The Patsy … (Or a Full House on the Train to Notre Dame) Bill Hogan February 7, 2018 Back in the late '40s and early '50s, we would either hitchhike home from Notre Dame, or four or five of us would split the cost of a car rental. The rental cars had governors that restricted the speed to 60 mp...
2017 Top Ten: Stories By You LeeRoy December 31, 2017 Today we continue the year in review with a shout out to our readers, followers, advocates, investors, advertisers and all-around-Weelunkers. Here are the Top Ten stories of the year from YOU, our communi...
My Town: Kid Catholic Bill Hogan September 3, 2017 6 May Devotions were held at 7:30 in the evening and were charming. The grade school kids would bring flowers they had picked and file up the side aisle to place them before the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mar...
My Town: Charley Trades in his Dice for the Stock Market Bill Hogan August 24, 2017 7 It was in the late 'forties when I first met Charley. He had one of a large number of Italian restaurants in our area, but Charley’s, the Bella Via, was a bit different in that he also maintained a large gambl...
An Old Man Bill Hogan August 6, 2017 2 The skin and hair have thinned, the muscles have shrunk and weakened, the carriage is bent. The energy that once animated the body and shined out through the eyes is dimmed. The attenti...
Brother Jim Bill Hogan July 8, 2017 Brother Jim, 1931 - 2003 Sometime ago someone asked what Jim did. I thought about it for a minute then told them that Jim did Jim Hogan better than anyone I knew. He really was a bit different. One might say...
A Story Behind a Linsly Statue: West Virginia’s First Flying Ace Bill Hogan July 7, 2017 3 When I was a small boy in the 1930s, my dad would take me to the Armistice Day ceremony at Linsly Military Institute which was located where the Kroger parking lot is now. It seems to me, in my recall, that pil...
Pete Jefferson Bill Hogan May 31, 2017 1 Pete was not a regular in our crowd but was around enough to the extent that he should have been. We knew each other, went to the same parties, but I believe he was a bit older. Pete had an older brother, a han...
Courts Four and Five Bill Hogan March 23, 2017 4 The tennis courts four and five are gone. I drove through Crispin Center with my buddy Rory, a thoroughbred mutt a lot like the driver and saw the work in progress. There was a big commercial dumpster parked th...
Babe Bill Hogan March 3, 2017 12 Babe, I believe his last name was Hert, was in Saint Michaels grade school with my oldest sister Kay when the school was located one block up from Edgington Lane. It is an apartment building now. I believe they...
A Sweet Romance Bill Hogan January 3, 2017 1 My son, Neil, was home from Africa after spending two years in the Peace Corps in Togo, West Africa, and another year or so working with some Italian Missionaries in Uganda. We were having lunch in this trippy ...
The Power of Intense Fragility Bill Hogan November 15, 2016 2 * Title attributed to E. E. Cummings The other evening I attended a musical program at Wheeling Jesuit University. Looking up from a table of delicious desserts after the performance, I saw Mary Hamm across th...
“Ora Pro Nobis” And Other Altar-Boy Mischief Bill Hogan October 5, 2016 1 We arrive at “the age of reason” at the ripe old age of 7, if I recall correctly what I was taught years ago. It was decided by the church that a person of that vintage was experienced and seasoned sufficiently...
My Town: Benjamin Andrews Bill Hogan September 13, 2016 1 I started dating Mary Ann in the late 1940s. Incidentally, dating in my day was asking a girl out for the evening for a movie, a dance etc. Her father, Andy Hess, had bought Table Rock Farm in the early 1930s. ...
A Guardian Angel Bill Hogan September 6, 2016 1 The Wheeling Country Club was still where Stratford Springs restaurant is located today. I was home for just a couple of weeks from a treatment facility for alcoholism and our friends were having a brunch for t...
My Town Bill Hogan August 15, 2016 3 I remember when the entrance to the Riley Law Building was on Chapline Street. One went through the doors and up a short flight of marble steps; I believe there was like a concierge behind a little counter to h...
Black Ties And Corsages/Shooters And Chasers Bill Hogan July 5, 2016 3 There were two big dances during the Christmas season, the White Ball and the Charity Ball. These were formal dances held at the Fort Henry Club. The young ladies wore all white, floor length evening gowns for ...
By A Stroke Of Luck Bill Hogan June 5, 2016 1 "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails....
Remembering Big Lou Bill Hogan May 10, 2016 1 I first met Lou right after World War II. I was a juvenile delinquent for the norms of that era and Lou had a bar just over the Junior Avenue bridge in Elm Grove appropriately named “Lou’s”. The city of Wheelin...
Growing Up At 2 Laurel Ave. Bill Hogan March 15, 2016 7 I don’t think I am different from anyone else in that I thought everyone was raised like I was. It wasn’t until I moved out of my neighborhood and got a little life experience that it began slowly to dawn on m...
