Hello Cousin Charles Yes I am one of those persons who thought anybody from the Appalations was dumb and a hick, what I should have thought was how wonderful the close-knit family life by being brought up in that area I also thought that eveybody born in WV was dumb because they inter-married so frequently into their own families, what I learned later was that intermarriage does not necessarily mean a person will be born as a dumb Hill-billy, it only means that persons get so inter-related that sometimes it id hard to keep track of how one person is related to another. In all my 33 years of research, I have come to long that my upbringing could havre been so wonderful as to be born in West Virginia or its area. I do not now consider the people of West Virginia to be slow, I just think that most of them have different values than those of us who were raised in a more fast-paced world than theirs. I am so very proud that one quarter of my ancestors came from West Virginia. John Denver said it well in his song about this wonderful state. A California native with roots in West Virginia, Virginia,Ohio,Nebraska,Holland,Portuguese Azores,England Sandra Tyler Duncan http://www.gencircles.com/users/purplevw1/1 Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's looking. ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 7:10 PM Subject: Re: Fw: [WVRANDOL-L] RE; CBS News Article Yes I am aware. Maybe when accomplished, such will enlighten my fellow West Virginia residents that we need to make much needed constructed changes on how we do business? For example, I has taken me upwards of 20-years to promote the development of a "multipurpose" building complex, similar to those where I have competed in a major activity, in other States, and now it is happening. This is how s-lo-w we are to react to change.