This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student digital storytelling initiative. The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries, websites, and interviews are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students in Marshall, Texas, worked in coordination with the Texas State Historical Association and National History to create multimedia websites that includes interviews with family, friends, and local residents. The work was supported by Museum on Main Street's Youth Access Grants in 2013-2014. In this project, a student interviews a local businessman.

Ben (00:00): When were you born?

George Stahl (00:02): January the 21st, 1921.

Ben (00:05): And where were you born?

George Stahl (00:06): Fancy Farm, Kentucky.

Ben (00:09): What was it like growing up there?

George Stahl (00:12): Fancy Farm, Kentucky?

Ben (00:13): Yes.

George Stahl (00:14): It was a small Catholic town. About the only thing they had in that town was a great big cathedral, Catholic cathedral, but the whole town was Catholic.

Ben (00:24): Where did you live before you came to Marshall?

George Stahl (00:27): I lived in St. Louis, Missouri. Well, I lived in several places, but my hometown was east St. Louis, Illinois.

Ben (00:34): When did you come to Marshall and why?

George Stahl (00:38): I came to Marshall in 1970 because my wife and I, from Shreveport, moved over here from Shreveport to start a business. We started Chemzall Chemical Company.

Ben (00:53): What was the name of the chemical company you own?

George Stahl (00:58): Chemzall Chemical.

Ben (01:00): What was it like working there?

George Stahl (01:02): It was heaven on Earth. I had all the chicken industries in East Texas and some in Arkansas and some in Louisiana, even one in Missouri, all the way from Fort Worth to Waco, Texas. All of them, you name them, they belong to me.

Ben (01:20): Cool. What year did you start building homes?

George Stahl (01:24): I don't know what year that was, but I was playing with him and he asked me to build that house for his granddaughter on 80, here across from... When the heck was that? That was about in the early nineties, I think. Wasn't it?

Speaker 3 (01:40): I think so. Yeah. Early 90s.

George Stahl (01:40): Exactly, because, yeah, that helped started me there. Yeah.

Ben (01:47): How many homes did you build?

George Stahl (01:49): I don't know, young man. I can't... I built a lot of them. I was the biggest builder in this town for a long time.

Asset ID: 2022.32.06

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student digital storytelling initiative. The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries, websites, and interviews are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students in Marshall, Texas, worked in coordination with the Texas State Historical Association and National History to create multimedia websites that includes interviews with family, friends, and local residents. The work was supported by Museum on Main Street's Youth Access Grants in 2013-2014. In this project, a student interviews a local baseball hero.

Rayford (00:00): Where did you grow up?

Frank Moran (00:02): San Diego, California.

Rayford (00:05): What was it like there growing up?

Frank Moran (00:09): California's fun. Always something to do. The weather's beautiful and I went to the beach a lot, so I loved that, and I do miss the beach. So that's what I miss most about California.

Rayford (00:25): What did you do when you were playing for the St. Louis Cardinals?

Frank Moran (00:29): Well, I got out of [inaudible 00:00:31]. My senior in college, I got drafted by St. Louis Cardinals and I traveled a lot, which was one of the funnest times of my life. I traveled to Canada, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, all over the south, places I probably would've never went, and that's how I met my first wife, actually. But when I played and played for three and a half years and it was one of the best times of my life. First of all, I'm a baseball player, so I love coaching and that's what got me there.

Rayford (01:09): What position did you play?

Frank Moran (01:09): I was a shortstop and a second baseman. Mostly shortstop though.

Rayford (01:15): What team did you play for? AA, AAA? Did you make it to the majors?

Frank Moran (01:20): My first year I started out in ... After I got out of college, I went to Summer League, short summer season, I guess it's called. And that was in Erie, Pennsylvania. And then my second year, I was in Canada. My third year I was in Florida, and then the following year was for the Arkansas Travelers, which is AA, and that's as far as I made it, which was very hard to make it. All those guys that I play with in AA are just as good as in the pros. But I play with a lot of professional guys that made it to the big league, and it was one of the best times of my life that year.

Rayford (01:58): What were your first impressions of Longview?

Frank Moran (02:02): It was a culture shock.

Rayford (02:05): What do you mean by culture shock?

Frank Moran (02:11): The pace is very fast in San Diego and it was real slow pace here, but nice. I'm very used to it now and I like it.

Rayford (02:23): What do you do in Longview? What is your work here?

Frank Moran (02:25): I started working for Anheuser Busch when I moved here and now I have been with them for 21 years and I am in management now and love it. It's a great job and it's taken care of my family for all these years.

Rayford (02:42): What is Anheuser?

Frank Moran (02:45): We sell Budweiser products and it's a good company, good benefits, and I love the job very much.

Rayford (02:56): Awesome. How did you end up in Gregg County?

Frank Moran (03:04): When I was playing baseball, in the Minor Leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals, I met my first wife and she was from this area and that's how I ended up in this area ...

Asset ID: 2022.32.05

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student digital storytelling initiative. The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries, websites, and interviews are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students in Marshall, Texas, worked in coordination with the Texas State Historical Association and National History to create multimedia websites that includes interviews with family, friends, and local residents. The work was supported by Museum on Main Street's Youth Access Grants in 2013-2014. In this project, a student interviews her grandmother and created a companion website to host the recordings.

Lauren (00:00): When did you first come to the United States?

Carmen Barajas Monin (00:05): I came here in January of 1963. I was 12 years old. My father had died when I was almost four years old. My mother left Mexico and came to the United States in pursuit of a brighter, better future for herself and for us too.

Carmen Barajas Monin (00:24): My mother left us with her parents. She was not financially able to bring all five children with her to the United States at once. She was making only $8 a week in a tortilla factory. So she had to continue to work and save to bring her children to be with her. In 1961, she brought the two oldest, Maria and Socorro. In 1963, she brought Francis and myself to the United States. At that time, she was working as a dishwasher in the nicest restaurant in town and was making a whole $20 a week. It was not until 1966, after my grandfather died that she finally brought my brother, a friend to be with us in Mission, Texas.

Lauren (01:19): So, you met and married my grandpa in Mission, Texas. How did you and your family end up in Marshall, Texas?

Carmen Barajas Monin (01:30): We moved to Marshall in 1977. I was married and blessed with three children at the time. We move you looking for better opportunities. And I have a sister that lives here with her family. Your grandpapa took a job as a melter in the furnace at Smith Steel Casting Company here in Marshall.

Carmen Barajas Monin (01:52): I transfer from JC Penney in McAllen, Texas to the store in Longview. I eventually took a lower position at JC Penney's in Marshall because gas had gone up to 79 cents a gallon and I couldn't afford the gas. Two years after we moved to Marshall, I had your mama.

Lauren (02:15): I can't imagine how hard that must have been moving to another country when you were only 12 years old. What was that experience like for you?

Carmen Barajas Monin (02:27): It was very hard living. My grandparents, aunts, and uncles, cousins friends, school teachers, it was frightening at first. We rode a bus from my hometown to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, which is a border town. It took a little over 24 hours to arrive there. We left the tropical environment and when we arrived to the border, we had to walk across a suspended bridge. The wind was blowing so hard that you could feel the bridge moved. It felt like it took forever to get to the American side.

Carmen Barajas Monin (03:05): The temperature in Mission, Texas that day was in the mid fifties with dark gray skies. We thought we will freeze to death. Learning the language was very hard. What made it more so was that I had to stop going to school to join the workforce at 13 years old. You have to remember that back in the day, the laws were not as protective for children's education was concerned.

Asset ID: 2022.32.04

Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student digital storytelling initiative. The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries, websites, and interviews are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students in Marshall, Texas, worked in coordination with the Texas State Historical Association and National History to create multimedia websites that includes interviews with family, friends, and local residents. The work was supported by Museum on Main Street's Youth Access Grants in 2013-2014. In this project, a student interviews her father and created a companion website to host the recordings.

Catherine (00:01): What did your parents do?

James Gallant (00:03): My parents were both originally in the military. They served in the Canadian military. They served in Grostenquin, France. They were in Germany, and then back to Canada.

Catherine (00:16): Do you miss Canada?

James Gallant (00:18): I've spent a lot of time in Canada, and I like to travel around the world, so I probably don't miss it. I enjoy taking the girls back there where they can be with their oldest sister and their nephew, but to miss Canada, I've traveled a lot of Canada, there's a whole world left for me to travel, Europe, all the different places. So, I don't really miss any place, because I always moved every three years.

Catherine (00:45): Would you ever move back?

James Gallant (00:47): Probably not back to Canada. The weather is a little colder than I like it now. As I get older, I find I like the warm weather.

Catherine (00:58): So, is Canada very different from east Texas?

James Gallant (01:06): Canada is a vast area. Now when you get to the big cities in eastern Canada, it's a lot like Texas. If you are in Toronto, the big city is like being in Dallas, or New York. If you're in Innisfail, it's like being in Jefferson.

Catherine (01:26): Okay. While you were in Canada, did you travel anywhere?

James Gallant (01:30): I traveled quite a bit while I was in Canada. A lot of the places that it took me, Libya, I used to go to Tripoli quite a bit. I used to go to Cuba, Havana, [inaudible 00:01:44] all the places, and basically my travel, for the most part, was based on what I was doing in business.

Catherine (01:52): So you worked a lot over there?

James Gallant (01:54): I did. We looked at setting up different businesses, different opportunities. It never came to fruition. When you're doing foreign work, a lot of times things don't come to fruition, so you just basically get over there. The experience is wonderful, the people are absolutely amazing, and to see the diversity in cultures is amazing.

Catherine (02:16): So, did your job ever force you to move from somewhere?

James Gallant (02:20): Always. Being in the oil and gas business, you had to always move around. If you weren't moving, you'd run out of work. I've traveled all through Europe, all through Canada, all through the USA, the Middle East, Africa, based on where my job would take me.

Catherine (02:41): Okay, so the oil and gas business made you move to Texas?

James Gallant (02:46): It did. We came down here originally selling an oil and gas deal, but we also had geophysical companies, and one thing led to another, and I ended up in a place called Bullard, Texas, and put together a geophysical company over there. I had one currently running in southwestern Ontario, another one in Ohio at the time.

Asset ID: 2022.32.03

Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student digital storytelling initiative. The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries, websites, and interviews are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students in Marshall, Texas, worked in coordination with the Texas State Historical Association and National History to create multimedia websites that includes interviews with family, friends, and local residents. The work was supported by Museum on Main Street's Youth Access Grants in 2013-2014. In this project, a student interviews her father.

Rola (00:01): What happened that you wanted to apply to any college in America?

Musa Dwairi (00:09): Well, because after I graduated from my Bachelor degree, I was thinking to come to do my highest education in the United States. And this is back in the 1970s. When I came back and I took my Master degree, then I took my PhD from University of North Texas at Denton, Texas. Then I got a job in Grambling State University, and in the same time I went to school at the Louisiana Tech University where I got another PhD in Business Administration. And I work again with the Grambling. Then I went back to the overseas, working for seven years with New York Institute of Technology, and I work in Jordan, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates.

Rola (01:11): Okay. When you were in Bahrain, have you ever thought that your life would change and even that your whole ways of routine would too?

Musa Dwairi (01:24): Not really because in the life of education, wherever you go you have to apply the same discipline and mostly I used to say, this is my opinion, a student is a student wherever you go. They are the same behavior, the same requirement, the same type of environment of classroom and all this kind of thing. The only thing you have to consider, which it is the type of culture. Sure, when you go to the Middle East or other part of the world, it's different culture from United State and more likely you will find different type of student and they have to adjust your way to adapt to the new culture. And fortunately, I lived enough in United States to be familiar with the American culture.

Rola (02:14): Was Marshall that first thing you thought of and why?

Musa Dwairi (02:20): Well, more likely because Wiley College and I apply and it was the first college to send me the application and acceptance or an offer for a job. And in fact, Marshall, I lived more than 15 years in Texas and I like the weather in Texas, I like the people. And then also, we lived in Boston, Louisiana-

Rola (02:51): It's a small town.

Musa Dwairi (02:52): ... which is a small town, small community, friendly community, easy to move around, easy to shop, and easy to contact the community. And no traffic. Any, what we called it, the other issue we see it in the big cities like Dallas or Houston.

Rola (03:14): Did Wiley College announce their job on the website?

Musa Dwairi (03:18): Yes, they did and we just apply and then we receive an offer from them in short of time and we just came to here.

Rola (03:29): How did they interview you?

Musa Dwairi (03:31): It was an interview, it was over the Skype and it was very friendly, very nice type of environment of interview and they were very interested in attracting me to join them and I'm glad I joined.

Rola (03:49): Why did you choose to work in Marshall?

Musa Dwairi (03:53): Well, Marshall is not a matter of choice. It is because of Wiley College and I used to be very familiar with Wiley College. They have a campus in Shreveport and I used to work in that campus before as a part time-

Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org

Asset ID: 2022.32.02

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student digital storytelling initiative. The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries, websites, and interviews are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students in Marshall, Texas, worked in coordination with the Texas State Historical Association and National History to create multimedia websites that includes interviews with family, friends, and local residents. The work was supported by Museum on Main Street's Youth Access Grants in 2013-2014. In this project, a student interviews his father, Robert Stewart Wright, a Professor of Music and Director of the Bennett Music Technology Lab at East Texas Baptist University.

Noah (00:00): What is your name?

Robert Stewart Wright (00:02): My name is Robert Stewart Wright Stewart Wright.

Noah (00:05): Is there any particular reason you got that name?

Robert Stewart Wright (00:08): Yeah, Robert Stewart Wright is a family name. I was the fifth generation of Robert Stewart Wrights and my family. The middle names were all different. I was Stuart, my dad was Foster, and my grandfather was Frederick and it goes on back. But Robert Stewart Wright was a common name to all of us.

Noah (00:29): Where did you go to school when you were in Marshall?

Robert Stewart Wright (00:31): When I was in Marshall, I went to school at Davey Crockett, and that went through sixth grade. And then seventh and eighth grade were junior high, so that was Marshall Junior High, and I went to school there.

Noah (00:44): Where did you go to high school?

Robert Stewart Wright (00:45): Well, after eighth grade, my father died. One of the reasons we were in Marshall was because my father was teaching music at ETBU. Or back then they called it ETBC, which was East Texas Baptist College. And he died suddenly in 1968. And so my mother decided to go to a school at SMU and we moved to Dallas. And then I went to school and graduated from Highland Park High School there.

Noah (01:20): Were your parents musicians?

Robert Stewart Wright (01:22): Yes. Both of my parents were musicians. And they begged me not to become a musician, but I did it anyway. Yeah, that was it. They said that, "There's no way you'll make any money out of it." They were right about that, but I just felt the need to be a musician anyway, even though they advised me against it.

Noah (02:37): Why did you come back to Marshall?

Robert Stewart Wright (02:39):

I came back to Marshall in 1989, basically in the spring of 1989, to fill in for a professor that had gotten ill. And that teacher was so ill that she couldn't return at all, and so then I just stayed on. They liked me and I stayed on. So, basically, I've been at ETBU since 1989.

Noah (03:06): What have you taught at ETBU?

Robert Stewart Wright (03:06): At ETBU, I've taught a lot of different things. I've taught organ, I've taught piano composition, 20th century music. I've taught theory and counterpoint and things like that.

Noah (03:25): What is your favorite composition you've written?

Robert Stewart Wright (03:28): Oh, that's hard to say. I wrote a piece that I really like, and I enjoy playing with my wife, which is a piece for piano. It's a little piece called Discussion for Two Pianos. And I think that's probably one of my favorite pieces, because we enjoy playing it together.

Asset ID: 2022.32.01

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Coming Home." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

In collaboration with Arthurdale Heritage in Arthurdale, West Virginia, fourth and fifth graders from West Preston School and a group of local homeschool students developed five videos that explore the history, tourism, nature, and agriculture of Arthurdale, WV. Students learned to conduct oral history interviews, draft scripts, along with taping and editing a video.

Speaker 1 (00:01): Welcome to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (00:04): West Virginia is a beautiful state, full of scenery, historic places, and exciting adventures. As students from West Preston School in Preston County, West Virginia, we wanted to show you some of our state's beauty and let you hear from some West Virginians why you should visit the Mountain State?

Speaker 2 (00:24): Our first guess is Professor and author Ann Pancake who grew up in West Virginia and lived around the world before returning. She is now a professor at West Virginia University and the author of Strange as this Weather Has Been and talked to us about what she values about living in West Virginia.

Ann Pancake (00:51): I have found that West Virginians are really wonderful human beings. Here are some of the qualities that I think that not everybody, but some people here have more than a lot of people I have met in other parts of the country. Those are commitment to family and communities, kindness and warmth, generosity, loyalty, humbleness, down to earthness, hospitality, putting others before one's self, attachment to the natural world, hard workers, common sense, resourcefulness, and resiliencies.

Ann Pancake (01:27): I'm really attached to our land and the mountains and the forest and the rivers and the farmland and I love being outside in West Virginia.

Ann Pancake (01:43): I think the pros of tourism, obviously it can provide more jobs. I think it can also show people who are not from West Virginia the real and true West Virginia instead of the stereotype West Virginia. I think it can help small towns and small farms stay alive. I think it can help us preserve the natural world and the farmland because people mostly come here to do things in the natural world, to do stuff outside in addition to learning about our history and heritage. So it should be a motivation for West Virginians and the politicians to preserve the natural world and preserve the historical sites and the heritage sites.

Ann Pancake (02:36): I think there's a risk that tourism can happen and people who actually live here don't get the benefits from it. So they don't get the money and they don't get the jobs, or there's low paying jobs like just cleaning a hotel room. West Virginia has a history from people outside West Virginia making money off of us while we don't get anything. Okay? So sometimes I'll worry that will happen.

Ann Pancake (03:02): I'm also worried sometimes that there'll be so many people in some of the natural places that they might get damaged or overrun. Sometimes if there's too many tourists they can take over a place that used to be special to people from West Virginia, and I know some places where that's happened for me. Another con is if we have tourism, we have to have the infrastructure to support it . . .

Asset ID: 2022.28.05

Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Coming Home." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

In collaboration with Arthurdale Heritage in Arthurdale, West Virginia, fourth and fifth graders from West Preston School and a group of local homeschool students developed five videos that explore the history, tourism, nature, and agriculture of Arthurdale, WV. Students learned to conduct oral history interviews, draft scripts, along with taping and editing a video.

Narrator (00:03): Wild and Wonderful Wildlife of West Virginia.

Narrator (00:06): West Virginia is often called Wild and Wonderful, and our wildlife demonstrates that. West Virginia is home to many animals, including coyotes, birds, such as Cardinals, fishes, and eagles, black bears, bobcats, and fish, and frogs. We talked to Gary Johnson and Jamie Moore of the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources about West Virginia's wildlife.

Speaker 1 (00:34): Well, wildlife wise, I like the deer a lot. I think they're very pretty animals to watch and play with each other. And they live anywhere outdoors.

Speaker 1 (00:49): We handle all kind of sorts. We deal with deer, bear, turkey, sometimes down south wild hogs, smaller animals like coyotes and fox.

Speaker 2 (01:08): Littering is a big thing. Don't litter. Don't throw out things. I mean it looks bad. A lot of the wildlife and fish can get wrapped up in the six pack containers or plastic jugs, or I've actually had... It's a funny story, years ago, a skunk had its head stuck in a peanut butter jar and yeah, the skunk had to be put down cause there was no way to save it. So things like that...

Narrator (01:38): Gary and Jamie also talked to us about their job and the management work done by the DNR.

Speaker 1 (01:49): I've been in for 7 years.

Speaker 2 (01:51): I've been in for 32 years.

Speaker 1 (01:57): Oh yeah. I love my job to get, to spend all the time outdoors and drive around and see the state of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (02:08): Our job varies throughout the year. Depends on what time of year is like right now we're getting into a lot of fishing. We check fishermen to make sure they're not catching too many fish or taking too many. Littering is bad right now, so we work a lot of littering cases trying to catch people that's violating that laws. We're getting roll into the spring turkey season. We're busy working that, trying to catch people that's hunting them illegally by putting out bait for them. We can't bait turkey, so we're trying to get into the woods and catch the people doing that. In the summertime, boating season's really big for us. We operate patrol boats on all the lakes and rivers. And in the fall we go into the hunting seasons, you know we have people killing illegal deer, and spotlighting, and things of that nature.

Speaker 2 (02:58): Well, we typically deal with catching people that poach the animals in West Virginia, that means illegally taking them. So our toughest job is trying to catch those people in the act of doing that and conducting investigations into their activity.

Narrator (03:16): We were excited to talk to Gary and Jamie and learn more about West Virginia wildlife and the work that the DNR does to take care of our parks and wildlife. They shared with us, that the most important thing that we can do is to never litter. The DNR works hard to keep West Virginia clean and to protect our wildlife and keep West Virginia residents safe. Let's all work together to keep our planet clean and take care of our wildlife.

Asset ID: 2022.28.04

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Coming Home." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

In collaboration with Arthurdale Heritage in Arthurdale, West Virginia, fourth and fifth graders from West Preston School and a group of local homeschool students developed five videos that explore the history, tourism, nature, and agriculture of Arthurdale, WV. Students learned to conduct oral history interviews, draft scripts, along with taping and editing a video.

Speaker 1 (00:03): For our project, we wanted to study water and fishing in West Virginia. We interviewed Michaela Collins from Friends of Decker Creek and Rick Satterfield, who is a local fisherman.

Speaker 2 (00:22): They talked about water, what lives in water and safety related to drinking water. And what fish that lived in our local lakes and streams.

Speaker 3 (00:37): Michaela Collins is an AmeriCorps member at Friends of Deckers Creek in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Michaela Collins (00:47): So there are a couple of ways that we keep water fresh and clean. One of them is we test it, we test it using chemical testing probes, and that tells us all kinds of things. It tells us pH, it tells us temperature, it tells us something called conductivity. Another way that we keep the water clean is we pick up trash. We literally take trash bags and gloves and trash grabbers, and we go and we pick up trash with a lot of community volunteers. So those are two of the biggest ways. All kinds of things live in water, fish, bugs, snails, clams, mollusks. And even more relies on water, I can't think of a single animal that doesn't need water to survive. Snakes? Yeah, snakes live in water sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:40): All right, go ahead, Doug.

Michaela Collins (01:46): There is a lot of bacteria that live in water and some of them are really good. Bacteria isn't always a bad thing. In fact, I wrote it down, there was one study, I saw that it said for every glass of drinking water, there's almost 10 million good bacteria in it, yeah. But bacteria do good things, so that kind of bacteria help actually clean the water. They eat the organic stuff and the chemicals that are in it. And in streams, like where I work and in ponds, the bacteria, they decompose, if you guys know what decomposing means, they break down dead stuff. And that puts other nutrients back into the ecosystem. And sometimes there's bad bacteria, like I said about E.coli that comes from waste, from animal waste or from people waste if sewage leaks into the water. So that can happen sometimes.

Speaker 1 (02:36): After learning about the small creatures that live in water, we learned about fish and fly fishing from Rick Satterfield, a local fish fly fisherman.

Rick Satterfield (02:53): What do I enjoy most? It's just fun. It's relaxing, don't you think? You just don't really have to do anything. And it doesn't matter if you catch anything or not, you're just having fun and enjoy in nature. So I don't have to work really, so I don't have to work, plus I like to eat fish.

Speaker 1 (03:22): We learned a lot from our interviews and thought it was important to learn about the water we drink and what lives in the area. We hope you all learn something too. And thank you for watching.

Asset ID: 2022.28.03

Find a complete transcription at www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Coming Home." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

In collaboration with Arthurdale Heritage in Arthurdale, West Virginia, fourth and fifth graders from West Preston School and a group of local homeschool students developed five videos that explore the history, tourism, nature, and agriculture of Arthurdale, WV. Students learned to conduct oral history interviews, draft scripts, along with taping and editing a video.

Speaker 1 (00:06): Agriculture in Preston County, West Virginia. Farming has always been an important part of Preston County, West Virginia. Did you know that Preston County is the most agricultural county in West Virginia? Preston County is known for growing many crops, including potatoes, wheat, and buckwheat. Since 1938, the county seat of Kingwood has hosted the buckwheat festival, which celebrates agriculture in our area.

Speaker 2 (00:38): Local families grow gardens with all kinds of crops, including broccoli, cabbage, beans, berries, apples, cucumbers, and corn. Many people hand traditions down the next generation, making farming and gardening an important part of our culture. For example, we can and pickle vegetables and fruit during the winter.

Speaker 3 (01:06): We spoke to local farmer, George Street, about the special corn he raises.

George Street (01:20): I've grown a lot of different varieties; the variety that I'm kind of settled on now is a kind of a shorter season. It's about an 85 day corn to maturity, but then there's a drying process before you can grind it. So all in all it takes much longer than 85 days.

George Street (01:43): Corn is a good product that the farm makes, it can be used both for animal feed and for corn meal for corn bread, for humans to eat. It's good. You've got to grind it, process it, but it's a good product. And we bale a lot of hay, if we have extra we'll sell it. Occasionally I have some beef cows, but I don't right at this moment.

George Street (02:08): Cotton hair sheep: they're a type that they don't produce wool for clothing. Wool now is not really a good commodity.

George Street (02:26): Take an ear of this corn, first you've got to shell it. Now, they make a sheller that looks similar to this; you crank it, you run this through and it pulls all the kernels off of the cob. But just for a little bit you can just twist it, see how easily it comes off? If it's properly dry it does that. So you would adjust this to your coarseness, do you want it really coarse or really fine? And that depends on what you're going to do with it, how you want to eat it. If you're going to make burrito wraps, soft shell wraps.

Speaker 5 (03:15): In addition to crops, Preston County is also home to many livestock farms. Cattle is the main animal that people raise, but there are several sheep and goat farms. We spoke to [inaudible 00:03:25] native Darlene Bolyard about the goats that she raises.

Darlene Bolyard (03:34): The hardest thing about farming is it's physically very demanding work, it's physically very hard. It's hard to make a living wage so that you can be a full-time farmer. That's very difficult, especially in small places like West Virginia, where we don't have a lot of large tracks of flat land. And of course the other thing is the emotional side. You get very attached to them, even though we know they're livestock we get really attached to them.

Asset ID: 2022.28.02

Find a complete transcription at www.museumonmainstreet.org