Old and Modern....in a long gone place

One of the greatest thrills is finding something old and something modern in long gone places. Think about it, you are driving along in a far off place in West Virginia and you see BOTH the old technology for coal and the very modern architecture that honestly, should not be there....Truth is, in order to show wealth and power, BOTH the old and new combined in a coal town.

The OLD

Processing coal meant loading the coal and later on sorting it. In the OLD, we see people literally built coal chutes with hewn trees ands sheet metal. This was in Whitby, and has only recently gone away:

My son had come along and I could not believe how lucky I was

The chute was massive, the sheet metal had been stripped, and I finally saw how hard they worked, and how intelligent you had to be just to load the coal, much less process it.

AND you still had to get the trains in, with their power, they moved the coal. This was near Bowyer Hollow in Whitby again......IF you look, you will find it

CAUTION

Its tempting to see the old, and think we know its meaning. They saw luck in symbols below. These were tricky because I did not grow up at that time

The symbols then were for luck. HOWEVER, today, its a curioso. This was a power station in Raleigh West Virginia. It was again built to show wealth, power and permanence. Now, as a relic, some folks just sit and stare.

The NEW

As I drove further south, I did find the new, the modern. Vivian West Virginia,  there I saw art deco letterings and post classical structures.

I ALMOST missed the lettering, but as I looked behind the trees, I saw the school below. This is isnt unique or random. This is how you show power. You build the highest quality you can, and many years later, its still beautiful 

YES, I did go inside, BUT thats another blog entry..stay tuned. Please do feel free to leave comments.