The other people I spent a lot of with was a young couple, Don and Donna Potter. They moved into the Block Plant in Pettus Bottom after I had. They had the first apartment on the right and I lived in the second apartment on the right.

Don worked in the mines. He had previously worked at a sawmill where he lost his index finger and middle finger. Donna was a stay at home wife. They had a purple and white Charger if I remember correctly.

I got to know them really well. I would be borrowing something or she would. I spent a lot of time at their place playing cards and chatting away.

I got to meet Don's parents and Donna's too. I would go up with Donna and Don to visit her family at Clear Fork.

She had a lot of brothers and sisters and I think I met all but one of them. I really enjoyed meeting the family and doing things with them.

I'll take a shot at naming them (probably not in order or correct spelling) but here we go... Christie, Roger, Trish, Danny, PJ, Mike (which I stay in contact with), Ricky, Susie, Donna, Teresa, Mary, Bobby and Dalton.  

When I was studying for my Master’s Degree I would go over and Dona would ask me questions, it was a huge help.

I remember the butter dishes she had, they were bowls with lids. I thought they were pretty neat and started to buy the same kind of butter. Close to 50 years later I still have several of the bowls.

At some point they moved into Whitesville and I continued to visit them there.

I would visit in the evening and Donna and I would play games and chat until Don came home from work. We would then chat for a while and then I would head home. In the winter months we would listen to the radio to see if school would be cancelled due to bad weather.

During that time frame Donna and I came up with some dance we called the Pretzel. One time I went with them to a night club in Beckley, Donna was the dancer but not me or Don. Then the song played that we made up our dance to and somehow she talked me to go up and we did our dance. I still can hardly believe I did that.

They came up to PA one summer to visit and stayed at our place.

They moved to Clear Fork in a new development. Don had gotten his settlement from his sawmill injury and they bought a new house there. I still would visit them sometimes. They had a daughter Casey and a dog Pepper.

Later they got divorced and shortly after that I moved back to PA after my mom died in 1990.

They are both currently happily re-married.