 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The Creston area has been having March weather, some winter wonderland snow covering all the limbs on the trees, rain, warmer weather with singing amphibians. Wild turkey gobblers have been strutting their stuff aiming to impress the demure hens and on Sunday there were in excess of two dozen robins, along with numerous juncos in one garden along the West Fork of the Little Kanawha.
Irene Cunningham, former wife of Alvie Dale Cunningham, age 85 passed away in Ohio.
Betty Lucille Ware, age 85, passed away at the Willows rest home. She was a daughter of Lawrence & Goldie Miller Hopkins. She is survived by 3 sons and a sister. Burial was at Mt. Carmel in Walker.
There was a nice crowd at Amy Ferrell's baby shower at the Creston Community Building. She received many useful gifts for the new arrival who is due just any day now.
Jeremy Ferrell had a close scrape with death when after 3 days of spitting up blood his heart rate in the emergency room was 19. He was transferred to the WVU hospital at Morgantown were it was determined that he had two tears (an old one that reopened and a new one) in his esophagus. He is expected to make a full recovery.
Charles Russell was calling on Ray Gumm, Parris Parsons and brother Euell at the Miletree nursing home.
Nancy Engelke was consulting her opthamologist.
The Wirt Oil & Gas group met Saturday at the high school in Elizabeth and approved the lease for the Marcellus acreage to be marketed. Letters of committment were also handed out. They need to be signed and returned soon to Jim Lyden at P. O. Box 657, Elizabeth, W. Va. 26143-0657.
It was learned that the Obamacare medical device tax also includes sport fishing equipment, fishing rods & poles, electric outboard motors, tackle boxes, bows, arrows, broadheads & points, coal, taxable tires, gas guzzler automobiles and vaccines (see chap 5, IRS publication #554).
A local oil & gas man and his wife decided they needed some new furniture so they went to Big Sandy & picked out two pieces, put them in the pickup and headed back to Sunny Cal. Howsomever, the recliner fell out of the bed onto I-77 totaly demolishing the piece. However, the store replaced the item at no extra charge.
Butch Deer's men were in Creston hauling oil the other day.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude oil rose to $93.85/bbl with drip fetching $83.24, Marcellus & Utica light $88.68 and medium $95.35/bbl.
Anna & Adam Yates toured the Newseum in Washington, Dee Cee.
Lois Marks noted that she has acquired more canning jars and is excited about the canning season. Many feel it is wise to have on hand food that will keep without an electric grid through the tough times that seem to be getting closer all the time. It is called "cutting America down to size" by certain political types who hate America and everything about it and especially the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The Wirt road crew was patching the imperfections in the surface of the roadway with cold mix the other day. Both the Wirt & Calhoun crews have been out picking up litter while the Wood County crew hasbeen cutting timber & firewood. Crews have been told to use no material and that 40 hours is tops, even for heavy maintenance and the bridge crew and no travel time. Working on bridges in southern Roane & Calhoun might be a problem driving from Parkersburg every day. Not so long back a slip job in Clay County was given to a contractor from Indiana with the explanation that, under the wise guidance of Broadway Joe and Earl Ray, the state road people now only do "core maintenance".
It was learned that there is a new school curriculum for grades 1, 2 & 3 which has heros that most adults have never heard of and explanations of why communism and socialism is far better than free enterprise. The children are taught to "be fair" and that Christopher Columbus was a bad and nasty guy. | 
