FAIRMONT — Two decidedly different pandemic tales were unspooling in this Marion County city on a recent, sun-dappled weekend.
On one tree-lined street, a group of teenagers were about, while two blocks down on that same boulevard, another man was mowing his lawn.
No social-distancing for the quarantine-busting teens.
They laughed, locked elbows and generally jostled one another.
Their whoops came from mouths uncovered by any mask.
In contrast, the man was wearing an ensemble that looked like a wardrobe department castoff from an old “Mad Max” movie.
His makeshift, HAZMAT-looking suit was topped by a well-used beekeepers hat.
Strategically draped bandannas gave his goggle-affixed eyes an unencumbered fescue-view.
Yep, D.D. Meighen said with a little laugh, that COVID-19 can make different people react in different ways.
Post-corona, he wants to see people on sidewalks telling stories with decidedly similar emotions of respect and appreciation for their neighbors.
“Look at the first-responders,” he said. “Look at the grocery store clerks.”
Meighen is a clergyman, broadcaster and community activist — who also happens to be a clear, COVID-19 target.
He is 74 years old with a pacemaker.
However, there’s also a new bounce to his heels, thanks to hip-replacement surgery a few months ago.
Most weekdays you’ll find him volunteering at the Fairmont Food Pantry, with a grin under his WVU Mountaineers-themed face mask a friend made for him.
On weekends, he’s in your living room, courtesy of the taped broadcasts of services from Fairmont’s First Presbyterian Church.
He “retired” from the ministry a few years back only to enlist as an interim pastor two summers ago at the church.
Before that, he was the chief on-air personality of TV19, the cable-access, news and public affairs channel he founded.
He’s also active in Fairmont’s Human Rights Commission, where he’s lobbying for a hand-washing station downtown to quell COVID-19 among the city’s homeless population.
Meighen is busy, but it’s a “measured” busy.
“The pandemic is teaching us all to slow down,” he said. “I hope that stays with us.”
TWEET @DominionPostWV
