Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Things That Make You Go "Hmmmm"

I love the area where we live. Our tiny burg is just perfect. It's quiet and clean - we can hear the trains off in the distance (they are certainly close, but not TOO close to our house) and the city runs a tight ship.

I don't mind paying our city services fee when it rolls around - $60.00 every 3 months, because I feel that the garbage pick up is more than exceptional and like I said, the city workers do keep the place relatively tidy around here.

I don't see random wandering dogs and cats. No one's dog poops in my yard and no cats use our mulch as litter boxes around here. Unlike our old stomping grounds where we could not even allow Buddy to play out front because the smell of cat turds was so overwhelming. Disgusting!

However, just outside our little burg is an area once known as Jefferson. I think the little town has now disbanded and I have no clue on the status of what neighboring town might usurp it.

It's highly undesirable. Basically, it's a 3 or 4 mile stretch of strip clubs, adult video stores and no-tell motels.

I have seen "working girls" out in broad daylight in that area many a time. And, I'm no prude, but it's just a really crap area.

In fact, the locals call it the "Badlands" and have ever since I can recall.

Anyway, the Evil Twin must travel this stretch of road to get to work and home and if I do any shopping that does not involve my regular Wal-Mart, then I travel this little stretch too.

Over the weekend, we had to go to the Deep Homo (that's Home Depot - which is a big box hardware store) and purchase a new slide for the kids' swing set. A few days before, Buddy had gone down the slide and somehow cracked it at the bottom (granted, it had been out in the elements for 3 years and while the weight limit is 250lbs, I'm sure all the cold and snow does a number on that super duty plastic after a while).

So, anyway, we're driving back from the home improvement warehouse place, slide tucked all kitty corner in the van - which the Evil Twin had to remove the 2nd row captain's seat and the 3 row bench seat - to allow room for it.

As we approach this structure, I just had to get out my camera and get a shot:



This "structure" has been there for as long as I can remember - and I've been here 25 years. I don't really know what to make of it. Is it a house? Does someone live there?

No clue. It's primo real estate as it sits facing the river.

Every time I drive by, I think "WTF??" And, I mean EVERY TIME. That's a lot of WTFs there, my friends.

I don't want you to get the impression that this is NORMAL for WV, because it is NOT! And that's where all my confusion and WTFs and "Where is the city to step in and declare this an eyesore?" sets in.

Occasionally, it seems as if someone might be working on it (due to evidence of scaffolding around one side). Other times, it just sits, precariously perched. Driving me slowly insane.

I keep waiting for the day it just pitches forward and lands in the river.

I don't think it's gonna happen.

Won't someone please tell me what it is or just, for the love of Pete, WHY? Oh, lord, WHY? What purpose does it serve?

I promise to balance this post out with some pictures of things that make WV breathtakingly beautiful. Which is as it should be - and, save for one "structure" - it really is.

36 comments:

  1. I've often wondered about that place too. It just looks thrown together. Would it even be safe to live in?
    You gotta love the badlands though...character...character..character

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  2. I would really love to see where you live. Please post some one day soon,eh?
    xx♥

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  3. funny that you post this... I have been on a kick recently regarding old seemingly abandoned houses. I drive by and try to imagine what it used to be like and why no one cares now... very weird!

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  4. For years now, I see the Association of the Blind's transport van nearly every morning on my commute. It's a big van with GREAT BIG windows - floor to ceiling jobbies. I assuaged my curiosity as to why blind people needed big windows when I remembered that blind and legally blind are different. I got a about two days of peace and then I noticed the windows were heavily tinted. So I'm back to WTF. The van is aging now, but still chugging along.

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  5. Doesn't it make you want to get out of the car and just give it a good shove into the river? Of course, then all the nasty would be in the river so that wouldn't work.

    Jefferson is kind of it's own weird little world. I remember seeing the working girls strolling the street and thinking if they wanted to make money they should really dress better and occasionally bathe. But, I guess it isn't really about the clothes.

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  6. OK, how far was Jefferson from your house and which direction??? Oh and it's obvious that there was a tornado and the unfinished house landed on top of the slightly finished house. Mystery solved.

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  7. I kind of agree with Ron.

    It looks like a tornado victim. I believe that an old grocery store had most of its roof sheared off, and one half of a double wide AND a whole single wide (not the same thing) landed on top of it.

    Back when I was in college, I vaguely remember passing a structure like that. It was somewhere around Buchannon, though.

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  8. Oh, I just loved this post and like your husband see Jefferson and it's filth everyday going to work and coming home. I've lived in SA for 43 years and as long as I remember the structure has been there but declined (never nice). Another picture you should take for folks is on up the road, on the left, on the hillside, the people that have a toilet bowl and bathtub outside for their flower garden!!!!! Please don't say you've never seen that one in your coming and goings. It kills me!!!!!!

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  9. I would love for you to post some beautiful pictures of WV. We have several areas in our burg of WV that are WTF moments but for the most part it is beautiful and not enough people know that. Did you know that WV was ranked last in the states that people visited?? I think that is crazy b/c it is BEAUTIFUL!!! ANd in my hometown in PA there is a similar structure as the one you took lol...they are EVERYWHERE!!

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  10. The Badlands was the setting of a Stephen King novel, but right now I can't remember which. That does look rather creep-tastic.

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  11. Out of curiousity, you should get the address and look up the tax records. See who owns it and how it is zoned. It really does look like a stiff breeze will knock it over. I am surprised if it isn't condemned.

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  12. How completely odd!It almost defies gravity.

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  13. Think positive. It's a nice little fixer-upper with a great location. I bet you could get it really cheap.

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  14. If I still lived there, I'd be writing to the town council about that one. Disgusting! As is that whole area. I don't think it existed when I was growing up in Chas., but it could have, and I'd never have known.

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  15. you should take pics of the working girls...

    how exactly does a city fail to that point?

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  16. It's soul purpose is to drive you crazy didn't you know that! The city is secretly conspriring against you! LOL!

    You should forward your post onto your city hall and see what they have to say about it!

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  17. BG - or would that be location, location, location? :-)

    Natalie - Now that the weather is perking up, I promise to show you all our beautiful state.

    LL - this one has driven me nuts for over 2 decades! What is up with all this?

    WVFR - That is hilarious. I'd be WTFing that one too!

    A. - Like I said, things that make you go "hmmmm". LOL!

    Ron - It's about a mile or so East of us. And you have a good theory, but we don't really get tornadoes here. Hmmmmm.

    Renn- There used to be an even more bizarre structure in Nitro, but the City made them (the dwellers) do something about it.

    SALeAnn - I will have to look for the toilet/tub combo. I think I've been too distracted bby this one to notice much else in that area!

    Lisha - Up next will be the beauty of WV! :-)

    Ginger - So you can see what piques my curiosity in this one?

    Christine - I will do that. I just wonder why it hasn't been condemned YET. It's been there FOREVER.

    Maura - That's what I think too. I'm like "How does it remain upright?"

    Crazy Mo - ROFL! That's one way to look at it!

    kenju - the sad thing is I don't think it's part of a town anymore. I don't know WHO is responsible for that stretch of road....Time for sleuthing.

    fattie20xl - They're around, but hard to get a candid shot of in a moving vehicle (and I'm not getting out of my van in that area!). On the city fail question, your guess is as good as mine...

    Chandra - LOL! I need to find out who is in charge of this area first...But I do plan on looking into it!

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  18. "It's highly undesirable. Basically, it's a 3 or 4 mile stretch of strip clubs, adult video stores and no-tell motels.

    I have seen "working girls" out in broad daylight in that area many a time."


    Well it's nice to know that there is an area that I will be comfortable hanging out at if I ever come to WV. ;-)

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  19. If an architect coughed up a hair ball, it would look just like that.
    "WTF?" might have been invented for that one.

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  20. There's always something like that. I saw a little house the other day - looked like it was condemned, then I noticed really fancy burglar bars and nice curtains in the windows - Another WTF?!

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  21. I am the same way about older houses. I am just fascinated by them, how did they get that way, who lives there, what would it be like to live here? Theres an old road that is right in the middle of suburbia that just maybe a mile of road in the backwoods and it has a whole name for the town! It's eerie back there. But I like it for some reason

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  22. You know, it appears we all seem to have a "what the..." place we pass, and they leave us wondering.. what happened here,and how come it is still HERE!

    Boy, you have a doozy with yours!!!
    Jan

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  23. I say gather up some friends who agree with you, and you can all push that unsightly thing into the river together, under the cover of darkness of course. It truly looks like it only needs one good shove...

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  24. WOW, she looks a little top heavy. Been defying gravity for 20 years you say? Crazy. Funny how every where has that place that nobody would want to live.

    It probably has a great view but man is it FUGLY! Glad to hear some pretty pictures will follow.

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  25. maybe they are hoping it morphs into a houseboat? could happen you know. Our scary area is called The Van Dyke....not a town, not even close to town...but a dirt road that winds for miles where 60's dropouts live in places that I would call hovels without power, water or septic....there is one log place that has paperback books shoved into the spaces between the logs. Is it a "destination" or a place that one has to travel through to get someplace else? Nope, but when it is yard sale time all of these folks descend down the mountain to fortify for winter. They are scary people. One has to drive through there once though to show tough Idaho muster!

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  26. Hmmmmm, looks like a really lazy property owner or someone who wants the department of License and Inspection to leave them be for now. I've been to WV and can attest for the beautiful scenery. It's been awhile, but I'm sure it hasn't changed much.

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  27. wow...that sure is an interesting piece of property..I'm with the others...just go on & push it in the river...

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  28. Dogs don't poop in my yard because it is fenced. To you it would be an eyesore but you can always look to the left, or right, depending on which direction you are going.

    It fits me like an old shoe and I'm good with that.

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  29. My kids always preferred "Titty City" to "The Badlands" :)

    I'd forgot about that place in Nitro until just now, my kids referred to that as "The Aztec Village"-that place was very creative.

    As for that prime piece of real estate on the river, I would wager that it has been defying gravity almost as long as I've been drawing breath. It might even be in Ripley's Believe It or Not!

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  30. Please cease and desist from posting photographs of my property on your web page or further action will be required.

    Sincerely,
    Frank Lloyd Wright's Bait, Chicken, Car Repair, Escort and Tornado Preparedness Shack, Inc.

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  31. Is it a cracked up crack house? Is it home to some endangered species of hookers? I want to know! (Enquiring minds want to know!)

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  32. Over here, behind every weird building there usually lurks a city planning official

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  33. Whoever asked about The Badlands.. it was the Gunslinger series that was set in The Badlands by Stephen King.

    Girlfriend, the best shot in Jefferson is driving by the porn shop next to the church. Classic.

    I drive through Jefferson EVERY. FREAKIN'. DAY. Ugh.

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  34. Ah, Jefferson. When I was a kid we called it "The Stripper Strip."

    That structure has been there as long as I can remember. I'm 35, and we take that route into St. Albans to visit my aunt all the time, and I can't remember it not being there. It reminds me of a hillbilly version of Winchester Mystery House:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House

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  35. The long gone places in Jefferson I miss most are the Adobe Hacienda motel and the A&W.
    The Adobe sat about where the Beford car lot is now. It was a semi-walled in courtyard style motel in the southwest adobe style. I'm not sure I ever remember it being open but there it sat for years until it was bulldozed.

    We used to call the place in Nitro "The House The Pecks Built" after a children's book of the same name. The Pecks just kept adding on to their house room by room until it ran over hill and dale..

    Some of the rooms in the place in Nitro had dirt floors. Filthy and nasty.

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