Pendleton County, Where the snow shuts the school before the radio gets round to saying so. Where the store at the Rocks has been trading in the same building since 1902. Where Fort Seybert is a place, a date, and a thing people still bring up. Where the teachers know every student by name, in the whole county. Where nobody is quite certain what a baker's dozen is, and nobody has needed to be. Where the teenagers have no concept of a toll road. Spruce Knob, perhaps the closest some of us will get to Heaven. Where four railroads were proposed over forty years, and not one of them was ever built. Where the county was made in 1788 out of pieces of three others. Where there is no hospital, and everyone knows exactly how long it takes to get to Petersburg. Where ramps season is a season, the same as spring is. Where the iPhone only really became a thing in 2025.