THE RUDOLPH VALENTINO CRUMPTON STORY

Rudolph Valentino Crumpton had been born in Matewan, West Virginia fifty-three years ago. Matewan is a small coal-mining town in southwest West Virginia near both the Kentucky and Virginia state lines. Life there was tough and Rudolph’s family had it the toughest. His dad was a coal miner who became disabled with a severe case of black lung disease when Rudolph was 13 and in his second year of the 6th grade. His mother tried every way possible to hold the family together but was finally forced to give up her family by the time Rudolph reached the age of 15. There were no jobs in Matewan other than underground in the mines. With his mother’s health failing Rudolph was forced to move to Pikeville, Kentucky to live with an aunt and uncle, his dad’s brother, just as he entered the 8th grade. Rudolph had never been much of a student but now he was at least three years behind the other kids his age and never hope to catch up or graduate. Rudolph hated Pikeville, his aunt and uncle and everything about his life. He fought everyday at school because as the new kid, three years behind the other kids his age. He was not really a people person and he had a chip on his shoulder as big as the trains, loaded with coal that rolled through the small town every day. In hopes of finding something he could do to make life a little more bearable Rudolph jumped a coal train out of Pikeville headed to Pittsburgh. Rudolph took thirty-five dollars from a stash he knew his aunt kept and quickly stuffed his second pair of pants and two extra shirts his uncle had bought him into an old Belk-Hudson bag he found under a bed. He arrived in Pittsburgh, almost sixteen years old, with twenty-eight dollars, the clothes on his back and a few extras in a Belk’s shopping bag. He had spent seven dollars when he got off that first train in Lexington, thinking he was in Pittsburgh. The kid had no identification, no place to stay and did not know anyone that could help him in any way. The Crumpton’s had never been a church going family but an old man Rudolph met while still in the train yard in Pittsburgh told him to find a church and to ask for food and money for a room. It was in the early fall when Rudolph arrived in Pittsburgh and he was able to live on the streets for a couple of days before totally exhausting his twenty-eight dollars and finding himself broke and desperate. Rudolph spotted a church the first day in town but had not tried to solicit any help thinking he could find work on his own. He had never been in a church in his life and was actually a little scared of churches.

In Matewan there were only two churches and his family did not attend either one. There was the one in the middle of town where all the ‘rich’ people went and where the Crumpton family would never fit in. The other was on the outskirts of town where some of Rudolph’s schoolmates attended. Rudolph heard from his schoolmates the people in this church drank poison and handled snakes, which gave him ample reason to steer clear. The little church was located just a mile or so outside downtown Matewan. Like all the structures in that part of West Virginia the church was wedged between a small two-lane highway and one of the huge mountains that locked everything in the valley. The outside walls were whitewashed and the signage was hand painted by members of the congregation with what must have been large brushes. The sign over the door announced this was the “Apostolic Church Forever in the Spirit” but the sign that always bothered Rudolph was painted on the wall and said;

"And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

This scripture covered most of the wall facing the little highway. Rudolph always figured this meant the things he heard about the snake handling were for real and he just never saw a need to check it out or certainly join in whatever went on there. Sadly after two days in Pittsburgh, and with no luck in finding work, Rudolph saw no alternative except to try his luck at the Church. Around 10:30 in the morning on his third day in Pittsburgh, snakes or no snakes, he walked into the office area of the Church he noticed upon arriving in Pittsburgh and asks a young man coming out of an office if he could help him get something to eat.
(to be cont'd)