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posted by Dave Peyton @ 11:31 AM 18 comments

My son's take on "We are Marshall"

.... from his live journal Web site:

I am a bit ashamed.

At 7:37 p.m. on Saturday, November 14, 1970 as the Marshall University football team was returning from a narrow defeat at Eastern Carolina, a chartered jet carrying 75 members of the football team, coaches and several fans crashed 30 seconds short of Tri State Airport, instantly killing everyone aboard.

I was in-utero then. My father, a reporter at the time for The Herald Dispatch in Huntington, WV went to the crash site, 2 miles West of the airport to cover the tragedy. The lightly wooded field where the plane came down was littered with bodies and metal hunks from the plane. This would be one of a series of West Virginia tragedies my father would have to report on over the years.

Growing up in Huntington, it was an ever-present cloud that hung over the community, but since I was so young the tragedy didn't touch my generation like it did the previous generation... or so I thought.

I cannot even remember when I was first told about the largest sports tragedy in the history of the United States of America. It seemed like a far-off land to me. I didn't understand the full impact that this tragedy had on my little hometown. Perhaps I still don't, but with the mostly-accurate historic mass-market movie "We are Marshall" I now understand a little more about what shaped my hometown and why Marshall University is so completely tied to the town.

I am proud to be from Huntington West Virginia. I'm proud of Marshall University. I'm proud of the people of West Virginia... yes... even those dirty Morgantowners...

The movie gave me a far greater understanding of one of the enormities that shaped my home. I am ashamed that it took something as trivial as a Hollywood movie to enlighten me as to the occurrances surrounding the Marshall plane crash and subsequent years.

I will always be fiercely proud of where I am from. I will, as usual, suffer the barbs of the nescient masses out there who consider West Virginia to be a land of slack-jawed yokals whose only interests culminate in such lofty pastimes as drinking beer and riding ATVs while hunting deer and relax in the evenings to the latest NASCAR event.

I have lived many places: The Greater Detroit Metro Area of Michigan (including Ann Arbor), Washington D.C., New York City and Cleveland, OH. I was born in West Virginia, and if God is kind to me, I will die there as well. It will always be my home.

"We are Marshall"

posted by Dave Peyton @ 11:40 AM 80 comments

Can We Order 50,000 of these for West Virginia Highways?

posted by Dave Peyton @ 6:17 PM 4 comments

Merry Christmas wishes from a preacher

This Christmas wish was posted on the HuntingtonNews.net Bulletin Board:

Let me be the first to wish everyone a blessed and Merry Christmas. In the spirit of the Season, let me say that, if I have offended any Demagogicrats: perversion facilitators or pro-abortionists, then let me say that I have meant every word I said; and, since I offended you, I am especially merry this year. HO! HO! HO!

The message was written by a poster who calls himself Kilohana. But longstanding readers of the Bulletin Board know he is Terry K. Hagedorn. He is a preacher at Calvary Baptist Church in Reedsville, WV.

He is one of the primary reasons I stay away from all churches. Imagine being sucked into a church where a guy like this is a preacher, then being mesmerized by him. It can happen. I've seen it happen.

I have never seen such a mean streak in so many people. Bloggers are mean. Radio talk show hosts are mean. Politicians in Congress are mean. People in the President's office are mean.

Preachers are mean.

I used to post occasionally to HuntingtonNews.net but I have stopped. I posted what I thought was a rather innocuous message there a couple of months ago. I was attacked by someone who was so vitriolic, I sensed he was dangerous. So I stopped. I have responsibilities and I don't have time to be killed right now.

Can't we all just get along?

Apparently not.

So be it.

Just leave me out of the loop when it comes to hateful speech.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 10:53 PM 422 comments

All I can say is - Wow!!!

If you live within 50 miles of Huntington and its bedroom community of Proctorville Ohio, you need to get there before New Year's Day to see Art Suiter's light spectacular at his house.

The more than 20,000 lights pulsate in time to the rhythms of music played on your car radio.

It you want to know the show times and get a preview of the light spectacular see Suiters Web page at http://www.christmaslights2006.com/

You gotta see it.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 11:45 AM 0 comments

My Grandpa's Fiddle

This is one of the best Christmases ever for me. I have my Grandpa John Duncan's fiddle. You can read more about it in the Christmas Day Charleston Daily Mail. Meanwhile, you can see pictures of it by clicking on the picture below.

Thanks to my cousin, Patsy Black, for giving it to me and to Joe Dobbs of the Fred 'N Fiddle in St. Albans for refurbishing it

posted by Dave Peyton @ 8:40 PM 3 comments

Ahhh, to be in Barrow, now that winter's here

If you had Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), be glad you don't live in Barrow, Alaska.
Here's the sunrise-sunset report for Barrow for today.


Civil Twilight 11:58 AM AKST 2:50 PM AKST
Nautical Twilight 9:45 AM AKST 5:03 PM AKST
Astronomical Twilight 8:18 AM AKST 6:31 PM AKST
Moon No Moon Rise No Moon Set
Length Of Visible Light: 2h 52m
Length of Day 0h 00m
Tomorrow will be 0m 0s shorter.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 11:11 AM 12 comments

Unbelieveable

"Parents always talk about their kids! In fact, people like me that don't have kids, you get sick of hearing about it. I don't want to see the pictures anymore! I don't want to hear about the honor roll! I don't want to hear about the latest poem. I don't want to hear about it! They never stop talking about their kids."

In case you don't know, it comes from none other than Rush Limbaugh. In fact, he's so proud of the quote, it's part of his "quotable quotes" on his Web site.

Is there an alternate universe where Rush Limbaugh and his hateful right wing friends don't exist. If so, can I get a ticket to go there?

By the way, I'll quit talking about my kid when Limbaugh stops talking about Obama's big ears.

But I don't think we have much longer to put up with him. The recidivism among drug addicts is more than 80 percent.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 6:19 PM 3 comments