3:20 A.M. November 17, 2008

I am watching CBS News Up To The Minute. Meg Oliver just said that Huntington, West Virginia is the unhealthiest city in America. More than half of the residents of Huntington are obese. That is news to me (or should I say big news to me).

All kidding aside to our heaviest town, I have tons of fond childhood memories of Huntington, West Virginia. When you live in a town of 3,500 in Eastern Kentucky, Huntington, West Virginia seems like an enormous metropolis.

My brother Jim (then 'Jimmy') and I went to the rodeo in Huntington and had big fun. We got hats and enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells of the rodeo. I don't remember if any animals were harmed during the rodeo, but they were clearly made angry.

Big time wrestling came to Huntington often. Big time wrestling was akin to high art or religion in those parts, so it was never hard for us to find someone to take us. On one trip to the big time, my brother and I sat near the exit point for the wrestlers. We would try to get their autographs or try to antagonize them contingent on whether they were "good guys" or "bad guys". One of the college students who took us there told us that all the wrestlers drank beers together after their matches and laughed about the show they had put on. This notion disturbed me. The thought of the "good guys" and the "bad guys" palling around was anathema to this young wrestling fan. Anyway, Huntington was always good for big time wrestling.

When the Huntington Mall opened around 1982, it transformed the shopping experience of Eastern Kentuckians. It was so vast compared to anything nearby.

Huntington, West Virginia has made a comeback before. When Marshall's Thundering Herd (of Huntington) lost their football team in a plane crash, they came back to eventually become a college football power. (You might have seen the movie.)

It is truly a shame that such a nice place has gotten so unhealthy. Maybe Huntington should heed the apology of the great Wesley Willis, "Sorry I got fat, I'll try to slim down." A lot of young rodeo big wrestling mall rats are counting on it.