A Sea Of Red

Sad, sad, depressing article. Thank God I got out in '79. I actually went to high school with the guy interviewed in the article:

USA Today wrote:New ghost towns: Industrial communities teeter on the edge

By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY

RAVENSWOOD, W.Va. — When Henry Kaiser arrived 55 years ago, this place was no place — "a rural problem area," the government called it, so poor and isolated that the population had dropped 15% since 1940.

That all changed after Kaiser, the industrialist who'd turned out ships and planes at a record pace in World War II, built the nation's largest consolidated aluminum works here on the banks of the Ohio River.

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Depressing. But my travels of WV tell me that Ravenswood is one of MANY towns such as this. Those from outside of West Virginia just cannot understand how destitute that lower third of the state is. South of Charleston, there's really nothing.

and thats why you stay in school so you at least give yourself the skills and knowledge to do something other than manufacturing. if not that, then go into a trade like plumbing or something along those lines, hard to offshore a plumbing business.

Yea, the guy interviewed for the article was a year ahead of me in school and was the class clown in high school, but he failed either 8th or 9th grade and got dropped down to my grade. I feel really bad for the guy, but there are dozens of guys like that still in town--married, with kids, behind on their mortgage payments, drawing unemployment, and living off of food stamps.

Ravenswood is actually an hour north of Charleston (and 30 minutes south of Parkersburg). It's a great little retirement town on the Ohio River: my parents still live there, but hardly no jobs, unless you work for the Board of Education.

Cider Jim wrote:Yea, the guy interviewed for the article was a year ahead of me in school and was the class clown in high school, but he failed either 8th or 9th grade and got dropped down to my grade. I feel really bad for the guy, but there are dozens of guys like that still in town--married, with kids, behind on their mortgage payments, drawing unemployment, and living off of food stamps.

Ravenswood is actually an hour north of Charleston (and 30 minutes south of Parkersburg). It's a great little retirement town on the Ohio River: my parents still live there, but hardly no jobs, unless you work for the Board of Education.

Do I detect a double negative?

I have been to Ravenswood many times. My grandparents lived in Belleville, just up the road a bit...

Probably should have said "hardly any jobs" but I was speaking in the West Virginia vernacular.

Henry, my Dad used to take me catfishing on the Ohio River at the Belleville Locks. Good times!

There was a major drug bust there last Summer. The only interesting thing that has happened there in years.

you could pretty well put Danville in that sort of a category. Dan River Fabrics pretty much IS the economy in that town. I remember when I was driving through there with my family on my way to Chatham to check out Hargrave and we talked about how if they closed down that it pretty much would destroy them becuase of how integral it is

BJWilliams wrote:you could pretty well put Danville in that sort of a category. Dan River Fabrics pretty much IS the economy in that town. I remember when I was driving through there with my family on my way to Chatham to check out Hargrave and we talked about how if they closed down that it pretty much would destroy them becuase of how integral it is

In the conglomerate of industrial towns one closing away from bolivion...maybe. But to compare Danville to the many poor towns in southern WV isn't possible. It's that bad.

JK37 wrote:

BJWilliams wrote:you could pretty well put Danville in that sort of a category. Dan River Fabrics pretty much IS the economy in that town. I remember when I was driving through there with my family on my way to Chatham to check out Hargrave and we talked about how if they closed down that it pretty much would destroy them becuase of how integral it is

In the conglomerate of industrial towns one closing away from bolivion...maybe. But to compare Danville to the many poor towns in southern WV isn't possible. It's that bad.

Danville is on their way though.

Danville does need help, all the kids down there talk about leaving and crime has dramatically increased.

Averett and a new CentraHealth ER aren't going to be enough to save that city the way its going.

Martinsville is also pretty much dead in the water.