Finding inspiration from “Emily’s Ghost”

At book signings, I enjoy hearing what motivates writers to put words down on paper. I have lots of ideas floating around in my head, but I never seem to actually get them organized and down onto paper.

My friend Sarah and I went to the Morgantown Barnes and Noble last week to a book signing for Denise Giardina’s new book “Emily’s Ghost.” Giardina is an interesting person in her own right – an award-winning West Virginia author, an Episcopal deacon, an activist and a former gubernatorial candidate. I was hopeful she would have some helpful comments. She did.

Here are a few thoughts I took away from that evening:

1. Someone asked Giardina if her characters “spoke” to her, and she said that they did. The person who asked the question said she heard from many writers that their characters actually talk to them. That concept is interesting to me because I’ve always felt you can hear the “voices in your head” when trying to write dialogue.

2. Giardina didn’t write her first book until she was 30. I’m past 30, but this still gives me hope. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to accomplish goals by a certain age or we give up. Maybe once you’ve lived a bit more of life, you have more to say.

3. Giardina wanted to write the Bronte story from Emily’s perspective, instead of Charlotte’s. Because Charlotte outlived the rest of her family, her version of their family life became the official story. I imagine that I have a different family view from my siblings, so that makes a lot of sense to me.

4. I did not realize that her earlier books, “Storming Heaven” and “The Unquiet Earth,” were connected to Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights.” On her web site, Giardina states she considers “Emily’s Ghost” to be the third book of a trilogy. I’ll have to read the others.

5. Giardina did a great deal of research for this book and even traveled to Haworth, England, to tour the Bronte homeplace.

I am a couple chapters into “Emily’s Ghost” and am really enjoying it. As a lifelong Bronte admirer, I find it entertaining and exciting to read about them from a new perspective. I’m also feeling inspired to start listening to some of my own ghosts.

For more information about Denise Giardina or “Emily’s Ghost,” visit http://www.denisegiardina.com/index.htm.

A genealogy day in Morgantown

Inside the Garlow House

The exterior of the Garlow House

Last Saturday was a great day. My friend Valerie invited me for a trip to Morgantown to introduce me to two great places to do genealogy research—the Aull Center and West Virginia University’s West Virginia and Regional History Collection.

I was very excited to visit the Aull Center because it is housed in the historic Garlow House, built in 1907. Never have I worked in such a beautiful library. The librarian on duty was extremely friendly and helpful and gave us a tour of the entire house, which I really enjoyed. I could have spent all day there. They really have an extensive selection of local histories. Their brochure lists the following items that they house: Morgantown city directories, maps, high school yearbooks, cemetery readings, early deed book and court records, family histories and W.Va. county histories.

We moved on to the WVU collection, where I was amazed to see resources that top what the State Archive offers. I could spend a couple days there. Here’s a link to the collection online: http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/wvcollection/

What did I find? I found information, but no great leads. I was working on the big family mystery on Mom’s side, which is finding the parents of my great-, great-grandfather Homer Freeman, who was an orphan. He fought in the Civil War and was a teacher for more than 30 years in Upshur County.

I really enjoy learning about family history and am glad to find two more great places for research. Thanks for a great day, Valerie!

Pirate cat to blame for failing crops?

If you’ve seen my Facebook page lately, you’ve probably noticed my growing obsession with, well, growing things, mostly vegetables.


Last year, my husband and I (99 percent David) put out two barrels, one with zucchini and cucumbers and one with tomatoes. We had a ton of zucchini, but the other plants didn’t do very well. This summer we put out Topsy Turvy tomatoes, a barrel of green peppers and a barrel of zucchini. Only the peppers have survived. Over the weekend, we pulled out the zucchini and replaced them with begonias. Argh.

I blame the boat cat. That’s right. The neighbors behind our house have had a landlocked boat on the border of our yard for years. It’s a landmark right beside our gravel driveway.

The other day I was weeding the edges of the driveway (as my husband likes me to do). I pulled a Wal-Mart bag full of clippings and went to take a rest.

As David and I stood there, a mangy gray cat came down from the boat and sauntered over to smell my grass clippings. The cat walked down the driveway to our two barrels of produce. With us watching, it got up into the zucchini barrel and conducted some business. It then moseyed over to the pepper barrel and looked into it and walked away. The brazen feline marched back down the driveway toward us and went under our startlingly white Dodge Dakota, my husband’s pride and joy. David and the cat had a standoff, and eventually the cat lost. It ran away to terrorize another house.

My theory is that this pirate cat might be the zucchini killer. I’m going to keep an eye out for this cat. I think it might generate some interesting stories. (Avast, me hearties!)

More critters

My co-workers, relatives and Facebook buddies have requested more photos of my sock critters, and I am happy to oblige. These socks, buttons and bows tend to create a personality of their own. I’ve been thinking it would be fun to start a blog about the ones I’ve made and the special people who received them, then follow up to add notes about the things their new owners notice about them. We’ll see where it goes.

This one was for my friend Miyuki's new baby, Myleigh.

This one was for my husband David, who loves Dalmatians.

This one was for my friend Angela, who was having a tough time.

This one belongs to my sister Megan.




This one was for my friends Robert and Christy's new baby Anna.

Miss Bunny Fantastico, complete with cape, went to Lauren who is herself fantastico.

Andrew needed a friend with a mustache and goatee.

I think this may be Aunt Sis's Mabel.

This bunny went to my good friend Susan.

And this was one of the very first ones that went to Chas, who inspired all this nonsense.

The little things really matter

1976 - Me (at age 2) with Ma-Maw and Pa-Paw Baker

Dad mentioned to me that my sister, Molly, who is 14 years younger than I am, asked him some questions about his parents. She never met them because our Pa-Paw Luther D. Baker Sr. passed away in 1986 and our Ma-Maw Vada M. Baker passed away in 1985. I’m lucky enough to have known and loved them and to remember them.

What I’ve learned from doing genealogy research on both sides of my family is that the stories that really define us as people are the random memories. The little things you remember about someone you’ve lost –things they liked, what their house smelled like, how they laughed—are the things you can’t look up in courthouse records. Don’t lose the little things.

I put together a few of these random memories of my Baker grandparents and shared them with Molly for her most recent birthday.

Here are a few things I remember:

• 
  I remember how the house used to smell when we visited. The closest thing I’ve smelled like it is the Cracker Barrel restaurant-- a cross between a sweet apple butter and wood smoke from the fireplace.
• 
  When we got to Ma-Maw and Pa-Paw’s house or when we left, Ma-maw used to say, “Come here and give me some sugar.”
• 
  I remember Pa-Paw kept a really big garden in between their house and Aunt Karen’s. Down in the trees was a pen for Oscar the dog. We used to feed him table scraps sometimes. He was a really kind dog.
• 
  I remember the bathroom wallpaper was pink and silver. There are still pieces of it in the dollhouse Dad made for me when I was 4.
• 
  I have a jewelry box that I’ve had since I was a kid that Dad says Pa-Paw won in a card game when they lived at Fenwick. Ma-maw had a friend over, and Pa-Paw was out with another friend. The men came back with one jewelry box for Ma-Maw’s friend, and they were teasing Pa-Paw that he couldn’t win a second one. He left and came back with a second jewelry box.
  

Celebrating family ties

We West Virginians know how to treasure our families. The roots of Mother’s Day, Decoration Day and Father’s Day can be traced back to our state.

Fairmont’s Central United Methodist Church is recognized as holding the first Father’s Day service in the U.S. on July 5, 1908. A Spokane, Washington, woman is given credit for establishing the day as a national holiday, but the first true observance was the worship service here.

According to an article in the Dominion Post written by my friend Kelly Barth in 1987, members of what was called the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South may have been motivated in creating the service by the 1907 Monongah mine disaster, which claimed the lives of many area fathers. Of course, the first Mother’s Day observance happened in Grafton on May 10, 1908, so Father’s Day may have been a natural outgrowth of that holiday.

So, when you remember your father this Father’s Day, also remember that you’re really celebrating a West Virginia tradition. Go West Virginia!

Critters

The gift of a book from my friend Chas has created a whole new hobby – what I call sock critters. The book had ideas on making sock monsters, but I can’t follow simple directions so I began to do my own thing.

I take a pair of socks, some thread and some buttons and piece together a small creature. I like to sew them by hand, partly because I haven’t learned how to use my new sewing machine and partly because I just like the idea of creating something by hand.

When I start one, I try to think of little touches to make them personal. I made a Dalmatian for my husband who loves Dalmatians. For Christmas 2007, I made 15 different critters for my family members, and they were a big hit. I enjoy seeing people laugh when they open their gift and see this crazy creation staring at them with its button eyes.

My critters are a take on the sock monkey, which I love. They tend to take on a personality of their own. Sometimes I start out making one with one person in mind, but I realize in the middle of the sewing that the critter really belongs to someone else. For example, I bought some pastel polka dotted socks to make a critter for my friend Miyuki’s baby, but in the midst of the project I realized the critter was perfect for my aunt Tammy in North Carolina. Why? Well, Tammy and her family really enjoy eating at the Poky Dot restaurant in Fairmont when they come to visit. I bought more socks to make a critter for the baby.

I’ve been thinking I may start a new blog all about my critters and their owners. You never know…

A Favorite Place: North Bend Picnic Area

Since I was a little girl, my family has picnicked at the North Bend Picnic Area near Richwood. Lots of good memories have made it one of my favorite places.

Over Memorial Day weekend, my mom and stepdad and I made a trek there for an evening picnic of Dairy Queen hot dogs and iced tea.

North Bend is a great place to get your feet wet in the river, which I can never resist. If you go down to the river behind the first picnic spot on the left, you can see the remnants of a little rock dam that my four cousins built several years ago. They love the river, too, and will be glad to know part of their project is still standing. There’s a flat rock there that’s good for sitting and appreciating the sound of the river as it goes by.

I always think about the time that Ma-Maw Lipscomb was with us for a picnic and came out of the women’s outhouse screaming and jumping around because she shut herself in there with a mouse.

North Bend is one of those places I go in my mind when I need to de-stress.

P.S. I apologize to my blog followers that so much time has gone by between posts. Life has gotten in the way of blogging, but I hope to catch up this week. Thanks for sticking with me!

Missing persons

I have an envelope of smiling faces I don’t know. I have a locket with a stranger inside. I have a lost child in my cedar chest.

My mom and my Aunt Judy gave me an envelope of photos that belonged to my Ma-Maw Lipscomb that have no IDs. I have no idea who they are, but I can’t throw them away. One of my most prized possessions is my Ma-Maw’s locket. I think it belonged to her mother, and inside is a woman’s image. My great-great-grandmother? I don’t know. In my cedar chest, I have a framed photo of a nameless child who grew up to be one of my ancestors. I think we all have these mysterious missing persons in our families.

One of the saddest sights in an antique store is the box of cold case files. You know the one. It’s on a dark and dusty shelf and contains hundreds of photos, memories on sale to whoever wants them. How would you like it if your great-great-great-granddad’s face ended up on the walls of a Cracker Barrel?

I can’t urge you enough to write names on the backs of your photos and to organize and name digital photos so that others know whose image they see. Make scans of old photos and share them with your relatives and friends. Don’t let a lifetime of memories disappear through an accidental delete. Don’t create more missing persons! (I promise less of a rant next post. :) )

Mothman!

OK, so I’m Mothman fan. I’m wearing my orange Mothman T-shirt as I type this, and I have a stuffed animal Mothman on my desk at work. Yes, I’ve been to the Mothman Festival and hope to return this year. Ghosts and monsters are part of West Virginia’s Appalachian heritage. How cool is that?

If all you know about the Mothman is what you saw (or didn’t see) in the 2002 movie starring Richard Gere, you haven’t heard the entire story. The facts are far more chilling than fiction. No matter what you believe, residents of Point Pleasant, W.Va., saw some kind of winged creature in 1966 and 1967. (Of course, some say it was a sandhill crane.)

If you want to hear some details that will make you question what goes bump in the night, check out the book “Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend” by Jeff Wamsley and Donnie Sergent, Jr. The pair grew up surrounded by the contemporary supernatural legend and wanted to set the record straight through a documentary-style account. Their book features police reports, newspaper articles and an interview with Linda Scarberry, one of the first eyewitnesses. (John Keel’s “The Mothman Prophecies” is worth reading, but I find it disjointed and hard to follow in places. I guess you'll have that when writing about transdimensional creatures.)

I definitely recommend a visit to the Mothman Festival on Sept. 19 and 20, 2009. There is a Mothman Museum and you can take a night-time hay ride tour of the TNT Area, the location of the original sighting. You can support the Mothman through your purchase of merchandise. Also, you can hear from some interesting folks talking about ghosts and other paranormal critters. It’s a fun time. I hope to see you there. Beware the men in black.

For more info, check out www.mothmanlives.com.

Fighting fishing fever is futile

Dad on the Williams River
Dad and me

Summit Lake. Cranberry River. Cherry River. Deer Creek. Williams River. When I need to relax, I picture these waters in my mind’s eye. And then I picture myself struggling to reel in a huge rainbow trout. Fishing fever runs in both sides of my family.

One of my favorite things to do is to head out on the river or the lake with my dad, Luther Baker, or my brother, Ben, or my aunt and uncle, Judy and Virgil Biafore. My uncle, Craig Lipscomb, took the fishing fever with him when he moved to Florida. This isn’t a new development. It’s definitely genetics at work.

I remember fishing excursions with my grandparents on my mom’s side when I was a kid. We’d load up and head down Marlinton Road from Richwood to Summit Lake. I wasn’t really about the “getting dirty” aspect of fishing until I got through my teens, but now I can’t think of anything better. Even if you don’t catch anything, floating in a canoe or standing up to your knees in a clean river is a good way to spend a morning.

Dad and Ben and I took an annual camping/fishing trip to Williams River for several years. These were really enjoyable times. Dad is really quite the “trout whisperer” and can scale a steep riverbank like a gazelle. I’m not the best fisherwoman, but I like to learn. Sometimes I would pick a beautiful hole of water and stay there while Dad and Ben fished up and down the river. Ben and I would clown around a bit. One time we pretended I was feeding him a crawdad, and another time I jumped into the river after a particularly stubborn golden trout. The best part of the trip is always the family fishing tales Dad tells.

We need to take another trip this summer. I’ll have to suggest that. You can’t fight genetics.

A family visit

I’m weird, I know. I like cemeteries. When I’m driving past a cemetery, especially one that looks old, I feel compelled to pull over and take a walk.

In Robert Fulghum’s book, “From Beginning to End: The Rituals of our Lives,” he describes taking a lawn chair to the grave plot he bought for himself and spending a pleasant afternoon. I haven’t gone that far yet, but I do appreciate his sentiment. Graveyards don’t always have to be mournful places.

Visiting my relatives is something I greatly enjoy as part of my family history research. Looking for the final resting places of people you only know by names on a genealogy chart is like hunting for treasure. To me, visiting these places feels like making a connection. You are letting those who came before you know that you remember them, that they mattered to you.

Over the weekend, my husband and I took a trip to Elkins to get out of town. Driving back on Sunday, we took the scenic route to enjoy the beautiful day.

We passed through Adrian and Abbott in Upshur County, where my maternal grandmother, Jeanne Freeman Lipscomb, grew up. My great-grandparents, Bunyan and Breatice Freeman, and my great-great grandparents, Homer and Ella Freeman, are laid to rest at the Point Pleasant Chapel cemetery in Abbott. I had not been there since I was a kid, so it was a moving experience for me to find them again. I couldn’t stay long because people were starting to arrive for church services that morning, but I know I’ll be back.

I’m looking forward to Memorial Day next month and hope that I’ll have the opportunity to visit more family, those who are still with me – and those who are gone. Cemeteries are places of living history.

A collector of collections

I wouldn’t call myself a pack rat, but I do love antiques.

My mom, Andrea, and I like to travel the state and hit antique stores like Sisters Antique Mall in Flatwoods, Carpetbaggers in Oak Hill and all the shops in Lewisburg. Old Central City in Huntington also features some great stores.

Early on, I decided to limit myself on the types of antiques I would collect, so I
a) wouldn’t be completely broke and

b) would be able to move freely about my house.

Here is a short list of some treasures:

· Blue Willow dishes that I use every day--Ma-Maw Lipscomb had a set of these. I collect the less expensive pattern that doesn’t have a stamp on the bottom. Chipped is OK with me.

· Homer Laughlin’s Virginia Rose dishes—Ma-Maw Baker had a set of these.

· Wexford pressed glass—Mom got me interested in this.

· Mayfair Open Rose pink Depression glass—Ma-Maw Baker collected this. I don’t have any pieces yet because it is pricey, but I do have one reproduction.

· 19th century ladies book prints—These are usually pages from old ladies’ journals. They are usually pen and ink drawings with some color added that show pairs of women in lovely dresses. I believe women used these to order dress patterns. You find a lot of them framed in pairs. I love them. My husband doesn’t love holes in the walls.

· Cameo jewelry—I think cameos are beautiful. I don’t have many of these, but I do have one of my mom’s that she gave me, one that belonged to a special neighbor in Richwood and two that I bought at an antique store in Richwood.

What do you collect?

Words to live by

In my life, I have been blessed with three sets of grandparents: Luther and Vada Baker, Kermit and Jeanne Lipscomb and Carl and Fannie O’Dell. All of them have passed away, but I hope to record information to keep their memory alive, especially for the next generation.

As someone who enjoys family history research, I know that the random memories about people are the true gems you can’t look up in courthouse records. I love that I have objects that belonged to my grandparents, from quilts, glassware and photos to goofy things like hair pins, gloves, keys to cars long sold and notes scribbled on paper.

I found one such note by my Ma-Maw Lipscomb that has a lot of meaning for me. Even though she died in 1986, I feel close to her. I remember a lot about her, her sense of humor, how she called me “Amy doll,” holidays at her house, what her hand felt like when I held it at church. Anyway, she wrote down jokes she heard from TV, poems and other odds and ends she liked, but this is the one that I like the best:

“Know yourself.
Understand yourself.

Accept yourself for what you are.

Don’t be too sorry for yourself.

Be yourself and not somebody else.

Be what you are.”

Mountain State Storytelling Institute

One of the perks of working at FSU and Pierpont is having the opportunity to attend cool events like the Mountain State Storytelling Institute, the brainchild of Dr. Fran Kirk. The event was April 3 and 4, 2009.

Working in public relations means I spend a lot of time writing other people’s stories. I’d like to explore some of my own. I hoped the Institute would get some creative juices bubbling. Did it ever! I am virtually boiling over with ideas.

I learned about blogging from “Granny Sue” Holstein, which is why you’re reading this right now. (I highly encourage you to check out her blog, "Granny Sue's News and Reviews"). I learned how to use freeware to create movies and edit digital audio. I heard some really great ghost stories and even got pulled up on stage by a new friend. I met nationally-known storytellers and saw some memorable performances. I met author Donna Ison and bought her book, “The Miracle of Myrtle: Saint Gone Wild.” I also bought a book by WVU’s Patrick Gainer, “Witches, Ghosts and Signs.”

All in all, it was a valuable and fun experience that I highly recommend to others. Watch for it next year, the first week of April at FSU.

The Purpose of this Blog

This is a blog about wild and weird West Virginia: family traditions, the Mothman, antique hunting, my favorite places, books and more. It’s a veritable Cabinet of Curiosities. Working at FSU, I have been fortunate to learn more about our Appalachian heritage and the preservation of story through the tireless work of Dr. Judy P. Byers and the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center. I love West Virginia ghost lore by Ruth Ann Musick, Dennis Deitz and many others. I am an enthusiastic fan of our state’s monsters--Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster—and I find Gray Barker fascinating. (I can only read about them in the daylight.) I am a genealogist and a collector of collections. I’m domestically challenged, so you’ll probably find stories about my attempts at learning to cook and to sew. Bear with me.