By Willie Perine
I was born and raised in the upper part of Arnold’s Creek Road. I was the baby of the family, with two sisters and four brothers, but one brother died as an infant. We lived way up in the holler with a dirt road of course. The only thing that came through there was a horse and buggy. Once a week we went out to the store in our horse and buggy, and I remember the horse would get scared of the train that ran through the town. We would buy a barrel of salt, a barrel of flour, sugar and all the coffee we could buy at least twice a year. I remember going to school with snow up to my waist. I started school at age six, and my school teacher was my first cousin. She put me in the corner all the time because I talked too much. Her name was Cindy Perine, my uncle John’s daughter. I played a trick on her once. She was teaching school, and by this time I was grown up and in the Army. I didn’t tell her who I was, and we talked and talked until finally something gave it away and she realized who I was. She said, “I was about to hit you with that chair!”
My mom’s brother was killed in World War I, and I heard about him all my life. He had another brother who got run over by a truck.
I recall one of the places to sit and watch traffic go by was a big block of cement. I remember sitting on that stoop a lot and watching lots of traffic go by, but I didn’t know so many people back then. Every Saturday we went to town, and so I’d sit on that big block! There was plenty of my relations that lived in town, but they thought they was too good for us. So, I had to sit on the block while my parents shopped. One time I remember getting a little brown paper bag with four or five chocolate drops in it! I ate one or two and then saved the rest until I got home with it. But as soon as we got home, I ate the rest!
Now I am a resident at the Carl M. Brashear Radcliff Veterans Center next to Ft. Knox, KY. I really enjoy getting my Herald Reporter and seeing what is going on in West Union, the town where I was born and raised. I want to thank Tammy Beamer, Pastor Dan Lipscomb, and Ms. Toni Underwood for the cards of prayer and encouragement. Thank you for remembering me on your thoughts and prayers!
ARMY STORIES
That man was a veterinarian from Arizona, and he was a really good guy. We were in Germany, and it was really, really cold. We all had on heavy coats. We had occupied that area so we had to monitor traffic. We were watching traffic, and we counted the number of cars and sent them on down the line. We were all similar rank, and we paused to take a picture in front of the tank when the Army photographer came by.
I married Carol Cooper. She was from Harrison, WV. She had 3 sisters and 1 brother. I got along well with her family. We met on an airplane coming from Baltimore/Washington D.C.area traveling to Ft. Knox, KY. We had been married about two days in this picture. We got married in West Virginia.
