Ed Shepard, 88, of Welch, W.Va. (Photo by Elaine McMillion)
Sunday and Monday I ventured to McDowell County to help Elaine, project director for Hollow, shoot some material for the interactive documentary.
Sunday we filmed a Pentacostal church service at Trinity Temple in Welch. It’s just one of the many churches in the county, and Pastor Dan Pruitt leads this church. This day he gave a sermon about resisting temptation and sins and transgressions that sometimes take place.
(Screenshot by Elaine McMillion)
Churchgoers participate in songs. (Screenshot by Tricia Fulks)
Monday Elaine and I visited Ed Shepard. He told us stories about serving in World War II, and then we just followed him around his service shop.
Ed, left, and me. Him making me laugh, above, and a normal photo, below. (Photos by Elaine McMillion)
Ed says he’s not that busy anymore, but running his service shop gives him something to do. He enjoys having visitors, and he has friends who visits him everyday, so visitors break up the days he has no customers.
After being down there once, you can tell people – whether they’ve lived here all their life like Ed or for a decade or so like another family I met – they have a deep passion for seeing McDowell County better.
I plan to write more as I go back. I will be back in Southern West Virginia in a week and a half, and I’m already itching to get back there. The week after that, we hold our first community storytelling workshop.
Good things are happening down there, and I can’t wait to see what happens.
