Annual Rough Run Party

There's a tradition down in Rough Run.  Every year, sometime between the early bear hunt and the December bear hunt that the Rough Run Boys get together and have an old-fashioned, down home reunion/party.  The event takes place at Jerry Senior's place right at the entrance to Rough Run and includes lots of cookin', dancin', a little moonshinin' (don't tell anybody about that) and a whole lot of people having a great time.

(L to R) Producer TA Rhodes, Brenda Thorn, Jeff Davis,
Mike Adams, Scooter Davis, Squiggy Swigunski,
Terry Mitchell, Videographer Rebecca Carpenter,
Jerry Davis Sr, John Mentus, Jimmy Davis,
Producer/Videographer Jordan Rhodes

Jerry and his wife Shelia host the shindig and everybody makes a point to stop by.  It's one of those traditions that would be easy to make light of or dismiss as not important.  But when you live in a place where there aren't a ton of people and you have to go out of your way to run into someone, a party like this is important.  

Down in Rough Run / Ft. Seybert / Franklin, there's this whole culture of waving to someone you pass.  When you drive by the house of someone you know or you pass them on the highway, you wave.  It's part of the way things happen.  In New York or Los Angeles, you do everything you can to avoid eye contact, but in West Virginia you engage your fellow man.  So if you pass someone on the road and you don't wave, that could be interpreted in the wrong way.  A 'non-wave' has ramifications.  A 'half-hearted' wave is going to invite a discussion.  The politics of the wave is no small thing.

Which brings us  back to the annual Rough Run get-together at Jerry's house.  When everyone decides to get together, it means something.  When Jerry has the grill fired up to full-blast and Scooter is picking the banjo and Mike Adams & Cathy make the trip over from Brandywine, it means something.  When John Mentus and Danny Longo decide to stay an extra day, it means something.

So when you come to Rough Run and Jerry asks you to come on over to the party at the house, make the time, bring some deviled eggs, and get ready to have the time of your life.