Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Bland County, Virginia

It's been a hectic month, this one. We moved, I had multiple medical appointments with non-lethal bad news. I've been feeling crappy from all the immunizations and pills I'm taking. And then Tappuz bit my arm and it got infected.

Meanwhile, Joe has been preparing bar and bat mitzvahs, and trying to put our new house in order. While I dealt with the agent and the mortgage people, he did most of the packing, and now the unpacking.

Still, I'm behind on my goal of visiting a different county every month. I visited Blair County, Pennsylvania earlier this month, but that was scheduled for March. This week didn't seem a good time to go, especially since we are leaving next week for a few days with my sister Robin in Greenbelt, Maryland and our friends Ellen and Spencer in Virginia Beach.

Of course, it's never a good time to do anything, so I left yesterday for Bland County, Virginia. Wikipedia says it is the sixth least populated county in Virginia, but the man at the tourist center on I-77 says it is the second least populated.

Bland is located between two east-west mountain ranges (like the Santa Monicas) just south of the southern end of West Virginia. I-77 bisects the county. There are tunnels under the two mountains at the north and south end of the county. The tourist guy said Bland residents were able to vote on whether to blast through the mountains or tunnel, and they voted to tunnel. Good choice.

There are four historic places on the National Register in Bland County. Two are farms, one is an obsolete bridge and one a church. There are no traffic lights, one small grocery store, a Subway, a Dairy Queen with a truck stop-convenience store, and a gas station in downtown Bland with a convenience store and a few tables. They make sandwiches for lunch there. There is one motel. Both the motel and gas station have signs that say "American Owned and Operated."

Bland County is overwhelmingly white and Christian, conservative, overweight and elderly. The Bland County Messenger today (Wednesday, June 24th) complained in  an editorial "In a climate of shifting genders, fluid ethnicities and the relentless redefinition of traditional norms, it seems that Americans are becoming increasingly confused about the nature of truth and the long-term consequences arising  from a lack of clarity." I've been thinking about how to start an answer to that, but I may just drop it.

I don't mean to be negative about my trip. I've been overtired and managed to get some rest. The scenery and weather were beautiful with only a few drops of rain and some thunder and lightning Tuesday night.

I chatted up two different librarians, people who worked at the motel, and two people at different times at the Virginia Welcome Center.  They were all helpful, kind and interesting.

The Appalachian Trail runs through the center of Bland County. I had trouble locating it. I was looking for signs, but it turns out there are none. The young man at the Welcome Center suggested a piece of the trail for me to hike and gave me a map to help find it. It turns out that "Hiker" is pejorative here for "smelly outsiders."

I met a young man named "J.C." from Plant City, Florida, on the trail this afternoon. He told me he is hiking the entire trail, and hopes to be in Maine by the end of September.  There are pines, maples and other trees I don't recognize, and like the forests in Del Norte County, California, ferns and rhododendron.

I'll be home for dinner tomorrow (Thursday). Joe tells me the cat has been hiding. Meanwhile, there is still unpacking to be done, a bar mitzvah this weekend, a likely Supreme Court decision on same-gender marriage tomorrow or Friday, a turntable that needs to be fixed (in WestVirginiaspeak it "needs fixed") and we are leaving again Wednesday.

I have a new camera that arrived yesterday. The pics should be better next trip.

Bland County Courthouse, Bland

The view across I-77 from my motel, west of Bland

Mountain Glen, southeast of Ceres

Looking north from Big Walker overlook across Bland County

Old Wolf Creek Bridge, Rocky Gap

Looking north into West Virginia from the state line

Along the Appalachian Trail



Rhododendron along the Appalachian Trail

On the Appalachian Trail


Ceres, possibly Sharon Lutheran Church


Thursday, June 18, 2015

Morgantown, Revisited

This blog is called "Year Three Morgantown." I started it last July, to chronicle our third year in Morgantown. Joe was offered a five-year contract starting last July 1, to continue as rabbi at Tree of Life Congregation on South High Street. I guess I was hoping for a two-year extension so we could go somewhere else. We both like the congregation here and agree that Joe is a good fit as rabbi.

I wonder why the movies I want to see rarely play here. I want a better grocery store, a decent bookstore or a newsstand. I want to be able to walk and bicycle all over town on sidewalks and wide streets. I would feel more welcome if many of the local politicians didn't make it clear they do not represent gay people.

I agreed to go with Joe where he got a job, and that was Morgantown. We have made friends here, and even found a social group where there are gay men of all ages. The people in the student LGBT groups are too young for us to hang with, even though the few we have met have been friendly to us.

This time last year, I was thinking about what I needed to be happy here. We lived in a townhouse near the football stadium and the two big hospitals. We were the oldest people on our block by at least thirty years. Our student neighbors were mostly unfriendly. Our car was egged one night in the driveway. There was noise from the stadium, from helicopters and ambulances every night. We lived there because we needed a place quickly when we first moved here, and most developments wouldn't rent to us because we have a cat.

 I had some cash left from my mother's estate, and we were able to use that as a down payment on a small house in Suncrest. It's not fancy, but we will be comfortable there.  In a month we've spoken to more neighbors than we did in three years at our former apartment. We sleep some nights with the windows open. Only the birds wake us.

We were at a party a few weeks ago at the home of friends and congregants by the cemetery at the end of High Street. It was a warm, clear night, and we were outside. We were the only same-gender couple there. We knew many of the people from temple, but we met others we didn't know. My friend Roann was with us, visiting from Ann Arbor. She asked people about Morgantown, and everyone said they had found a home and a community for themselves.

People ask me where we will go next. and I guess the answer now is "Probably nowhere."  I have to live in the present. The present is that I live in Morgantown, West Virginia, with my husband and our dopey cat, in a house I like that we can afford. I travel, I teach rock and roll history to seniors, we eat out often at unpretentious restaurants, and we are included as a couple at many social events. Our city councilperson saw me outside this morning as she was walking her dog. She said "Welcome to the neighborhood. I heard you guys bought a house here." We are known and liked in Morgantown.

So, I guess I'm saying I'm happy, and happy to be here, and I'm not planning on going anywhere else.
Joe calls it "magical thinking," but I am grateful to God that things have worked out so well for me and for us.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Blair County, Pennsylvania

I'm way behind on  my monthly visits to a county within three hundred miles of Morgantown. Last week, after we had been in our new house less than a week, I took off to spend twenty-four hours in Blair County, Pennsylvania. The county seat is Hollidaysburg; the largest city is Altoona.

According to the US Census, the county has been losing population since the 1980 census. I have two friends in Morgantown who are from Altoona; the parents of my younger friend still live in Blair County. Altoona was a steel mill town, and a center for the railroads, according to my friend Lee. It was prosperous, and his family did well in the steel business. That is mostly gone now. My friends speak highly of Altoona, but I sense they are nostalgic for a town that no longer exists.

Much of downtown has been redeveloped with a medical center, a chain drug store, state and local offices. The railroad still runs through the middle of town. There are warehouses and now a museum along the rail lines. Most of the commercial business is along Pleasant Valley Road, which parallels I-99, the main north-south road just east of the city. It's a typical commercial strip, undistinguished. There is a mall southwest of downtown. It has a Macy's, which we don't have in Morgantown, but the mall was less bustling than ours here in Morgantown. There is also a "town centre" development like the one in Morgantown. I skipped it.

Two active synagogues are in Altoona. The one downtown is listed on some sites as Conservative, but is apparently not affiliated.The other, across from a park in the wealthy part of town, is Reform.
Although Penn State is just 45 miles north of Altoona, there is a Penn State campus in Altoona.

Hollidaysburg is the county seat of Blair County. It's a well-preserved old town at the foot of a mountain, less gritty, but only seven miles south of Altoona. I had lunch there at a café a few blocks from the County Courthouse. Everyone there seemed to know each other. Lots of well-dressed women, tall men with silver hair and good suits. A man came in wearing a t-shirt that said "Tattoed Dad." He had tattoos on both arms. Two little half African-American boys were with him. One of the kids said "Daddy, why is everybody here White?" I was wondering that, too. The food was mediocre, the service was lousy. Maybe it was better if the waitperson knew your name.

I visited Canoe Creek State Park, east of Holllidaysburg. There's an artificial lake, mountains, camping. It was starting to rain, so I didn't stay long.

Altoona seems a smaller and more intimate Pittsburgh, which is one hundred miles to the west. Pittsburgh is gentrifying, Altoona is not.

I enjoyed being in Blair County. I found what I was looking for: synagogues, a mall, a University campus, historic sites, a beautiful park.

I'm hoping to catch up at some point, maybe later this summer. I would have to visit five counties by Labor Day.
Tom and Joe's Restaurant and Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Downtown Altoona

Broad Avenue Historic District, Altoona

Baker Mansion, Altoona

Temple Beth Israel

Penn State, Altoona

Hollidaysburg Historic District

Canoe Creek State Park

Blair County Courthouse, Hollidaysburg

Agudath Achim Congregation, Altoona

Mishler Theater, Altoona

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Real Estate, Last Part

We are in our new house as of Monday, June 1. I got it into my head on May 22 to ask the maintenance man (actually the building contractor) at our old place if he could find us a painter. He came over to look at it that day, and said he could do it himself the next day. I ran out to the big box store and picked out colors for the two bedrooms and the kitchen. While we were looking at the room, a mover I had called called back, and we were set. Meanwhile, Joe and I checked out the discount flooring place recommended by a friend. They sent someone out to look at the basement and the carpets. He suggested we just clean the carpets. We went back to the store to figure out what we would do with the basement floor. We are going with carpeting. The locksmith also has a carpet cleaning business, so that got done before we moved in.The basement floor will be done next week.

We are still living with boxes and clutter, unable to locate things or maneuver around. There are no curtains or blinds on the master bedroom window. Still, it's a relief to be in. Joe has set up shop in the basement, which will be much more comfortable when it is carpeted and decorated. We put our living room couch in the additional room in the back of the house, and Joe likes to read there. The second bedroom is now my office. I like the color I picked out, and I feel I have a room of my own, which I didn't in the old place. We sleep better without the ambulances to and from the two hospitals and the helicopters to Ruby Memorial. We've spoken to six of our eleven neighbors, more than we spoke to in three years in the old house.

Tappuz was traumatized by the move. We took her to the new house on moving day at seven A.M., and locked her in the bathroom upstairs with her litter box and food. I looked in on her when we showed up with the movers around noon. She was curled up behind the toilet, petrified. She's better now. We have a glass storm door out front. She can stand there all day and look out, but when we decided to let her go out, she took one step, then turned and ran back in the house.

We still have things that need to be done to make this house completely work, but so far Joe, Tappuz and I are happy to be in our new home.

Marriage, Republicans and the 2016 election

I have been thinking all week about the Republican candidates for United States President and how none of them think they can be seen as a supporter of marriage rights for same-gender couples. What I found in my research is that with a few exceptions, notably Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal, among possible major candidates, those running don't really want to alienate supporters of marriage equality. Their problem is that certain church denominations demand that candidates deny any possible compromise on marriage. The candidates all pander to the right when they feel they have to, like Rand Paul, who said at a recent prayer breakfast that there is a " moral crisis that allows people to think there would be some sort of other marriage."

Otherwise, like Rick Perry or Marco Rubio, they think states have the right to define marriage. Or like Scott Walker who said "I don't comment on everything out there," when asked. Ted Cruz, however, going against the "States Rights" argument, introduced a constitutional amendment to ban any recognition of same-gender marriages. I'm old enough to remember George Wallace using "States Rights" to protest Federal intervention in school desegregation or voting rights. Religious groups at the time used the Bible to support segregation.

More locally, Cindy Frich and Joe Statler, state delegates from Monongalia County, both voted for a resolution to support that amendment.

Part of me thinks that all the gay people in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and yes, West Virginia, should just pick up and leave. When Joe was looking for congregational jobs, I made the decisions about where to apply, and I vetoed Michigan and Nebraska because I saw them as anti-gay states. We only ended up in West Virginia because Morgantown is a college town, and the congregation here looked like a good fit. And now we've decided to stay here despite Cindy Frich and Joe Statler (and the two other Republican delegates from here). The house we just purchased is in the City of Morgantown, partly because the city council passed a resolution supporting same-gender marriage and a non-discrimination law.

One last thing I found in my research. Our real issues are economic. Rick Santorum's entry into the campaign did not focus on denying gay people rights. I'm sure he'll get to that, but meantime he wants to end "Obamacare," cut any regulations that he sees as "job killers" (i.e. environmental protection, minimum wage increases, anti-discrimination rules). He talked about what he will do for American workers. He meant what he will do for corporate leaders.

The Democrats have come out firmly, finally, for marriage equality.   The more important issue is will they work for economic equality. Joe and I will be married no matter what the legality of it is. I will be more hurt if Social Security and Medicare are cut.

Joe and I will celebrate ten years together this coming December. We will be legally married seven years in November. People who think our marriage shouldn't be allowed are too late, by a lot. And they have no right to expect me to be even polite to them or their religious denomination.