Take me home, country roads

On our journey from Virginia to Kentucky, we traveled through the state of West Virginia. The state was a constant contradiction. On the one hand, the trees were dressed magnificently in their fall wardrobes with brilliant orange, gold and scarlet hues. They seemed almost to sprout from rugged rock and slate shelves. There was no avoiding bursting into song with John Denver’s Country Roads. 

Sing along...”Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama

Take me home, country roads

All my memories gather round her

Miner's lady, stranger to blue water

Dark and dusty, painted on the sky

Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama...”

Yet, driving on the backroads through Coal Country, or what was left of it, there was a mournful devastation. Along the highway interspersed between well cared for homes were houses in various states of decay. Some were patched together with sheets of metal, while others were leaning over almost to the point of collapse. Abandoned vehicles and rusted furniture dotted the landscape. The only way to know which of these houses were abandoned was the presence or absence of smoke in the chimney on this very chilly day.

The Coal Miner’s Memorial in Quinwood, with granite slabs filled with names of miners who died, along with the statue of a coal dusted man and the phrase “United in Coal” certainly set a somber tone. The gloomy skies and the steady rain did nothing to rinse away the sadness and despair of an area that seems to have been abandoned by all but those who truly have nowhere else to go.

Like Denver’s lyrics, we headed off for some moonshine, with teardrops in our eyes.