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Chewing the fat at the mill
Read MoreSpend an hour or two shelling corn and chewing the fat with Larry Mustain at his Reed’s Mill, and the conversation eventually comes around to instances of sex in the mill. “We heard a bunch of splashing by that little bridge (over the mill raceway),”…
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Sunday Afternoon with a legend
Read MoreIt was August 16, 2004, when my father and I met Volkmar Wentzel at his home in Aurora, W.Va. He and his wife, Viola, were visiting their farm from Washington, D.C., and agreed to meet me for an interview for Goldenseal Magazine. Mr. Wentzel is…
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Virginia furnace glows for a split second
Read MoreThe stone pyramid stands between Route 26 and Muddy Creek in Preston County, an imposing artifact from the county’s nascent industrial era. The iron furnace was built by Levi Kennet for Harrison Hagans, Brandonville’s foremost entrepreneur, merchant, and promoter. Historian Reardon S. Cuppett claimed it…
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The Truth about taxes
Read MoreTax season. That time of year when we settle up with the U.S. Treasury, via the Internal Revenue Service, and scratch our heads at where it all went. Local, school, personal property, municipal, state and the big one, federal, all chip away at our earnings…
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disjointed clips imitate life
Read MoreIt came to me as 400-foot reel of 16mm, silent, black-and-white film a decade ago. A friend had purchased it at an estate sale, but lacking a projector, passed it on to me. I love old film. It is like getting a gift from the…
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West Virginia Backroads videos added
Read MoreDuring the past six months of recovery from open heart surgery, I have had the downtime necessary to put together several videos of my interviews for Goldenseal magazine. These videos are packaged as “West Virginia Backroads” and are available on YouTube. Most of these videos…
