remember when

remember when Point Marion was a awsome town. clean, people cared about there yards , there homes, themselves. stores where all open, the place to go, what Happened? why is it forgotton?now they don't even have a gas staion, one resturant,(small at that) one grocery store has been there for years and nothing else. where did the transportation go?I get so depressed when i go there because i remember when.. yes folks it use to be a great little town, now its alcohol, drugs,crime, homes falling down, high rent, everyone struggling to just survive.. and why?, few people in town own everything.. buying up land and setting on it.. not allowing any progress to come in why?lets put it back on the map.. clean that town up... give people reason to try..don't give up on Point Marion. it can be again.

I grew up in this town. My family started a glass factory there. Although it is gone now, I have gone home on occasion and there are still great people living there. Can it be back on the map? It is already.
If I could only tell you my love for that place and its people.
What Pt. Marion needs is an infusion of business dollars to refurbish the downtown area. Not to tear down homes of existing residents and greedily build condos as I understand is or has been contemplated.
There is so much that could be done with so little money.

My father worked in that glass factory u are talking about.. and i agree on a lot of the things u say.. but lets get real.. it defiently isn't the same .. some good people left for sure, but i'm sure as they set on there porches and watch things going on.. drugs, fighting,stealing, its a town full of gossip that no one cares to find the truth about. they set and watch as the world goes around them.. you have to go 12 miles to get gas for your car now..the rental homes are shameful,drugs right in front of the police they turn there heads , they know its there, they do nothing, get the trash out of Point Marion,give the people the will to live.For now why would any one want to live in Point Marion, they probally don't, there trapped. But I Remember When and thats what i think about, the good times and the quiet little town by the railroad tracks.. bring it back people. it can be again..

In the late '40s, Point Marion was a bustling little town. On Saturdays people would come to town to cash their checks and to do their shopping. Many area residents worked at the LJ Houze Glass factory. If the workers got a raise, the town grocery store would raise prices.

I lived on McKinley Hill. I would walk to town on the railroad tracks, trying to keep on the rail all the way without falling off.

I remember the laboring sounds of the motors of the coal trucks that would go up Highway 119 towards Morgantown as they were being downshifted.

When I could come up with a dime, I would go into town to watch a movie. I was just a little kid, but I had no fear of walking home after dark.

They used to have Donkey baseball games in the little park next to the Monongehelia river. Once when the river was high an older boy was showing off to a group of we younger kids there on the shore by swimming across the river to Greene County and back. He made it but he almost drowned.

There was a school bus that transported the kids to the school on the adjacent hill. I always made a point to miss it and therefore got to walk down the valley through the woods and up the hill to where the school was located. I didn't care much for school.

I often smelt tomato soup being cooked as I came close to the school. I hated that smell, especially on an empty stomach. I still hate the smell to this day.

We had no automobile so we had to carry our groceries from town and up the hill in paper bags.

I especially remember Boyers Ice Cream parlor on the main drag. It was rare when we had enough money to buy any ice cream, but sometimes we could.

I understand the rails have been taken up and Greyhound no longer serves the town. That is a shame.

I remember the train station. One time a traveling salesman set up shop on the corner of the station on a Saturday and demonstrated a spinning gyroscope to me. After his demonstration, he asked me if I would like to have one. I told him yes. He said it would cost, I believe, 35 or 50 cents. I told him that I did not have cash money. He said I should go home and get it from my keepers. I told him they didn't have any money either.

I am sorry to hear that this little town has gone into decline. As hard as times were, I still have fond memories of the place.

Ronald

aw cool, it was really nice reading what u had to say..I too grew up around Point Marion have family still there.. and yes it is so sad to see what has happened to that town..there is nothing there now.. no drug store, no gas station, one restaurant,(Apple Annie's).. they finally put a family dollar in there do u remember where the justice of peace office was at.. its right by the river there, when i go to visit family which is very often i get so depressed seeing what is happening .. do u know Walnut Hill? that's where i was born.. and yes there is a lot of good memories from Point Marion, the carnivals, parades, drug store where u can go in back to ice cream parlor. I'm a little younger because i don't remember to much about the movie theatre,but my brothers went there,the skating ring was the place to go, and the high school dances, which is now a nursing home.. that's sad to me.. lots and lots of homes that have turned into dumps, people buying them up, not fixing them and renting them for outrageous prices..
And u are right u could walk anywhere and feel safe, better not try that today, drugs are everywhere stealing constant,older people being robbed as u probably already read about the elderly lady in greater Point Marion.. now that's really sad.. but its going on.. every day over there cops just turn there heads, it reminds me of May berry RFD, deputy with one bullet. and he isn't allowed to use it lol.. the people that own any business of any kind runs the town.. that's a fact.. yes u are right.. no greyhound , no cabs, still have the bars though .. which only a couple left now.. and they are making a killing.. oh by the way a subway in in town, i forgot about them.. by car wash, that isn't there any more.. due to vandalism,I could go on and on.. I miss Point Marion for what it use to be.. its no where near the same now,, I wish i could say progress can through but its worse now then it ever was or we dreamed it would be..

i agree with all you. i live below the cemetary and all i have seen is this town go downhill. i have been here for 22 yrs. what happened to point marion becoming the bedroom of morgantown.i see morgantown expanding hopefully it will bring something our way. like a gas station.

Jan.

I remember the cemetery. When I was about 8 or 9 I walked up there once with Ozzie Johnson (Jr.)(now deceased) who lived across the way from me on McKinley Hill. He was about 15. He had to finish digging out one of the graves. I understand his brother Ronald has also deceased.

The town used to have an A & P store and did a good business for the area. Everyone went there to cash their checks and to the Post Office on Saturday to pick up their mail.

I don't know what the residents do about transportation without a gasoline station or without the train or Greyhound.

Greyhound used to go through the town with destination Clarksburg on the bus header. I always visualized Clarksburg as being such a wondrous far away place.

Ronald

remember the pharmacy. They had a grill in the back of the store. I loved getting a hamburger to eat there.

I am from Point Marion, my family, the Kovach's lived on the Greene county side of the river and you could see Point Marion from the old farm, my Aunt marge worked in Hunkers drug store at the grill and fountain, I remember the town as a great little place to live and I planned for years to go back and retire there but things changed in my life and that didn't happen and by the way point marion has gone down hill it was probably for the best, I did and still love it there.

I know a few Kovach's that lived on Walnut Hill are u the same ones? wow! we all have memories of Point Marion.. and now it is so heartbreaking to see what is going on.. people around there are just stuck now.. the nearest gas station in on top of the Hill in Morgantown.. that's about 10 -15 miles away... no buses , no taxes unless one comes from Masontown and u will pay for that.. I'm sure.. My opinion to many there holding back progress, they buy up the land and buildings and then set on it waiting for a company to come through and pay them big bucks for it... they are now replacing the old Point Marion bridge, why? it hasn't be taken care of since i was a teenager they use to do maintenance on them once a year and kept it always painted .. from what I hear its still a strong bridge.., the money could of gone for something else in Point Marion.. like the roads, the park.a business a gas station for God sake .. it is so sad honestly.. yea i remember the drug store .. it was so cool to go back there get a milk shake, sandwich what ever u wanted and the old floors would creak as u walked back through the drug store ..then there was the barn door that had the best food down stairs,, the theatre, carnivals use to come through and every one for miles and miles use to come to it .. all we girls would dress up fit to kill just to go walk around the park... had no money. but some how we managed to get a few dollars just to ride something .. the smell of it still lingers .. and winning the old carnival glass.. little did we realize it would be collectable as it is today.. yea lots of good things happened in Point Marion..

I to am from Pt.Marion. My family and I lived on
S. Highland Ave. on McKinley Hill. My Dad (now
with the Lord) worked at the Glass factory like his father did. On pay days dad would take me to the drug store. We always got a lemon blend and
Butterscocth sunday. What memories. I think the skating ring kept a lot of us out of trouble. I remember the Pt. Marion jr high dances. And I would kill for a Hamrick's hoggie.(Well almost).
I did get picked up after curfew walking home from skating one night. My brother was to pick me up, but often forgot me when he was with his friends. I remember when the movie house burned down, although I was very young then. But it is very sad to see the town now. I have lived in WV
for 29 years now. And only get to Pt. when I take flowers to mom and dad's graves. But what a town I grew up in. I will always have good memories.
Those people can't take away. Carol

Jet...
Get in touch with me. I grew up on the very top of Walnut Hill. We may have met in a past life :)

well the green co. bridge is scheduled to come down on nov. 8-14. anyone who wants to watch can do so at the boat launch at the park.

Someone please take some pictures.
I would love to see them.
I grew up on McKinley hill as well, at the very end of the road beside the woods. We used to walk down the hill, through the woods, to the old swimming pool. It was closed for years, but we still had a lot of fun down there.
Sure miss the old town, as it used to be. And I LOVED the lemon blends! And Hunkers, and the news stand.

Does anyone remember Nick DiNardo's Barber shop, or Virgil Casini at the Kendall Florist shop?
I used to go to mass at St. Huberts. Is it even still there? How bout the smelly bar that was on the corner just before the RR tracks? If you went in there you could smell beer and smoke from 100 years, LOL. And the Brass Rail seems to have been there forever.

Some of what I've read here saddens me. The decline of small town USA ss all about us. My grandpa John Brajkovich lived in Pt Marion for many years up on Prospect St. We lived in Beaver Falls at the time, I was a little kid. We would visit from time to time until moving to CA. in 1959. I remember walking down to the VFW hall w/ my grandpa. I've been back there twice for funerals, but that was many years ago.
I remember the Colonial Hotel too. When I got out of Army basic training in Ft Bragg, NC 1970 I flew up to Pittsburgh. My uncle Tom picked me up at the airport and we stopped at the Colonial. I was in my dress greens and I remember how much respect the patrons had for soldiers.

Even my uncle Tom finally sold the house on Prospect and has moved to Morgantown. I had family out near lake Lynn too. The Mallorys, and the Kleggs. My cousin Tommy and I would go downtown Pt Marion to the Red Barn (IIRC) for strawberry shortcake.

Lots of memory's.

yes i remember nicks barbershop. my husband and son used to go there for hair cuts. as for the bridge i have a couple of shots i took one day this summer when i was at the park. u have to look close to make out the old bridge as they are side by side. will try to go down to get me shots.i live in the old koony place

"koony place"? Not sure where that is. Oh well.
My mother used to have my dad take me to Nick's twice a month for my buzzcut, whether I needed it or not. LOL. There was an ongoing joke at Mapletown High about me always needing a haircut. When her and my father separated I let it grow to my shoulders. I STILL where it that long today as a rebellion against her. LOL

Note to Joe Kovach... I graduated with a Joe Kovach in 1976... same one??

Jan... as a fellow vetran... THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO THIS GREAT COUNTRY.

Anyone remember the Travis family, or the Sargents ot the Beatty family?
And I remember Virgil Casini. He was the caretaker at Evergreen Cemetery for awhile, wasn't he? He had the old log book from there and was a big help when I was trying to find my sisters graves.
I think the bar by the railroad tracks was either Andy Degardines or Augie Jordans. One was farther down the street, a couple door down from the movie theater.

AUGIES!!! I could NOT remember the name to save my life.