It’s the early 1950’s in Raleigh County, where times are good and work is plentiful.
If you’re a coal miner.
“People took baths and dressed up in their Sunday best at nighttime after they got their first TV set,” recalls a local retired miner, “because they felt that if they could see the people on the TV screen, those folks could see them too.”
The scenario allegedly happened more than once at Princewick, named for two different people: a man named Prince and a man named Wick.
It was a time when coal company baseball flourished in the hills and hollows of Southern West Virginia.
In Raleigh County, the popular teams of the Clippers League slugged it out on Saturdays and Sundays on manicured ball diamonds located on prime bottom ground.
Coal City, Stanaford, and Winding Gulf all had teams on the field. Fans followed the excitement from camp to camp.
Charles R. (Ronnie) Atkins was born a Lillybrook(named after a Lilly and a Holbrook), within spitting distance of Winding Gulf and Princewick.
He is a retired tipple worker from East Gulf, where he worked on a belt conveyor for many years.
Charles’ parents Carl and Lola Atkins moved to Princewick after he was born. “We moved for a bigger house,” he says.
A wiry six-footer, Charles met his future wife Helen Wells, a petite 4-foot-10 green-eyed beauty, when he came riding his horse to Coal City.
Helen ran a store for her mother, Madeline Wells.
“He came by the store riding a horse,” Helen, part Cherokee, recalls. “I went out to talk to him and to admire the horse; at least, he thought that was why I came out. But I’ve always loved horses. Charles was very shy, and I told him I sure did like the looks of that spotted horse.
“I didn’t bother to tell him that I liked the looks of the rider better than I did the horse. But that was what I was thinking.”
Helen recalls of the romantic first meeting: “I didn’t see him again for about a week.
“Then he drove up in a beautiful purple Buick. It was the prettiest car I’d ever seen. One thing led to another, and we went out that night. We went to the old Drive Inn Theater in Crab Orchard. It was a great place for lovers…”
Helen’s heart drifts into the past, and her eyes flash with devotion to their lasting love.
“We hit it off, right off the bat, but we didn’t get married until about 10 years later. It was a romance that was for real, it wouldn’t stop. We kept on going to the Drive Inn. It was something. You don’t see movies like that anymore… We loved all the old Westerns… that’s for sure…”
The couple visited other local places too.
“We used to go to Winding Gulf pretty often, just to look around,” Helen reminiscences. “But there’s nothing there anymore, only about one or two houses where people still reside. My husband has some fond memories about Winding Gulf, and he loves to talk about it…I always liked the big fellows, knew they could protect me…
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Top o’ the morning!