Wheeling the Friendly City

This picture is Wheeling, West Virginia where Kadizzle grew up. In the middle of the Ohio River is Wheeling Island. Grandfather grew up there and then became mayor of Wheeling in 1947. On the south side of the island you can see the stadium where Kadizzle played football. The Ohio River is amazing. As a kid the river was muddy and dirty, you could not see one foot into the water. Now with a cleaner society you can see the bottom through ten feet of crystal clear water. 

Wheeling was famous for two things, prostitution, and WWVA radio which had a jamboree. The country music show was every Saturday night and attracted busloads of people from Canada. Guess the prostitution was friendly getting out of hand. Another asset to Wheeling was the illegal gambling which flourished and brought some first class criminals to town. Al Capone used to visit the racetrack on the Island. Kadizzle grew up with a kid whose dad ran the gambling. A local gang related guy gave the kid and Kadizzle a boat ride on the Ohio River. A couple weeks later the same guy had his legs blown off by dynamite. Such was life in Wheeling. 

For a long time the only liquor you could get in Wheeling in a bar was 3.2 beer.  However, every bar served hard liquor under the counter. The custom was to pay off the police by giving them free drinks. The net result was when you called a policeman you usually got a drunk.