What do you say
RAY
By Nikki Robins
It’s 11 am on a rainy Friday morning and Ray Robertson is making his usual rounds - from his driver’s seat. He gives me anecdotes about our surrounding while we drive. “We’re in the middle of Stepstone and Howard’s Mill. Two of the big cities,” he says, as we make our way down a winding road. “This house is supposedly haunted,” he comments as we pass by a seemingly abandoned house. Our first stop is at the scene of a house fire where Slate Creek Contracting, a longtime partner of the agency, is working on restoration. As we pull into the driveway, we get a phone call from First Christian Church. It’s a recording that announces the death of a parishioner. “I already knew about that,” Ray reports. I start to notice this pattern in our day together. Saying that Ray has his finger on the pulse of his community is an understatement. We enter the home to find a full crew working. Ray greets each by name, and Brent Pergrem gives us a tour of the damage. This fire started in the kitchen, and proceeded to gut the home. Brent and Ray then tell me several stories involving past jobs everything from a home converted from a barn that filled with water to the hometown barber and what families are responsible for all the brickwork in town. And all this from a non-native. Ray is actually from a small town about 17 miles away, called Bethel. This news comes as a shock to me, as he seems to know everything about everyone in Mt Sterling. Our next client meeting is a little delayed, and its getting close to lunchtime, so we head to The Corner Store. When I ask if he goes there every day, he informs me that he’s already been in this morning, so I take that as a yes. But, before we make it there, Ray takes another phone call about an issue with a backyard building delivery, another Ray’s small business ventures. Putting out fires is something that comes naturally to Ray. He consoles the man on the other end, comes up with a game plan, and we’re off to lunch. It’s Friday, so that means catfish. Lodema (next page, top left) greets us, starts Ray’s order (he did tell me he was a regular after all), and I am given confirmation that Ray does, in fact, eat here
