MONTAINI SEMPER LIBERI

I was looking through the desk drawer I hardly even use--except for a nail cutter--and found two things I had forgotten about.

An unopened iron-on patch of the state seal of West Virginia which depicts a coal miner on one side and a Davy Crockett looking fellow on the other of a rock with the date July 20, 1863 on it. That was the date that West Virginia was created out of a weirdly strange area of Virginia with two panhandles, for the Civil War. It also had the Latin phrase above, which means, "Mountaineers are always free".

The other was a half-dollar sized nickle from McDowell County National Bank dated July 20, 1963--for the 100th anniversary of the state.

I've had these things a long time--long enough to forget them.

But it was a joy to find them.

I was 16 when the Centennial happened.

I hadn't yet met Bern.

Memories are good.

I my even iron the patch on a jacket....