charley west
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This chapter is about my hometown of Charleston, WV.TRANSCRIPT
Charley West
I’m proud to say that Charleston, West Virginia is my
hometown. Just like in the “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” story,
it wasn’t too small, not too big, but “Just Right.” Charleston is
referred to as “Charley West,” by pilots, air traffic controllers and
navigators. It is also the name of Pat Shell’s long-standing
newspaper cartoon character, on the front page of the Charleston
Daily Mail. This popular caricature has been offering his witty
commentary, on local events, since 1958.
We had many relatives scattered all across the state, so our
home was somewhat of a boarding house. Charleston was a big
city to our relatives, since they lived in much smaller towns or
rural communities. It was the hub of retail shopping, and many
relatives came to Charleston, specifically to shop for Christmas
gifts and school clothes. Others came to visit the capital city and
all of its attractions. Some came to join us for the big 4th of July
fireworks display. When necessary, many of them stayed with us,
while their loved ones were in local hospitals.
We always took our visitors to see the beautiful capitol
grounds and building, designed by architect Cass Gilbert.
Everyone marveled at the marble rotunda with the spectacular,
enormous glass chandelier. The museum in the basement of the
capital building wasn’t very impressive, but I was always intrigued
with the Flea Circus display. Just recently, a brand new, incredible
state museum was opened in the basement of the Cultural Center.
Many times we took our visitors up to Kanawha Airport, to watch
the big planes come in and take off. We usually stood on the
viewing ramp, outside of the airport, or watched from the tall
windows inside. I always loved watching the lights light up on the
runways, as planes arrived and departed.
Sometimes we took a picnic to the scenic Hawk’s Nest State
Park, which was only a forty-minute drive from Charleston. We
walked out to the popular overlook area, made of huge slabs of
flagstone and log rails. It offered a spectacular, panoramic view of
the New River Gorge. Dad fed the tall, silver viewing scopes a
quarter, then held us up, so we could look through them. We
watched the long coal trains, on the other side of the river, which
seemed to stretch for miles. They crept at such a slow pace,
meandering around the horseshoe-shaped track.
Other times, we took our guests on a little trip down the West
Virginia turnpike, to The Glass House. It was a fancy restaurant on
the turnpike, which offered fine dining, and were famous for their
“Mile-high pies,” with deep layers of meringue. Occasionally, our
relatives bought us enormous, all-day suckers, at the candy
counter. They were as big as a 45 record, with a brightly-colored,
swirled design. We literally sucked on them all day.
As a family and with scout and church groups, we frequently
had huge day-long picnics at Coonskin Park, Kanawha State
Forest, and DuPont Hunting and Fishing Lake. Horseback riding,
on the trails of Kanawha Forest, or in the coral at Coonskin, were
always exciting adventures. During extremely cold winters, the
pond at Coonskin froze over. We joined the crowd of other ice
skating enthusiasts, and spent the day, circling the frozen surface. I
loved skating there. It was such a community event. Many people
gathered around the gigantic bonfire, to get some relief from the
frigid temperatures.
During our youth, we often had very deep snows. Living on
the West Side hill, offered plenty of thrilling sleigh rides down the
steeper streets. In the snowy weather, people from all over the area
came to Edgewood Country Club’s golf course, to sleigh ride.
Someone always built a huge, rip-roaring bonfire there too. It
provided a nice warm break, in between downhill runs. I got my
first taste of skiing on the slopes of the golf driving range at
Coonskin. In the winter, when we had deep snows, the driving
range became ski slopes. A primitive-looking, mechanized rope
pull dragged us back up the hill.
One of my favorite remembrances about living in Charleston
was shopping downtown. It was the center of the city, where we
ran into everyone we knew. There was such a difference in
shopping downtown, compared to shopping in a mall. Braving the
elements, walking from one store to another, certainly was part of
that difference. Back in those days, we didn’t have parking
garages, but there were enormous parking lots, peppered all over
downtown. My brother-in-law paid his way through college, by
working as a parking lot attendant, for several years.
I especially loved shopping downtown at Christmastime. The
sound of the Salvation Army bell ringers, and seeing all of the
window decorations, put everyone in such a festive mood. If the
snow was falling, everyone really got in the spirit of the holiday
season. Perhaps even the beggars, who sat with their tin cups,
along Capital Street, got an extra coin or two. The animated
Christmas scenes, in the windows of The Diamond and Stone and
Thomas department stores, were my favorites. Our parents took us
to The Diamond, to have pictures taken with Santa.
All of the department stores with multiple floors, which
didn’t have escalators, had elevator ladies. For many of these
women, it was their lifetime profession. We became so familiar
with a few of them, that they felt like friends to us. At the
Diamond, we often ate lunch at the snack bar on the first floor, or
waited in line on the third floor, to eat in their cafeteria. Frequently,
we stopped by Federal Bakery for some chocolate chip cookies or
salt-rising bread, for our cheese squares recipe.
The beautiful Louise Corey offered classes at Stone and
Thomas in etiquette, fashion, and grooming. Most of the girls in
my scout troop and I attended these sessions. In the late summer,
before school started, Mom took my sister and me to back-to-
school fashion shows, held in the Scottish Rite Temple. The
Diamond hosted the shows, and featured models from different
high schools.
Thinking back to all of the stores that were open in
downtown Charleston, I can’t get over how many there were. I so
vividly remember looking at Poor Pitiful Pearl dolls, in the toy
department of Coyle and Richardson. It was right before
Christmas, and our parents had taken us shopping to look at toys. It
seems like I could always find clothes that I liked, at
Frankenberger’s, Embee’s, The Diamond and Stone and Thomas.
We usually bought our school shoes in the shoe department of The
Diamond, and dress shoes at John Lee’s or Palmer’s. There were so
many places to buy shoes. In addition to the shoe shops, all of the
larger department stores had big shoe departments.
One day, Mom and my sister and I were shopping on the
second floor of The Diamond. We had a few items to return. Our
next door neighbor, Juanita, who worked on that floor for many
years, thought it was hilarious, that the store’s undercover security
guards were following us. We had been completely oblivious to the
fact, that we were being followed. Somehow, we must have looked
suspicious to them, maybe since we walked in with our bags of
items to return. After that incident, we frequently saw the two
women, following other shoppers closely around the store.
We shopped for books and picked up our photographs, in
little yellow or gray booklets, at S. Spencer Moore Company, on
Capital Street. At Maynard’s pet store, we often replenished our
guppy population. Sometimes my friends and I were allowed to
shop in the big dime stores, by ourselves. We loved to put our
quarter in the slot, and get a strip of pictures made, as we tried to
look silly in the photo booth at Woolworth’s. Sometimes we got
milkshakes on their mezzanine floor. I purchased fancy, white,
lace-trimmed handkerchiefs, with colorful embroidered flowers, at
Kresge’s, one holiday season. Those were Christmas gifts for my
grandmother.
Two downtown institutions which I miss, are The Sterling
Restaurant and the stately, old stone public library. Many times,
after dances or dates, we went to The Sterling, because they were
still opened, and had excellent food. I loved the old library, and
was sad to see it torn down in 1966. It was a real landmark in
downtown Charleston, having such character, with its two sets of
curved steps, leading up to the front door. I spent many hours
pouring through their card catalogues, working on research papers.
During the days of our youth, there were many movie
theatres around town. The Virginian, Kearse, Capital, Rialto, Lyric
and Village were the ones we usually frequented. Most of these
places had such lavishly-decorated interiors, resembling fancy
opera houses. I always liked to sit in the balconies. Our parents
often dropped us kids off, to watch the movies, without any adult
chaperones. That’s how safe we felt. All of these theatres closed,
once the mega-theatres moved in. The Capital is still used, for
special film festivals.
When the Town Center mall opened, in 1983, several of the
downtown stores relocated there. Some store owners tried to stay
in their downtown locations, and make a go of it. Their demise was
similar to the independent theatres. It was heartbreaking, to see
businesses, which had flourished for many decades, be forced to
close their doors, one by one. Two downtown stores which beat the
odds, and are still around today, are The Peanut Shoppe and Fife
Street Shoe Shop. The interiors of both of these places, look like
how they did fifty years ago. Walking into the Fife Street Shoe
Shop, really does feel like stepping back in time to 1920, when the
shoe repair shop first opened.
When we were in grade school, in the 1950s, our scout
leaders took us to appeared on television. We went to the local
WSAZ studio, to be filmed in the peanut gallery of the “Mr.
Cartoon Show,” with host George Lewis. To be on television, was
a pretty big deal to a child. Their studio and tower were near my
aunt and uncle’s hilltop farm, which overlooking the city.
There were two interesting characters, who became familiar
to all of us growing up in Charleston. “Lightning,” as he was
fondly called, was a pleasant, short, elderly, African-American
man. He stood on the street corners downtown, or at the Capitol
complex, and directed traffic and sold newspapers.
“Aqualung” was Charleston’s iconic street person. That name
was given to him, since he resembled the man on the cover of the
“Aqualung” album, by Jethro Tull. For many years, he scavenged
the streets and alleys of downtown Charleston, with his grocery
cart, crammed full of treasured possessions. Recently, Taylor
Books of downtown Charleston, displayed several portraits of him,
in their art gallery, by local artist, Rob Cleland. It was rumored that
“Aqualung” received monthly checks from a large, Mid-American
university. It has been years, since I have seen either of these
characters.
Charleston had its share of soda fountains scattered all over
town. In the fifties, my parents frequently treated my scout troop to
sundaes, at the Valley Bell ice cream shop, which is now where the
Fountain Hobby Center sits. I loved their hot fudge sundaes and
banana splits. For many years, I stopped by the Valley Bell store,
across from Lincoln Junior High, to purchase a toasted almond ice
cream cone. A few weeks ago, I pulled up to their store, to get
another cone. As I walked by the table in front of the store, a
gentleman sitting there, said, “Lady, the ice cream shop closed a
few years ago.” What a disappointment.
The Fountain Hobby Center has certainly withstood the test
of time. The family-run business originally opened in North
Charleston, in 1947, and was actually a soda fountain too, hence
the name. In 1960, it moved into its current location on the West
Side. The hobby store has always carried many of those hard-to-
find items, needed for hobbies or craft projects. When I taught craft
classes, I spent quite a lot of time there, buying supplies.
For many years, Tandy Leather was down the street from the
hobby shop. It was another place I often frequented, as an art
teacher. While I was teaching in the seventies, my students were
really into making and wearing leather wristbands. Those were real
popular and fashionable accessories, during that era. I bought huge
sides of leather, and cut them into strips. Another popular craft and
fashion accessory, during that time, was macramé. Many students
bought nice brass belt buckles, and knotted fine macramé belts.
Sunrise museum opened its doors to the public, when we
were in junior high school. It offered many interesting exhibits and
art shows. The display of Christmas trees, from foreign countries,
was always a popular exhibit. In 1971, Charleston began its long-
running Sternwheel Regatta Festival, over Labor Day weekends.
My grandmother loved to watch the sternwheeler races, on the
Kanawha River. The Taste of Charleston was my favorite event. It
offered a sampling of many of the city’s best restaurants, and was a
real culinary extravaganza.
During our youth, one of the biggest events in Charleston
every year, was the football game between the two high schools in
town, Charleston High and Stonewall Jackson. They were such
rivals, and the city was divided into two groups of fans. Before the
game every year, the students from Stonewall had a huge
celebration with a Snake Dance, which meandered all through the
city. It seemed like the entire population of Charleston, showed up
for the ball game, at Laidley Field.
When the two schools were consolidated and closed in 1989,
a new combined high school was opened, Capital High. The long-
standing East Side-West Side rivalry came to a screeching halt.
These days, Charlestonians join together, in rooting on Capital
High School, when it faces competitors all over the county and
state.
One of the most anticipated occurrences, in our town’s
history, was our state’s 100th birthday party. Many people and
dignitaries poured into Charleston, to celebrate West Virginia’s
Centennial, on June 20, 1963. Numerous women, including my
mother and grandmother, had sewn authentic-looking nineteenth-
century dresses and hats to wear, for the momentous occasion. My
family and I stood out in the rain for hours, on the grounds of the
state capitol, to hear president Kennedy’s speech. We were up on
top of a set of steps, and could look over the throng of people. The
sea of mostly black, wet umbrellas was such an unforgettable,
peculiar sight. No one could have predicted, that five months later,
our beloved president would be assassinated.