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| I took this photo from a helicopter. It’s Charleston, WV about 15 years ago. |
Just before I left West Virginia to take a job in California 14 years ago, one of my best friends looked at me and said “Don’t get above your raisin’.” For those of you not from the south or not fortunate enough to speak a dialect of “country” that means don’t forget where you came from. I never forgot that admonition and I think I’ve done a pretty good job of staying true to who I am.
That’s not to say I haven’t grown or changed as the years have gone by (if you’re not continually growing and changing, then you’ve stagnated and are dying) but the foundation that makes up the person you are is always with you.
On June 20, 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln declared West Virginia a separate state and allowed it to secede from Virginia. West Virginia joined the Union. Virginia was, of course, part of the Confederacy. Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of speculation about why this happened. I’ve always believed it was a case of simple economics. Large plantation-style farming just isn’t practical in the mountains of West Virginia so slavery never took hold here. And if there was no advantage in staying with Virginia and the Confederacy, then it must have been beneficial to be with the Union.
That said, there’s something unique about being from West Virginia. The nature of the state’s birth certainly carries over into the identity of a lot of people from here. The state motto is Montani Semper Liberi–Mountaineers are Always Free. Ask just about anyone from here to sing Country Roads and they can do it. I know I’ve sung it all over the world. For the record, the state song is actually “West Virginia Hills” not the tune made famous by John Denver. Still I doubt there is any other state in the nation that has a song so universally loved.
West Virginia has never been a perfect place. Whether we want to admit it or not, too any of those negative stereotypes about the state have some basis in fact. And some of the problems I see here rival some of the worst places in the county. I don’t agree with, or even like, everything here. Just a couple days ago, I saw an online discussion of people who live here talking about moving away because they had “had enough.”
I have always freely admitted where I’m from and been proud to tell others about my home. Even when I lived away, when someone asked where I was from, I always asked “Do you mean where am I from, or where do I live now?” I never considered myself “from” North Carolina where I lived for the last (nearly) 12 years.
Ultimately, that’s what I think it means to not “get above your raisin’.” I never forgot where I was from or that it made me who I am today. I think I can live with that. And I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Happy Birthday, West Virginia!
