Local Landmark Topples

This local landmark is just a hop and a skip down the road from where I live.

But, not any more.
The walls came tumbling down.

According to a friend who lives across the road from it,
the old barn fell to the ground with a loud rumble at 9:45 pm last night.

I will miss it, we have drove past it almost daily for the last 30 years.

No longer will I get to take seasonal pictures of this beautiful relic of a time gone by.

I posted on this barn before. It has been leaning for quite some time. Seems like each trip down the road the lean was a little more pronounced. I knew it was just a matter of time.

Wish I could have held it up.

Good Bye, Old Friend.

Traveling West Virginia - Covered Bridges

Along a country road

There are only 17 covered bridges left in West Virginia. You can go here and click on their names on the side of the page and see pictures of all 17 of them.

We are lucky, we have two in Jackson County. I have seen the one located at Cedar Lakes a gazillion times. Yesterday we took a trip to see this one out past Sandyville. I had never been to it before. It is easy to get to. Stay on Rt. 21 going out of Ripley. Go past Gilmore Elementary School just a little ways and you are there. Watch for a sign that says Sarvis Fork Road and turn down it. Go a little ways down that road and you can step back in time for a little while.

I am from days gone by

come through me and
step back in time

Why were they covered?
A romantic place to 'steal' a kiss. . .
A place of shelter for people and animals. . .
No, it was simply to protect the bridge from the elements of the weather.

Why were most painted red?
It made the bridge appear more like a barn
to skittish horses and cattle when crossing over the flowing water.

It is sad that so few of these are left.

Before you turn off at Sarvis Fork Road there is a Mail Pouch Tobacco barn on the left of Rt. 21 that is in need of repair.


We missed the turn off and I am glad we did. On down the road where we turned around is another Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn, and it is so pretty. . . I had to take a picture of it, too.



Hope you enjoyed Traveling West Virginia and coming with me back in time.

Are there any covered bridges in the county or state where you live?

Trip to Glenville

This past weekend Charley and I traveled the long and twisting road to Glenville. We went to the West Virginia Folk Festival.

On the way there we passed by this neat little church. I love the shape of it.


Here I am with a few children in the Storyteller's Tent. I read one of my stories and the kids acted out the scarecrow and the farmer. They had a ball! I enjoyed myself, too. I found out that talking in front of people is not as hard as I thought it would be. I was there reading my stories from 4-5 pm on Saturday. In addition to my children's stories, the audience and I also talked about superstitions. I love to write about Appalachia and two of my fictional children's stories take place in West Virginia. One of them in 1908 rural West Virginia. It is filled with superstitions.


I had to take a picture of this window when I saw it. The sign said it was Akro Agate - made in Clarksburg, WV.




On the way back from Glenville, we stopped at Cedar Creek State Park. We used to go camping there and we wanted to drive through the park while we were in the area. Here is an old one-room school house surrounded with geese.



I though I'd sit for a spell while there.


In Spencer we drove past the Robey Movie Theater. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. It opened in 1907 as a vaudeville house. In 1908 it showed motion pictures. Alias Jimmy Valentine was the first talkie it showed. The Robey Theater still shows movies in Spencer.



And you know, I had to take a picture of this barn.


I love traveling West Virginia.

Out and About

We got out from under the covers and out and about this morning before the snow started.

In 2008 I posted here about Mail Pouch Tobacco Barns. We have one just a little ways down the road from us. I took a picture of the back side of it on the way to town.


I also took this picture of turkeys following each other across a field. There is usually around 2 dozen turkeys in this field along with a herd of deer. I guess they knew I had my camera with me and decided not to show today.


On the way back, no one was behind us, so Charley slowed down so I could take a few pictures. The barn is slowly falling apart. I'm afraid it won't last through the winter without collapsing.


These pictures were taken during another snow storm which is coming through today and tomorrow. We didn't make it home before the snow started to come down.



It's the leaning barn of Fairplain. I feel like taking some long boards and propping it up.



And here are three horses braving the cold and snow across the creek in front of our house.


Hope everyone's ready for the cold weekend ahead of us.
Bundle up, or better yet, stay inside if you don't have to go anywhere.

Road Trip on a Cool Day

We went on a road trip Saturday up the Ohio River to Wheeling.

Here are a few sights we saw along the way.....

This was an unexpected pleasure. Marble King at Paden City, WV. I saw the sign and couldn't resist stopping.

It was a nostalgic trip back in time. Anyone remember playing a game of marbles when they were a child? The factory was beside the gift shop. The gift shop was a house with an open sign in the window, filled with lots of marbles and glass items.

MARBLES, MARBLES.....

AND MORE MARBLES!

A Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn in Friendly, WV

This building is the home company in Wheeling, WV

For my previous post on the history of Mail Pouch Tobacco Barns and more pictures go here.

At the end of the road, just what we were looking for.

"COME ON IN AND LOOK AROUND"

"JOIN THE CROWD!"

"HURRY!"

"NOW BE NICE, THERE'S ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE"

"Y'ALL COME BACK NOW, YOU HEAR."

Have you ever been to Cabela's?

MAIL POUCH TOBACCO BARNS

I think of our country as a museum for all to enjoy.

Everywhere you look there is something waiting to be observed and to learn from. Whether it is a carved rock on a hillside, beautiful herons, arrowheads left behind by Native Americans, or painted barns that are a colorful part of our landscape.

In 1890 the Bloch Brothers, owners of Mail Pouch Tobacco, decided to take their advertising to the outdoors.

They looked about and decided barns were the obvious location for advertising.

The farmers got a free paint job, sometimes a small cash settlement and free samples.

The barns were painted free hand. Harley Warrick was the most recognizable painter of the barns. By the time of his death in 2000 he had painted or repainted some 20,000 barns, give or take a few. He started painting for Mail Pouch fresh out of the army in 1946. He and a helper painted 2 barns a day, 6 days a week for a weekly salary of $32.

He helped to preserve and create a piece of vanishing Americana.

The slogan “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco Treat Yourself to the Best” dominated barn sides until the 1960s, when the ban on tobacco ads and the 1965 Federal Highway Beautification Act, which prohibited advertising within 660 feet of federal highways, helped put a stop to the painting. The campaign officially ended in 1969.

In 1974 congress excluded “landmark signs adorning farm structures or natural surfaces, or of historic or artistic significance” from the 1965 law.

But, today the Mail Pouch Barns are becoming rare. Every year a few more succumb to the elements. They are made of fading paint and aged lumber and are slowly fading into America’s history.

Here is a barn located down the road from my house, I get to see this piece of Americana almost daily.

Here is a barn located on Rt. 2 going toward Pt. Pleasant, WV

There are many sites on the internet about the Mail Pouch Barns; here is one with lots of articles and pictures.

For more pictures of Mail Pouch Barns go to my other post here.

Are there any of these barns in your area?