| By Alvin Engelke
 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
A number of area residents attended the Wirt County Farm Bureau dinner and feasted on Gary Jones' pickled corn, R. P. Doty's yummy ham and turkey and lots of other good fixins. Sam Garrett's daughter provided an update on the W. Va. Dept. of Agriculture's premise ID numbers for keeping livestock. She pointed out that one should not buy the computer tags or other stuff yet as details on such are not yet worked out.
The Wirt road crew was repairing damage done to the Ann's Run road by timber operators. Two men from the Division of Forestry were calling Friday on Don Runyon who has moved his operation from on Ann's Run to the old Howard Cooper farm on Little Creek. He has been hauling out immense logs.
The comely Samantha who is known for her brownies and her mother were calling at Elizabeth Michaels in Parkersburg.
Mr. Dexterity and a comely woman were attending to business in the county court house. She joked something about Mr. Dexterity being an "oil tycoon".
The shortage of flu vaccine is an example of government regulations gone amuck. A part of Hillary Care that was passed "guaranteed" immunizations for children but since then the percentage of children without shots has increased. Because of those rules and the risk of costly lawsuits, no company now makes flu vaccine in the United States and the only available supply (after the British supply became contaminated) is from France. There are still some living who survived the 1919 epidemic. Such can happen again.
Don Reichard and Randy Roberts, who operate as Green Thumb Landscaping, stained Tom & Barb Fluharty's house at Annamoriah. Tom reported that they did a fine job and that Don is a candidate for magistrate in Roane County.
The "government ladybugs" better known as Asiatic beetles have made their annual appearance. In places they look like swarms of bees. They are invading homes, churches, business buildings wherever else they choose to go. One might say that they should have controlled the pecan aphids locally, especially since there are only a handful of pecan trees.
Nancy & Jane Engelke attended the Miss W. Va. USA pageant in Flatwoods. Kristin Morrison won with a gown that Jane designed.
Anna Engelke and 6 of the Funchester group spent Saturday in Washington Dee Cee.
Rev. Juanita Lockhart filled her regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church. Next Sunday Rev. Carlos Nutter will give Holy Communion.
James Brian Skaggs, a/k/a The Preacherman, and family left in the middle of the night "for a new high paying job in Arkansas". He had noted that he made $4,000/month from his computer business while renting a trailer from Don Rhodes. He left behind all his books on witchcraft and sorcery along with skulls and other paraphernalia used in the "black arts".
Butch Goodnight was calling on Matthew Copen. Matt was also having chariot trouble.
The worldwide presidential campaign seems to permeate all aspects of life these days. Some of the Socialists in England called for assassins to kill the president while ACORN, a left wing group that has been signing up voters for the French looking candidate registered two Al Qaida members as Ohio voters even though one is doing 20 years & the other is an illegal alien and not eligible to vote.
Lots of folks have been participating in the early voting at the county clerk's office.
George & Cynthia Engelke were visiting Alvin, Nancy & Anna Engelke, the latter in Virginia. George reported that all the businesses he visits are doing far better than they were in 2000 and that everyone he knew was expecting the economy to take off with the major problem likely being a shortage of employees, a situation that already exists in many areas now. He noted that because of increased demand one cannot purchase over the road tractors and some very old ones are being overhauled to fill the need. Some of those down at the Mouth of Elk River did admit recently that most of the state's workforce is not "qualified for the jobs of the 21st century." Certainly the state's ruling class didn't deliberately dumb down the state's youth, now did they?
Theresa Rollins was calling on Mr. & Mrs. Carl Ferrell and family as she made her rounds in Creston. Also calling on the Ferrell family were Jeff Westfall and Mark "Old Lizard" Shimer. Jeff got a haircut while "The Old Lizard" had his beard trimmed.
The Hur Herald did a story on the 1894 visit to Grantsville by Creston native Tom Haggerty. According to reports from the time he wrecked both the Stump Hotel and the Crossbar Hotel. Seems he and Mel McCroskey had spent a month in the Wirt County jail and were transferred up there for charges including dynamiting fish. The Wirt County jailer noted that Tom had brass knuckles but didn't take them away as he didn't want to act scared. Tom has lots of relatives in the area. Some years later he and his brother Dick demolished the Creston saloon. Later they, like their father before them, vanished without a trace.
The price of local Penn grade crude oil rose to $51.50/bbl. Some feel that the stability of Saudi Arabia is questionable and that terrorists could take over and, among other things destroy the oil fields [to rid the kingdom of infidels]. The tenuous situation is why the U. S. Military closed their bases there and moved forces to Iraq. Apparently that truth is wasted on those who would put personal political gain above our nation's security because such is another valid reason why we have troops in Mesopotamia.
UPS and FedEx were both making deliveries in the Creston area. By the weekend some deliveries may be made by broom. It was reported that some in the education business decided the little tykes couldn't celebrate because it "might offend witches". Sometimes one wonders what the real goals of those who profess to lead education really are. These are the same folks who object to profiling terrorists as it might offend Mohammad or Abdul or Yassir or Obama or Osama or someone.
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