West Virginia---North or South

Growing up in the New York metropolitan area, I was indoctrinated that life west of the Delaware River (and for residents of the City, the line was the Hudson River and we in New Jersey were included) was just simply inferior. People just were not.......the same as us....not as smart, not as open to new ideas, not as whatever stupid thing we believed.

Since I left New Jersey in 1975 I have always lived west of the Delaware. I have even lived south of the Mason Dixon. I was scolded when I moved from Connecticut to Nashville with Dan and Lisa in elementary and middle schools that I just should not take my kids to a place with inferior schools. I heard the exact same words spoken to me when I moved from Nashville to West Virginia. with Sam entering middle school.

What I have learned is people are people are people everywhere. Opportunities for education exist everywhere just as everywhere there are people who ignore those opportunities for education.

I have also learned that in each place I live, people believe it is the very best place to live and can not, to some extent, conceive living anywhere else. No where is that more evident that here in West Virginia.

People just want things to stay the same...families to stay in the same town. Stores to always be where they were when they were growing up. We did notice, when we got back to Huntington from our vacation, that the welcome sign which said something about the Marshall Football Team being a champion in some long past year..that sign has been removed....time for the team to win again I guess.

Okay, enough ruminating. On to the Pig Roast. We were invited by some friends to join them at their beautiful Ohio Riverfront home for the evening. It was a wonderful meal and the friends there were warm and cheerful and we had to leave way too soon.

It got me thinking that pig roasts are typically southern in tradition and West Virginia still straddles the southern culture despite what people during the Civil War era decided. I had a teacher for 5th grade who was from Mongalia County, West Virginia..and she had a southern accent..at least to my Yankee ears. And yet the Smith family generally felt that Dave's mom, from West Virginia, was a Yankee.

One thing is for sure.....it sure is prettier here than in New Jersey.