charley west

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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

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This chapter is about my hometown of Charleston, WV.

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Page 1: Charley West

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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.