Riverview Cemetery

I was going to have a Super Bowl food blog here but Justin stole my food photos and posted them on his Foggy Mountain Meanderings blog, so this blog will be about the Rowlesburg Riverview Cemetery. The cemetery located in the south end of Rowlesburg, in the section of town, known as Tar Hole to the locals, sets on a riverbank hillside on the Cheat River. The lower end of the cemetery is at the corner of Oak and Cemetery Streets and the upper end of the cemetery is located at the corner of Buffalo and Cemetery. I grew up on Oak Street with my brothers and still live on Oak Street but at the other end of the street. I miss having the cemetery as my neighbor. Many folks growing up made comments about how scary or unusual it must be to live by a cemetery. I never thought so. Maybe that is because my parents were so passive about it. Many people consider the residents of a cemetery the best neighbors you can have.  They are quiet, don't gossip, never complain. You don't have to worry about their kids or pets. Our parents in the neighborhood had rules about the cemetery. We weren't allowed to play in the cemetery. When we were playing street ball, if a ball went into the cemetery it was an automatic home run and only one person was allowed to go get it. If you went into the cemetery you had to be respectful, no walking on a grave, no loud talking ( I'm not sure why we had that rule), and no bothering anything.  I liked to walk in the cemetery and look at the monuments and grave markers and still do. After my walks in the cemetery I always came home and had a million questions about people in the cemetery for my Mom. The Riverview Cemetery is a wonderful history lesson on Rowlesburg. The monuments are a work of art. Everyone growing up in the vicinity of the cemetery has memories of it. Many seem to have memories of their brothers scaring them with stories. I really don't have any of those memories. I think I went to the cemetery to escape my brothers. I remember sitting on the cemetery steps, as many kids in our neighborhood did. I remember sitting and walking on the wall surrounding it. I remember strangers parking on our street and carrying flowers into the cemetery.  I remember having a seance in the cemetery when I was a teenager with some of my friends. I know we brought back John Kennedy with that Ouija Board that summer evening. Funny the things that you take for granted when you are a kid that become important to you as an aging adult, maybe that is why so many of us now are ready to donate our time to sprucing up the Riverview Cemetery. I visit other cemeteries when I travel. There are big and beautiful cemeteries in places like Savannah and New Orleans but none are quite as charming as Riverview on the Cheat.

OK, so I'm not a Princess

Many of you who have really known me since childhood know I'm not a Princess but for you others who may get caught up in my delusions with me I thought I'd better clarify a few things. One, I grew up with three brothers who liked to torture me and my dolls .I grew up with boys so I know how to fight, shoot a gun, dig a hole, and fish. I've camped, backpacked, kayaked, and spent hours in Cheat River and in the woods.I grew up in Rowlesburg, a tiny mountain, river valley town. We made our own fun with very little money. We played ball, games and rode our bikes in our neighborhood called Tar Hole. One of my brothers is my twin, he was always in every class, every school activity, Sunday School, 4-H, summer, fall, winter and spring.  We also went to college together. He loves nothing better than to irritate me. Two, I have had one kind of job or another since I started babysitting at 12. I know what it is like to work in a store like Walmart, sell ice cream, be an office assistant, etc., because I've done it. I graduated from college on a Friday and started subbing the next Monday. I've been a poor young Preston County school teacher with a mortgage, car payments, and my husband's school loans to pay back. I've cut grass, used a weed eater, helped paint our house, shoveled snow, and used a snow blower. I know how to jump start a car, drive a shift, a 4-wheel drive, a sports car, and a truck. I've ridden dirt bikes and motorcycles. I've shoveled flood mud, gone without utilities for weeks, hauled water, taken a bath in the river, and walked to school and work. Most of my working life, I've been a teacher, a mother, cleaned our house, washed clothes, ran errands, and cooked.  I look for bargains, shop clearance racks, and I'm generally happiest in sweats or a bathing suit. Three, I've worked in Preston County Schools for 30 years through consolidation, floods, fires, blizzards, and a state take over. Four, my life has not and still is not glamorous. I teach, check on my parents, wait on my son, look out for nieces and nephews, take care of Rob, and I always have some kind of cause I'm fighting for. Five, I've had battles to fight may entire life like my weight, anxiety, and back problems. I'm on medication for high blood pressure and anxiety. So, you can see I'm not a Princess. I sleep a lot because I'm a middle age, menopausal, medicated woman, who gets tired after spending the day with 9 and 10 year olds, who take great pleasure in informing me that I am older than their Grandmothers. Now Queen is another thing. When I retire, in a few years, I do plan on hiring as many things done for me as I can. I plan on spending the winters in Florida walking around in beach clothes and flip flops, waking up at noon, and spending the day at the beach writing and looking for shells. Late spring, summer and fall will be on the Cheat River in Rowlesburg. After snow shoveling and snow blowing today, I've decided it will be possible to get this body into Queen shape, but probably never Princess shape so I am officially giving up on being a Princess.