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By Bob Weaver
 Grantsville resident Jim Bell is the 41st, 2003
Wood Festival Parade Marshal. Jim said "I have been pulling a float with my tractor
for 40 years - and now I get to ride." Bell said he helped organize the first events that
led to the first festival in 1962.
He worked for the former Hope Gas Company for 43 years, and has helped with
dozens of community projects, including the start-up of Calhoun County Park.
Jim is known in the community as a doer. "I like to get involved with people," he
said. In recent years he is best known for his famous fish fries, usually accompanied
by jars of horseradish pickles. Jim and his buddies go to Canada and catch the fish,
and spend the next several months showing up at reunions, church gatherings,
clubs and dozens of other social events - serving them to hungary folks, anxious for
his cookin'.
Other folks know him as the molasses man. Jim is a certified Master Molasses
Maker, who grows his own cane and renders his own product with molasses makin'
equipment assembled in his back yard. Molasses making time is a family
get-together, along with lots of friends, many returning to the county just to help.
Kids in the county know him as the "light man." The 75-year-old Bell builds and
illuminates light works for most every holiday, displayed on the hillside beside his
house on Phillips Run. The big show is at Christmas time, when several displays
represent the holiday season. Since Memorial Day and through July 4, a large
illuminated flag is against the hillside. He is always working on new displays, some
of them with moving parts.
Recently Jim has become active with the Calhoun Historical Society, and with
"Duck" Stevens, has helped with the Steven's School project. He was Strawberry
Festival King at the 1968 Strawberry Festival in Buckhannon.
He has been married to the former Juanita Nichols for nearly 54 years. They have
three sons, Arthur, Dennis and Alan, seven grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren.
"I've had a great life. Still having it," he said. This Saturday, the community will
recognize Jim - one of our finest citizens.
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