The Wall

Once upon a time a van pulled up to 26 Poplar and uniformed men with shotguns got out. The men stood behind the trees in our front yard...which we thought very odd. Soon another truck pulled up with men in funny garb who started to unload a truck full of very large stones. Seems my father was friends with the warden at the penitentiary in Moundsville and he had persuaded the warden to allow some prisoners to bring him some stone to build a wall around our house.
The front yard sloped toward the sidewalk and so each time it rained, mud ran down onto the sidewalk and my father was determined to end the mud war by building this wall. He said that his father had taught him the skills of a stonemason and he could do this easily. He spent weeks building the wall. My mother was scandalized because in the heat he often worked topless. Nobody else seemed to care. The wall was about 3 ft high and had some upright stones on it to keep kids from walking on it, but the uprights just made it more of a challenge! It also had a built in light at the bottom of the steps to light your way to the Quinnery.
When that wall was finished, my father decided he had to extend the wall all the way around the property so ordered the troops (his nine children) to go with him to a creek to load bedrock which he proceeded to shape for the new wall. He landscaped both areas nicely and the wall still stands today, so I guess he knew what he was doing!