“I swear to God – you do one more stupid thing and I’m packing you up for ‘Prunytown’!!”
That was the highest level of threat made by parents when their boys were misbehaving – a lot – and they told stories about how ugly and mean and dirty it was because that’s where the big, bad boogeymen were held captive in Taylor County, West Virginia. If you heard “Prunytown”, you had broken something, stole something, hurt someone, ran away, or your mouth dug your grave deeper than ever.
“Prunytown” was actually the West Virginia Industrial Home for Boys operated in Pruntytown, a small community close to Grafton. It opened in the late 1890s and remained in operation until 1983, and it served as the state’s main juvenile reform and detention center for young males aged 12 to 20.
These days, the Pruntytown Correctional Center for adult offenders sits on the same state-owned property, but the legend back in the 1970s was that it was as frightening as the most terrifying black-and-white horror movies on “Chilly Billy’s” Chiller Theatre.
Mothers and fathers told tales, too, about batches of bad kids who were sent away and were never seen or heard from again, and they described “Prunytown” as a real-life Hell with labor camps, gross gruel to eat, and a life in shackles and behind bars.
And it did scare us into behaving, at least for a little while anyway.
(Cover Photo by Katrina Mongold)
