I'm not the only West Virginia Scaper

[T'railmixx]

We've got six cities on the Neilson list. Lets get together and grab some viewers.

gillsonthehill@aol.com

give me a shout

[phenix_007]

I used to be from Wheeling, still got a lot of contacts there...where abouts are you?

[T'railmixx]

Glad to hear from you wherever you are! I'm a coulpe hours below there in Parkersburg. Close enough. Have 'em give me a shout, it's starting to get lonely down here.

Thanks:aok:

[Ivydragonn]

:rollin:

[AerynSunsGun]

I hail originally from Wheeling also and still have family in the area on both sides of the river. Problem with SciFi in the Wheeling area is that you have to subscribe to digital cable or an Expanded Plus cable package to even get the channel. I always hate visiting Wheeling on Fridays. <g>

[phenix_007]

Fell, for a long time they didn't even offer Sci-Fi in Wheeling....

[Chaym]

I just delurked tonight, so that's why I'm months late saying "Hi" to this thread. (I can regularly be found on the Unofficial UK Farscape Board)

I'm orginially from Parkersburg! Graduated from PHS in 1988.

Now I'm stuck in central "conrete" New Jersey with hopes to move to NH in a few years.

Miss my West Virginia hills and CoCo Wheats. Still have family back home, but only get there once or twice a decade.

Hi Y'All!

[T'railmixx]

Sorry, I haven't checked this post in a while. I graduated from the other school in '88. (Mike Gill, if you're curious) I've been all over, and don't quite know how I ended up back here. +'s and
-'s I guess, good for the kids.

Anyway, thanks for saying hi, and drop me a line if you're in, and have time. My wife loves the show as much as I do (PSHS '85)

[Chaym]

Hi ya Mike!

So, you're from "the other school!" lol! No worries on my part. Jr. High is best forgotten and High School - well, I try and only remember the few good bits.

Don't think I could ever move back to P-burg, but do miss some things from there. I miss dearly Long John Silvers and a steady supply of CoCo Wheats. My dad only mails me the later *maybe* once a year and I have to pay him for them. (Can we say "cheap skate?") I miss the niceness of the people and the beauty of the mountains. Where I'm at in NJ it's conrete everywhere, hence what I put on my location. Anyplace with trees in the area is too expensive to live in.

I worked for 2 years ('86 -'88) at the movie theatre in Grand Central Mall. I also did props for the play on Blennerhasset Island. Used to do a lot of science fairs and high school theatre as well.

I might PM you sometime (when I catch up on stuff) and see if you know some of the folks I do. And if you work for the Bureau of Public Debt then you just might.

I'll let you know next I visit. Might not be for another year. We'd hope to visit this summer, but finances are killing us. (Been out of work for 9 months now and unemployment ran out.)

It's great meeting new folks from back home! My husband just doesn't quite understand me, let alone how anyone can eat soup beans 'n cornbread. (Yet his folks are from Puerto Rico and the things they eat - ewww!)

Take care :)

~Chaym/Heidi (formerly Heidi Barnes)

[T'railmixx]

Hiya Heidi

I never got into that whole "My side, Your side" high school mentality either. For that matter I never really got into the high school mentality at all.

My wife and I are ready to leave P-burg, if not for the good job (DuPont). It's funny that you say friendly people, I have been to many places, and have rarely found a less friendly bunch. I think it's because I'm male and don't get into hunting or sports or nascar, ect.. Read with gruff voice, and squinted eyebrow... "You one of dem girly boys, aintcha?!!" It leaves little for me and the "real men" to talk about. I can't seem to get anyone to really give Farscape a chance around here. My neighbor asks me every time we get together (fairly often) if I watched Survivor; every time! My responses are getting more imaginative. There goes that eyebrow again.

What do I do then? Well I love being with my kids, boys 3 and 5, always a smile. The older one is just like me, not into sports, hates guns, and loves science and reading; so I'm teaching him how to fight. The younger on is a natural at that already. Then theres wife, motorcycles, movies, camping, and my fledgling art carreer. "Art??? You are one of them sissy boys."

What did I do in P-burg? Little jobs...graphic designer in a couple of places, oh, and waiter at the Point of View. I know, my case is weakening, but I really am straight.

Anyway, we would love to hear from you. I know how it is visiting the hometown. No time, especially for people you don't know. We will think of you when we are at Long Johns again. I missed it and McHappys while I was away.

Good luck on a job and the move. Take care.

[Chaym]

Oh thank goodness I don't have to be polite anymore about Parkersburg! There's a reason I left and visit only once a decade! (Well, many reasons...)

During the family reunion in Lost Creek, just outside of Clarksburg, 3 years ago (first time I'd seen my cousins in 16 years) my cousins actually told me that if they saw someone they thought was a homosexual, they beat him up! It was like, "OMG! You're all a bunch of rednecked homophobes!" Not that I said it mind you...

You've got to be kidding me that you being a waiter and liking science ficiton makes them think you're gay? :eek: Of all the frelling idiotic things!

My list of why I won't go back include:
:mad:the stupid idiotic senseless homophobia. (Hello! Welcome to the 21rst Century! And don't they know that P-burg is like the East Coast Captial for gays?)
:mad: the frelling high unemployment rate (my husband saw more food stamps than cash in the cash register...meaning, he would have a job as he's a Food Stamp Case Worker, but I wouldn't)
:mad: the crap I put up with growing up for loving science fiction (and I got it at home too and my family *still* looks down on me for it)
:mad: the sheer stupidity of alot of the folks. 'Corse, that's why I want to leave NJ too.

As for the niceness, hon, have you ever been to New Jersey? As long as your not a smoker, you and your family can visit mine anytime. New Jersey, like New York, is the "What the frell are you lookin' at?!" state. You go into McDonalds or Burger King. Expect to be first ignored, then glared at because you don't speak Spanish and neither does your genetically Puerto Rican husband, then you get this shocked question of "you want milk??", then your order will be wrong and they'll tell your husband that his wife (me) lied and said something different. When you discover the milk is bad and that your son was the one who drank it, you'll spend 10 minutes trying to explain it to the clerk even though you are saying it in Spanish, until enough customers start chiming in that they're making a scene and THEN you'll get a fresh carton.

I know being a clerk is a crap job. I did 9 years of it. But you know what? You don't have to act like a frelling eema hole to every single customer, especially when they're trying to be nice to you! (Sound of Aeyrn yelling at Chiana in Crackers Don't Matter.)

And that's just the tip of the iceberg with New Jersey and why the frell I want the hezmana out! (Just like when I was growing up and couldn't wait to get the hez out of Parkersburg.)

I also heard that shortly after I graduated high school, they (Wood County or maybe just PHS) either disbanded or severely cut, the Gifted Ed program. That was the best thing, aside from Drama, I ever had growing up. High school was a living hell (not as bad as Jr. High though) and those programs kept me sane. Gifted Ed. was incredible. But of course, why would you want to encourage the smart kids when the football players could use more uniforms and equipement?

I've got a 5 year old son too :hi: (He just turned so in Feb.) He's very bright, loves the sciences (we do comparative anatomy disections at home), can read and write (see the thread in Campaign Strategizing: Farscape Kids, My Son's letters to Viacom.) That's my boy!

We tell him, "You're going to be a geek, but at least you'll be a cute geek!" He's already been picked on in preschool, but at least he hit one of them when after 5 times the brat wouldn't stop calling him a poopy head. :aok: (Nope, don't condone violence, but this kid so so so so deserved it!) We're praying that Kiran will keep his looks and charming personality and that it will help him get by in school and not get picked on. However, I really don't see him as the sports type either. Good idea with you teaching yours to fight back. I rough house with him; my husband doesn't.

O.K. think I've rambled on enough. Very cool chatting with you!

One last thing, last time I had Mr. B potatoe chips, they sucked. But growing up, I loved them. So, have my taste buds changed, or do they bite?

And I'm sure you've been to COSI (we used to go there on class and church trips.) Have you taken your kids there yet?

~Chaym/Heidi

[Hennings]

Add me to the West Virginia list. I'm a born and bread native :-)

[T'railmixx]

Hennings: Welcome aboard! Anywhere near Parkersburg?

Heidi: You know, I don't think I have ever heard anyone say they liked NJ. It's on the Iraq/Antarctic side of my vacation roster. Best of luck gettin out.

I checked out your boy's letters, very cool. It's great watching your children soaking up info... sometimes too much. Mine hears everything, and remembers to ask you about it when the relatives come over. My five year old is into geography and the solar system right now. We buy him books at Trans-Allegheny (used book store) and he reads them at night, and I try to answer the questions he has stored up the next night. The whole distance thing has him looped so space is a little off for him; hez, space has me looped when I try to comprehend it. He has his states, and most of the capitals down though. We don't try to teach, he just has this natural thirst. He is going to be soooo bored in school, esp w/o the gifted ed program. Good luck getting yours the ed. he needs. It sounds like he will be okay, with his parents encouraging him and all.

Oh, I don't think it was so much the Sci-Fi as the earring/hate sports thing that labled me as gay. That and the high testosterone/low IQ levels around here. I'm not homosexual, or homophobic, but the "special me" benefits for being gay is starting to piss me off. "Gay Day" at Disney Land is just wrong, and why can't I start a "I'm a Happy Heterosexual-Like Me" newsletter at work?

Anyway; good to hear from you. Heres to our kids.

edit: Oh, almost forgot, I never liked potato chips, so I guess they were always sucky for me, but it does seem like they have to change everything every two years. After Farscape, I promissed myself I will never like anything with a passion again.

See ya.

[woolhoss]

I'm giving this post a much needed bump.......

where are all the mountain state peoples??
I'm in Morgantown right now cuz I just started college, but I'm really from Vienna/Parkersburg area.

How many other WVians are there??

[woolhoss]

ok, i may be the only active one left........:(

[RJLCyberPunk]

It's great meeting new folks from back home! My husband just doesn't quite understand me, let alone how anyone can eat soup beans 'n cornbread. (Yet his folks are from Puerto Rico and the things they eat - ewww!)

Take care :)

~Chaym/Heidi (formerly Heidi Barnes)

Hey! What's wrong with Puertorrican and Hispanic cuisine?
I can undertand you not liking any kind of spicy food whether is from Puerto Rico, Cuba , Mexico and China etc.

But your expresion of absolute disgust at any food other than the one you are used too is bewildering!

When I eat a steak I eat well condimented and not as almost crude tasteless piece of meat worthy of a vampire. But I don't go (Eww!) because most AngloAmericans like it that way!
Just my opinion anyway....

[DRDaid]

It's nice to see I'm not the only West Virginian on the board.