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River Rats, Megan M. Carpenter

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "At their essence, river rats are aquatic rodents. They live in, on, and near the water and depend upon it for their livelihood. My family is, and have always been, river rats.

My mother's family grew up on the west bank of the Tygart River in north central West Virginia. My great grandparents used this land as a summer camp: a place to ride horses named Honey and Chief; a place to host parties; a place to plant flower bulbs from Holland. My grandfather spent most of his childhood working the land for his parents. While his older brother …