I enjoyed the job. I loved dealing with the people. He felt responsible and successful. Mark and Melodie had been married for three weeks and were about to move into a new mobile home just above his family's house. Then Daniel died.
Bars are a family thing.
I was about five when my family bought the bar on Route 28, a long road that winds through the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. Everything we did, everywhere we went was situated along this road that traveled from Maryland and into West Virginia, weaving into and out of the places of my past. Both sets of my grandparents lived along Route 28. Some of my schools were on Route 28. Our very own family-owned bar was about midway between Boonie's and the Woodland Inn.