First of all, according to his brothers, Jake and Johnny Waldrum, the man is as ornery as he was as a younger man hanging out at 7/Eleven or the Convenient Food Mart on 16th Street.
OHHH! And according to his two brothers, Charles Waldum tells people he doesn’t like this “MoonDog” nickname, but that’s actually a fib.
“The man loves that nickname because that’s what makes him famous around here,” said 60-year-old Jake. “When he tells people he doesn’t like it, most of the time he’s messing with them. Most of the time. Sometimes, I think, it’s gotten on his nerves.
“We asked him about the nickname,” 61-year-old Johnny recalled. “He told us that he started looking up at the Moon and would bark or howl at it. We don’t know who gave him the nickname. He might have given it to himself, really, but his friends usually call him Moonie.”
The Flags and the Flashlight
“Moondog” was a fixture in the city of Wheeling for more than 30 years, and some people treated him well, and others were beyond disrespectful. Most often he could be seen in the downtown and East Wheeling areas on his iconic bike that had as many as eight flags attached to the back of the cycle’s frame.
Each November, there was “MoonDog” riding that bike at the very end of Wheeling’s annual Christmas Parade, and he would sometimes appear in the St.Clairsville and Moundsville parades, as well.
“He was offered rides, but he would never take them,” Johnny explained. “He would just ride his bike to those places. He loved it because it made him important. He lived for those parades.”
“Charles has the brain of a child. That’s why he gets into the ‘Why?’ thing with people all of the time. He thinks it’s funny,” said Jake. “But when it came to those parades, he was dead serious. Those parades were his thing. It’s not like he waved at people either. He just shined his flashlight on the people he knew. He won’t say he misses them, but he does.”
Charles is now 62 years old, was one of nine children raised in East Wheeling, and has been a patient at Peterson Healthcare and Rehabilitation Hospital in Woodsdale for more than two years. He has had half of his right leg removed after suffering complications with Diabetes for the past 10 years.
That means, of course, Wheeling residents will not see “Moondog” on his patrols ever again.
“I know he misses it. He misses being out on the streets seeing people,” said Jake, who has been a floor technician at the Peterson facility after working at the Ohio Valley Medical Center for 41 years. “He’s always had his own way. That’s been since he was born.
“At Peterson, he sits in the hall and keeps track of everyone and talks everyone, too,” he continued. “He likes to see people smile, and that’s why he will give kids silver dollars. He’ll ask me and Johnny for money, and then he uses it to make the kids happy. That’s just how he is and always has been.”
That ‘MoonDog’ Thing
Johnny, Jake, and Charles and their six brothers and sisters were raised, for the most part, by a single mother trying to make ends meet on a daily basis. Their father was a coal miner by day and a billiards player by night, and wedlock did not last.
Each of the Waldrum children made lives for themselves by working hard and living wisely in an Upper Ohio Valley that was shrinking around them. Charles, though, was different.
Family members made sure he was taken care of by the state of West Virginia, and they monitored his finances so “Moonie” could have his own place along Lane 13.
“One thing about him is that he always did his own thing. He doesn’t care much about money, but he’s never been afraid to work for something to eat,” Johnny said. “The man has a good heart and that’s why it’s been tough to see him in the hospital these days.
“But our family has always enjoyed the ‘MoodDog’ thing because we know he enjoys the attention and because we’re proud of him for it,” he explained. “He watches over people, and he has since he got into trouble when he was in his 20s. He had to spend time in a mental health hospital and that had an impact on him.”
“The people who say that he was an arsonist. Oh yeah, he did that,” said Jake. “But he didn’t realize it what he did, but he did set that fire on Wheeling Island like 40 years ago. But that’s why he has loved firefighters since, and why he’s so kind to people today.”
