West Virginia, I was born a West Virginian song by Eddy Bailes

I am happy and so proud to have been reared in a state like West Virginia, instead of a big city with 6 or 8 million people and all the hustle and bustle and noise and cement...and no flowers and trees and dirt and animals running around...like they do in West (by God) Virginia. I love the smaller roads (curvy and hilly as they are, you really learn how to be a good driver or else...survival of the fittest there).

We have people who care about each other and go out of their way to help each other in time of need and even not in time of need...just to be nice to one another. Now that is a concept unheard of in most northern big cities...not to put them down...it is just not my way of life....I feel very blessed to have so many friends still in my hometown which I have not gotten to visit for years and still they are my friends...because good friends are for life...they are always there for you as a friend as someone who can be trusted to help you if you need it and you can help them even if they do not need it. Good friends can laugh together (even at each other) , and eat together, shop together, talk about most anything together and care about one another and their families.

People in West Virginia have been known to help total strangers when they need help. it amazes most city folk. It is very much a blessing to have the very next car that passes by you on the road, to stop and help you if you are pulled over and need something fixed. Even when they do not know you...

I call it being "Real". Now most places do not have a "Real" population....Sometimes they have a few nice people or a percentage of nice people, but to have soooo may "Real" people is a blessing. I have been fortunate to find some tropical islands where it is almost like being in West Virginia because there are sooo many "Real" people there and I am blessed with many, many new friends in places like this.

Since I live on a sailboat, it is a way of life that (most of my female friends absolutely cannot do for the lack of space) comes close to the difference of being from a small country town. It is also a way of life that most people cannot adjust to. I however have traveled for 30 years and lived in hotel rooms..except for when I had my house in West Virginia, (or Chicago and a few other places up North), and there is no space in a hotel room for things that one would store in a house...there is no permanence in a hotel room...and there is no permanence in where one's boat has to be...I am quite adjusted to travel and a way of life of traveling.

I am waaaaaay toooo comfortable driving in a car...I have painted my toenails while I was driving and tried on wigs while driving through the Tennessee mountains. And I have read a book while driving through Georgia. I can drive all day set up and play music for hours then put it back into the SUV and drive for 5 or 7 more hours if necessary...I am getting older and do not particularly trust myself to work such long days now though.

West Virginia is a place for which one can get real homesick. Many people who do go away end up back there because it is just hard to beat. To find somewhere better, depends on what you call better. Tropical Islands are nice because it does not snow in the tropics. I have been down here in the tropics so long I am now acclimated to temperatures above 75 degrees and get cold below that temperature. My blood is very, very thin. I am comfortable in the heat, even the 80's and 90's. Even with my white Irish skin, I am lucky so far with the sun and what it has not done to me. I try to take care of my skin when I am outside, especially my lips and keep them covered with gloss and paint. "It's the little things " like Rodney Carrington says that one must do and watch.

Here is a place where it is easy to just live and forget to keep the things you love close by taking care of them. This is what we must all do, no matter where we live....."Keep the things we love close and take care of them....always."

(and "There's no place like home") right Dorothy?

Love to all.

The Sister