RIP – Chuck Yeager. There are a lot of pilots in my family and Chuck was always a great hero to all of them.
Chuck was raised in West Virginia and he took great pride from being from West Virginia, his entire life. I have travelled through West Virginia many, many times in my life. I was raised in western Pennsylvania. Many people from my high school’s graduating class attended West Virginia University. West Virginia gets a bad rap. It is wildly beautiful, mountainous, and free. You feel an awesome respect for what a tiny, fragile speck of nature, you really are, when you drive through the windy, treacherous, mountain roads of West Virginia, with the breath-taking spectacular views, everywhere you look. There is a reason why “Take Me Home, Country Roads” is one of John Denver’s most loved songs. It was written and sung with such heartfelt devotion:
“Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze”
People like to make fun of West Virginians for being “backwards” and “under-developed.” But I scoff at that, just as they do. The people who I know, whose roots are West Virginian, are strong, faithful, brave, salt of the earth, prideful, authentic and courageous – very much like Chuck Yeager. They don’t give one hoot what the rest of us think about West Virginia, or its people. Like Chuck, they fly under the radar, beyond the speed of sound, because they know that they live in a multi-faceted, untouched, gorgeous jewel- a hidden gem tucked in the corner of our country’s jewel box. And they don’t feel the need to prove that fact to anybody.
