The Milam family was the second family I got to know well. Bob and Peggy had four kids, Kevin was in high school, Melissa was in Jr. High, Leebo was in my room and the youngest, Jada was several years younger.

They lived up the hill behind the Arehart’s on Route 3. Bob was president of the local bank in town and Peggy was a stay at home mom at that point and later became a teacher at Whitesville. It was like heaven as they stayed up late.

I would go over and visit them in the early evenings at times and chat with Bob in the living room till after 11 or so. I really enjoyed hearing his stories. He would then head for bed and I would go out to the kitchen and chat with Peggy and hear the local talk. Then I would head downstairs where the rec room was and Leebo's bedroom.

I remember listening to the radio and hearing Michael Jackson’s latest hit song and playing around with Melissa and Jada.

I remember once Jada was playing around with the telephone talking on it, Bob discovered she had somehow made a collect call to CA.

After the girls went to bed Leebo and I would make up all kinds of games till late into the night.

I had an Electronic Football game that we played forever. We were the 2 best at that. I would end up going home around 3 to 3:30 AM.

I played tennis with Kevin a few times, he was quite a talented guy and did some remarkable things. He became a professional ballet dancer and a doctor and rode a bicycle in marathons. He ended up with Lou Gehrig disease and after fighting a long battle and while still competing he passed away. His brother Leebo make a very nice video of Kevin.

Sometimes Melissa and Jada would ride along with me when I went to M&Ms Quick Stop to get some snacks and I would make some goofy sounds while playing with the radio dial which they thought was funny.

That first year Leebo and the oldest Arehart boy went up to PA with me during the Easter break. Pic 1   Pic 2   Pic 3   Pic 4

They had I like a summer home at Flattop by Beckley. They took me along a couple of times.

On the way we stopped at a store that had motorcycle helmets and I asked Bob if he thought if the blue one would match my motorcycle and he said why are you asking me, I’m color blind.

Another memory of going over to Flattop was that Bob would say we’ll stop at my brothers Ice stand and get some ice cream. I came to find out that the ice cream stand was called My Brothers Ice Crea Stand.

They had minibikes which we rode all over the place. It was always a fun weekend.

When Leebo was in Jr. High it was discovered that I had MG, a muscle weakness disease that made it difficult to do little things until the medication got leveled off. In that time frame Leebo would come over and help me make Mac & Cheese and with a lot of other things.

I remember when me, Leebo and Truman Long, (he didn’t come Whitesville till the 7th grade) went to a Drive In in Beckley. We got our food together and headed out. Going through town we saw John Peters, another one of my first year students so we picked him took him along. Leebo, John ended up eating about half the food.

One time my dad with a friend came down and met Mr. Hendricks (who got tickets for us), Leebo's dad and me at the old Mountaineer Stadium to watch Penn State play WVU.

A couple more stories about Bob… I remember Bob told me about some guy who came in for a loan on a house. Bob looked at him and said do you remember about three years ago you burn down your house for insurance money and the guy looked at Bob and said do you still hold that against me.

I saw an ad in the Charleston Newspaper for a 1971 Honda Prelude and went to see Bob about getting a car loan. I considered him my West Virginia dad, although no one was in the same class as my dad.

I asked him to go up with me one Sunday to look at the car. He asked if I wanted to get it. I said yes and he said well lets get it.

The people said we can’t get a notary on Sunday, Bob said he was a notary. They said how do we know if his check will be good. Bob said he was the President of the Whitesville State Bank and the check was good. 

I asked him what the payments would be and he come in Mondays and we'd figure that out.

In 1977 I moved out of my the apartment and moved into a place I had bought and turned into Art’s Rooming House. In 1980-81 I tore down the rooming house and built a 28’ by 26’ house. Bob let me have some of the old carpet that the bank had when they replaced their carpet for my place.

Once Leebo got into high school I didn’t see him as much as he was busy in school and being a Foosball champ at the Orgas Community Building. He graduated in 1982. I still would stop in once in a while to visit.