Pictures and Stories from the 2012 WV Birthday Piece Line

Our roving WV Birthday Photographer / Reporter sent the following photos and stories to match  we'll attempt to do them in one large post.
Thanks To Phani  -  For Four Years Now he's provided us with photos of this 24 hour event.  June  20 - 24 ( day varies)  Blenko Glass sells
a limited number of a special designed for the occassion vase - called WV Birthday Vase / Blenko.

#1 & #2: Leslie and Christian Kimworthy (no pic, but Leslie's picture is in July 2011 post)
- Came in at 4:30am, on Thursday for the piece. Helped Blenko Wrap the gifts and package them in to the gift bag.

#2 & #3: Ralph and Abbey Borror

- Came in at 6:30am, on Thursday for the piece. Were #1 & #2 last year. Story is published in July 2011.

#5 Matt (10th grade). He came in last year as well. He was #8 last year.

#6 Carolyn Shaver, Missed last year but came the year before. She came in at 6:30am on Friday along with her daughter Crystal who is #8

#7 is Debbie Deweese, was #7 last year as well. Her Daughter is studying law at Purdue now.
#9 James Shifflett was #5 last year. Visiting this year with him wife (Shelby - #11) and Son (Chris #10)
#10 Chris Shifflett: he was #10 last year.
#11 Shelby Shifflett, I think first time to Blenko.

#12 Rachel McDonald, 10th grade at Cabell Middle school. She and Matt (#5) are twins. Rachel swapped her number card (#12) with Phani (#15).



#13 Patsy Stewart, info on her is in July 2011 Blenko BD post. She came in at 11am on friday.
#14 Mary Douglas, info on her is in July 2011 Blenko BD post. She came in at 11am on friday. Mary is kind enough to take to save my chair for next year for the event which I plan to attend.

#15 Phani

#16 Geoge Jackson, his story is published last year. His wife is not attending the event this year.

#17 Larry Burley, his story is published last year. His story is published last year.

#18 Darren smith, Works for dept. of veterans affairs, Huntington. He came in last year and was in 40's in the line.

#19 Syndi smith - 5th grade (Daughter of Darrent smith). Both Father and Daughter are collecting blenko for 5 years.

Cindy Sharp, Ralph Sharp, Mark Greathouse, Eppie Boles, Danny Dawson and his wife have attended the event this year. They were here last year as well.

Eppie Boles: Not sure which # she is but she has been collecting Blenko BD glass since Blenko started having BD glass. She has all the pieces but her 1983 BD bowl has cracks. She is trying to find a replacement. She has a total of 33 pieces to date. She never purchased anything other than Blenko BD glass but had many gifts from friends and family. Worked at Union carbide plant till 2002 and retired. She lives in St. Albans.

Hillary made it this year with her Dad and they are in the Mid 80's. Her mother is not yet 100% to be able to make it. Hillary's uncle Barry is the Mid. 70's in the line.

Everyone is excited about next year, as it would be 150th WV birthday. Arlon Bayliss has already started working on concepts for next year. This year he made a slide show of the BD piece signing prior to the event and also a slide show on the eve. of BD event, where he let a camera capture pictures every 30secs. It was presented upstairs Blenko visitor center during BD event.

It rained during the day for a half hr but the people in the line had enough shelter to keep them dry. It was a nice warm day, chilly night with Foggy ending the next morning and a perfect setting for the BD event this year. Hopefully everyone this year would be able to make it next year for the big event and very anxious at that.

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Phani