Poca Dot: Exploring Kanawha Valley Heritage

I have called the Kanawha Valley home, with a few short breaks, since 2004. Since then, I have worked at 14 different jobs. I have also lived at 9 different addresses just locally. I like to think I have a good handle on things in the area. One of the most unique communities along the Kanawha River exists just West of Nitro in Poca, WV. It is home of the Poca Dot’s. Because you couldn’t have a High School in a town called Poca without that being the natural choice for a mascot. I have always been fascinated with the area!

I was a district supervisor for a popular restaurant in the town prior to a nasty relapse I had with alcohol. That is not to say I was not a continuous alcoholic during my time with the company. There were interspersed periods of sobriety that never exceeded 90 days. This was early in 2023 when I had just gotten a clear test from the liver transplant office I was going to at UK. I had ballooned in weight from my already portly 260 to 300 pounds over the course of 60 days due to ascites. Despite my newfound sobriety, I was MISERABLE! I had acute alcoholic hepatitis, and I do not recommend it to anyone.

We were still having staffing issues from COVID-19 which never went away. However, I was happy that I hired a new employee. This was a young man that didn’t have much experience, but he was eager. I was happy to have him! The problem I had was I didn’t want to put this young black man in a store with a driver who everyone knew was racist. When I say this, I mean even by Poca, West Virginia standards people knew he was a bigot. He was a proud bigot at that! So what to do…

I thought my best plan would be to sit him down and tell him in no uncertain terms that if I even suspected he was treating this person unfairly on the basis of race, I would fire him! This turned out to be my undoing and almost lead to my death eventually. I sat down with the employee in question alone. I told him I understood he “had issues with black people”. I tried my spiel about groups of people all being people first and the group second. I thought I was kind of eloquent actually. He argued that he just didn’t like “those people”. He only didn’t use the slur because I started the conversation telling him racial slurs would get him fired immediately. That was when I told him “If I hear of you causing any issues for anyone on the basis of race I will fire you myself!” This was a threat I did not make lightly. In fact, it was a threat I knew I could get in trouble for. This employee had been with the company since the location opened. He was friends with the owners. This was when he lost it!

He asked me if I had been drinking. I told him that I had been sober because of my health scare. I realized the conversation was not going well for me. Even though I was sober at the time, I knew I had been drinking long enough at work that it was not a secret anymore. I called my boss and told him what happened and explained I had not been drinking. But that was where we were at with everything with the above relayed facts. As usual when things get tight in life, I picked this time to start drinking again. Partially from shame and resignation. Even more from nihilism and a suicidal bent.

I was called to the home office a month later after I had been involved with rear-ending another vehicle while driving under the influence at work. While I did not admit to the influence part, my supervisor and a man I consider my friend knew what was up. To add insult to injury, I was given a choice to make. Sign a document accepting a demotion to general manager of the “punishment store” OR accept a one-week unpaid suspension with a final write up OR resign. I chose the one-week unpaid suspension, they chose demotion…which honestly was the best thing for me. I would have wound up killing someone with my car and with my inability to kill myself with alcohol as a starting data point, I am pretty sure it would not have been me. Rock bottom can always get lower… I just hate that the official documented reason for my demotion was telling an employee he was racist (when he was), as that was considered an inappropriate conversation. I almost wish they just fired me for being an alcoholic, but I know that was not an option. They would have had to pay unemployment :/

In many ways this was the incident that got me sober in the long term. I could not go back to work as a manager for that company and maintain sobriety. That was not their fault, and I wish I was a better person then. I will try to be a better person in the future! Thank you for riding with me!