Bob Weaver Nov. 2024
I stopped on Grantsville's main drag just afternoon on a Saturday, the only folks that could be spotted were in front of the court house, Spencer preacher John Cummings of the Church of the Living God delivering the gospel - not a single soul to hear him, expect me and two of his parishioners.
While I have often written that Calhoun's greatest virtue is quiet, this could be an exception, the preacher's voice echoing against the silent buildings. It could be prophetic as the first quarter of the 21st Century comes to a close.
I couldn't help but flashback to the 1940s thru the 60s when it would be difficult to find a parking place and the town was crowded with wall-to-wall people, the Salvation Army sermonizing on the courthouse steps, a county preacher or two delivering the gospel across the street and a few guys pickin' and singin' down the street.
And here was preacher Cummings delivering the message, no listeners in sight, partly caused with disenchantment of the Christian religion in America.
It seems strange that not a outlet store is open on the main part of Main Street, although the town looks good through the efforts of the Town of Grantsville and the 1982 Foundation, who have really spruced it up.
The small county seat never had a population much over a thousand, now estimated at 475, struggling to keep basic services going.
Calhoun County has less than half the population since 1940 at 12,000, peaking during the agricultural era, now shrunk to 5,800.
Calhoun Schools enrollment has dropped over half from 1,700 in the early 1990s to about 800+ in 2024.
It's fodder for politicians to blame their opponents, but the same has happened in over 30 of West Virginia's rural counties, fading.
The most benevolent gift of the backwoods county is open space with woods, allowing families to enjoy the quiet and elbow room to raise food and wander, nearly half of the population now being transplants from other states, seeking to
be unburdened by the chaos and crowding of metropolitan areas, far from the maddening crowd.
SURELY THERE IS VALUE IN THE SMALL
Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" reminds us that rural people think a lot about their families, the universe, the eternal. They can see the starry sky, the milky-way and beyond.
They can see each other.
Urban people, it seems, are forced to think more about themselves, living in faceless cities geared to rapid-transit lives. We shouldn't hold that against them.
Bigger is better, more efficient, cost saving, the power brokers say.
But, surely there is value in the small.
When all is said and done, what really matters is the place upon which we stand. Our standing place is where we thrive, grow, learn, love and change. - Bob Weaver 2008
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