Submitted by Sandy Graham
When you think of small towns in the USA, Hedgesville, West Virginia is just that vision. A small town where everybody knows everybody and most have lived there all their lives.
Nathan Bartgis is one of those folks. “Just about everybody knows everybody and most people who live here have lived here their whole life as well. I was fortunate enough to have grown up on my Grandparent's farm. It was a place where my brother and I and my next door neighbors, who you might as well call my brothers, would fish, ride bikes, build forts, play in the creek at the edge of the farm, and maybe even get into a little trouble from time to time,” Bartgis reflects.
“As far as music goes, I was never really into music much as a kid. I would listen to whatever was playing on the radio while in the car with my parents, which was mostly 90s country. I spent most of my free time playing sports. Baseball was the main sport that I played and also my favorite. When i was 11 years old the little league team that I played on won the West Virginia state tournament and was only 2 games away from making the Little League World Series! This was probably one of my biggest accomplishments as a kid. As I became older I started to grow out of sports and got into farming with my papap and my dad. This became something that I really enjoyed doing! I gained so many great memories from it.”