Another mystery to unravel ?

I've planned the route to West Virginia. I'll be leaving Saturday morning April 10th riding along backroads to Beckley.

I plan on spending the night and visiting the Coal Miners Museum.  They have an underground mine that you can visit as well as buildings that have been restored from the era when coal was king. I think it will put me in the frame of mind for understanding the type of hard living that miners and their families have endured for generations.

I'm having a lot of memories come back with conversations that I remember from my grandmother, Leona, speaking of places where she grew up. Beckley was the central point and Sophia, Crab Orchard, Jumping Branch all where friends and family were located.

I have pictures hanging on the walls that Leona drew when she was much older, in her 70's.  Sketches of the living room of her grandparents house, the old school house where she went to school, the old mill that was nearby. She painted the walls of one bedroom of her home, pouring out memories onto the walls trying to preserve rememberances or to leave them behind.

After Beckley I will ride to Charleston to visit Debra at the State Archives.  I hope I get to meet and thank her for placing the documents about Ora in reserve for me.

Another enigma about Ora, his WWI draft registration from 1918. It show he was 22 years old and married. His occupation is given as "farmer", this must have been before he went into the coal mines.  He had blue eyes and light colored hair and of medium height and build.  Under disabilities it says, "Left eye out and shot in stomach and left bullet in middle"!  No one ever talked about this. Where and when did this occur?  Another Riddle wrapped in a mystery.

Source: http://chasingariddle.blogspot.com/2010/04/getting-hog-ready.html