Being a native Buckeye (that’s an Ohioan), we—the superior ones!—used to make fun of almost everyone and everything from West Virginia. Come to think of it, we did much the same with Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan. Either Pennsylvania was inadvertently left out of the ridicule equation, or I just wasn’t paying attention in my early days. It doesn’t matter—those days are long past.
Whatever my false impressions of West Virginia were in the days of my youth, they are now completely swamped by a large dose of reality for me and for anyone who takes the time to drive through this hilly state and stops from time to time to meet the people and to enjoy the magnificent autumnal landscape. Even the hillbillies are well-dressed and well-spoken. OK, that’s an exaggeration. They’re a “work in progress.”
A hillbilly, of course, is someone who lives in the hills, walks like he’s always going up hill, and hasn’t had much book larnin’. And they talk kind of funny. And they wear bib overalls and clod hopper shoes and that sort of thing. Oops! That was me way back when. What a sight I must have been with a haircut performed with a bowl and a pair of rusty scissors, plus a few strands of wheat clinging to my attire that was well-worn and well-patched! I was pretty much the poster boy for the Little Rascals.
But I digress. This tale is about West Virginia—the state that God had in mind when he invented Autumn, and leaves, and colors that change daily. Yes, I know that every native born member of every other state loves to think of his or her state as the “chosen one” for Fall. ‘Taint so. Nosiree. It must be in the hills that provide such a wide variety of temperatures and drainages and insect life for all the various kinds of trees. Whatever it is, it shows up in the Fall. Oh does it show up! There are yellows, and golds, and reds, and oranges, and browns, and greens, and purples interwoven in ways that interrupt your sensory road map to the point of ecstasy. Ach du Lieber, Gott! For hundreds of miles in all directions the hills are bursting with colors. The air is spectacularly clean and crisp, the sky is blue in hues of blue, and those puffy white clouds dare you to try and grab them. It’s the Garden of Eden all over again. And if you look hard enough you will probably see Eve running alongside a babbling brook without her fig leaf to hide her modesty from your discerning eye.
Well, as I said, I am from Ohio, and Fall is OK there. But I dare you to make the drive from Charleston to Bluefield between now and the end or October and then tell me I’m wrong.
I have been through West Virginia and it is beautiful in the fall. I am not one for mountains. I kind of favor the flat states but the view is magnificent when the seasons change. The only thing I got nervous about when in the virginia's was Fancy gap. Boy! going through that part in heavy fog cured me of traveling in winter through those states. I was petrified when the big trucks passed me and you couldnt see a foot in front of the car. But I love the fall.
Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. Your story reminds me of my wonderful experience with West Virginia. That hillbilly view is there and can be experienced. However, Don Knotts, everybody's view of a West Virginia hillbilly, was the son of a drugstore owner in Morgantown, and I believe, college-educated. Some of those, "back in the hollers," characters were extremely intelligent college professors I knew.
On my entry into the state at Wheeling, having to go through Pennsylvania first before reaching my destination for seven years, I heard Bob Denver singing his latest hit on the car radio, Country Roads. Shortly after, Denver abandoned West Virginia for Colorado.
While I think Northern Wisconsin colors are more spectacular (dark green white pine contrasted with white paper birch, the colors of maple oak and many other hard and soft wood foliage reflected off 8000 lakes that West Virginia doesn't have many of), I spent every weekend in the fall just driving West Virginia for the adventure and color. From the road, you don't see the destruction that a flyover offers. West Virginia has been raped many times for its fabulous resources, especially its trees.
...falling for a spectacularly beautiful Autumn hottest
destination...at the Hills....and oak shaded driveways
that "sound" like an oil painting master piece...trees in their
full splendour...explosion of the ripe golden yellow leaves
....ablaze with burnt amber and salmon red foliage....against
the backdrop of every hue of blue skyline...and gaze down
on the river ...observed from the vintage point....
Thank you for sharing your interesting and enjoyable holiday
story........Ach du liebe Herbstferienzeit!
Explore the mystery of how nature makes unexpected gifts of creative wonders to an unsuspecting caregiver one late night and early morning in southeastern Georgia, USA.
A book of nature inspired poems and essays, written from the heart and soul of a life-long nature, animal, and wilderness lover, and dedicated to today’s children - Earth's only hope for a better tomorrow.
This book won 'The Poetry Category'
Autumn in the Hills of West Virginia
