Blind Justice of the Peace Showed Christmas CompassionGerry Griffith December 21, 2017Justice, as doled out by one man in Moundsville in the early 1960s, really was blind. One chilly night near...
Griffith Files: Grandma’s Rocker-A Baby Boomer’s Downsizing DilemmaGerry Griffith May 27, 2017They are taking away my grandma’s rocking chair tomorrow and it feels like an old friend I’ve known all my...
We Watch ForeverGerry Griffith May 10, 2017They had a party at our prison last night and they thought we couldn’t see.This rotten stone hell where we...
The Griffith Files: Remembering John F. Kennedy’s 1962 Visit to WheelingGerry Griffith November 22, 2016Author’s note: As promised more than a year ago when I began this series, the stories have progressed beyond the...
The Mabel Files: Sightless Workers Guild Rescues Mabel and LizzieGerry Griffith September 4, 2016He didn’t have a gavel so Christopher Cerone rapped his knuckles loudly on the wooden table to bring the meeting...
The Mabel Files: Standing Up for Sightless FolksGerry Griffith July 21, 2016Lizzie Goes on Wheeling TV and Stands Up for Sightless Folks Of all the remarkable things that the remarkable sightless...
The Mabel Files: A ’52 Nash in Elm GroveGerry Griffith June 7, 2016Mabel Wrestles a Four-Wheeled Beast Called Nash on the Streets of Elm Grove Mabel jammed the gear shift on the...
Mabel Files: A New Home, but Staggering New ChallengesGerry Griffith May 11, 2016Elm Grove was a welcoming neighborhood for Mabel, George, Lizzie, and little Terry in 1953. The cozy little house on...
The Mabel Files: Health Challenges and an Iconic Wheeling DoctorGerry Griffith February 25, 2016Wheeling’s Dr. Earl S. Phillips had been the Minns’ family doctor for 20 years, seen the family through illness and...
Mabel Files: Red Scare Campaign Launched in WheelingGerry Griffith February 1, 2016George Griffith hurriedly shoved the unopened, official-looking envelope into the breast pocket of his U.S. Postal Service uniform jacket, as...
The Mabel Files: Monsters, Wheeling Creek and New ArrivalGerry Griffith January 14, 2016The Monster in the Basement, Washing the Car in Wheeling Creek, and the New Arrival In 1947, the Minns/Griffith...
The Mabel Files: A Christmas Gift of FaithGerry Griffith December 23, 2015Tom and Lizzie Minns rarely had much to spend on each other at Christmas during their long and frugal marriage....
The Mabel Files: A HomecomingGerry Griffith October 12, 2015A Homecoming: Grief, and New Beginnings in the Spring of 1945 Writer’s note: Mabel Griffith passed away on September...
The Mabel Files: The 1924 Benwood Mine DisasterGerry Griffith September 13, 2015 With a loud click, a wrinkled shaky hand placed 15 cents on the glass countertop of Tom Minns’ confectionary...
The Mabel Files: Tom Minns’ Call to Political ActionGerry Griffith August 26, 2015Familiar-Sounding Themes of the Presidential Campaign of 1944 The speaker strode to the McClure Hotel Ballroom podium. The polite applause...
The Mabel Files: How Tom Minns Became One of Wheeling’s First TelemarketersGerry Griffith August 13, 2015Tom Minns drummed his fingers on the glass candy counter and let out a heavy sigh. Lizzie sat in her...
The Mabel Files: A Long Nervous WaitGerry Griffith July 27, 2015 Mabel Minns and her blind father, Tom, sat restlessly on a bench in the massive marble-floored waiting area of...
The Mabel Files: Goodbye to a Little Dog with a Big HeartGerry Griffith July 16, 2015Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in. –...
The Mabel Files: A Working Dog’s StoryGerry Griffith June 30, 2015Feature Picture from paintlater.wordpress.com Mabel Files 17 When I was a young dog just trying to survive on the streets...
The Mabel Files: Wheeling Men in Aleutian IslandsGerry Griffith June 22, 2015Wheeling Men Endure Isolation, Cold, Grueling Labor, and Air Attacks in the Aleutian Islands In the early days of World...
“The Mabel Files” Part 15: Japan “Casts the Die”Gerry Griffith June 15, 2015Wheeling’s Centre Market, and the shops nearby like Tom and Lizzie Minns’ Confectionary on Market Street, were at rest on...
The Mabel Files: Tale of the Sweeney PunchbowlsGerry Griffith May 18, 2015“Young lady,” whispered the old man to Mabel Minns as he moved slowly and quietly between weathered gravestones and pointed...
The Mabel Files: Wheeling Boys Go to WarGerry Griffith May 1, 2015Wheeling barber George Griffith was about to go to war in the Spring of 1941 and the Army fatigues he...
The Mabel Files: Centre MarketGerry Griffith April 13, 2015The Mabel Files: Part 11 Learning the Colorful History of a Keystone Wheeling Neighborhood It was a sweltering July Saturday...
The Mabel Files: WWVA Jamboree and “It’s Wheeling Steel”Gerry Griffith April 3, 2015Mabel Files 11—Tom’s Radio Part 2 Lizzie Minns had a restless night that Saturday in January 1933. She tossed and...
The Mabel Files: Fireside Chats and the Flood of ’36Gerry Griffith March 19, 2015Mabel Files 10—Tom’s Radio Part 1 “He’s coming Mama and he’s got it,” 13-year-old Mabel called out to her mother,...
Mabel Files: Wheeling’s Bonnie and ClydeGerry Griffith March 9, 2015By Gerry Griffith Weelunk Contibutor Wheeling Couple’s Bloody Crime Spree Keeps the Minns Confectionary Crew Buzzing When Tom Minns...
The “Mabel Files” 8: When George Met MabelGerry Griffith March 2, 2015By Gerry Griffith Weelunk Contributor Nineteen-year-old George Griffith’s shovel dug into the hard Colorado soil and created a stone-on-metal scraping...
The “Mabel Files”: Wheeling’s Underworld and Big BillGerry Griffith February 21, 2015By Gerry Griffith Weelunk Contributor Keeping out of Harm’s Way in a Dangerous Time “Man, don’t you know...
The “Mabel Files”: The Loss of a Jazz Giant – Wheeling’s Chu BerryGerry Griffith February 8, 2015By Gerry Griffith Weelunk Contributor The Minns Confectionary Feels the Loss of a Jazz Giant – Wheeling’s Chu Berry Chris...
The “Mabel Files”: Part 5Gerry Griffith February 2, 2015By Gerry Griffith Weelunk Contributor The Mabel Files Part 5: Stogies, Sandwiches, and Crocheted Lace The 1920s and 1930s...
The “Mabel Files”: Part 4Gerry Griffith January 26, 2015By Gerry Griffith Weelunk Contributor The Mabel Files Part 4: Music, talk, and danger inside the Minns’ Confectionary A safe...
The “Mabel Files”: Part 3Gerry Griffith January 17, 2015T.J. Minns and his “Pal” By Gerry Griffith Weelunk Contributor When my grandfather, Thomas J. Minns, had a full...
The “Mabel Files”, Part 2: Lindy Visits WheelingGerry Griffith January 11, 2015By Gerry Griffith The young people who loitered around Tom and Lizzie Minns’ little confectionary in South Wheeling on an...
The “Mabel Files”: Part 1Gerry Griffith January 4, 2015By Gerry Griffith Weelunk Contributor A word about this series: Like a lot of men, I mentally compartmentalize life and...
