its way through town, slowly, for hours, as though populating a collective dream. Though the queen wore her tiara all summer, the town’s everyday royalty were its doctors and dentists, the professors at the college, and the football coaches who’d taken the high-school team to the state championships three times in a decade. Doctors, especially respected and revered, made house calls.

The long dark hallway to our doctor’s office on Main Street led steeply upstairs and the black rubber treads on the steps absorbed all sound. Even the kids called him Jake. He was tall and bald and sardonic, and he could produce dimes from behind the necks and ears of his young patients, unfurling his closed hand to reveal the sparkle of the coin. The waiting room was always full and the office smelled strongly of rubbing alcohol. The walls were hung with framed collages of the hundreds of babies he’d delivered. My mother insisted on flu shots every year, and we kids dreaded them, but Jake was a master of distraction, bantering and performing while the nurse prepared slender hypodermics. After our shots, we picked cellophane-wrapped suckers from the candy jar, sauntered into the dim stairwell and floated straight down. The rectangular transom above the door to the street shone a dazzling white light. Out there, the three traffic lights on Main Street were changing with little clicks. We’d drive the two miles or so home, past the fairgrounds and fields, in my mother’s two-tone Mercury sedan. The car was aqua and white, big and flat as a boat. My father would be cooking fried potatoes in the kitchen, “starting supper,” the only domestic chore he ever performed. I knew he’d learned to peel potatoes in the Army, cutting their peels in one continuous spiral motion.

My dad, who was past 30 when he enlisted, served as an Army engineer and built airstrips in New Guinea throughout World War II, foreman to crews of G.I.’s and Papuan natives. He came back to Buckhannon after the war and met my mother at a Veterans of Foreign Wars dance in 1948. During the war she’d trained as a nurse in Washington, D.C. The big city was exciting, she told me, but the food was so bad all the girls took up smoking to cut their appetites. A family illness forced her return; she came home to nurse her mother. My grandmother was still well enough that my mother went out Saturday nights; she wore red lipstick and her dark hair in a chignon. My father looked at her across the dance floor of the VFW hall and told a friend, “I’m going to marry that girl.” He was 38; she, 23. He was handsome, a man about town; he had a job and a car, and his family owned a local hospital. They married three weeks later. In the winter of ‘53, when my mother had three young children under the age of 5, Dr. Jake made a house call. She was undernourished, he told her. Though she’d quit during her pregnancies, she was smoking again and down to 100 pounds. She told me how Jake sat beside her bed, his black medical bag on the floor. “Now,” he said, lighting two cigarettes, “we’re going to smoke this last one together.”

Hometowns are full of stories and memories rinsed with color. The dome of the courthouse in Buckhannon glowed gold, and Kanawha Hill was lined with tall trees whose dense, leafy branches met over the street. The branches lifted as cars passed, dappling sunlight or showering snow. Open fields bordered our house. Tasseled corn filled them in summer, and thick stalks of Queen Anne’s lace broke like fuzzy limbs. Cows grazing the high-banked meadow across the road gazed over at us placidly. They sometimes spooked and took off like clumsy girls, rolling their eyes and lolloping out of sight. Telephone numbers were three digits; ours was 788. The fields are gone now, but the number stays in my mind. Towns change; they grow or diminish, but hometowns remain as we left them. Later, they appear, brilliant with sounds and smells, intense, suspended images moving in time. We close our eyes and make them real.

Jayne Anne Phillips was a 2009 National Book Award finalist in fiction for her latest novel, Lark and Termite.


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Comments (96)

Jayne, that is a beautiful discription of life growing up in Buckhannon. I lived on Hickory Flat and went to the one room school house just one house up from where we lived with my grandparents, Rev. Lee and Alice Westfall. We moved to Tennerton in 1940. I have traveled throughout the U.S., all States except three, and, I have not found anyplace like Buckhannon. To me, Buckhannon is one of a kind. I like to go back there as often as we can and to Audry and Hollyriver State Park. I often retrace my growing up years there because the place and people relationships were so awsome. As I remember it though, us kids worked and sometimes played. We had assigned chores, and mine began with a 4 o'clock wake up to head for the barn with my father to milk 35 cows. Those years were so so good and will remain as such in my memory forever.

Posted by James (Calvin} Westfall on December 2,2012 | 07:49 PM

I myself was born and raised in buckhannon, born august 27, 1961, have always loved my home town, always has been and always will be a beautiful place to live and raise family.

Posted by james allen kahlbaugh on December 9,2011 | 09:11 PM

I am doing some research on the Upshur County Poor Farm/Lewis home. I noticed it mentioned and would like to elicit any further information anyone may have on its history. A photo would be a wonderful addition to my research.
Contact me at:
adams.laura.l11@gmail.com

Posted by Laura on October 16,2011 | 02:09 PM

I grew up in Upshur County (Buckhannon - county seat) during the 1970s, close to the area which was my father's home. But I remember his stories of town and my visits to Buckhannon outside the school setting. As I read Jayne's article, I started replacing the current real estate with that from her description and could feel the warm feeling with which Dad had described receiving from the people and the town - also the same warm feeling I felt from my visits.

Jayne, thanks for a trip to a time before me.

Posted by Crystal LoudinJones on October 2,2010 | 12:00 PM

Oh the memories. I did not grew up in Buckhannon unless you count the month we spent every year at my grandparents home, the old poor farm where 8 Lewis girls were raised. My mom was the youngest Nina Lewis. She went to a one room school then onto BUHS and worked in the dairy store where she met my dad Robert Gainor of Elkins who was attending WVWC. Our memories were the same as your great article. We still have our family reunions every few years at my cousin camp near the boy scout camp. Baisden cousin still live there with a few in Texas. One year all the cousins that were in town we took over the movie theatre all night watching Edgar Allan Poe movies.. Even cousin Karen Viola from Philadelphia who must have only been 7. The best chilly hotdog ever at Pat's because it was close and then on to tennerton when the older cousin would take us to the pool hall.. I saw Dale Brooks message, my grandparents bought his place in the legget edition when he left town. I bought my first peace of jewelry from Shaffer in 1964 from babysitting money. We older we hung out at the Hinkle pool and party. I learned to swim in WVWC pool while my aunt was working at the their. I must share this article with my other cousins. My dad family is the Heavner family. thanks so much Jayne

Posted by Kathryn Gainor Ventura on September 6,2010 | 02:49 AM

I was born in Buckhannon, and like my Father, have many fond memories of the town and the people. My Dad loved the internet. His comments on this article were some of the only ones I know that he wrote, and so I felt I must share this story to show the power of our words…and why we should always express ourselves when we can.

Dad recently became seriously ill, and passed away on 8/13. Coincidentally the 1st day of his 55th Class Reunion. We tried hard to get him better so he could attend.

Cards and phone calls from his Classmates, both from that year and others during his illness were appreciated. Your words offered comfort, but mostly confirmed insight into the man we knew our Dad was.

One of his classmates who joined him in the Navy in 1955, (Don, Denzil or Earl) was reunited with another friend, because of Dad’s comments on this article. When I read the card I couldn’t believe it!

Buckhannon may be a small dot on the map to a lot of people, but the people that come from and stay in it are powerful. I count myself proudly as one of those. I know my Dad was one too!

Posted by Missi Pappas Powell on September 2,2010 | 04:05 PM

This all takes me back to my memories of growing up in Buckhannon. Was born in Grafton,W.Va. 1927 but came to Buckhannon when I was 3 years old and the depression to live with my Mother& Father. We moved in with my Grandmaother, Grandpa, also my Aunt& 2 Uncles. My Grandma Had a very large house and we were the last house on Boggess St. and not even a sidewalk and still no sidewalk. We had 6 acres of land and still right there on the lower part of Mt. Hibbs. Went to all the schools from the Academy right down the street to the old High school and then the beautiful Wesleyan but only for 1 year and also worked for Dr.Farnsworth as his dental assistant. So many memories but too much to write at this time. Everyone knew all their neighbors back then and always willing to help one another and believe it is still that way.

Posted by C. Jane Martin Cantler on August 20,2010 | 10:51 AM

It was a complete accident that I found this wonderful article by Ms.Jayne Anne. I have read your books and poetry and have lived in many places in my life.... but "there's no place like home." I'll be 70 this coming September, seems like only 60 years ago Oh it was), I and my childhood friends were doing all the same things you wrote about. I have said many times in my life that my name should have been Richie Cunningham, simply because growing up in Buckhannon in my era, the 50's, was certainly Happy Days.
I recognize many of you folks that commented on here as I was raised by my Grandparents on my mothers side, DL & Stella Mae Haymond. Across the street from Babe Lewis' store on South Florida St. Now the RolStar. Our class of 1958 was the last in the old High School. This article refreshed my thoughts of my hometown and my happy days. Thank you and I need more books by you Jayne Anne. By the way I had to give a black Lab away do to health, the lucky ones were Roger & Betty Phillips both from Buckhannon, now in Clarksburg!

Posted by Darrell Lantz on May 18,2010 | 04:54 PM

What a terrific journey down memory lane! My mother's family (McCauley) lived in Buckhannon in the early 1900's; she was born there. Her family later moved to Rock Cave. My cousin, Ural Kellison, still lives there. Most every weekend, we journeyed from our home in Clarksburg through Buckhannon enroute to Rock Cave. We often detoured to visit their friends the Johnsons, who owned a furntiure store on Main Street in those days. Their son, French Earl, was near my age, and we often played together. (Wonder where he is now?) And of those annual trips to the Strawberry Festival, and the family reunions at the fairgrounds. Thanks for capturing and conveying such fond memories for so many readers about a jewel of an Amrican town.

Posted by John W Murphy on April 3,2010 | 06:25 PM

Hi,
I am interested in what year that picture was taken. I can't tell by looking at the cars. What a lovely nostalgic story. The girl in the picture looks like my identical twin sister and I am very curious if my mom gave away my twin for adoption. I had a prom dress just like that also.
Sincerely,
Kathy Bourinot

Posted by Kathleen Bourinot on February 11,2010 | 05:53 PM

Thank you Jayne Anne how wonderful to walk down memory lane by reading your article about Buckhannon. I was born at St. Joseph's hospital on August 28, 1969, the fourth of seven kids to Don and Margaret Bailey. I remember as well going to East Main Street school as well as graduating from High School in 1987 and loving the town and all the people. I had and still have some wonderful friends and still come back to the town as often as possible bringing my 3 kids who love coming to the Strawberry Festival! They got to ride on a float 2 years ago and I was so proud to see them and cousins on the float waving to the people of my hometown Buckhannon. I was in the Band with Mr Kennedy and loved my experience and marching in the parades and band camp. Dr Almond delivered me and it was great to see a comment by his son Greenbriar, my mom still talks about Dr Almond and I bought a book the last time I was there about Dr. Almond and I love the book! I live with my husband and family in Delaware now but really miss Buckhannon and living on King School Road and going for the walks and picking strawberries on the side of the road. I remember going to Pringle tree as well and still have a lot of family still in WV. I remember our neighbors the Oldakers, Hinkles, & Roy Warner. My Grandmother lived in Buckhannon as well and loved taking us to the Baxa Hotel with Sammy to spend the night, the small things meant a lot back then, thank you again for the walk down memory lane loved it!

Posted by Billie Dawn (Bailey) Cain on February 9,2010 | 10:31 AM

I was born at St. Joseph, the fifth child of seven to Don and Margaret Bailey.
I remember going to East Main Street school. I have very fond memories of good friends that I started school with and also graduated together. On the weekends we loved going to Skateland and going to town for suppies. As I grow older I joined the band and which changed my life. In 9th grade at BUHS I had Mr. Kennedy as a band teacher. My older sisters Ann and Billie Dawn had told many stories about band camp and running laps when they made a mistake. I was a little scared my first year but, I will never forget the fun and memories we made together. Don't get me wrong we also had lots of work to do for Mr. Kennedy. After graduation we moved to Delaware where I met my husband Ted. We now have three perfect little girls that I enjoy taking back to the Strawberry festival in May. Thank you for writing this article and helping me walk down memory lane.

Posted by Peggy Wiley (Bailey) on February 9,2010 | 08:47 AM

Jayne Anne, thanks for sharing your story. I was born at St. Joseph in Buckhannon in 1966. Dr. Almond delivered me, a name I am sure many will remember. The little brick building just up from the Kanawha theater was his place of practice for years. I have a flood of memories to tell. Some already mentioned, others not. I remember a teacher named Phillips. I struggled in the beginning and switched teachers a lot but recall a Ms Thorn as my teacher. I am from the Tenney family. Well known in Upshur county. My grandparents operated the Kanawha theater for years however were not the owners. My mother was born there and will die there. My father was from Washington DC. Came to Buckhannon and NEVER left. He is buried there today. We were not "city" people and I recall many Saturday mornings "going to town" with my grandfather because that is what everyone did. On Saturday mornings Main street would be lined with people under the awnings just talking! Buckhannon will always be home whether I ever live there again or not. I was just there about a week ago visiting Mom and Sis. Buckhannon, WV is a special place in the hearts of many! I am glad and proud to say that I am one of them. I wish Buckhannon supported a larger employment base. May GOD bless the wonderful people of Buckhannon..past, present, and future. Jeff

Posted by Jeff Andrus on January 27,2010 | 02:08 AM

I as born in Buckhannon on Sept 5th 1934. My family left in Sept of 1940 to move to Ohio. I can still remember walking to school the week before we moved. Walking across the bridge by the feed mill. Looking out the window at the barn on the side of John Post hill. Walking to the cemetery an across the iron bridge to my Grand Fathers House. Those are things I will never forget. I still love to go back and ride my motorcycle around the area. Just walking down the main street & getting an ice cream. I have traveled to England, France, California & a lot of places in between but none can compair with Buckhannon. It truly is Home Town U.S.A. For God & Country.

Posted by James E. Lane on January 27,2010 | 02:56 PM

This article made me miss home so much. My family's not from WV orginially, but we moved to French Creek when I was 6. I have so many fond memories of Buckhannon and Upshur County. We're orginially from New Jersey, and I moved back to Jersey after graduating from B-UHS in 2002, and as a previous comment stated, people here have no idea where West Virginia is. They still ask me where in Virginia I lived...

I like where I live now, but miss Upshur County like crazy. The swimmin' hole at Selbyville, Skateland, the caves at Indian Camp, hanging out at Sheetz because, where else? Haha.. I could go on and on.

My friend said this recently, and it's so true... "When we were young, we thought Buckhannon would never be good enough. Now, all we do is want to go back HOME."

Posted by Robert Sargent on January 23,2010 | 09:03 PM

I really enjoyed your article about Buckhannon. It brought back a flood of memories. My first grade teacher at Academy in the early '60s was the other Mrs. Phillips. I love going back occasionally and walking down South Florida Street past the houses with blooming rhododendron bushes in their yards. What memories of the people and places. I always remember going with my brother and sister to the Spudnut Shop in Tennerton and the driveway on Elkins Road.

Thanks,
Pam Hinkle
Lansing, MI

Posted by Pam Hinkle on January 14,2010 | 04:26 PM

Jayne, thank you for putting our hometown in the spotlight. I have only happy memories of growing up in Buckhannon. I was born in St. Joseph's Hospital; Dr. Page was our family doctor at that time. Later "Doctor Jake" was our physician. I greatly admired both men. I attended the Academy Grade School and remember Dorothy Cade Aylstock who was my first grade teacher. I also recall with pleasure Genevieve Sexton, Katie Steurer, Edith Hall, Mary Rinard, Glen Ours, Gerald Hinkle, and Paul Mearns. At BUHS (Class of 1956) I recall with pleasure Eunice Kyle, Mary Alice Thurman, Elizabeth Curry, Flo Thornhill, Inez Manser, "Spinner" Hoover, Marcia-Mae Glauner, Frank Feola, Gay Iden, and Mary Boylen. I graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1960 with a degree in English and taught two years in the junior high school on College Avenue. Since 1962, I have lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolia. Growing up in Buckhannon, West Virginia is one of the real joys of my life. I was a member of the First Methodist Church where Dr. Ross Linger was my first minister, and I was a member of the Order of the Rainbow for Girls. My parents. Harold and Frona Abbott, were both born in Upshur County. My cousin, Cathy Foster Frye still lives there on Kanawha Street. There is one current resident of Buckhannon who has been my life-long friend, Katherine Reemsnyder. As you can tell, your article has brought back many memories!

THANKS!!

Rosalie Abbott Olsen (Mrs. Bill Olsen, Jr.)

Posted by Rosalie Abbott Olsen on January 13,2010 | 10:44 PM

OH JAYNE ANNE, THE MEMORIES THIS ARTICLE EVOKED....MY MOTHER ANNA LEE COMBS USED TO MAKE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DRESSES FOR YOU WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, YOUR MOTHER WAS SOO PROUD. I TOO REMEMBER GIRL SCOUT CAMP IN THE CITY PARK, WALKING HOME AFTER DARK FROM A FRIENDS HOUSE WITH OUT A CARE IN THE WORLD, WEST'S SWIMMING POOL. THE COLONIAL THEATER WITH A BALCONY, AND THE KANAWHA THEATER THAT WAS FILLED TO THE BRIM ON SAT. AFERNOON'S WHERE 25 CENTS WOULD GET YOU INTO THE MOVIE AND A BOX OF POPCORN OR 2 CANDY BARS!WHAT A WONDERFUL LITTLE PIECE OF AMERICANA WE WERE PRIVILGED TO HAVE GROWN UP IN AND YES INDEED WAS THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE!.........LOVED THE PICTURE IN THE ARTICLE.THANKS AGAIN......SUZI COMBS TALBOTT

Posted by SUZI COMBS TALBOTT on January 10,2010 | 10:42 PM

What a great way to spend a very cool evening in what is supposed to be warm and sunny Florida. I lived 5 miles "up river" from Buckhannon until my marriage in 1954. We continue to spend a couple of months in Hacker Valley, Webster County, and, yes, we still do our shopping in Buckhannon. A truly enchanted small town. Will be saying hello to my classmates in August this year, ie. class of '53 at good ole BUHS.

Thanks for all the memories.

Posted by Wilda Snyder Lunceford on January 10,2010 | 04:51 PM

I was born in Buckhannon on December 14, 1925 on Flordia Avenue in a home owned by my maternal grandfather. My mother was Wilma Winnie Westfall, and my father was William Laco Wilfong. My materal grandparents were Ira Burton Westfall, and Catherine Lowe. My paternal grandparents were William Martin Wilfong, and Edna Thomason. My father came to Akron, Ohio in 1929 to work for the B. F. Goodrich Company, and we moved here a little later in 1929. I still live here in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. During the 1930s and 1940s I use to say our family car only knew one place out of town, and that was Buckhannon. My father returned to Buckhannon, and had a business there on Main Street, died there and is buried in the Heavener Cemetary. Since so many of my family are dead, and there are very few relatives in Buckhannon, I don't go back as much as I did for many years. I TOO HAVE MANY MEMORIES OF BUCKHANNON, AND ALL OF THEM ARE GREAT ONES THAT I RECALL QUITE OFTEN IN MY OLD AGE.

Posted by William B. Wilfong on January 10,2010 | 04:18 PM

I just want to thank my sister, Jayne Anne for this great article about Buckhannon. It really brings back great memories of a wonderful place to have grown up. All the while I was roaming the fields and woods near our home on brushy fork road , Jayne Anne was inside compiling pages and pages of our lives as kids. Buckhannon was the kind of place where locking doors was not an issue. I too had chills after reading this. Love you Jayne Anne, David.

Posted by Dave Phillips on January 8,2010 | 07:35 PM

In 1957, as I was packing my suitcase and trunk, I never gave it a thought that I was about to embark on an adventure in West Virginia. I had never set foot in this state and all I really knew about it was from what I read in the West Virginia Wesleyan College Catalogue .
From September to May I ventured into the town on a daily basis and found that the people of this town were genuine, concerned people who were interested in me as an individual and student. If you ate in the dormitory on Sunday it was because you did not go to church and receive an invitation from a family to join them in their home for a home cooked meal.
Local citizens rented rooms to college students and visitors who came to town for the state basketball tournament, the Annual Coference of the Methodist Church and other events. My landlords treated me royally. One, Mrs. Herndon let me "borrow" her daughter for over 48 years now.
There were many good doctors in town, Dr. "Jake" Huffman was known by all for his medical expertise and his genine love and appreciation for people. In 1968 "Jake" delivered our youngest daughter. Unheard of then was a father being allowed in the delivery room but "Jake" threw some scrubs at me and said, "Let's go," much to the dismay of the nuns at St. Joseph's. Dr. "Jake" was an icon whose medical expetise was further enhanced by his wonderful bedside manners, his concern for humanity and his sense of humor.
At the end of my freshman year my Mother and Father decided to come and pick me up so they could see this fascinating town. While walking down Main Street with them many people spoke to me and my Father inquired as to who all of these people were. My Father asked, "Do you know everyone in this town?"
My experience in Buckhannon let to my two younger brothers attending and graduating from W.V.W.C. All three of us are married to Wesleyan graduates.
Thanks Jayne Anne for your tribute to Buckhannon and the people who live there. It is a super place.

Posted by John H. "Jack" Hodge on January 8,2010 | 07:04 PM

Here in our pleasant 24-house enclave a few miles away from Times Square there are 3 homes of persons who are "from" West Virginia. Within 2 miles there are 3 more who are "from" West Virgina. Three of us are "from" Buckhannon where we were born and graduated from BUHS, like our brother who stayed in WV.We are the 4 offspring of Dayle P. and Merle Burr Douglas. Our father was Upshur County Sheriff so for a time 3 of us lived in the red-brick jailhouse, rollerskated in the courthouse basement,played with the prisoners in the fenced-in yard,and generally were Mayberry kids before there was a Mayberry.The 4th came later and she managed to have her own secret charge account at the bakery close to school and was never hungry at dinnertime.So,yes great town to grow up in,be safe in and get to know so many different Buckhannon and Upshur families and lives and histories. And thank you, Jayne Anne Phillips, for writing about many of them. And for creating such memories of the town we would all love to return to if only we could. Perhaps if we went to Wal-Mart, found a madeleine and sat at the book store cafe we could summon remembrances of things past and use them to re-create the safety and trust and community we shared and still want. See you at BAM where there will be numerous "from" West Virginians;loyal bunch we are.

Posted by Rita Karen Douglas on January 7,2010 | 11:52 PM

Jayne Anne,
I just read your article last night and could relate to many of the details of the wonderful place I used to visit every summer as a child growing up in the 50's. Both my parents grew up in Buckhannon, graduated from BU High School (Dad-class of '32 and Mom-class of '35), WV Wesleyan (class of '36 and '39) and were married there in the summer '39. While they lived in Danville, VA continuously after that, not a summer went by that we didn't visit my grandmother (corner of College Ave and Florida St) in Buckhannon every summer. I have so many fond memories of the place (ACME book store and the "tea" store (that's what my grandmother called the A&P) downtown, the movie theatre just off Kanawa St, nearby Audra State Park on the Buckhannon River) and the friends that I made there. It was like a 2nd home town to me and I carry that with me even after 60 years. My parents are gone now and many of my family in Buckhannon, too. However, it is still the only place I have encountered that has a hotel with my last name on it (was founded years ago by a cousin of my father).

Many many thanks for your fine piece on this great little town!

Posted by David Bryant Baxa on January 7,2010 | 05:22 PM

My dad was a pharmacist at Thompson's Pharmacy in Buckhannon, Dr. Jake delivered my little brother (whose birthday is today), and we lived above Curry Chevrolet in the apartments. Nettie Reger lived across the street from us; she had a flamingo in the middle of her fishpond and I wanted to see if so I waded right in. I ended up being scrubbed in a washtub in the laundry room of the apartments. It's been 50+ years but it is still clear in my mind. I still have a baby dress that Jayne Ann's mom smocked for me. No daughters but maybe someday granddaughters. And if I smell coal smoke anywhere, it takes me back instantly to walking to the library with my parents in the evenings in the wintertime. I am going to print this out for my mom, who has Alzheimer's. She may find things she remembers too!

Thanks so much, Jayne Ann.

Deb (Tuttle) Yorgensen

Posted by deb yorgensen on January 7,2010 | 01:39 PM

I too was borned and raised in Buckhannon and have some of the same fond memories that you wrote of.I still live here and probably always will. Buckhannon is changing some good some bad but it is still home. It is always good to see and talk to friends old and new. Buckhannon is struggling in these hard economic times but we have always seemed to survive and we always pray that we will again. So many stores from our past are now gone and replaced by the new but always we can go to our memories of past times and those were the good times.Jayne just know how much it meant that you would write of those days from our childhood. Thank you.

Posted by Anita DeLaHunt on January 6,2010 | 09:59 AM

Jayne Ann,
Thank you for your story and bringing back so many wonderful memories. As many of the comments have already stated we those of us who grew up in or around Buckhannon and had our lives molded by those we grew up with (Coach and Principle Feola, Coach Zopp, so many great teachers, etc.). A lot of us have moved away but we took and still hold the ethics we were taught in Buckhannon. Thank you Jayne and all whose comments mean so much.

Posted by David Koon on January 5,2010 | 01:41 PM

For those that know Buckhannon, this article certainly brings back memories of the community itself and of a less complicated and slower type of existence. Buckhannon still offers a little slower pace and many people that are just down to earth good folks. I spent time their from 1977 through 1982 and am proud to call WVWC my alma mater. Thanks

Posted by Bob Boyles on January 5,2010 | 09:32 AM

Jayne Anne

Thanks for letting the world feel the specialness of our home among the hills. Just today in the midst of a snowy winter blast Guy Davidson called from Kanawha Head to recall 51 years ago a special house call that I made as a 11 year old lad with my father, Doc Almond; with Charlie Beer, his shot gun riding side kick and with Ol' Friendly, our Fire Chief and local Dodge, Plymouth, Crysler car dealer.
Guy manned the State Road snow plow that moved the drifting snow from our path. We went 30 miles up the Buckhannon River valley to Selbyville to examine a child with meningitis. Dad determined the child needed hospitalized. The snow had blown over the road banks so we were plowed back out getting back to Buckhannon in the early morning. The child's life was save.
Such is the stuff that makes Buckhannon a wonderful place.
I'm truly blessed to still call Buckhannon home.

Greenbrier

Posted by Greenbrier Almond MD on January 4,2010 | 10:08 PM

Jayne Anne - thanks for your wonderful article on Buckhannon. I am not a native (I arrived at agae 17), but my families on both sides are Upshur Countians. We now count four generations that have graduated from UCHS/BUHS. I remember the old citizens of the town and the "big three" at Wesleyan - Glauner, Brown, and Chrisman.
To have such a wonderful home town as Buckhannon, and now that my daughters and grandchildren also call Buckhannon home is such a delight.
Again, thanks for your wonderful reminder of Buckhannon, and times gone past.

Posted by Ruthine (Taylor) Gee on January 4,2010 | 09:39 PM

Hi Jayne,
I just purchased tickets to see you at BAM on May 6th. In the meantime I'll read Termite and Lark. My dad was Joe Marino. He and his brothers, Charlie & Tony, bought the concrete plant from your dad, Russ. If Machine Dreams was autobiographical, maybe that wasn't such a great memory though.

I grew up in Harrison County but spent plenty of time in Buckhannon with my cousins who did live there. We went to Hinkle's pool, the playground at the Academy Grade School, the Rainbow Restaurant, the dime store, the youth dances at St. Josephs church hall, and the Strawberry Festival Parade.

I still go back there to visit my aunts and cousins. I hope I get to have a few words with you on May 6th. Best, Mary Marino

Posted by Mary Marino on January 4,2010 | 04:51 PM

Jayne Anne…

I have called Buckhannon “home” for fifty-four years. I grew up mostly in rural Upshur County, going “to town” for groceries, baseball and school. My transient family lived in Buckhannon proper only during my fourth and fifth grade years in the mid ‘60’s. My wife, Rose Ellen, recalls your mother as one of the kindest women she ever knew and one of her favorite teachers (of equal stature with Velma Iden!). I, too, was delivered by Dr. Jake, as was our older son, Jonathan. We both graduated from Wesleyan, as did our son, Adam. We raised our children in Buckhannon, and never left.

Your writing struck an especially resounding chord with me, probably because I have spent the past two years recording my own memories, many of which we share. The article has made its electronic rounds, passed from desktop to laptop to I-phone by those who have lived and loved here. It is especially heartwarming to enjoy the comments and memories you have inspired - further evidence of the interminable bond to home.

Thanks for painting such a thoughtful and beautiful picture!

Chuck Loudin

Posted by Chuck Loudin on January 4,2010 | 01:37 PM

WOW, WHAT WONDERFUL INFO AND I ONLY WISH MY HUSBAND WERE ALIVE TO READ AND ENJOY IT. HE PASSED JAN. 09, 2009 AND WAS THE YOUNGEST OF THE 10 KOON CHILDREN BORN TO ELSIE AND JESS KOON OF QUEENS. THANKS FOR SO INFORMATIVE STORY.

Posted by Betty Kramer Koon on January 4,2010 | 01:29 PM

Great article, Jayne. Still living in the area and still loving it. BUHS class of '69. I remember Friday nights when the stores stayed open late - we'd load into our muscle cars, hit our favorite eatery (remember the Stardust?), then off to cruise Main Street to see and be seen. I remember you and celebrate your successes, along with anyone else who's left our fair town to make it big somewhere else. Just know that you (any of you) will be most welcome additions, if you should ever decide to return. May God richly bless you.

Posted by Charlene Queen Tenney on January 4,2010 | 11:26 AM

Well, it certainly looks like Jayne Anne hit a common note, here. I know and grew up with many of the commenters, and also rode the bus with Jayne Anne and Jud (and my sister whose comment has not yet shown up).
As I grow older, I more fully recognize and appreciate the special place where I grew up.

Posted by Thomas Beer on January 3,2010 | 06:45 PM

Jayne Anne,

We can't thank you enough for sharing your memories of one of the finest small towns in America. I know that it was growing up in Buckhannon that helped mold me into the person I am today and I feel good about it. From the dirt field next to the Jr. High playing little league baseball, to hanging out serving soda pop to the older crowd at the "Y-teen" dances with my mother or just driving around the back roads of Upshur County, I will always cherish those memories like it was yesterday. Most of my friends from Buckhannon are still my friends even though I have been gone for 20+ years.
You are an inspiration for all of us from "Sunnybuck" to sit back, take a deep breath and relax with our memories of such a great place.

Posted by STEPHEN OLDAKER on January 3,2010 | 09:56 AM

What a wonderful article about the best small town in America! It is a joy to read about Buckhannon's past and sit here and hope that the current residents can keep the hometown spirit alive! What a great article!

Posted by Shon Butler on January 3,2010 | 07:03 AM

Three years older than Jayne Anne, I also grew up on Brushy Fork, just three houses up the road from her. As evidenced by the multiplicity of comments here, she has beautifully captured the zeitgeist of Buckhannon during the formative years of the Baby Boomer generation. My father, a Wesleyan graduate, began his teaching career in 1950 in a one room country school where, in addition to his teaching duties, he built a lean-to kitchen in which a hot lunch program was begun for the students. One of the comments above was written by the daughter of the first cook for the lunch program there. Another comment came from the best guitar player on Brushy Fork Road, another from the son of a fellow teacher of my father after he moved to the "town" school, and yet another by the daughter of our family doctor, Doc Almond, who made hundreds and hundreds of house calls in his WWII era jeep, sometimes with my dad in tow to help navigate the country roads. All of Upshur County seemed interconnected since Buckhannon-Upshur was the only high school in the county. Jayne Anne was destined for the career she now enjoys. When I began as a graduate teaching assistant in the English department at West Virginia University in 1971, I heard the professors speak of Jayne Anne and her promise. She has more than fulfilled their predictions of success, and along the way, has validated the worth of humble people whose lives helped weave the fabric of small town American life.

Posted by Jayne Beer Whitlow on January 2,2010 | 02:19 AM

Thank you, Jayne Anne, for such a beautiful tribute to our hometown. How gratifying it must be to read these comments - all inspired by your vivid recollections and perfect illustrations of a community where Jake Huffman, Jane Phillips, and so many others nurtured us and modeled for our generation the importance of education and values. Your mother remains one of the most important adults in my formative years. I loved her beautiful smiling face and her great laugh! I especially enjoyed the twinkle in her eye as she argued politics with my grandmother, and I admired her strength and class.
Like others who have posted to this site, I have also enjoyed your novels and short stories and wish you continued success.
You are truly one of West Virginia's treasures.

Posted by Gracie Lawson Griffin on January 2,2010 | 06:30 PM

WOW. What an article! Thank you for the article and for all who posted comments.
I was born in Buckhannon, a few years past, and lived for a short period of time on Brushy Fork Road. Then off to Winchester, Virginia when I was just a couple of years old.
As a boy of all ages, we went back for summer vacations, along with Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I rode my uncle's bike (it seemed my grandparents still had everything, maybe the depression era) on the side walk of the college, to/from my other grandmother's home, around the high school. Remeber going to the Game Farm, to "farm" and to the A&P store. Along with the shopping trips to Weston, to Clarksburg (what happened to Bridgeport Hill?!?!), and to Blackwater Falls. Do you remember the pool?
Oh those were great days! Why we can not return to those times?
I try to get back to visit. Walk on Main Street. Walking into those stores. Even today, I can walk into a store and remember the squeak in the floors. Can you?
My grandparents and parents are resting there.
Perhaps one day, I can rest there as well. But in the meantime enjoy what you can.
Happy New Year. Looking forward to an even better 2010.
Thank you for the memories.

Posted by Lindsay Zickefoose on January 2,2010 | 03:01 PM

What a wonderful trip down memory lane this article has been. My parents relocated to Buckhannon from upstate New York when I was less than a year old. My father transferred to Buckhannon to work for Corhart, then a division of Corning Glass Works.

We lived in Buckhannon for 11 years; then followed Corning Glass Works to Lousiville, KY when I entered junior high. Both my brother and sister were born in Buckhannon, delivered by Dr. Chamberlin - our family doctor, who also made house calls.

I remember fondly girl scouting, 4H and twirlettes, and marching in the Strawberry Festival parade (as well as the fireman's parade the night before) .. and thought it was the most glorious time of the year. I remember swimming at Hinkle's pool, skating at the rink on Tennerton Rd, and the drive in. And yes, how fondly I remember buying penny candy at Acme bookstore and shopping at Murphy's 5 and dime. I remember taking my Red Cross swimming lessons at WV Weslyan, and telling everyone how I wanted to be a college student when I grew up!

I lived first on the island, then on Franklin St. near the fire station (where I loved to visit with my dad on Saturdays) and finally on Lincoln Way (such wonderful memories of sledding down that hill!) I attended both East Main Street School and Academy; and Mrs. Phillips was one of my most favorite teachers ... she and I corresponded for many years after I moved away. I made many good friends there; and am happy to say am still in touch with a few treasured ones.

Buckhannon provided me a wonderful foundation with which to begin my life. I have traveled all over this country and am hard pressed to think of anywhere else with nicer people!

Thank you so much for such a wonderful article about such an endearing place!

Posted by Debbie (Austin) Back on January 2,2010 | 10:26 AM

Dear Jayne, How wonderful it must be to be able to give others the feelings I have been allowed to feel while reading this story about our hometown. I am still living here and seldom can revive the feelings you have been able to stir. I not only remember those steps to Jakes office, but also the smell of the Hotdogs Danny Pappas mentioned in his note, and that brought memories of shooting pool with your brother.....Jus about every young man in this town grew up in Shorty's. Thank You for being You,

Posted by Alfred "Butch" Nesbitt on January 1,2010 | 01:46 AM

Jayne, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading your article about Buckhannon! It brought back so many warm, wonderful memories for me. I , too, was in Girl Scouts with Betty Weimer, Rainbow Girls with Mom Andrew and 4 H with Annabelle Marteney. My grandmother, Mabel Coleman lived on Victoria St. just behind the high school gym. I left Buckhannon after my eigth grade, but still consider it where I'm from. It was a wonderful place for a kid to grow up. I also was one of Dr. Jake's patients and knew his daughter, Kay. Four years ago the BUHS class of 1960 had its 45th reunion. All of these many years I've kept in touch with Betty Weimer, Karen Whitescarver Westfall and Vernon Bennett. During the reunion weekend we put together a reunion of our girl scout troop at Betty Weimer's home. We had a full fledged Girl Scout meeting like the old days and 21 of us had a wonderful time catching up on the many years passed. I have so many wonderful memories of Buckhannon: The Acme Book Store with Joe Oldaker and Hack Humphrey, Shannon's Hardware, College Kitchen, West's swimming pool, my dear Presbyterian Church. I saw a note from Judy Chostner who also attended that church. She and her sister, Nancy had a going away party for me at their house in 1956. I remember the May Pole Dance at Wesleyan and would have attended college there if they'd had their nursing program open. I picked strawberries at Bob Hall's and still remember the wonderful produce at his roadside stand in Tennerton. Jane O'Brien Ayers was at my wedding in Syracuse, NY in 1965. I could go on and on. I am so glad that you wrote the article. I am sure that everyone who ever lived in Buckhannon will enjoy it immensely and go back in time to their own special memories. As I said, it was truly a wonderful place to grow up. I now live in Orange County, CA, but Buckhannon still holds a dear and very special place in my heart. Joan Martin Way

Posted by Joan Martin Way on December 31,2009 | 12:34 AM

What a a wonderful and wonderfully written article that, in my opinion, truly captures the essence of Buckhannon and it's people. I grew up in Tallmansville,but we were often in Buckhannon. My sister, Avis and I would be dropped off at the Colonial Theater for the Saturday afternoon matinee while our parents shopped. We couldn't wait to get back the following Saturday to see what happened in the Serial (whether the cowboy actually fell off the cliff-remember those?)I attended BUHS and that was a wonderful time w/many caring teachers and such school spirit! Remember the gymn and the Pep Rallies w/ Lorene George, Coach Frank Feola-those two could really get us fired up for the game. I was lucky to have been elected the homecoming queen and attended the dance with our fabulous football hero, Bill Allman (don't be mad if you read this, Grace)My first long gown-had to get help to pin on the corsage. I helped Bill with his Algebra, so think it was payback. ha. My first job was at Acme Bookstore while I was in high school. Part-time and I still think it was the best and most fun job I ever had. (Trust me, I've had a few) The store itself was a gem and the people who came in for their newspapers, magazines, etc. were so friendly and supportive. I have lived many other places in my life. It took some time for me to really realize what a great place my hometown was. Have to mention the College Kitchen-how we would run out there on our lunch hours to grab a hot dog. Then, someone would drop a coin in the juke box and we would run to the dance floor and dance until time to run back to school. We were lucky to have grown up in such a safe great place tull of honest, caring, REAL people. Jayne, you really captured it in your article. Thanks!

Posted by Janis Tenney Coffman Donell on December 31,2009 | 07:16 PM

Buckhannon is a "one of a kind" place to live. I also was born in Buckhannon, and after we lived all over the world for 20+ years while my husband served in the military, we came back to our home.
I rode the school bus on Brushy Fork with Jayne Anne. We were on the second run, and usually didn't get home until after dark in the winter time.
Our doctor was Dr. Jake. I remember the large cigar that was always in his mouth. And how whenever we were sick, he would come to our home with his doctor bag, and treat us in our own bed.
We lived on a farm, but my grandparents lived in town. So I was lucky enough to experience being both a "city kid" and a "country kid".
I remember being able to walk home for lunch while attending the Academy Grade School. Grandpa (Harry Billingsley) and I even had enough time to play a game of checkers and watch Jeopardy after eating a great lunch prepared by my grandma (Louise Billingsley).
I will never forget the Christmas Eve when my dad (Ted Martin) took me with him to town to buy my mom (Sue Martin) a surprise Christmas gift. It was night time, and snowing like crazy. We went to Mr. Lewis' jewelry store, and drove home with a Grandfather clock in the back of the pickup for my mom.
And I will never forget the Acme Book Store, where I went with my grandpa after church on Sunday, to get a Sunday paper and usually a comic book.
Great memories!

Posted by Suzanne Martin Harris on December 31,2009 | 11:39 AM

Very nice. I think I enjoyed the comments as much as the story of Buckhannon. For five summers my family has stayed in a friend's cabin along the Buckhannon River. Our jaunts into town were always in tune with the leisurely lifestyle we were enjoying, far from the busy pace of Baltimore.

Posted by Dan Coleman on December 31,2009 | 09:43 AM

Oh, the memories! Reading the article makes it as vivid as watching a movie! I remember going to G.C.Murphy's after school to wait for my mother, who worked there many years, and you could get a bag of hot roasted nuts for 10 cents from the big candy counter they had. I was once in an Easter fashion show in the front window of the store along with many of the clerks modeling all the new spring items they had for sale. Saturday nights, then later Friday nights, Buckhannon was a bustling place, especially during the Christmas season. There were so many stores then and all were busy. There would be music from speakers on the light poles and crowded sidewalks, even if the snow was pouring. My grade school days were spent at East Main Street School with Mr. McCauley as principal and many wonderful teachers who were there for the love of teaching. I too was in girl scouts, and have fond memories of meetings in different homes, selling cookies, and camping in City Park. We weren't afraid to be out in the neighborhood after dark in those days, riding bikes, skating, playing games in the yard, or just taking walks & talking to friends. We felt safe, but if needed, could go to almost anyone for help. It was a "Wonderful Life" and still is for the most part. So many of our 1970 classmates are still in the area and we see each other often. It is comforting to know that so many still feel Buckhannon is the perfect place to live, work, raise a family and even to retire. (Yes, we are getting close to that time!) I hope to see you and many others at our 40th class reunion in 2010!

Posted by Judy (Ensor) Johnson on December 30,2009 | 12:15 PM

Buckhannon was really like the big city to me when my family moved to an apartment on main street, next to the post office. I was born and raised in Tallmansville, and unexposed to much of town life, much less city life. My sister and I went to BUCHS, and we fit right in for a couple of "country girls". She paved they way because she was a year ahead of me. We had the time of our lives. We both married and eventually moved away, but we met there many times and really enjoyed our strolls down main street. I married into the West family who owned the theaters and the public swimming pool. It was like a trip to Disney world because Charlie and I married right out of high school, and I had very little exposure to movies and such so that is a part of my fond memories. We had three daughters who were all born at St Joseph's hospital, the oldest and youngest delivered by ( who else?) Dr. Jake, and the middle one delivered by Dr Chamberlain. We did not go very far away, and went back almost every weekend early on, but unfortunately, most of our families are gone, including Charlie, so I do not get back as often as I'd like. I don't think I know you Jayne, but Thanks for the Memories.

Posted by Avis West on December 29,2009 | 07:45 PM

Thanks Jayne for this wonderful article about our beloved Buckhannon, Upshur county, West Virginia. Several of my cousins from "back home" let me know about your article in this magazine. I have never bought this one before, but will get a copy of it soon.
My family lines are from Upshur county, and one of the lines goes back to my, GGGG-Granddad Samuel Pringle. I belong to the Daughters of the American Revolution, using him as my Patriot. Both my parents were born and raised in Upshur county, a little place called, Ten Mile, in the Washington district. Their parents, grandparents, etc;, all grew up in Upshur county, so as you can imagine, your article brought back so many wonderful memories for me. One of my sisters moved "back home", after she and her husband retired, and they have a beautiful home on the River we grew up beside. I go back each year for our, Hollen/Wayt Family Reunion in early July, as well as the Strawberry Festival in May. I try and stay few weeks, visiting all my cousins, family, who live there. My parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc;, are all buried in the Ten Mile Baptist Cemetery. When I was growing up in Ten Mile, we took the Train to Buckhannon on Saturday, just to walk around our town, visit the Dime Store, and yes, we would get a Hot Dog, with "everything" on it, from Liberty Lunch. I could go on and on, but wanted to let you know that you have written a great article about growing up in a "small town"..in central Wild, Wonderful West Virginia..(I am not going to proofread, so excuse any misspelled words)

Posted by Karen DeBarr Hollen on December 29,2009 | 07:04 PM

Thanks, wonderful memories, Sam

Posted by scmorrison on December 29,2009 | 02:54 PM

A wonderful article that beautifully captures the appreciation of simplicity and the natural beauty that those of us from West Virginia understand. My parents grew up in Buckhannon and most of our family still resides there. I always look forward to visiting the area to see my down-to-earth relatives and take in the scenery of the area. Rafting down the New River Gorge south of Buckhannon will always be one of my fondest memories. I look forward to the opportunity to visit the Strawberry Festival one of these years to come.

Posted by Cynthia Pfledderer on December 29,2009 | 08:45 AM

I so very much enjoyed this article about Buckhannon and what a wonderful place to call home. My family roots go wauy back and include the Pringle Brothers and their tree. My great grandmother was one of the Pringle descendants. My Grandpa Brooks and my uncle Carl Bailey owned the Brooks and Bailey Peanut Factory in Frenchton, my great grandfather Elijah Harper owned a farm that stretched from the hill behind Deanville to and including the town of Keslings Mill, named after Aunt Betty and Uncle Homer Kesling. My mother Maye Brooks taught schools all over Upshur County for 35 years and my dad Elmer taught 17 years. How these comments on the Strawberry Festival bring back memories of marching in it both in the BUHS and Wesleyan College bands. Being a deejay on WBUC radio for many years, doing my TV show Big Boy Frolic on channel 12 Clarksburg. Three of my four children were born at St Joseph Hospital and went to grade school in Buckhannon. Though I have lived away in N.C, and Florida for years, I still come back often as possible, Two of my kids came with me and spent a week just looking around, visiting the stores and meeting people. They still talk about how impressed they were with the way everybody treated them. Almost none of the people they met knew they were my children, yet they said they were treated like they had known them all their lives. They couldn't believe how open and friendly everybody was. Ricky said "when I retire, this is where I want to live again." And he will. I hope people up there still read my books. Two of them are in Gibson Memorial Library and the BUHS library too. "Claypool Conspiracy" and "The Homesteader", a novel based on family lore about Pringle Tree and the Buckhannon area.

Posted by Dale Brooks on December 28,2009 | 03:46 PM

I grew up in Clarksburg but spent much of my youth in Buchhannon. I never dreamed that just maybe I am related to the Pringle brothers. The Cutright/Zickefoose blood runs strong. My grandparents, Sherman and Lilly, lived on Kanawa Street. The hillside behind their house was an apple orchard. I used to help harvest apples and help with the cider press. Wonderful times were had in Buckhannon.

Posted by Rex Zickefoose on December 28,2009 | 03:39 PM

Jayne Anne:

Your article was wonderful. I really enjoyed reading about my father-in-law Dr. Jake. I have such fond memories of him and miss him.

I don't get to Buckhannon much anymore as I lost both my parents in 2008 just 31 days apart.

I only lived in Buckhannon for a short time. I spent my Junior and Senior years at BUHS. I have such fond memories of my many visits back to Buckhannon to visit my parents.

Thank you for the wonderful memories your article brought back to me of Jake Sr. He was really one of a kind. Such a special person.

Posted by Patricia Haught Burdette on December 28,2009 | 01:20 PM

This article was filled with great memories of Sunnybuck! Now I can't wait for festival. When I was in high school there I couldn't wait to get out and move to NYC, now I do all I can to get back. It is a real treasure.

Posted by Minda Briley on December 28,2009 | 09:36 AM

What a wonderful time I have had reading the comments from old friends regarding the Buckhannon, W.Va. story. I was born in Clarksburg and moved to Buckhannon in the summer of 1946 when I began first grade at Academy School.
Miss Ellstock, later Mrs. Cates, was my teacher.
Our family sorrowfully left in the summer of 1957 for Greensboro, NC, but Buckhannon was never out of our memories for very long and NEVER out of our hearts. To this day, my children and grandchildren are regaled with magical stories of my utopian W.Va. hometown. We lived at 26 Central Ave. and the street was paved with red bricks. Our phone number had four digits tho'. Whenever I return for a visit and cross over the stateline from Va. into W.Va., I have to sing out, "Oh, those West Virginia hills, how majestic and so grand....."

Posted by Judith Chostner Willis on December 27,2009 | 12:09 AM

Your article was so wonderful!! I could close my eyes and almost see, taste and smell the way Buckhannon was when I was growing up!!! I remember the ACME Bookstore and how I planned to buy a certain book with my babysitting money. I remember Strawberry Festival parades, being in the band, walking from East Main Street school to Brownie Scouts (like we would ever let our children do that now...) and so much morre. Your story makes us all unlock a special time in our memories which makes us smile and wish the world was simpler today.

Posted by Laura DeBarr Johnson on December 27,2009 | 04:41 PM

It is nice reading about "my home town" even though I was one of the country girls. I never appreciated the people of Buckhannon and especially the educators til I was 'gone'. I had a good counselour in High School that led me into getting a Nursing degree in Norfolk,Va and for less than $500 I had three good years of schooling and a degree that has served me well. I still go back home frequently and all the friends I had as a child are still friends. I miss the mountains, the country "sings", the swimming holes, the old drive in, the "haying" in the summer, the making of apple butter in the fall and on and on. Good Memories!!

Posted by Mickie Baisden Ingram on December 27,2009 | 03:06 PM

Thank you for this most wonderful and heart warming article. While I did not grow up in Buckhannon proper, I did grow up in Upshur County of which Buckhannon is the county seat. Growing up in the southern part of Upshur County, we seldom got to go to town as we referred to our trips to Buckhannon for whatever. It was an annnual ritual for my dad to take the hickory nut kernerls to Buckhannon for sale at Christmas time. The little he got for the hickory nuts was used to purchase whatever he could for eight children for Christmas. This is one of the best memories I have of my hometown and it showed me just how much the merchants cared about the people they served. Later Wesleyn and BUHS became very familiar to me and still are as I grew and graduated from BUHS in 1961. I still have many family members living in Buckhannon and the area as well as so many wonderful friends. We return as often as possible, to visit with these friends and relatives. The one constant is the friendships and the friendly people we meet no matter when or where we go. Thank you so much for the wonderful article and the memories.

Posted by Roger Riffle on December 26,2009 | 07:05 PM

I lived on Hackers Creek between Hodgesville and Berlin which is in Lewis county from the time that I was 5 until I was 16 and Buckhannon was our town that we would go to about every Sat. and Dad would give each of us 50 cents and that would buy our lunch at the Liberty Lunch which would cost uf 37 cents for two of the best hot dogs with everything. Is there any other way to make them ? and then buy a comic book for a nickle and have 8 cents to take home. What a life. I started out in a one room school which housed 6 grades and then on to Hodgesville for the 7th and 8th and then on to BUHS (52=56) Played football and would have to hitch hike home each night and then work on the farm . What a great life.

Posted by Jim Clark on December 25,2009 | 08:58 PM

Wonderful! I am still here in Buckhannon and relive not only Jayne Ann’s writing as well as the many comments by others everyday. When you come to Buckhannon I will be here-find me and we will share further wonderful Buckhannon memories of times gone by.

Posted by Vernon Bennett on December 25,2009 | 04:58 PM

This article did bring back old memories. My phone # was 102, sure was lot eaiser to remember than the 10 didgits now. Buckhannon was a great town to have growen up in, am proud of my roots. I also was born in St. Joseph Hospital and delivered by Dr. Jake Huffman in 1941. The college kitchen and Spudnut kitchen were great hangouts. I left Buckhannon after graduation in 1959, moved around a bit and ended up in the Virginia Shenandoah Valley. Thanks for the memories.

Posted by Jim Alkire on December 25,2009 | 04:17 PM

I grew up in Upshur County, lived near Tallmansville until I joined the Air Force in 1951. I graduated from Buckhannon-Upshur in 1951 and have many fond memories of living that time. I have traveled thoughout most of this beautiful land of ours but still believe that the area around Buckhannon and the people who live there holds a special spot in my heart. I have been back to visit many times since I left to join the Air Force but I now live in another special part of our land in Spokane, Wa. Thanks for the memories.

Posted by Keslar "Wayne" Reeder on December 25,2009 | 03:01 PM

What a gift to read this article on Christmas Eve, as I spent all my Christmas's as a youth in Buckhannon. I am not from Buckhannon but both my Mother (Mary Lee Rusmisell) and Father (Wilson /Bud, Barlow) were. Buckhannon to me meant visiting loving relatives, grandmothers, aunts, uncles and cousins (Jayne Anne is my cousin). I especially enjoyed the description of Doctor Jakes office as I was there many times and it brought back the memories.

Merry Christmas Jayne Anne

Posted by W. Phillips Barlow on December 25,2009 | 02:18 PM

My name is Maureen Allen (Pappas) I lived in Buckhannon and my sister still lives there her name is Barbara. My parents owned several restaurants and a Motel. "Shorty"s Poolroom which just about everyone who lived in Buckhannon and all surrounding areas came there for hot dogs. I lived in Pennsylvania for about l7 years and then moved to New Jersey where I still live now and most of the people up here are so stupid they don't even know West Virginia is a state they still say Virginia even when you tell them it is West Virginia. I have two brothers who live in Huntington, West Virginia Phil and Danny Pappas. I usually come back at least once a year to visit my parent's graves and see my sister and brothers. So much has changed and the condition the people who live in my parent's home have made it is very sad as my Mother and Father always kept the place so beautiful that really it is heartbreaking to even see where I lived.

Posted by on December 25,2009 | 11:49 AM

This was great to receive on Christmas eve as I spent all the Christmas's of my youth in Buckhannon. I am not from Buckhannon but both my mother and Father were. Buckhannon to me meant spending time with my relatives, grandmothers, aunts, uncles and cousins (Jayne Anne is my cousin)I too remember Doctor Jake, his office and the way that he would distract you when administering a shot.

Merry Christmas Jayne Anne!

Posted by W. Phillips Barlow on December 24,2009 | 10:36 PM

Buckhannon has always held a special spot in my heart. My Grandparents and my Dad lived here all of their lives. Dad met Mom at Wesleyan and I met my wife there. Our son also graduated from Wesleyan. Your description of Dr. Jake Huffman's office brought tears to my eyes as you described it so perfectly that it made me feel as if I were back home as a kid. We still own our family camp on the Buckhannon River, which is nearly 100 years old. This gives me a chance to return home several times each year. At one time, growing up on Elizabeth Street there were over 20 kids in that small area. Those were the days that I remember so well. My Dad was so proud of his home town and I am sorry he is no longer here to enjoy your article. Buckhannon was such a special place to grow up and it holds so many wonderful memories, which I shall treasure forever.

Posted by Bob Reger on December 24,2009 | 02:23 PM

I came to Buckhannon the first time to Methodist Church Camp. Fell in love with WV Wesleyan and Buckhannon, thought of it as Heaven on Earth. Came to Wesleyan in 1952 and through education courses met my future father-in-law (principal of buhs) Newton S. Anderson in '55 married his son Newton Richard. Thanks for a wonderful true story, that brings back WONDERFUL memories,

Posted by Amy Anderson on December 24,2009 | 02:13 PM

Yes,yes! My husband, David, and I both were born and raised near Buckhannon (as were both our parents) and every dream we ever dreamed, began there. We left 56 years ago, but it is still our home town. I was one of seven Wilfong siblings, (six of us are still living, ranging from age 69 to 91; the 91-year-old, Wilda, lives at Serenity Care in Buckhannon). No one could be prouder of their family, the simple warmth of relatives and friends, neighbors, teachers and the general loving-kindness that was Buckhannon. We both still cherish it and we would not change our family or our home town with ANYONE in the world. We visit our relatives, Wesleyan College and the cemeteries where our parents, some friends, siblings, grandparents and great-grandparents are buried, as often as we can.

Jeanne (Wilfong) Ours & David Ours

Posted by Jeanne (Wilfong) Ours & David Ours on December 24,2009 | 01:57 PM

What a wonderful article that has stimulated so many fond memories of our hometown. I have not lived in Buckhannon for over 50 years, but I still have a sister who lives there, Barbara Replogle.

I left for the Navy 3 days after graduating from highschool in 1955, along with Denzil Crouse,French Earl Johnson and Donald Webster.

One really sweet memory I have is taking a shortcut beside the A @ P Grocery store on Florida Street, passing Murray's Bakery on the way to and from East Main Street Grade school.
The aroma of the baking bread was heavenly.

Another neat memory was selling the local newpapers. If you sold 20 papers you would get a free ticket to the movies, which at the time was worth 10 cents.

Our three digit telephone numer was 851 and the Tenny taxi number was 145.

In the 1940's you could get 2 hotdogs and a bottle of pop for 25 cents at my Fathers' pool room.

My wife and I are looking forward to attending the Strawberry Festival this year.

Philip A. Pappas

Posted by Philip A. Pappas on December 24,2009 | 01:43 PM

Both of my grandparents lived in Buckhannon and I visited them many times while growing up. Their last name was Queen and Marteney. I also went to Wesleyan for a semester before transferring to WVU. I really enjoyed the article and appreciated the fact that my Aunt Annabelle Marteney Cruise, who now lives in Huntington, WVa. forwarded it to me. I live in Homosassa, Florida and at 84 still remember much about my youth. One of my Aunts (Eva Marteney Lavoie) lived very close to the Pringle Tree--moving home from Grosse Point, Michigan

Posted by Jo Ann Marteney Ryan on December 24,2009 | 11:18 AM

Jayne
My father Frank always told me that Buckhannon was the true center of the universe at least it will always be mine. I tell everyone that I went from kindergarden to college within one mile of my house. It was truly like being in a 21st century one room school house.

Posted by Brent Berisford on December 24,2009 | 10:01 AM

Thanks for some memories of a beautiful community where I spent four years of my life. My first year at West Virginia Wesleyan College I lived with my Aunt and Uncle and 4 cousins Ella and Frank Berisford of Tennerton Road along with Barbara, Dale, Brent and Donnie. Then Sophomore year I moved into the dorm. I loved Buckhannon, it was like home, small and inviting. My husband and I have returned a few times and though there have been changes, the friendliness of the town is still there. I remembered the names of several others who have responded as other WVWC students or friends of my family in Buckhannon and each brought back special times in the state of my birth - West Virginia!!

Thanks Jayne for a beautiful article!

Posted by Carolyn Evans McCormick on December 23,2009 | 11:27 PM

I was born at St. Joseph in Buckhannon and was raised in French Creek and Buckhannon. This area will always be "my home". I am more than proud to tell people I am from WV. I have very fond memories of Rainbow Girls, Baptist Youth Fellowship, band trips, and my years at BUHS. I love attending the Class of 1958 reunions and the Hawkins Reunion. Although I have lived in Louisville, Kentucky for 39 years Buckhannon is still HOME. I love you all!!!!!

Carol June Hawkins Hamilton
Louisville, Kentucky

Posted by Carol June Hawkins Hamilton on December 23,2009 | 05:44 PM

Jayne Anne, This is a pure delight. I just read the comments and see my old neighbor Kathy Dodge has responded.
I'm "at home". Just four months away from my 60th birthday and I am able to "come home", to spend Christmas with my Mother.
Your Mother did her student teaching, in my 4th Grade class ( Miss Cookman's class), at the Academy. I remember the special Halloween treats, that always awaited us at your home. I thought your ranch style house was so very modern.
We enjoyed : Girl Scouts- camping out at the City Park, attending various churches, on Scout Sunday, walking in the Strawberry Festival Parades in our Scout uniforms, walking to the movies, pool, or Mrs. Eckard's store, to hand over our allowance on Saturday's. Having our Sunday school teachers greet us in their classrooms at school on Monday. Getting to go home for lunch from school and joining recess upon our return. I always hated the "non-snowdays", when those of us in town had to attend.
We went to Dr. Page, but I knew instantly you were writing about Dr. Jake's office.
Do you remember taking dance lessons above the Dime Store? We have one of the first Dairy Queen's.
The magic of Christmas on Main Street in the snow. We would go to the Book Store to get warm by the big stove..
As you can tell, all of the mgaical memories are flooding back. It is home and it always will be in our hearts. I'm just one of the lucky ones, who gets to be here often.
Thank you for the lovely tribute to our wonderful hometown.
Bunny Fenton

Posted by Bunny Fenton on December 23,2009 | 05:16 PM

The first year my husband, son and I moved to Buckhannon, I had Jayne Anne as a student in 9th grade Civics. What a delight she was as a student--very creative and the talent as a story-teller was already there. This article was a wonderful walk down memory lane of the years I spent in Buckhannon. I actually grew up in Webster Springs, a town smaller than Buckhannon, but very similar in many respects. I have really enjoyed all of Jayne Anne's books, both the novels and short stories. Our book club used "Lark and Termite" for our discussion about three months ago. My years in Buckhannon hold many dear memories, and my son grew up there, in an atmosphere much like Jayne Anne describes. Jayne Anne, thanks for the memories and the kind words you inscribed in your latest book for me. Keep them coming!!

Posted by Garry L. Thompson Shearer on December 23,2009 | 05:14 PM

This is such a wonderful article about a place where I grew up as well. Indeed, I too was delivered by Dr. Jake; I went to the Academy School, Buckhannon-Upshur H.S. and Wesleyan College. And, I left Buckhannon and West Vriginia over four decades ago.

I have visited Buckhannon a number of times since and seen the town change a bit over the years. But, Buckhannon is STILL my home town. I have been around the world a number of times, and there is no place that compares to Buckhannon.

Thank you for the Memories!

Posted by Bill Gawthrop on December 23,2009 | 03:53 PM

OH, I AM SO GLAD SOMEONE IS RESPONDING TO THIS. MY HUSBAND,FATHER-IN-LAW, AUNTS UNCLES, COUSINS AND MANY FRIENDS.ALL WESLEYAN GRADS/ I WORKED IN THE HIGHHSCHOOL OFFICE AFTER I GRADUATED IN 1947. THE COLLEGE KITCHEN HOLDS MANY MEMORIES FOR ME. I AM PROUD TO BE A WEST VIRGINIAN. MY HUSBAND, BAYARD, HAS PASSED AWAY AND I IN TRAVERSE CITY,MI. WHERE OUR SON IS AN OPTHAMOLOGIST.PS: I WILLDEFINITELY HAVE A WHITE CHRISTMAS!

Posted by SUE WILFONG GUM on December 23,2009 | 02:29 PM

I did not grow up in Buckhannon but reading these comments makes me wish I did! I have been there and it is a charming, lovely place. The people are cordial and hospitable.

Posted by Della Tenney on December 23,2009 | 01:41 PM

I loved the story, and yes it too brought back memories of growing up in WV. We lived just across the county line in neighboring Webster Co. But Buchannon was the town to go to to shop. Fabric, groceries, dr. visits. WV has a way of getting under your skin and after 43 yrs. of living in Pa.(which I love) WV is home. When I go to visit family, sister Barbara and brother Bill and family, I say "I am going home" because it is home, a place where life was simple and there was love abundantly and neighbors took care of one another. My life was much like the "Waltons", but we grew up knowing what was right and what was wrong and there will never be another place like it. "Almost Heaven West Virginia" What a treat to read your story and kindle those wonderful old memories.

Posted by Sonja Fisher LeVan on December 23,2009 | 11:56 AM

I grew up listening to my dad and his siblings reminisce about growing up in Buckhannon. Dad's recollections were always told with a grin on his face and a twinkle in his eyes. We used to tease him and say that his stories were made up, but going back for family reunions and visiting their old farm always made it clear to us that his "growing up in Buckhannon" stories were, indeed, true! Thanks for putting a spotlight on this wonderful little town that, in my opinion, produced some of the kindest and most wonderful people on earth!

Posted by Jennifer Wilfong on December 23,2009 | 11:15 AM

As one of the thousands of students of West Virginia Wesleyan College over the years, I can say Buckhannon is a wonderful, magical town. Growing up near Baltimore City in Maryland, I didn't know idyllic towns like this still existed but when I visited Buckhannon for the first time over 6 years ago, I knew I was going to call this place home. I have moved back to Maryland, my home state, but I still find moments when I miss my "Home Among the Hills" terribly. Especially that special time of year in the Spring when everything is in bloom, the Dairy Queen has opened, and everyone is out and about. Jayne, you have written a beautiful article that captures everything I know. Thank you!

Posted by Ashley Hodak on December 23,2009 | 09:31 AM

Even though I live in North Carolina now, my heart is still in the hills of West Virginia nuzzled up next to Buckhannon. All the stories Jayne has touched upon are memorable ones. I still to this day share stories of Girl Scouts, with Mrs. Casella as our leader, with my grandchildren. My family shares the love of the Mountain State with all its beauty and wonder. Thank you for rekindeling that warm feeling.
Jane West Ralston, Greensboro, NC

Posted by Jane West Ralston on December 22,2009 | 10:49 PM

Jayne, I remember riding the school bus down Brushy Fork Road with you. To my knowledge we are not blood related but we are all brothers and sisters linked to a simpler time.
Miss Kyle who taught art at B.U.H.S. was one of my most influential teachers. She asked me when I was a junior if I'd ever considered commercial art. I didn't even know what it was. She started me on my path to an enjoyable career. Steve Tinnelli, professor of art at WV Wesleyan, refined my talents with an amalgam of wisdom, knowledge and ball pean hammer. I didn't appreciate it at the time but Buckhannon was a perfect place to be. I don't get back as often as I would like but there are still memories, places and people I hold dear in my heart.

Posted by Jud Phillips on December 22,2009 | 08:42 PM

A wonderful and nostalgic article. I was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in 1951. Our phone number was 507. My father was the owner of Shaffer's Jewelry Store (located just off Main Street). As best as I can remember, Mrs. Phillips was my first grade teacher. (I see a huge resemblance between mother and daughter!) We moved to Needham, Massachusetts during the summer of 1966 and have remained in the New England area since ... but I know my roots began in the small, quaint town of Buckhannon. So many memories of walking from school to my home on Boggess Street, Girl Scout meetings at the Weiner home, movies at the Kanawha Theatre, the Strawberry festival and on and on I could go. I don't know if I'll ever get back to Buckhannon but it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Posted by Kathy (Dodge) Sasseville on December 22,2009 | 08:09 PM

What a walk down memory lane. I too was not a permannent resident but a college student and short-term post-graduate resident of Buckhannon. There will always be a soft spot in my heart for this place. The friendliness of the residents was unparalleled by an place I have been before or since. I remember shopping in a Main Street store for boots and a warmer coat after experiencing the onset of my first winter in those mountains, and months later, come spring, the ladies running the shop remembered me by name -- just a first year college student with no previous ties to the town. My sorority had a picnic at the Pringle Tree park, at least once, and there are pictures from that out there on Facebook. I think I felt so at home there because it reminded me in so many ways of my own little home town 500 miles away in NW New Jersey -- also a place where stories and connections go back for generations. There are many wonderful people that I know that are still in the Buckhannon area and I'm so glad you have given the town the positive attention it deserves.

Posted by Karen Lannin Dulany on December 22,2009 | 06:08 PM

I have never been to Buckhannon but my community of Olympia, Washington carries some of the same memories for me of small shops, summer festivals, Olympia Beer, the dome of the capitol, the waters of Puget Sound. A wonderful place to be born and raised! Thank you for this delightful article that brought to mind many images from my own past!
Sincerely,
Wendy Sorrell

Posted by Wendy Sorrell on December 22,2009 | 05:39 PM

What a beautiful depiction of growing up in Buchannan! My mom, Patty Rinehart, still talks about hanging out at the College Kitchen and playing bridge and dancing. I believe it was a ride home from there that launched the courtship of my parents! Mom's family housed some young men who returned from the war and attended Wesleyan. Two of them attended my grandparents funeral many, many years later and they had warm stories to share about life in the small town. I'm glad to know of what Jayne Phillips speaks.

Posted by Kathryn Bail Hill on December 22,2009 | 05:31 PM

My phone number was 566 and when we had a thunderstorm, I had to go home to answer the phone in case of power outages sinces my father was district manager of Mononghela Power Co. My mother went back to teaching during WWII. My brother John had a paper route and I helped him collect the money on Saturdays. At our 60th high school reunion, we all commented on how lucky we were to have grown up in Buckhannon. When I think "home" it is Buckhannon. Hope to see my classmates for our 65th class reunion.

Posted by Julia Bail Sweeney on December 22,2009 | 12:46 PM

You are a credit to Buckhannon for sharing the wonderful life I and others experienced,and benefited from, while growing up in small town USA! It brought tears to my eyes and a profound sense of pride as I remember everything you mentioned. I feel so very blessed to have grown up in such a setting. Thanks for capturing wonderful childhood memories. I loved it!
Jane O'Brien Ayers

Posted by Jane O'Brien Ayers on December 22,2009 | 09:22 AM

Although I was not born nor grew up in Buckhannon I feel it will always be the home of my heart...You see, I went to College there at Wesleyan at the tender age of 16 and spent four wonderful years at the college while meeting some of the most gracious, loving residents of this wonderful town.
My landlady, Mrs Flo Thornhill, a retired English and Latin teacher at Buckhannon HS, housed me at 28 Central Ave. for those four years...She was the most outstanding human being I have ever met...She was raising her grandchild, John Will, as well as taking care of her daughter, Joanne Will(who was mentally ill and in and out of Weston State Hospital during those years),and while keeping six students from Wesleyan as Boarders in her home she still managed to visit her husband at the hospital every day to read him the newspaper while he lay dying from Muscular Dystrophy....and to top it off, she had time to correct and advise all the young men in her home on their essays, etc for the college...
She was the most insprirational person I have ever known, but she epitomized the character of the people of Buckhannon...
Thanks for sharing this story with me,,,it has brought back many memories, most of which are all very rewarding to me....
I am now 71 years old and still serving the college that I love so much...but without the warm welcome to me as a Freshman at Wesleyan by the Buckhannon people I may not have stayed at school....Who knows....

Posted by Gary Hess on December 21,2009 | 10:47 PM

This article epitomizes my memories of Buckhannon. It actually brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes. I still visit several times a year and am feeling very sentimental about Buckhannon since I recently lost my mother so no longer have immediate family there. Jayne's younger brother David and I were friends and I can visualize everything she has written. We were very lucky to grow up in such a quaint town with so much rich history. Thanks you Jayne for the ride.

Posted by Kathy Hibbs Bucklew on December 21,2009 | 10:15 PM

Oh, yes, the memories of Buckhannon, West Virginia - a town who helped form not only the amazing writings of Jayne Anne, but also Stephen Coonts. We 'younger girls' (about six years Jayne Anne's junior) thought she was one of the most beautiful girls in the high school - and we all knew she was smart. And that was okay. Mrs. Phillips was my first grade teacher. My fondest memory of her, and there are many, was that she let me check out "The Boxcar Children" from the little shelf library as many times as I wanted that year. And Dr. Jake delivered me and lived in a lovely house by the city park. But what I remember best is Dr. Jake and his wife sitting in church each Sunday on a pew near the front and everyone craning their necks to see what amazing new hat she had on that day. Jayne Anne and her family sat near the back, in the middle. My family sat on the left side, about halfway back. Yes, in Buckhannon we knew each others' stories. When I jokingly say my 'retirement plan' is to go back home and be a bag lady, I know I wont go hungry. There will always be someone out on their porches who will holler out, "I know you. Come have a cup of coffee and catch me up." It's that kind of place. And, oh yes, my memories of The Pringle Tree are more of the parking variety...but that's another tale.

Posted by Beth Almond Ford on December 21,2009 | 09:49 PM

what a wonderful article about my hometown. Janye said it all just as i remember. i wanted the article to go on and on. when i was in high school, i was across the street visiting my friend peggy and walked home after dark. a car pulled up and asked for directions. i walked up to the car and mrs. williams came out on her porch under the porch light so we could see her. my mother appeared at our front door. Mrs. williams had called mother to tell her. i felt so protected and loved and to this day, and i'm 64 years old, i still feel the same way every time i go back to buckhannon. my children were taught buckhannon was utopia, and it is. thank you so much for a truly beautiful memory

Posted by katy o'brien greenhill on December 21,2009 | 11:53 AM




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