Monday, June 21 & Tuesday, June 22

Monday June 21, 2010
The knock on the door at five o’clock was Nancy Carpenter with a cup of coffee for Pat. Nancy Carpenter brought her own coffee maker from home. She and I pass in the hall as I head out to Smithers. I try to be on site at 5:30 to get out the foodstuffs we will use in the morning. The women will arrive by six.

It’s still dark as I head toward Smithers. As I travel the nine miles in the dark, I pass through towns named Falls View, Alloy, Boomer and a few others, all unincorporated. Which means they are communities, but have no local form of government except the county of Fayette.

Cindy, the kitchen representative from the school district,is right on time and gives me the ins and outs of the equipment we will be using.

Nancy Carpenter starts baking the cakes needed for desserts for dinner. Millie Williams and Nancy Reynolds set up the lunch tables with the items the kids will pack in the lunches. Pat Lotz oversees the breakfast buffet.

I heat up the griddle that travels with us and start making Texas style French toast. The problem with the first day is the kids are not tired yet from working projects so they show up for breakfast en-mass. We serve breakfast from 6:30 to 7:30 but on Monday morning everyone is in line at 6:45. This keeps us hopping

We sit down to eat at 7:30 and a well-deserved break. Nancy Reynolds and Millie Williams start building 50 ham & cheese and 50 turkey and cheese followed by 50 PB&J (peanut butter & jelly) sandwiches for Tuesday. Yes we pre-build PB&J even though they won’t be distributed for 24 hours. We mix the jelly in with the peanut butter which speeds up the process and then freeze them overnight. They are still frozen the next day when the kids add them to their lunch bag. They love them. Who knows kids?

We are out by nine o’clock. All I want to do is nap for several hours, so Pat and I head back to the Glen Ferris. Millie Williams and Nancy Carpenter are riding with Nancy Reynolds. They head to the town of Fayetteville, about ten miles as the crow flies, but 22 miles by road.

The town of Gauley Bridge has an unmarked police car this year. Nancy Reynolds was stopped on the outskirts of town and given a ticket for being over the speed limit. Then the girls go on to Fayetteville and try to have a good time.

I head back to Valley school at 3:30. A routine I will duplicate every day but Wednesday. I put out all the foodstuffs needed for dinner along with some of the items Millie and Nancy Reynolds will prepare for the salad bar. The women are right on time at 4:00.

The line for the salad bar starts promptly at 5:00. Dinner is at 5:15. Our goal is to be out the door of the school by 7 o’clock, a three-hour work shift. We do it.
But we are all tired. This schedule takes a little getting used to.

Tuesday June 22, 2010
Nancy is right on time with coffee, as the knock on the door could have actually been our alarm clock. She hands me Pat’s coffee cup, which I pass over to Pat. Then to my car for my nine-mile commute. I am not alone on the road at five am. Ahead of and behind me are the large tractor-trailer trucks hauling coal. Each is loaded with 80,000 pounds, of which in West Virginia, is black gold. Or tandem trucks hauling wood logs used by the mill at Alloy that makes metal castings, each with their brake retarders howling as they negotiate the curves.

This morning we make egg, sausage & cheese on English muffins. Nancy Carpenter, who has handled our baking, makes cinnamon rolls and coats them with vanilla icing. She is now the hands down favorite of most of the campers. But since we are having strawberry shortcake for dessert at dinner tonight, her fame is short lived. She has to make a hundred short breads yet this morning.

We are getting used to this schedule enough to spend less time napping. Or to put it in the positive, we are spending more time doing things during the day. Millie and Nancy Carpenter spend a lot of time on Nancy’s computer. Pat and I have lunch at the Inn dining room.

Because we worked out of Gauley Bridge for the last two years, Christian Endeavor has a charge account at the Gauley Bridge Foodland. As a result I also make a daily stop there to get milk and any other item we need. Today I spot Bonnie. If you read any of the blogs from the past two years you will know Bonnie was our school kitchen helper here at Gauley Elementary. Bonnie and I would kid back and forth and in general enjoyed each other. Enough that Pat and I, when we came through Gauley Bridge on Sunday, went by her house. There was no one home.

She and I catch up on the people we worked with those two years and then I slip into the conversation. “I need a ticket fixed”. I explain the ticket issued to Nancy Reynolds, and without hesitation Bonnie offers to go by the station and talk with an officer she knows to see what he would do. We break off the conversation because it is after three and the police shift changes at four. I agree to call her later tonight.

After dinner I get the good news form Bonnie, the officer checked out the record and agreed to “take care of it” when he got in in the morning. I break the news to Nancy only to find she went to Town Hall during the day today and paid the ticket.

Once again governmental corruption has been thwarted by an honest citizen.