Tables spread with tasty country vittles
History lovers peruse times past photo albums
It's a tradition established by the late Randall and Blanche Whytsell, the Whytsell Reunion on the lower West Fork of the Little Kanawha between faded Rocksdale and Richardson, a throw-back to hundreds of reunions and gatherings common to the region in the last century.
The gathering will be held on Sunday, August 2, bring a covered dish with dinner at 1 p.m.
(L-R) Charley McKown and music-makers belt "West Fork
Valley Home"; John Elliott still pick'in and sing'in
Ralph Carpenter and Norma McCoy Kemp check-out the "Sweet Table"
(L-R) Jim Bell laughs it up with August Moon
Weaver; Famous 20th Century Brannon mustache
The common element to earlier days will be the huge tables of food, all kinds of country cookin' brought by the participants from the area and out-of-state returnees, accompanied by a long mouth-watering dessert table.
If you don't like "fancy" drinks, you can get a sup of free-flowing water from the Hart Spring (named for Civil War renegade Nancy Hart).
Peggy Whytsell Stemple with her husband Marvin are keeping the gathering alive. She said "What it's really about is old neighbors and friends re-uniting, and doin' some talkin'."
The kids enjoy creekin' and muddin'
(L-R) "Hey, we found a natural seat";
"Look at that big craw-dad"
Like times past, kids catch craw-dads and minnows from the creek, boys pound trees with sticks (or each other), generally playing in the mud and creek, climb the steep wooded hillsides, sacrificing their electronic devices and 21st Century technology entertainment for a brief time.
There is mountain and gospel music, not fancy, the tunes ringing across the gathering and up and down the valley, not much different than 100 years ago, with the annual rendition of Randall's tune "My West Fork Valley Home."
Surely it is the visiting and "talk'in up" that's the essence of the get-together, catching up on changes, ups and downs, and the general well-being of chatterers and story tellers that takes up most of the afternoon.
Peggy Whytsell Stemple has always said, "You don't have to be a Whytsell to attend. Come on down."
"Fish man" Jim Bell pulls off another
fish fry, serving Richard Price
See 2013 WHYTSELL GATHERING ON THE FORK - "Come Home, It's Suppertime" | 
