High point scorers.

Wetzel County has always been home to strong sporting programs. Back 50 years ago, local businesses and industry brought many into the area. Families have sons and daughters who were part of strong teams at Magnolia, Paden City, Valley and Hundred.

As seen, a young Mike Martin goes high into the air to control the ball in a game against Magnolia. A half century ago the two schools played against one another creating strong competitive ties between the communities. Along the way, those games seemed to fade as both teams played further away opponents. When Magnolia or Paden City or even Sistersville in those days played each other, you could be guaranteed a great competitive game. No longer do the conversations at the Moose or Legion brag about beating the other towns teams. In this picture Mike Martin becomes that history as he reaches for the school a half century ago.

Ms. Beth Pavlick proudly displays her best cheering stance for the camera as she poses for this picture. On that day 50 years ago, she enjoyed her role in cheering on the home team. I wonder, had she thought about the future beyond high school days?

When we speak of all-star bands, we are most certainly speaking of the Paden City Wildcat band. Back in the day Ed Hood made sure every note and beat was played precisely. His leadership and the dedication of the students in the band will never be forgotten. Even as shown in this picture four students were chosen to be part of the All-State Band. Kelly Hood, Alexies Bertozzi, Jeff Brown and Kevin Pryor. These four also were part of the 110-piece band that were All Stars also.

As the season came to an end, Chronicle sports writers put together a story announcing the best of the county’s players on points average. Paden City leads the ways with four players in the top four. Dave Gallo with 11.6, Dave Tallman 11.6. By the way if you did not know it, Dave went on to a successful legendary coaching career. Mike Martin’s scoring abilities gave him an average of 11.3 points a game and Jeff Bowers went to the basket successfully enough to average 16.2 per game. From the rest of the county Tom Gorby from Hundred had a good season with an average of 16.6 per game. Bill Baker from Valley averaged 11.8 for the season. Perry Kocher, another Lumberjack, put 15.5 points on the board each game. And Van Eidom, a Blue Eagle, made his average of 13 points look easy.

Spring is time for young love to find its way to the altar. Miss Cheryl Burkle gleams a big smile as she announces to the community her plans to tie the knot in 1975. Back in those days, each week it seemed that bride pictures were on full display each week. Today with the use of social media, images of beautiful brides to be, are not often published. Maybe in another fifty years when an old reporter looks back, he will not find yellowing newspaper images of beautiful smiling faces as seen with Miss Cheryl

50 years ago, locally we had eleven independent grocery stores fulfilling the needs of local customers. To give back, and help those with cancer, local grocers organized, “The Retail Grocery’s Day for Cancer.” State wide, they averaged $60,000 collected and donated. Mr. Bill Witschey , Leo Herrick and Bill Herrick are planning for the day to make sure the cause receives their full support.

The towns and communities in Wetzel County would be in big trouble if not for the many volunteer fire departments around the county. Hundred is no exception as 50 years ago they announced that Charles Lemasters had accepted the position of Fire Chief in the community of Hundred. Hundred sits at a crossroads in a distant part of the county. The Hundred Fired Department can be called upon to respond in several directions to aid small nearby communities. Chief Lemasters no doubt welcomed that challenge and pledged to help make the department strong and serve the community.

I hope you enjoy this look back into your local paper’s history. It is like looking at an old picture album of friends and times gone by, but not forgotten. If you enjoy these stories, let the Editor Ed Parsons know of your thoughts, he gets lonely for someone to talk with. See you next week 50 years in the past.