Attending the Massacre re-enactment has been on my bucket list for a few years. Since retiring I have managed a World Science Fiction Convention (Dubblin 2019) and the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival (2022). Up next are the Mother Jones Festival in Cork (2025?) and the Cumberland BC Miners Festival, especially Ginger Goodwin Day (2026?).
Turns out it really isn't, thankfully, a re-enactment. It's a play with lots of segments (soliloquies???) in which a character addresses the audience and provides explication of what's going on or background to the character or events. Written, directed and organized by a local woman with an interest in the area's history. Miss Donna is how she is referred-to.
Hugely enjoyable and very well-done (writing and performance), my buddy, a retired union in-house solicitor, and I went to both shows. The second show a bit of a disappointment only because it lost a scene and some other bits as the event before it ran long.
Mebbe 110 in the bleachers for the first show and 200 the second.
Sociologically interesting too. The mix of proud Hillbilly culture, fundie Christianity, and, I have to say it, cringy USian patriotism with a dollop of Trumpism all rolled-up in a ball with a very powerful local union culture was very, very interesting to experience.
But as Gavin, my travelling buddy has noted, there wasn't a lot, other than two of the soliloquies, if that's what they are, in the play and one display re. a relatively recent West Virginia teachers strike in the Mine Wars Museum, connecting the historic struggles by local unions with what's happening in the present.
There also wasn't a big UMWA presence at the re-enactment. Mebbe twenty retirees, one of whom stood and shouted "God bless the United Mine Workers of America" when the play ended.
The Mine Wars Museum small but lovely and growing. Great to see a union making a commitment like that to its history. Plus it gets funding from foundations etc. for things like oral history projects and a 'Black Music of the Hollers' project that is currently under way.
The town (village really, pop. 394) interesting in a bunch of ways.
Altogether I would highly recommend all of it save for the 11 hours drive getting there and the 13 hours back.
Here's a few stills and some video samples of the play:
Here's my entire photoset, categorized in albums but not yet really edited:
Random thoughts and musings:
1. Guns, guns, guns. 58% of the population of the state of West Virginia owns a firearm. 58% of the entire population, including children. Pay $75 and you get a permit to carry a weapon in public, openly or hidden.
2. Town of 394 has two police cars and no fire service.
3. Great ribs at a BBQ place across the street from where stayed. They have their own smoker. But can't serve booze as legislation prohibits the sale of alcohol next to a church, which the restaurant is.
4. Lots of plastic. Cups, straws etc. that are banned here. And I can't remember the last time I saw styrofoam cups but they were everywhere.
5. Little tourism related to the Museum and the re-enactment. Lots of people in big expensive ATVs racing along the trails in the area. Not even much for the Hatfield-McCoy feud stuff. But since coal mining has slowed tourism is the one reason the town still exists, such as it is (two streets).
6. Lots of far-right politics of various kinds in evidence. From signs close to declaring Trump the Messiah to t-shirt and ball cap slogans.
7. Everything starts and ends with a Christian prayer.
8. Our new friend, Lester, wasn't drinking anything but water but sat with us on the porch while we killed a few beers. The more we drank the drunker he got. A self-described 'liberal' (in the USian sense), he owns five rifles and four handguns and says he is the only person we me in Matewan who won't be voting for Trump this year.
9. I got a good chunk of the cast of the play to stand behind the Trade Union Football and Alcohol Committee flag that I brought (TUFAC folks collect such photos). The star and best actor, save for Miss Donna, who played the police chief, refused as he will not stand behind a red star.
10. The play doesn't take place where the actual events did. That's a two minutes walk away.
11. After several attempts at flagging down a server one stopped to ask if we had been served. We said no. She said "OK then." And walked off. LOL
12. The music night at the UMWA Community Hall was great and deserved a much bigger crowd. Guess all the ATV riders were in the town's one bar or working on their buggies.
13. A nice thing about staying in a small town like this is that you can use your hotel's wifi connection just about everywhere. LOL
14. The Matewan Massacre was part of the lead-up to the Battle of Blair Mountain. More HERE.
15. Had a bit of a union nerd geek-fest. Museum's gift shop really needs to be a LOT bigger. :-) I even bought a camo Museum hat and tee.
16. Despite their enthusiasm for Jesus these people are godless. No brown sauce and no pickled onions in both restaurants and shops.
17. Folks astoundingly friendly. Buying stamps came with a great 5 minute chat with the village postmaster.
18. The Matewan Historic House is highly recommended if you need a place to stay whilst in Matewan. Dave and Helen own it. He is descended from the Police Chief who sided with the miners and was later assassinated on a courthouse's steps, by the mercenaries hired by the coal mine owners. With impunity I should add.
19. The only unpleasant moment was when the US border guard listened to where we were going and why and then lowered the barriers on us and closed his door to consult with someone by phone. Bit tense. Otherwise the long drives there and back a great chance for Gavin and I to catch-up on things.
20. Love the accent there. Regulars in restaurants updating staff on how their kids are doing etc. Lovely, friendly people, UMWA supporters each and every one, and likely all Trump voters.
21. Radio snips from the journey here. Church guy explaining how Biden has forced the banks to release all transactions to the FBI that have the key words "Holy bible" in them. So send cash. LMAO. Creative Concrete advert:"The lord has blessed us with beautiful weather so it's time to repave your driveway".
Advert from a uni that goes on and on about how conservative it is. Talk show
panel which reaches agreement that (a) the feminists are taking over
the republican party and (b) vaccinations can result in positive drugs
tests causing the loss of employment and of driver's licence. Advert
for the heapest colorectal screening clinic in northern Ohio followed
by one from a lawyer who specializes in malpractice lawsuits. Way more loonie political talk shows than music all the way down there. On the way back we listened to pods.
22. Server when I asked about the Matewan Massacre Burger: "Darlin', dont matter what side yer people wur on in the Massacre or whether you are a Hatfield or a McCoy, we're all on the side of tourism now." [She laughs]
23. Condom dispenser in wash warns only for disease prevention and not birth control, reminds us all that abstinence before marriage and monogamy afterwards is the only sure way to proven the spread of disease.
24. "Do you follow Jesus this close?" a popular bumper sticker.
Lots of billboards advising us that 'beyond a reasonable doubt' he lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment