 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The local area had more snow and zero type weather and then it warmed up melting most of the snow. However, the trash truck failed to make the rounds and garbage is piling up.
The federal government mandate to change the types of television sets folks have has been in the news again. Apparently the old tee vee antennas will not work with the newly mandated frequencies that have been decreed so that the FCC can sell the bandwidth to others for big bucks.
Former Creston resident Helen "Peggy" Cooper is now back home & on the mend after dealing with pneumonia and other ailments which forced a stay in a nursing home. She celebrated her 80th birthday and would like to hear from her friends. Her address is 222 O'Dell Lane, Parkersburg, W. Va. 26104.
Helen "Peggy" Cooper (center) enjoys birthday with family and friends
Euell Russell was consulting with his physician at Minnie Hamilton Health Care Center.
Alvin Engelke was consulting with Dr. Mills who did a root canal.
One local resident saw one of the wolves that had been turned lose locally. He tried to shoot it but the shot was too long and the varmint escaped. One fellow noted that someone in the DNR was given millions by insurance companies to turn the wolves loose to kill the deer that were causing car wrecks. Earlier they had tried the coyotes but they didn't do the job well enough. Not so long back Bill Ward killed one of the wild hogs that someone turned loose in Wirt County.
A United Nations spokesman Arie Hoekman said that high rates of divorce and out of wedlock births represent the triumph of "Human Rights" over "Patriarchy". The recent arrival of 8 illegitimates at one time in California must have been a "great victory" then.
Edward Harkin, the pilot who landed a Piper airplane on the dePue farm in March 1947 was able to get in contact with the family of James Park, one of the folks who helped him. James, who was a former WWII POW & was the same age as Cap'n Harkin, & his brother "Mug" are now both deceased but their little sis, Marie Park Snyder, then a comely 16 year old, took the pilot to their home and Mabel, her mother, fixed him a meal. As they say, "Marie still ain't bad to look at." He also stayed at one of the dePue residences. Rod Lynch said, "I met that guy but I doubt if he remembers me as I was just a snot nosed kid." Betty Bish remembered that the entire Creston School took a field trip over (by crossing on the ferry) to see the airplane.
Harkin noted that he flew some more for Piper Aircraft and then went to Florida to do crop dusting. His older brother, an airline pilot, watched him dust a 100 acre 'tater patch in New Jersey and recommended him as a corporate co-pilot. He graduated from that in two years and flew for the Rockefeller family and took the Jay Boy's uncle Nelson around when he was running for VP. He then worked for Reader's Digest flying a Grumman Gulfstream and a Lockheed Jetstar. He flew all over Europe, the Middle East and in every state in the country. Mr. Harkin now lives in Franklin Tennessee and hopes to make it back to Creston before "I take my last flight West."
Local folks too have been concerned about the contaminated peanut butter products that came from a plant in Georgia. It seems that the FDA knew about the problem as a shipment that was sent to Canada was rejected because "of a filthy, putrid or decomposed substance". Samples were given to FDA (a federal oversight agency) which destroyed them and allowed the bad stuff to be sold in United States. Some would let (force) the feds to run health care, banking and most commerce in the name of "change".
A well-known West Virginia resident recently motored to Richmond Virginia to purchase a rifle. He had to have an original birth certificate, as well as other documents to purchase the gun. He told the salesman that this was absurd, as he had to show more proof than did the big-eared one who now is trying to run the ship of state. Various folks have reported difficulty in obtaining ammunition and there is concern that primer in new ammo will only last for 12 months. This on top of more talk about "detention camps" in America and the internal security force have many very, very worried.
The announcement that Ravenswood's Century Aluminum will close on February 20 comes as no real surprise. Off the top there is the loss of over 800 jobs and that does not include the trucking firms, etc and others that provided services, etc. Fugitive financier Mark Rich, who got in on Bill & Hill's big pardon sale did own the plant & almost wrecked Jackson County back then. Bill's head pardon sale man on that deal is now the messiah's AG. There is a report that a new aluminum plant is to open up in Mexico.
Allegheny Power noted that since the aluminum plat was such a big power user domestic rates in the area were lower but now residential rates would have to go up to cover lost revenue from the factory. The facility also was a big user of natural gas.
WVU's granting of an MBA degree to the governor's daughter who works for Broadway Joe's sugar daddy is back in the news. Little Heather wants to know why they yanked her sheepskin when it was later reported that 288 others received degrees without completing the course work. Of course her daddy said he had nothing in it even though he appointed a political crony as "el prezidente" of the hapless school just before her degree "appeared". All this, of course, places a cloud over all degrees handed out there and adds to the view that "we have the best politicians that money can buy"
Some local residents attended the home show in Parkersburg.
Denver & Tammy McFarland were attending to business in Elizabeth.
Gae Park who recently "retired" from her work noted that she missed not being with the folks that she formerly helped.
Joe Pennington retired from his employment and his helping with his wife who has been undergoing chemotherapy.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude oil dropped to $34/bbl but gasoline prices, at least locally, seem to be edging higher.
While official Washington seems to be following the pied piper of so called global warming and working to end the usage of oil, gas and coal (those bad fossil fuels) the state tax department has said that coal properties are now worth 100 times what their former value. It would seem that Al Gore isn't the only one that has been smoking strange stuff.
Equitable Gas announced that they will drill 6 more horizontal wells in the Marcellus shale in Doddridge County. The two lawsuits over the legal status of Marcellus shale wells (deep or shallow) have been consolidated in McDowell County Circuit Court. Some Marcellus locations require ten acres and if they are defined as "deep" drillers will be required to obtain permission from surface owners before the wells can be drilled.
There is quite a bit of talk about changes in the Charleston office of Chesapeake Appalachia. The name of British Petroleum (BP) continues to surface. Way back when the name of that company was the Anglo Persian Oil Company. The Rothschilds and Rockefellers are involved.
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