Welcome To My Personal Picture Gallery

 This page is organized from pictures found in my initial search for pictures and history I'd like to share. The majority of these are pictures of friends, family, and me. I'll add more as I take new pictures and as I continue exploring old boxes and albums of pictures.

And who is this Dr. Bond? She was my first personal physician. We met each other on my birthday, December 5, 1932, since she was the doctor who delivered me. She is one of the most important persons, other than my parents, in my life. Dr. Bond was a physician at the beginning of the 20th Century when it was unusual for women to go to medical school. She was not only our family doctor, she was a personal friend of the family. I and my siblings all called her "Grandma Bond". Although she died when I was still very young, she made an indelible and lasting impression. Her love was constant, unconditional, and supportive. It was she who first said I was going to be a doctor.
She would take me with her on house calls, and would introduce me to her patients as "This is Billy McMicken and he's going to medical school next year." I "hung out" in her office, which was only a few blocks from our home in the small town of Salem, West Virginia. I would stop in her office after school. She would always have a candy bar hidden somewhere in her office. We would play "you're hot", "you're cold" until I located the hiding place. She had her office in her home. The office was upstairs, and the waiting room was downstairs. She worked alone with no office help. I got the job of going to the top of the stairs and calling down "Ready for the next!" when she was finishing up with the preceding patient. Dr. Bond never married and lived with an older sister, "Miss Elsie", who also never married. Miss Elsie, also had the title "Doctor" since she had a Ph.D. after her name. She was the Dean of Salem College at that time.

This is the McMicken family, probably taken by my mother (since she is the only one not in the picture). It was probably taken in 1942. The location is beside the family home at that time, 73 West High Street, Salem, WV. Up that hill in the back was a boy's paradise of woods, a persimmon tree, blackberry and raspberry bushes, a spring with salamanders and frogs, and other joys of a summer day. Today, my childhood fields and woods are traversed by the "new" Route 50, a multilane super-highway. Salem is now off the main highway.
My oldest brother, then a Navy Lieutenant, had brought home uniforms for my two younger brothers. My grandfather was visiting from Alabama, and we gathered for this family picture.
From left to right, the family members are:
Front Row: Betty McMicken (Ridgely), William H. McMicken ("Me"), Thomas E. McMicken
Back Row: George A. McMicken, Helen McMicken (Brissey), W.Webster McMicken (Dad), Mary McMicken (Holbert), George W. McMicken (Grandfather), Marion McMicken.
The surnames in parentheses are the later married names of my sisters.

My home town was in a semi-rural area. The 4H Club was an important activity. The five of us on the front row were Salem High School classmates, and older than the others in this picture. The names I remember, from left to right, are Bill Sadler, Bill McMicken (me!), Bob Hastings, Don Varner, and Jim Lockard. The summer camp involved dormitory living, swimming, lots of good food, and contests between groups, each named for an Indian tribe. There was a "pow wow" around an open fire every evening of the entire camp where the winners of the day's competitions were announced and celebrated.. I was in the Seneca group. I do have some American Indian blood in my ancestry (Shawnee), but the tribes chosen for us were those that formerly lived in the local area in West Virginia. We enjoyed playing and learning about nature and ecology.