My hometown was founded in 1777. It lies in two counties and straddles the Greenbrier River.
In 1967 a man named Thomas W. Dixon, Jr. wrote a book about it entitled The Rise and Fall of Alderson West Virginia.
In 1974 my paternal grandmother secured an autographed copy and gave it to my brother. He was and still is the family history buff--able to recall dates and incidents with enviable ease.
I've never read the book all the way through cover to cover. On occasion, I have singled out chapters to read. I've also used it as a resource.
I was doing just that when I encountered a previously undiscovered six-and-a-half-page chapter entitled “High Crime and Misdemeanor.”
What was this? I had never seen this chapter before. Perhaps because it was jammed between “Inventors” (three pages!) and “Entertainment and Sports” (26 pages). What kinds of high crimes could have occurred in my sleepy river town? I quickly devoured it.
While a several fisticuffs, a few murders and a couple of riots were related, the story that follows caught my eye:
“On July 20, 1914, Sergeant Hundley had to take in two Camp Greenbrier boys for “. . . strutting upon the street showing too many . . . [of their] physical charms, . . . . [their] shirts having too much cut out at the arm holes . . . .”[1]
I have no doubt today’s trends of too much cleavage, pants-around-the-thighs, and public pajama appearances would have landed an individual sporting such “fashion” in the hoosegow in turn-of-the-century Alderson.
Scandalous, I say!
[1] Thomas W. Dixon, Jr., The Rise and Fall of Alderson West Virginia (Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Printing Company, 1967). 334.
In 1967 a man named Thomas W. Dixon, Jr. wrote a book about it entitled The Rise and Fall of Alderson West Virginia.
In 1974 my paternal grandmother secured an autographed copy and gave it to my brother. He was and still is the family history buff--able to recall dates and incidents with enviable ease.
I've never read the book all the way through cover to cover. On occasion, I have singled out chapters to read. I've also used it as a resource.
I was doing just that when I encountered a previously undiscovered six-and-a-half-page chapter entitled “High Crime and Misdemeanor.”
What was this? I had never seen this chapter before. Perhaps because it was jammed between “Inventors” (three pages!) and “Entertainment and Sports” (26 pages). What kinds of high crimes could have occurred in my sleepy river town? I quickly devoured it.
While a several fisticuffs, a few murders and a couple of riots were related, the story that follows caught my eye:
“On July 20, 1914, Sergeant Hundley had to take in two Camp Greenbrier boys for “. . . strutting upon the street showing too many . . . [of their] physical charms, . . . . [their] shirts having too much cut out at the arm holes . . . .”[1]
I have no doubt today’s trends of too much cleavage, pants-around-the-thighs, and public pajama appearances would have landed an individual sporting such “fashion” in the hoosegow in turn-of-the-century Alderson.
Scandalous, I say!
[1] Thomas W. Dixon, Jr., The Rise and Fall of Alderson West Virginia (Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Printing Company, 1967). 334.
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