My Fellow Houners–
I have been following all of the political, legal, emotional, and tumultuous goings on here in Calhoun county. My husband, Terry, and I moved here in 2021 and I took a job at a local store, which allowed me to become a part of the community very quickly. Many of you know me, if not by name, at least as “one of the girls” at the hardware store, and I know so many of you in a similar fashion. My husband and I go to Mom’s or Tudor’s for breakfast and I know every single face, no matter how crowded, even if I don’t remember your names.
Calhoun, Grantsville…It’s an amazing place. Growing up as an Air Force Brat, my staying power in any place has always been limited. I have lived on three continents, visited 47 of the United States, and seen some of the most amazing historical events unfold. Do you want to know what it was like in the Philippines during Marcos’s reign and subsequent overthrow? I can tell you a child’s perspective. Do you want to know what Germany was like as the Berlin Wall came down? I have pieces of that very wall that I took off with a hammer and chisel right there at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie.
In almost 47 years of life, I have never had the same address for more than 7 years. Prior to Hardman’s, I had never worked at a single job for more than 2 years straight.
My husband and I moved here seemingly by an act of fate. We weren’t looking in this area. We wanted to be further north, and we had a place all picked out. When we were heading back to NC after “securing” a purchase, we drove the back roads to see more of the beautiful countryside. We wound our way down from New Martinsville through all sorts of amazing sights and came into a little town. We saw “The Red Devil Inn” sign and thought it was charming. Then I became enthralled with the fact that the street signs were wooden, instead of metal. We kept driving and we saw a bake sale at the fire department and, having not had breakfast yet, turned around at this little hardware store to go back for food. The woman running it said it was to get the cheerleaders new uniforms and recommended the pepperoni roll to me. We left with a feeling of “wasn’t that cool?!?” and thought nothing of it until a week or so later when our “deal” fell through on the house we wanted so badly. A day later, the real estate agent we lucked into on a realty website said she found the perfect house for us that was being listed as she spoke, but it was outside of our search area. We put a sight-unseen offer and my husband headed up the next day to look at it. He called me and said, “You won’t believe it…it’s *the town*!” The town we were so charmed by.
6 weeks later, we were moving in and I was seeing my forever home for the first time.
Now, over 4 years later, this is still my forever home.
But I am dismayed by the things I see happening. The political and personal fighting. Demonizing one another…for what?…because there are different priorities with the same professed common goal? Nearly every person I talk to wants the same thing. We all want Calhoun to be a place of prosperity for our children and our businesses while still keeping the Dark Sky Project something we can boast about. We are the 4th least populous county in the state and yet we have so much in fighting we’re apt to put the Hatfield/McCoy rivalry to shame if we continue as we are.
We’ve had some really bad press in the past couple of years with some DEVASTATING outcomes. Our children were injured and traumatized in a catastrophic feat of poor judgement by a man trusted to protect them. Some new residents sharing a holiday in their home that they chose for peace and beauty gunned down by a visiting family member. Now the most recent headlines…
They all mar our reputation. I saw comments on yesterday’s newsbreak about how “nothing good ever comes out of Calhoun County,” and “Calhoun should be exiled from our state.”
I DON’T BELIEVE THAT!!! And you shouldn’t either. We are good, hard working people and we are going to overcome anything that is thrown at us. I may not have been born and raised here, but I have Houner pride and I will work to better this community.
I believe in the people here. I believe the hurts can be healed and prides can be humbled so that we can move forward united. It will not be easy, those things are so difficult to put aside, but it can be done.
Once they are put aside, we’ll start having the state see more positive headlines coming from us and they can quit thinking they’re better than us.
With love and community,
Rianne Bauerlein
You could not have said this better! Thank you for giving voice to all these concerns when most of us are too busy or too shocked or just too puzzled to answer.