Last weekend I was in Buckhannon, WV to visit family and to see some friends. When I got into town my best friend had told me about some things going on that Saturday that we could check out, the Art Festival being one of them. I never thought that coming to Buckhannon would leave me with a feeling of indecisiveness on what to do and see.
Buckhannon is a place, to my surprise, that I have grown up to call my home: a thought I never really expected to have. When I was younger I moved around quite a bit, but we always moved back to Buchannon for one reason or another. This certainly caused a serious mix of emotions in my teenage brain. I was always so excited and eager to leave, yet when we would inevitably move back, I would be confronted with excitement and eagerness to get back as well as relief. I never understood how I could be relieved to move back to Buckhannon until I was much older. I had a personal revelation and discovered why I felt this way while living in Missouri.
I have lived in plenty of places around the country and I have always shared stories of growing up In West Virginia; stories of what we did, where we went, and just being kids. I shared memories of moving away and how I felt that I always seemed to be a little wilder and a little more hard-headed then the other kids I encountered in other states. I also always seemed to have a bit more disregard for authority than others. Mind you, this attitude was normal in West Virginia, but certainly not elsewhere from what I found.
This idea that Buckhannon fostered my wild, stubborn, and anti-authority tendencies was hit home a few years ago while visiting family and friends in Buckhannon one summer while we lived in Missouri. I visited best friend from high school, Danny Hornbeck, who had as much hatred for his hometown as I did... maybe a little more. Danny had found a completely new understanding and love for the place we both call home. Many readers may know Danny from his craft: turning beautiful wood bowls. If you don't... you need to, and you can find him here.
What he found was a purpose and a culture that I was blind to as a teenager. He told me that he had realized West Virginia is not an easy place to live in, and with out purpose it was almost impossible for people like us to do so. He started to hang out with his father more, Gene Hornbeck. Gene was certainly a mysterious figure from my child hood. From his father he started to learn about the real West Virginia and Appalachian culture; a culture of survival, craftsmanship, struggles and perseverance. What he learned changed his perspective and allowed him to see his father and West Virginia in a whole new light.
Armed with my new found admiration of this place, my family and I moved to Weirton, WV in January 2015. While coming back to West Virginia I wondered if my new feelings towards this place were a biased and if my family would see this place in the same way I now do. That idea was short lived: not long after starting work and getting to know the people that she worked with, my wife (originally from Milwaukee, WI), was absolutely blown away. "There is so much culture here!" she said. Almost everyone she has met at work does something: maple syrup, moonshine, music, and more. I know that many people in many places do these things, but here there is such a sense of honesty and people aren't pretentious here. It is just them, who they are and what they do... no fluff... no BS.
So when I found myself in Buckhannon on Saturday September 19th, 2015 at an arts festival with 15 or so tents blown glass, paintings, great music, an awesome giant wooden chair and Oryan McGowan Arrowroot juggling for kids, I didn't have that sense of conflict about where I am from that I had once had. I have a feeling that while I was growing up in Buckhannon these things were there all along, but they were rarely seen on display as they were that Saturday. Coupled with places like Artistry on Main, the 3/4 Cafe and Lascaux Micro-Theater, Buckhannon is turning into an entirely different place than the one I knew growing up... and unlike a lot of places around the country it is changing for the better.
Once again, my family and I expect to be moving to another part of the country in a few years. But while I am here in West Virginia for the ump-teenth time I want to make good use of that time: I want to discover and share the places and people that make West Virginia a special place. I don't want to make just a collection of the mountains and vistas that everyone knows, albeit they are beautiful. What I want to do is find the people that these mountains have shaped and the things they create. Unlike articles such as Vice's 2 Days in Appalachia, I don't want to focus on the "easy" stereotypical topics of this region and state. This is why I need your help: if you know of any craftsmen, artist, and musician that embody what you believe to be the real West Virginia, please let me know. Help me show the real West Virginia, the place that I call home, in it's true colors.
-William "Cody" Downs-
