Heritage Day
Another advantage for Deb and Mike is a chance for us to
visit our ancestors’ graves located in Clarksburg West Virginia and rural
Southwestern Pennsylvania. We arranged our trip so that first we would meet up
with Debs Sister Linda and Brother Bob in Parkersburg. The improvements in US
Rt 33 make this former 5-hour trip, manageable in about 2.5 hours from
Columbus.
After meeting at the Parkersburg McDonalds, we drove to the
Clarksburg Cemetery where Debs parents, Grandparents and many other relatives
including aunts and uncles are buried. We put flowers on graves, cleaned up
around the markers and stones and then headed to the local favorite Coney shop!
Have Deb tell you about learning what a W Virginia Coney lacks!
No visit to Clarksburg is complete for us without a stop at
the Italian bakery. Clarksburg has an Italian festival, a section of town
traditionally settled and housing Italians, and the best pepperoni rolls ever!
Linda had called ahead and ordered 8 dozen which they prepared for our visit!
The bread here is among my favorite items also!
Linda and Bob headed back to Columbus, having to make a stop
at her brother Ron’s house to deliver 4 dozen Pepperoni rolls (and collect some
serious money as $1.50 per roll adds up !) Linda and Deb both sweet talked the
baker at the bakery so he gave them the wholesale price of $16 a dozen vs
retail and threw in a couple of loaves of bread free!
Deb and Mike & Jake headed for the little coal town of
Marianna Pennsylvania. Mikes moms’ parents were born in different towns in
Italy but both had passage on the same ship and disembarked at Ellis Island in
the 1900’s. Stories of how they met and how Grandpa fooled Grandma into
marriage were part of the great memories I have while visiting my Grandma as
child!
Grandpa died early, of what today is Black Lung Disease, so
I only knew him thru Grandma but stories always portray him as a prankster and
also a real Union Miner. Marianna was predominantly immigrant settlers, Irish,
Polish, Checz, Italians all had sections of the town and have sections of the
cemetery! The coal mine closed in the early 1960’s but somehow the village is
still surviving! For me it is a great place to visit because as a child we had
no vacation other than going to Grandma’s house on the hill! No motorhome, just
a packed sedan with 2 parents and 4 kids using accordion cases as suit cases.
It is funny how both Deb and mine parents met in similar
fashions. Debs mom was waitressing at a coffee shop and Debs dad was a truck
driver who stopped at that shop. My mom was working 20 miles from Marianna in
Washington Pa and while working one of several jobs as a waitress in a night
club Dad was a featured musician. One thing led to another and to my Grandma’s
spaghetti and dad says that was all it took for him to know…. and the rest of
the story involves WW II !
Joan
2019-09-19
Interesting family history I didn’t know about.