February 2017 | Kentucky Monthly Magazine

FEBRUARY 2017

S TA R C H O C O L AT I E R Louisville’s Cellar Door Chocolates

PLUS Luxurious Dorms Brewing + Distilling at WKU Penned: The 9th Annual Writers Showcase Kentucky Christian Writers Conference 2017 Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame Inductees

Display until 3/14/2017

www.kentuckymonthly.com

8 Consecutive Years on The Washington Post’s List of Top Performing Schools with Elite Students 75 National Merit Finalists 16 Semifinalists in Siemens Competition

Website: wku.edu/academy

|

Facebook: facebook.com/gattonacademy

We come from all across Kentucky to The Gatton Academy on the campus of Western Kentucky University. We finish our junior and senior years of high school as we start college. We conduct research with professors, study abroad, and attend college classes. While we are challenged academically, we thrive in a supportive environment designed just for us and make lifelong friends.

Tuition, fees, room and board are paid for by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

You, too, can have a future filled with infinite possibilities.

|

email: academy@wku.edu

|

Phone: 270-745-6565

Admissions Deadline for Sophomores: February 1, 2017

In This Issue

20 Online Extra:

Kentucky native, decorated Vietnam War veteran and author Robert F. Curtis reminisces about his Breathitt County childhood. kentuckymonthly.com

Featured Fare

Departments 2 Kentucky Kwiz 4 Mag on the Move 6 Across Kentucky 8 Curiosities Gravity Hills 9 Music Eric Lanham 10 Cooking 14 24 Hours in ‌ Hopkinsville 54 Off The Shelf 56 Field Notes 58 Calendar

20 Red Carpet Chocolates

3 Readers Write 57 Past Tense/ Present Tense

Louisville-based Cellar Door Chocolates produces delectable artisan confections

26 From Cinder Blocks to Granite Countertops

Kentucky college dorms have gone upscale with luxurious accommodations

33 Brew Toppers

Western Kentucky University and Alltech are partnering in a new educational program on brewing and distilling

37 Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame

Voices

26

Profiles of and excerpts from the work of the 2017 inductees

10

45 Penned: The 9th Annual Writers Showcase

The best of reader-submitted fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry

52 Composed from the Heartland

Kate Thomas and the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference have been educating and encouraging writers since 1997

64 Vested Interest

ON THE COVER

Cellar Door Chocolates; photo by Jesse Hendrix-Inman

KENTUCKY

Kwiz

Test your knowledge of our beloved Commonwealth. To find out how you fared, see the bottom of Vested Interest or take the Kwiz online at kentuckymonthly.com.

1. President Thomas Jefferson bought The Purchase area of Kentucky from the French in 1803. This section of land was claimed for France by the explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier as early as: A. 1775 B. 1750 C. 1673 2. While “owned” by the United States, The Purchase actually was controlled by the Chickasaw Nation until when?

A. 1818 B. 1865 C. 1900 3. Seven of the more than 300,000 Kentuckians who served in World War II received the Medal of Honor. Of the more than 300,000, how many died during the war?

A. 149,917 B. 30,917 C. 7,917 4. While Gallatin County often claims to be the state’s smallest county in land area, it actually is 5 square miles larger than which other northern Kentucky county?

A. Carroll B. Robertson C. Bracken 5. Bowling Green’s Jim Morris, better known as “Hillbilly Jim” to professional wrestling fans, broke into the sport in Memphis under what other name?

A. Smith N. Wesson B. Harley Davidson C. Mountain Dew 6. The Tom T. Hall song “Kentucky, February 27, 1971” takes place on a porch of an old farmhouse 27 miles from which Kentucky town?

A. Mount Olivet B. Hyden C. Olive Hill

2

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

7. Abraham Lincoln’s first sweetheart, Ann Rutledge, was killed in 1835 when a typhoid epidemic swept through the small town of New Salem, Illinois. The 16th president apparently had a fondness for Kentucky women. His wife, Mary Todd, was from Lexington and Ann Rutledge was from which western Kentucky county?

A. Daviess B. Union C. Henderson 8. Ravenna in Estill County was originally known as “the Village,” but renamed for which following reason?

A. It was the name of the wife of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad foreman who built the town.

B. It was situated in a ravine inhabited by many musical ravens.

C. More than 60 of the laborers employed by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad to complete the tracks were natives of Ravenna, Italy.

9. The late journalist David Dick was best known nationally for his coverage of the mass suicides of more than 900 followers of the Rev. Jim Jones in Guyana in 1978. He won an Emmy Award for his coverage of the attempted assassination of which politician in 1972?

A. Ronald Reagan B. George Wallace C. Gerald Ford 10. On Friday the 13th, February 1981, a large amount of hexane was released into the sewers of Louisville, which eventually led to an explosion that destroyed more than 2 miles of roads in and around the University of Louisville. The chain-reaction explosion eventually was traced to which event?

A. A distraught University of Kentucky fan throwing a brick at his television after Middle Tennessee State upset the Wildcats in the Mideast Region of the NCAA Tournament.

B. A cigar carelessly left behind by Hall of Fame football coach Howard Schnellenberger during a visit to his hometown.

C. A spark from a loose car muffler near the intersection of 12th and Hill streets.

Celebrating the best of our Commonwealth © 2017, Vested Interest Publications Volume Twenty, Issue 1, February 2017 STEPHEN M. VEST, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

Editorial PATRICIA RANFT, Associate Editor DEBORAH KOHL KREMER, Assistant Editor MADELYNN COLDIRON and TED SLOAN, Contributing Editors REBECCA REDDING, Art Director JESSICA PATTON, Graphic Designer Senior Kentributors JACKIE HOLLENKAMP BENTLEY, ANNETTE CABLE, BILL ELLIS, STEVE FLAIRTY, GARY GARTH, RACHAEL GUADAGNI, ABBY LAUB, WALT REICHERT, KRISTY ROBINSON HORINE, GARY P. WEST

Marketing and Circulation TRICIA FOX, General Manager BARBARA KAY VEST, Business Manager

Advertising JULIE MOORE, Senior Account Executive For advertising information, call (888) 329-0053 or (502) 227-0053 KENTUCKY MONTHLY (ISSN 1542-0507) is published 10 times per year (monthly with combined December/ January and June/July issues) for $20 per year by Vested Interest Publications, Inc., 100 Consumer Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601. Periodicals Postage Paid at Frankfort, KY and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to KENTUCKY MONTHLY, P.O. Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602-0559. Vested Interest Publications: Stephen M. Vest, president; Patricia Ranft, vice president; Barbara Kay Vest, secretary/treasurer. Board of directors: James W. Adams Jr., Dr. Gene Burch, Kim Butterweck, Gregory N. Carnes, Barbara and Pete Chiericozzi, Kellee Dicks, Maj. Jack E. Dixon, Mary and Michael Embry, Frank Martin, Lori Hahn, Thomas L. Hall, Judy M. Harris, Greg and Carrie Hawkins, Jan and John Higginbotham, Dr. A. Bennett Jenson, Walter B. Norris, Dr. Mary Jo Ratliff, Barry A. Royalty, Randy and Rebecca Sandell, Kelli Schreiber, Christopher E. and Marie Shake, Kendall Carr Shelton, Ted M. Sloan and Marjorie D. Vest.

Kentucky Monthly invites queries but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material; submissions will not be returned.

Kentucky Monthly is printed and distributed by Publishers Press, Shepherdsville, Ky.

www.kentuckymonthly.com (888) 329-0053 P.O. Box 559 100 Consumer Lane Frankfort, KY 40601

VOICES KUDOS FOR COAL STORIES

Being born and raised in Harlan, I was hesitant to read the article on the Harlan Coal Wars (October 2016 issue, page 24; part II appeared in the November issue, page 26), as most of the time the media embellishes the facts. BUT, I am so thrilled with this article. It is so very good and informative.

I received the article of Harlan County Coal Wars in my email. I tried to put it on my Facebook page so other Harlan folks could enjoy it but haven’t figured out how. However, I did forward it through email to several friends.

Susan Noe Harmon, via email I had heard about the Harlan Coal Wars since growing up in Kentucky many years ago. Your two-part article “The Price of Coal” was excellent! It was informational, objective and, above all, interesting.

Thank you so much for selecting the subject matter and exploring it so well.

Elaine Argiro, Woodside, New York REMEMBERING 9/11

I appreciate Bill Ellis’ “Oh, No! Not Again!” (September 2016 issue, page 49). On Sept. 11, 2001, I had finished an early morning doctor’s appointment in downtown Washington, D.C. and walked back to the car thinking about the events my wife and I had planned for the day and evening, as September 11 is our wedding anniversary. I turned on the car radio, heard the report and, at first, thought someone had done an update of Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast, “The War of the Worlds.” I began to wonder, changed stations and heard the tragic news. I rushed home and, like countless Americans, became glued to televised images and reports.

Of course, that day changed my life.

It changed all of our lives, even those too young to remember. I tried to reach friends who worked in Manhattan. Subsequently, I learned that a friend had lost his wife of exactly one month. The next day, my wife and I drove to a spot in Arlington National Cemetery to view the tragedy at the Pentagon. That Sunday, we decided to go to a rooftop restaurant two blocks from the White House.

Military personnel were stationed here and there. The streets were deserted. A ghost town.

We had scheduled a trip to visit friends in South Africa, but canceled because of uncertainty about air travel.

Instead, we went to Manhattan to show our colors and support for the city. The area around the Twin Towers

is well documented. The experience of being with New Yorkers was wonderful. People were calm, composed, even gracious.

I think we all struggle to understand the full impact of that tragic day. I’m comforted by what I experienced as the best of people; I’m troubled by thoughts of how we got to that point; I’m worried that we move so quickly from one thing to another that potential lessons are lost.

Al Templeton, Washington, D.C. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, my wife, Nan, an aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell, was at her office in the Russell Senate Office Building and I was at home preparing for a midmorning meeting in the office of a congressman. We lived in the Fairlington section of Arlington, Virginia, about three miles “as the crow flies” from the Pentagon.

When the New York part of the attack was playing out, we began exchanging telephone calls and relaying various reports we were hearing. When it became clear something had happened at the Pentagon, I called Nan to make sure she was aware the attack had spread and was now literally between us.

While we were on the phone, a roar I cannot possibly describe went over our house and rattled the windows violently. I dropped the telephone and ran out the front door and into the yard. One of the fighter aircraft dispatched to the area had gone over at tree-top level and was circling the Pentagon.

Few people outside the D.C. area knew those flights—“the canopy” as it was called—went on for months. Many nights, we went to bed and could hear them high overhead safeguarding the area.

When Nan and I arrived safely home that day and saw the replays— and then watched stupefied as the other tower collapsed—we saw just how it could happen for ourselves.

The rest of the day, like millions of

Readers Write others around the world, we watched it all on television. But that night, and for several nights that followed, we slept with our windows open. Given our proximity to the Pentagon, through our open windows, we could smell the smoke from the fires resulting from the attack upon that building and those who labored there.

Nan and I were lucky; we did not know anyone killed in the attacks. But since many of those living in Fairlington worked at the Pentagon and were active duty military, we knew there was pain and suffering all around us. It was an incredible day.

An incredible series of days. We watched the section of the Pentagon destroyed in the attack be rebuilt, and I vividly recall construction workers placing a Christmas tree on the building’s roof high above where the plane had slammed into it. A heartbreaking time to be living and working in Washington.

Chris Mosher, via email MORE TO EXPLORE

The article by Patricia Ranft titled “24 Hours in Paducah” would be better titled “Enjoy the Arts in Paducah,” since the entire article was devoted to the arts (September 2016 issue, page 14).

Well written and informative about the arts in Paducah, she missed some well-known and famous places to visit and dine in Paducah during a 24-hour visit.

John Aboud, Louisville

We Love to Hear from You! Kentucky Monthly welcomes letters from all readers. Email us your comments at editor@ kentuckymonthly.com, send a letter through our website at kentuckymonthly.com, or message us on Facebook. Letters may be edited for clarification and brevity.

Counties featured in this issue n

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

3

MAG

ON THE

MOVE

Even when you’re far away, you can take the spirit of your Kentucky home with you.

And when you do, we want to see it!

Take a copy of the magazine with you and get snapping. Send your highresolution photos (usually 1 MB or higher) to editor@kentuckymonthly.com.

Yosemite Set

Yosemite National Park Ann A. and W. Vernon Hicks of Alexandria, left, with Paula and Chris Kuhnen of Edgewood, right, enjoyed their summer vacation at the park.

Ralph and Frances McCoy Nova Scotia

Gertrude Landry Rome

The McCoys of Leitchfield visited Peggy’s Cove lighthouse on their travels.

Built in 1915 and originally painted all white, the iron top portion of the lighthouse was painted red in 1969.

Cynthiana resident Landry received a 12-day trip to Rome, Florence and Venice from her daughter, Denise, who snapped this photo.

4

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

Cathie Hoehner, David Pulliam and Carolyn Morrissey Haiti The Frankfort trio participated in a mission trip to Port au Prince, Haiti, where they worked for 10 days at an orphanage.

Judy Layne-Wood Arlington National Cemetery

Alison Lo and Jane Pickering Malaysia

Doris and Gerry Mischke British Virgin Islands

The Betsy Layne resident attended the funeral of a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War at the cemetery.

New York resident Lo and University of Kentucky alumna Pickering of Lookout Mountain, Georgia, posed at Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur.

The Ft. Wright couple enjoyed a sevenday catamaran trip, stopping to shoot photos at Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke island.

Mike Tomblinson Florida Keys

Rose Mary and Lawrence Toebbe Mississippi

Tomblinson, of Madisonville, traveled to Islamorada in the Florida Keys.

The Louisville residents took a 10-day cruise up the Mississippi River on the American Queen from St. Louis to St. Paul, with various excursions along the way.

The American Queen is the largest steamboat in the world, accommodating more than 400 passengers, plus crew.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

5

BRIEFS

Across Kentucky

A TEAM EFFORT

D

id you know that you can customize bourbon to your liking?

That’s exactly what the Maker’s Mark Private Select Experience offers for you and, say, a dozen of your friends.

Following the same process that longtime distillery head Bill Samuels Jr. used to create Maker’s 46 from Maker’s Mark, groups taste variations of Maker’s 46 to create their own “take” on the wax-dipped bourbon.

Stephen M. Vest, Kentucky Monthly’s editor/ publisher was invited to join legendary gardener Jon Carloftis, who has redesigned the distillery’s grounds, and members of the VisitLex tourism staff at the Loretto distillery to create a specialized barrel for Dudley’s on Short in Lexington. “I thought this would be an interesting experience,” said Dudley’s owner Debbie Long. “I had no idea how great.”

Teamed with experts, such as Maker’s Mark’s Scott Mooney, each person gets to vote from 1,001

FEBRUARY possibilities on the flavors they prefer and the combination of 10 staves used to finish the barrel. Dudley’s barrel used four of the five possible staves with a nod toward roasted French mocha and toasted French spice. “All I can say,” quipped Carloftis, “is what a difference a stave makes. Someone around here should put that on a shirt.”

To arrange your own experience, visit makersmark. com.

STELLAR SPELLERS

S

ince 1994, accomplished spellers from Kentucky and Southern Indiana have been competing in the Ford Motor Company Kentucky Derby Festival Spelling Bee in Louisville. One of the first events on the roster of the fun-filled activities that make up the Kentucky Derby Festival, the bee will take place at the Kentucky Center for the Arts Bomhard Theater on March 11. Kentucky Monthly is proud to be a media sponsor of the event.

Students compete at the county level before advancing to the KDF Spelling Bee. The champion speller will ride on the winner’s float in the Republic Bank Pegasus Parade on May 4, and the top five finishers will receive savings bonds from the Kentucky Derby Festival Foundation.

For more information on the spelling bee and other upcoming festival events, visit kdf.org.

2016 Spelling Bee winner Tara Singh 6

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

B I R T H DAYS 1 Don Everly (1937), Muhlenberg Countyborn singer who is best known for his years with his late brother, Phil, as The Everly Brothers 1 Arturo Alonzo Sandoval (1942), noted fiber artist and professor of art Don Everly at the University of Kentucky 5 Gary P. West (1943), Bowling Green-based author of books such as Eating Your Way Across Kentucky and the soon-to-be classic Hillbilly Jim: The Incredible Story of a Wrestling Superstar 6 Tinashe Kachingwe (1993), R&B singer from Lexington 10 John Calipari (1959), University of Kentucky basketball coach 12 Ed Hamilton (1947), Louisvillebased sculptor best known for “The Spirit of Freedom,” a memorial to black Civil War veterans in Washington, D.C. 15 Chris T. Sullivan John Calipari (1948), founder and CEO of Outback Steakhouse, who graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1972 20 Brian Littrell (1975), contemporary gospel singer/ songwriter and former member of the Backstreet Boys from Lexington 20 Mitch McConnell (1942), U.S. Senate majority leader from Louisville 21 John Clay (1959), longtime sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader 22 Rajon Rondo (1986), University of Kentucky All-American and NBA basketball star from Louisville 24 Beth Broderick (1959), Falmouthborn actress who portrayed Aunt Zelda on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch from 1996-2003 28 Michael T. Benson (1959), president of Eastern Beth Broderick Kentucky University

GROWING ORGANICALLY M

Guy Mendes photo

ost Kentucky farmers are missing out on a lucrative and stable market that is growing much more quickly than other markets and could lead to prosperity for not only the farmers but also their communities: It’s the market for certified organic food and feed.

The U.S. organic food industry saw its largest dollar gain ever in 2015, with $43.3 billion in total organic product sales, according to an Organic Trade Association study. This market has grown in double digits for four

Wendell Berry

years running (even showing gains in the economic downturn that began in 2008), well beyond that of the overall food market at 3.3 percent in 2015.

Additionally, regional clusters of organic farmers, identified as “organic hotspots” by researchers, show a boost of household incomes and reduced poverty levels.

Yet Kentucky’s organic acreage stands stubbornly at 1%.

The Organic Association of Kentucky will work to change the perspective of Kentucky farmers at its sixth annual conference March 3 and 4 in Shepherdsville. With six tracks— including livestock, dairy, produce, healthy soil and human health— there will be lots of practical information tied together with a keynote presentation by Kentucky author, poet and farmer Wendell Berry. The most popular sessions at the conference are always “creative finance” and “meet the buyers.”

Attendees can learn about the benefits of eating organic food, how to raise beef on forage, managing crop and livestock rotation for maximum soil fertility, and much more. As usual, all meals will consist of organic food.

To exhibit or register for the conference, go to oak-ky.org.

— Sarah Fritschner

“I know excellence.

I chose excellence.

I chose Ephraim McDowell.”

Joe B. Hall, a coach with 373 wins and a national championship knows a little something about teamwork, which might explain why he chose Danville’s Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center. As a hospital nationally recognized for excellence, nobody works harder than our team to give you the very best care. And, we’re known all around Danville for treating everyone with a personal touch. At Ephraim McDowell, we help our patients enjoy victories every single day.

emhealth.org F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

7

CULTURE

Curiosities

G

ravity, in case you didn’t know, is a natural phenomenon by which all things with mass are brought toward one another. On Earth, it’s gravity that gives weight to physical objects, and gravity is what keeps us and all of our stuff well planted on terra firma. Which is why what goes up, must come down, as there is no escaping the gravitational pull from the center of the Earth.

Right? Well, apparently, not always. At least not along a section of a small residential road in Covington, which shamelessly seems to have no respect for science whatsoever.

Take a drive through the northern Kentucky city’s scenic Devou Park up River Hill Street until it turns into Ridgeway Court—the operative word here being “up.”

Follow along a high cement wall and a line of telephone poles on the left and stop at the second pole. As the story goes, if you put your car in neutral and then take your foot off the brake, your vehicle will not roll back downhill as nature intended, but rather, it will coast eerily uphill and even gain momentum at some point in its climb.

This phenomenon has come to be known as a gravity hill (or sometimes magnetic hill, mystery hill or electric brae), and in Kentucky, there are at least two such literal roadside attractions, the other being in Princeton, though they can be found all over the country and even across the pond. In Princeton, follow Crider Dulaney Road toward the Western Kentucky Parkway and stop under the overpass.

As with most strange phenomena, creepy folktales have sprung up to try to explain the oddball goings-on. The story most associated with gravity hills usually goes something like this: Years ago, a school bus filled with children stopped on or near train tracks. The bus stalled and was hit by an oncoming train. Now, the spirits of the young children killed in the accident stand guard and literally push vehicles up the hill and across the tracks to save them. Other reported tales include one in which a woman was assaulted and murdered on the spot. The case was never solved, but it is believed the woman’s ghost continues to push cars out of the way before her murderer returns. Several years ago, on the website 8

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

experienceproject.com, a group of paranormal investigators journeyed to Princeton’s gravity hill and went so far as to report their car lurching forward and hearing “what sounded like someone trying to get his or her footing in gravel. Only problem is that road is not gravel anymore …”

So, are gravity hills really haunted sites?

Are unknown forces pulling vehicles the wrong way? As it turns out, neither is the case.

There is, in fact, a scientific explanation behind the weirdness, though it’s kind of anticlimactic: It’s an optical illusion. In an episode of “The World’s Strangest” on the Science Channel, investigators went to a well-known gravity hill in Ayrshire, Scotland.

There, it was shown that the hill is not a hill at all. While the road appears to travel downhill with respect to the surrounding landscape, in fact, it does not. The landscape is slanted, not the road, and we can’t see that detail with our limited perspective. So while the car appears to be moving uphill with the landscape, it’s actually moving—you guessed it— downhill with true gravity.

Similarly, phenomenalplace.com proved the up-down backward thing in a similar experiment at a gravity hill in Pittsburgh. There, a carpenter’s level was placed on the ground. The level indicated that the road actually was slanting downhill, in the opposite direction of what the naked eye perceived.

Devou Park Ranger Jim Gardner notes that the city of Covington isn’t overwhelmed with visitors shifting to neutral on Gravity Hill, but they do get many calls—as you might expect—in the summer months. “We get a call about once every two weeks,” he notes.

But if you travel to either Covington or Princeton to experience a gravity hill, please remember that you are on a public road! Respect community members and obey all traffic rules. It’s strongly suggested that you bring along a friend who can watch for other traffic while you test out the fun. And by all means, avoid trying the hill during inclement winter weather conditions.

— Cynthia Grisolia

Illustrations by Annette Cable

CULTURE

Music

Loosely Structured

F

Photo by Coleman Guyon

or University of Kentucky grad and former Louisvillian Eric Lanham, music is serious business, but he hopes his music is never too serious. “I play a kind of non-idiomatic experimental and loosely improvised electronic music,” which is not something played on mainstream music outlets. Lanham calls his music “loose and cluttered but hopefully with enough stuck together to form a narrative. The most important thing to me in my music is it expresses a unique point of view. I also hope it’s rarely overserious.”

While not mainstream, experimental music does have its followers.

Lanham said fans at his shows are generally “very like-minded and thoughtful people that are interested in being challenged and thinking critically about what they see.” Not every show runs smoothly, however. “Sometimes, though, you end up in a bar where they still smoke and the jukebox only plays Van Halen, and it would really be better for everyone if you just didn’t play,” he said.

While in college, Lanham was in the band Caboladies, which often played in Lexington. “I used to play in Lexington all the time when I lived there,” he said, “in essentially every venue in town—from Al’s Bar to the Green Lantern to the Downtown Arts Center.” Caboladies broke up, although some members have reformed as Flanger Magazine. According to Lanham, the new band’s radio show on WXOX-91.7 on Sundays “is amazing.” The Louisville station is laser-focused on broadcasting local artists.

Currently living in Florida with his girlfriend, who is in veterinary school, Lanham is still playing his music and sometimes comes back to Kentucky for shows. In December, he played in Louisville at Dreamland.

As a teenager, Lanham said he listened to a lot of Neil Young, whose music had a pervasive and lasting effect on him. In high school, his musical tastes changed, and his classmates didn’t always understand. He said he was Eric Lanham “going to hardcore punk shows by myself and got way into the Louisville hardcore and metal at the time, like Black Widows, Breather Resist and others.”

It’s easy for bluegrass and country musicians to delineate how being from Kentucky influenced their music, and Lanham said his home state has had an influence on him as well. “I think your place of home inevitably influences your work, but what about Kentucky, specifically, is tough. Probably the honest and open-minded attitude of my fellow musicians” had the biggest influence, according to Lanham.

Another way Kentucky has affected his music was through being a student at UK and living in Lexington. “When living in Lexington, I was introduced to even further outsider reaches of music through one of my longest friends in music, Robert Beatty, at a house where they used to throw shows called the Charles Mansion. Me and my fellow Louisvillian former bandmates would all crew and head there with 10 or so other freaks who wanted to see emerging brilliant artists from all over test the limits.”

It’s that cerebral approach to music that still intrigues Lanham. While people don’t especially leave one of Lanham’s shows humming a tune, he does combine structure and freeform. “Almost every performance has a mostly improvised nature, but in the past I’ve performed more structured pieces along with films in Chicago and St. Louis, and that really resonates with folks.

Sometimes, with this kind of music, it is nice to have something to look at to let your mind relax,” he said.

Although Lanham isn’t sure where he and his girlfriend will eventually end up, he knows his close ties with Kentucky musicians will continue. “I also perform often with Mr. Beatty or Lexingtonians James Friley and Porter Clark,” he said, taking a bit of the Bluegrass State with him wherever he plays.

— Laura Younkin

FOOD

Cooking

Scrumptious STARTERS Photos by Jesse Hendrix-Inman. Recipes provided by Chef Anoosh Shariat of Louisville’s Noosh Nosh and prepared at Sullivan University by Ann Currie.

10

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

Many sources—including quite a few mothers—contend that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Whether or not that’s true, these recipes from Chef Anoosh Shariat of Louisville’s Noosh Nosh will entice you to begin your day in a tasty way.

Anoosh’s Bananas Foster French Toast French Toast: 3 whole eggs 1 cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ¼ cup powdered sugar ¼ teaspoon cinnamon (or to taste) 1 tablespoon butter 8 thickly sliced pieces of bread Bananas Foster: 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 4 tablespoons brown sugar ½ lemon ½ orange 2 whole bananas, sliced 2 tablespoons banana liqueur 2 tablespoons bourbon 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Whisk together the eggs, heavy cream, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon in a mixing bowl (big enough to dip bread in) until well blended.

2. Heat butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Dip bread in the egg mixture, drain off excess, and cook until golden brown on each side. Repeat with remaining pieces. Set aside and keep warm.

3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and orange into the pan. Add slices of banana and remove from heat.

4. Add banana liqueur and bourbon, and then flambé the liquors. Sprinkle cinnamon over the flames and let them subside. Spoon over French toast and serve immediately.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

11

FOOD

Cooking

Healthy Omelet 3 eggs Pinch salt 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil ¼ cup sliced mushrooms (your favorite type) ¼ cup fresh spinach 1 tablespoon goat cheese 1 tablespoon diced tomatoes 1. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add salt and beat with a fork or whisk until airy. Heat a 10-inch nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add oil and tilt to cover sides and surface.

2. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft; add spinach and cook until slightly wilted. Pour eggs into the center of the pan and stir vigorously with a rubber spatula for five seconds.

3. As soon as a semi-solid mass begins to form, lift the pan and move it around until the excess liquid pours off into the pan. Use your spatula to loosen the egg mixture from the edge and help maneuver the omelet into a round shape. Let the omelet sit in the pan for 10 seconds without touching.

4. Shake the pan to loosen the omelet. Add goat cheese and tomatoes and let cook for a few more seconds.

Fold the omelet over and place on a plate.

Tofu Florentine 2 tablespoons olive oil ¼ cup onion, diced ¼ cup red pepper, diced ¼ cup asparagus, diced ¼ cup tofu 2 tablespoons Thai curry paste ¼ cup baby spinach Salt and pepper, to taste 1. Heat oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Sauté onion, pepper and asparagus for 1 minute. Add tofu and curry, and sauté for an additional 2 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.

2. Add the spinach and stir just until wilted. Serve with potatoes or fruit.

12

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

C E L E B R AT E I N F E B RUA RY !

A N U N F O RG E T TA B L E

V alentine’Day s 9 S TA RT S AT T H E TAV E R N

Strawberry Crepe

Dinner For Two

Batter: 2 eggs ½ cup water ¾ cup milk 3 tablespoons butter, melted 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup flour 2½ tablespoons sugar 1 pinch salt Butter

Overnight Package

$75

• Two Appetizers • Two Entrees per couple • Sweetheart Dessert for Two plus tax • Sparkling Champagne or Cider

• Overnight Guestroom Stay • Valentine’s Dinner for Two • Champagne and Chocolates • Breakfast for Two

Starting at

$220 plus tax

Offers valid February 1 - 28

Topping: 1 jar hazelnut spread 2 cups strawberries, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish 3 tablespoons hazelnuts, chopped 1. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, water and milk until combined. Stir in butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir batter until smooth. Allow batter to rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

2. Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium heat and lightly coat with butter.

Add 1/3 cup batter and swirl to cover the bottom of the skillet. Cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Loosen the edges of the crepe with a rubber spatula and flip. Allow crepe to cook for 1 minute.

3. Remove from the skillet and coat with a layer of hazelnut spread, sliced strawberries and a generous teaspoon of chopped hazelnuts. Fold or roll crepe. Garnish with sliced strawberries. Makes eight crepes.

Reservations 859-985-3700 boonetavernhotel.com 100 Main Street N. | Berea, KY 40404

FEBR UARY 2017

• K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

13

TRAVEL

Explore

S

In this installment of “24 Hours in …” our writer visits Owensboro and gives you the scoop on what to do, where to eat, what to see and where to stay. You’ll discover that you don’t have to travel far to have an awesome mini vacation in our great Commonwealth.

BY PATRICIA RANFT

tretching along Kentucky’s southern border from the central part of the state to the western portion is the Pennyroyal Region.

Named for an herb adorned with a petite lavender blossom, the area is home to Mammoth Cave, dark-fired tobacco and the city of Hopkinsville.

Settled in 1796, the town—originally called Elizabeth—was incorporated in 1804, at which time the name was changed to pay tribute to Revolutionary War general and U.S. Representative Samuel Hopkins.

•••

With plenty to experience in Hopkinsville, it’s a good idea to start the day with a hearty breakfast, and Roundie’s Restaurant can set you up.

It’s hard to go wrong with a place the locals love, and that’s obviously the case with Roundie’s. Just about everybody who strolls through the door receives a warm greeting, not only by the hospitable wait staff, but also by fellow diners. On a weekday morning, the place was packed with folks, most of whom seemed to know one another and were friendly and welcoming to an out-of-town visitor who had locked her keys in her car and spent two hours hanging out there waiting for AAA to arrive. (So much for an early start …)

Offering classic selections such as eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, potatoes, cereals and an assortment of omelets, Roundie’s serves up quick, delicious fare at reasonable prices. Try the biscuits and gravy.

•••

Hopkinsville is a haven for history buffs. One of the most fascinating and poignant attractions is the Trail of Tears Commemorative Park, which draws visitors from all 50 states as 14

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

well as other countries. The first of Kentucky’s nine certified sites on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, the park honors the thousands of Cherokee and other tribe members who journeyed through the area as part of President Andrew Jackson’s forced relocation of Native Americans from the Southeast to Oklahoma.

Hopkinsville was a ration stop on the Northern Route of the trail.

In 1838, Cherokee Chief Whitepath, who had traveled from his native Georgia, fell ill and died at the ration stop, as did Fly Smith, a Cherokee clan leader. Both were buried in a small family cemetery on what at the time was the Latham family farm, where John C. and Nancy Latham had been laid to rest in 1821. Striking statues of Whitepath and Smith, created by local sculptor Steve Shields, who used Cherokee tribe elders from North Carolina as models for the sculptures, stand near the cemetery.

In addition to the cemetery, the park features a log cabin from the same time period filled with Cherokee and intertribal memorabilia and a flag court from which flies the flag of each state along the Trail of Tears as well as the American flag. On Sept. 9 this year, the park will host its 30th annual Intertribal Pow Wow, an event brimming with Native American culture. There, you’ll find tribal dancing and drumming, arts and crafts, storytelling and flute playing, plus much more.

While the 12½-acre park is open March through October, those visiting during the off-season can arrange to see it via appointment. Volunteer Kristina Adkins-Scott is a veritable font of information. Of Cherokee descent herself, she follows in the footsteps of her mother, who was a tour guide at the park for 20 years.

Adkins-Scott encourages visitors not to view the site only as place of woe.

Round Table Literary Park “The Cherokee used lemons to make lemonade,” she says. “They saw [the Trail of Tears] as an opportunity to spread their culture.”

•••

Hopkinsville’s history lessons continue at the Pennyroyal Area Museum, housed in the stately Greek Revival old post office building downtown. Built in 1914, the structure served as the main post office until 1967 before opening as a museum in ’76.

It contains informative and enlightening exhibits on Edgar Cayce, possibly Hopkinsville’s most famous resident. Known as the “sleeping prophet,” he was an influential psychic of the early 20th century who gave thousands of “readings” on such varied topics as reincarnation, dreams, spirituality, philosophy, and physical health and well-being. In 1931, Cayce founded the Association for Research and Enlightenment, which continues to have a strong following today. According to the ARE website, the association was established “for the purpose of helping people to transform their lives for the better—body, mind and spirit.” Read more at edgarcayce.org.

The museum’s agriculture section offers an insightful look at the darkfired tobacco of the region, its importance as a cash crop, and the

Black Patch Tobacco Wars of the early 1900s. (For more on the Black Patch Tobacco Wars, see the October 2014 issue of Kentucky Monthly, page 40.)

Additionally, the museum presents exhibits on: • Hopkinsville’s African-American history.

• The city’s military contributions from the Civil War to the present, including uniforms and weapons, and a “Wall of Honor” with photographs of local veterans.

• The Charles Jackson collection of circus memorabilia.

• The area’s Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 1848-2001.

• Residents of nearby Kelly, Kentucky’s encounter with “Little Green Men.” • Local woodcarver George Floyd and his work “The Trail of Tears,” a touching tribute to Native Americans carved in 1994 from a single, 8-foot red oak log.

• Artifacts from the old post office.

A block away is the Woody Winfree Fire-Transportation Museum, located appropriately in the old Hopkinsville fire station. While the original 1905 building burned down in 1924, it was rebuilt and remained a fire station until 1964. The museum boasts an impressive collection representing the history of transportation—from buggies and

wagons to a 1927 Chevrolet pumper fire truck. Also on display are a 1909 Model 10 Surrey and 1926 Model T Ford touring car. Like its sister museum down the street, the building retains some of its original features, including a 22-foot brass pole.

•••

While downtown, check out the Hopkinsville Art Guild Gallery. The guild offers workshops and special events at the gallery space for members as well as non-members and features exhibitions that change quarterly, but probably the biggest draw for visitors is the wide and varied selection of art for sale. You’ll find paintings, pottery, jewelry, turned wooden bowls and more—all crafted by area artists and artisans.

Just three doors down from the Art Guild Gallery is Griffin’s Studio. Part home décor and gift boutique and part workshop and studio, this charming establishment was opened in 2013 by Hopkinsville native Griffin Moore, who earned a bachelor of fine arts degree at New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology and a master of arts in teaching at Austin Peay State University before returning to her hometown. She taught high school art prior to opening Griffin’s Studio, where she conducts art workshops, teaches classes and hosts art parties F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

15

TRAVEL

Explore

Jefferson Davis State Historic Site for both children and adults. Much of the art for sale in the boutique was created by artists in the Hopkinsville vicinity and Moore herself.

•••

Historic downtown Hopkinsville— with buildings dating back to the late 19th century—has plenty of other boutiques and antiques shops to browse, but if you’re starting to feel peckish, there are some pleasing lunch options there.

Ferrell’s Snappy Service has been a fixture on Main Street since David and Cecil Ferrell opened the hamburger joint in 1936 and is one of Hopkinsville’s best-known attractions.

The menu is modest—with hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, chips and chili making up the bulk of the lunchtime offerings. But what Ferrell’s lacks in options, it more than makes up for in tastiness. The specialty of the house is made simply, with only ketchup, mustard, pickles, onions and American cheese for 16

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 5

16

Carolyn and Phillip Ferrell of Ferrell’s Snappy Service toppings. The result is a delicious, juicy burger, and the price is right: burger, chips and a soda for under $5.

The restaurant is tiny, with one counter in front of the grill/kitchen plus a narrow adjacent room with counter space, but it works, since most of the business seems to be carryout. And Ferrell’s lives up to its “Snappy Service” name: Once you place your order, your burger will be served in a flash.

Another highly recommended downtown lunch spot is The Place, located on 6th Street near the Hopkinsville Art Guild Gallery and Griffin’s Studio.

include pale sours, ales, porters and stouts in a casual, comfy setting.

The brewing operations, along with a bar and several tables, are on the first level, and upstairs is an eclectically decorated space sporting exposed brick and mismatched tables and chairs.

Complimentary pretzels and nuts are available, and in the warm months, a patio provides space for outdoor sipping, while food trucks offer some tasty grub to accompany your brew.

The brewery generally has eight beers on tap, with a specially themed small batch brewed each month. Try the rich, creamy chocolate stout or sample four selections with a flight.

•••

•••

“We make Hoptown Hoppy” is the clever slogan of the Hopkinsville Brewing Company, a nano-brewery in a historic downtown building. The first craft brewery in Hopkinsville and Christian County, HBC opened last Labor Day. Owners Steve and Kate Irving offer some lively brews that

Not far from downtown, one of the more intriguing points of interest in Hopkinsville is the Round Table Literary Park on the edge of Hopkinsville Community College’s campus. This unique, tree-filled park was established in 1974 by Frances G. Thomas, a humanities professor at the

MB Roland Distillery college from 1965-1996. Within it is an impressive 22,000-pound facsimile of King Arthur’s Round Table, complete with 24 stone seats, a likeness of King Arthur’s sword in the stone and a medieval wall. You’ll also find a replica of the ruins of a Greco-Roman amphitheater with a statue of Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, center stage, and a replica of the ruins of the Delphian Tholos, a small, round temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena.

•••

Venturing southeast from Hopkinsville, in about 25 minutes you’ll reach the small community of St. Elmo and the MB Roland Distillery. Founded in 2009 on a former Amish dairy farm and billed as Kentucky’s first completely “grain to glass” distillery, MB Roland is owned and operated by Paul and Merry Beth Tomaszewski.

The distillery, a founding member of the Kentucky Bourbon Craft Trail, sources as many local ingredients as

possible. Around 75 percent of the white corn used for MB Roland’s bourbon and moonshine is obtained from the area and milled onsite. The operation, which boasts a gift shop and is open for tours and tastings, distills products that range from Kentucky Pink Lemonade moonshine to a smooth, single barrel bourbon.

Aside from producing some satisfying spirits, MB Roland hosts special events throughout the year. In the summer, music fills the air as Pickin’ on the Porch comes biweekly to the distillery. There’s also a spring vintage and craft fair, a bourbon “mashoree” festival and a New Year’s Eve bash. Additionally, MB Roland offers an event space that can be rented for special occasions.

•••

From MB Roland, it’s an easy 15-minute drive to the Jefferson Davis Monument State Historic Site. Some visitors may be surprised to discover that the two most prominent figures of

the Civil War—the President of the Confederacy and President of the United States—were born in our Commonwealth. The monument commemorates Jefferson Davis, who in 1808 was born in the small town of Fairview on the Christian/Todd county border. Interestingly, the following year in Hodgenville, roughly 100 miles northeast of Fairview, Abraham Lincoln was born.

At 351 feet, the monument is the world’s tallest concrete obelisk.

During most of the year, visitors can ascend the monument via elevator for a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside. At the site’s museum, you can take in exhibits and view a film on Davis’ life. Did you know that prior to becoming President of the Confederacy, he was a Mexican War hero, congressman and senator representing Mississippi, and Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce?

A low, stone wall surrounds the scenic 19-acre site, which is ideal for picnics and includes a playground. A F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 5 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY 17

17

TRAVEL

Explore

Casey Jones Distillery gift shop adjoining the museum sells souvenirs, Civil War memorabilia and books, as well as Kentucky-made crafts.

•••

Hopkinsville gained another producer of spirits last May, when the Casey Jones Distillery opened just northwest of the city. Owned and operated by Arlon Casey “AJ” Jones and his wife, Peg Hays, the operation produces exclusively moonshine, a Jones family tradition. AJ’s grandfather, Alfred “Casey” Jones, was a renowned moonshine distiller and a master producer of stills in Golden Pond, at the time located between the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Today, Golden Pond is a part of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, but back in the day—especially during Prohibition—moonshine was a specialty of the small town.

Having scant formal education, Casey Jones, as he was known because of his prowess at fixing just about anything mechanical, designed and constructed stills with the quality of the spirits in mind. Staying true to his roots, AJ Jones built a replica of his grandfather’s still, a “wagon bed” still that, according to AJ, uses a condenser rather than a copper worm.

In addition to sticking with the family recipe and the same type of corn sourced from the same area as his 18

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

grandfather used, AJ pays tribute to Casey with every bottle of moonshine in another way: Casey’s likeness appears on the label of each product.

Those include grape, peach and apple moonshine, along with traditional moonshine, barrel cut and the operation’s latest product, Total Eclipse Moonshine, so named in honor of the upcoming solar eclipse.

The distillery offers tours and has a gift shop brimming with shirts, caps and other souvenirs, as well as the time-honored ’shine.

•••

Following a day of sightseeing, shopping and spirit sampling, you may be in need of a relaxing and satisfying dinner. Da Vinci Little Italian Restaurant fulfills that need. Owner and Chef Pavel Skorpil shares his exquisite skill at preparing Northern Italian cuisine with his happy clientele. According to the restaurant’s website, Skorpil was taught “recipes and techniques that have been passed down for generation after generation in Northern Italy.”

The European-born Skorpil immigrated to the U.S. in 1999 and within 10 years had worked his way through various restaurant kitchens, perfecting his techniques. He opened Da Vinci in November 2009. It’s been a hit ever since, and it’s easy to see why.

The warm Tuscan-inspired colors set a pleasant ambiance, and the dishes are magnifico! Try the Pasta Toscana.

It’s best to make a dinner reservation, as the restaurant fills quickly, and don’t forget to bring cash or a check: Da Vinci does not accept credit cards. For another dinner option, consider the highly touted, family-run Horseshoe Steak House.

•••

Overnight accommodations in Hopkinsville consist primarily of chain hotels conveniently located to downtown and the sites visited here.

While these 24 hours in Hopkinsville were spent during the chill of wintertime, there are a slew of activities and places to visit in the city and its environs when the weather warms up. Among them are Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, Tie Breaker Family Aquatic Center, Pennyroyal Scuba Blue Springs Resort and the annual Little Green Men Days Festival.

For 2017, there is one event that literally eclipses all others in the area: a total solar eclipse on Aug. 21.

Astronomers have determined a rural spot a few miles northwest of Hopkinsville to be the ideal location to view the eclipse in the entire country.

So if you’re considering a summertime visit to Hopkinsville, keep eclipse viewing on your radar.

IF YOU GO: Casey Jones Distillery 2815 Witty Lane (270) 839-9987 caseyjonesdistillery.com Da Vinci Little Italian Restaurant 304 North Drive (270) 874-2853 davincilittleitalian.com Ferrell’s Snappy Service 1001 South Main Street (270) 886-1445 Griffin’s Studio 100 East 6th Street (270) 874-2028, griffinsstudio.com Hopkinsville Art Guild Gallery 108 East 6th Street (270) 962-7307 hopkinsvilleartguild.org Hopkinsville Brewing Company 102 East 5th Street (270) 987-3115 hopkinsvillebrewingcompany.com Hopkinsville-Christian County CVB 2800 Fort Campbell Blvd.

1-800-842-9959 visithopkinsville.com Jefferson Davis State Historic Site 258 Pembroke-Fairview Road Fairview (270) 889-6100, parks.ky.gov MB Roland Distillery 137 Barkers Mill Road, Pembroke (270) 640-7744, mbroland.com Pennyroyal Area Museum 217 East 9th Street (270) 887-4270 museumsofhopkinsville.org/pam Round Table Literary Park 720 North Drive (270) 707-3700 Roundie’s Restaurant 115 East 1st Street (270) 886-4240 Trail of Tears Commemorative Park 100 East 9th Street (270) 886-7503, trailoftears.org Woody Winfree FireTransportation Museum 310 East 9th Street (270) 887-4270 museumsofhopkinsville.org/wwft F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

19

Red Carpet

C H O C O L AT E S Louisville-based Cellar Door Chocolates produces delectable artisan confections

By Ken Snyder

Photos by Jesse Hendrix-Inman

20

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

21

Cellar Door Chocolates: Butchertown Market 1201 Story Avenue, #109 Louisville, (502) 561-2940 Downtown 601A South Fourth Street Louisville, (502) 294-3496 Oxmoor Center 7900 Shelbyville Road Louisville cellardoorchocolates.com

22

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

“Our goal is to just provide a fantastic product at a reasonable price and to be nice to you while we sell it,” Erika Chavez-Graziano says with a laugh about her business formula, of sorts, for Cellar Door Chocolates in Louisville.

If only it were that simple for every business, and if only it were possible to have the kind of success achieved by Erika Chavez-Graziano. Now in its 10th year, her company is the official chocolate sponsor of the Emmy Awards, transporting exquisite, handcrafted chocolates to Los Angeles annually since 2014 to satisfy the sweet tooth of up to 4,000 prime-time and daytime Emmy nominees and their guests.

Perhaps not surprisingly, when asked how selection as the sponsor for the Emmy Awards came about, ChavezGraziano quickly responds, “by being nice to people.”

The “fantastic product” part of the business formula came to the attention of Conrad Bachmann, one of the governors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “I met his wife, Kate, and she said, ‘You’ve got to take these chocolates to my husband,’ ” says Chavez-Graziano. The Los Angeles-based Bachmanns were in Kentucky for Louisville’s International Festival of Film, which Conrad Bachmann had co-founded. Cellar Door Chocolates were being served there.

After a 16-piece box of Cellar Door delights was delivered to the Bachmanns’ hotel, the figurative wheels began turning for the company to become the chocolate sponsor for its first Emmy Awards. Later, the literal wheels turned on a Chevy Suburban laden with 40,000 chocolates for the 32-hour drive to Southern California.

Chavez-Graziano is modest in recounting her steps from wholesaler of chocolates operating from rented kitchens to owning a humming chocolate bar/kitchen in the Butchertown Market building as well as two other Louisville retail locations.

The New Mexico transplant’s ebullience and infectious “niceness” perhaps obscures an uncanny business sense that begins with a company name seemingly incongruent with chocolates. “ ‘Cellar Door’ is a phonaesthetics phrase

[or phrase beautiful in terms of its sound, regardless of meaning],” says Chavez-Graziano, an observation made also by the great writers Edgar Allan Poe and J.R.R. Tolkien.

(Poe chose the word “nevermore” to include in his poem “The Raven” for its closeness in sound to “cellar door.”)

Here, ambition intersects with the carefully selected euphonious name. “I wanted something that sounded nice,” Chavez-Graziano says. “And also, I wanted something that would become synonymous with chocolate, along the lines of Starbucks’ identification with coffee, Kodak’s identification with film, et cetera.”

There’s no question that Cellar Door is synonymous with chocolates for many in Louisville. Among nonprofit and arts entities, the company’s confections frequently are a part of events—a way to give back to a community that, according to Chavez-Graziano, “opened their arms” to her business.

The Frazier History Museum, Actors Theatre, Boys & Girls Haven and Louisville Ballet—for which Cellar Door is the official chocolate—all partner with Cellar Door Chocolates, providing the company’s products to patrons and, of course, indirect promotion. Additionally, Cellar Door confections can be found in coffee shops, restaurants and other retail locations throughout the city, in Lexington, and other locales across Kentucky and in neighboring states.

It is more than a name or shrewd marketing, however, that has made Cellar Door a staple for connoisseurs of premium artisan chocolates. The proof is in the pudding, or in this case, the chocolate. With Hispanic roots that would seem to dictate Southwestern cuisine, Chavez-Graziano somehow gravitated to chocolate truffles most commonly associated with France, Belgium and Switzerland. She began making truffles without instruction and sans recipe.

How truffles and, later, other chocolates became a livelihood also is not rooted in a culinary education. A F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

23

University of New Mexico graduate with a degree in economics, ChavezGraziano enrolled at the University of Louisville 14 years ago for graduate studies in political science. “When I was in grad school, I would make chocolates for my fellow research assistants and professors,” she recalls.

After Chavez-Graziano abandoned her thesis, an academic adviser counseled her to “do something with your truffles.”

Soon to follow were bourbon buttercreams (a natural fit for Louisville and Kentucky), peanut butter cups and sea-salt caramels, which ChavezGraziano sold to retailers Dundee Candy Shop and A Taste of Kentucky in Louisville starting in 2007.

“The reason I went into wholesale was I didn’t have any money to open a retail store,” she explains. “What I did was I rented kitchens from other people to keep my overhead costs low.

Three years later, I was approached by Andy Blieden [developer of the Butchertown Market building east of downtown Louisville], and he made it where I could afford to have my first retail shop and my own kitchen.”

Building what Chavez-Graziano calls the “heart of the company” through wholesaling, she set about creating the “face” of the company— the retail side—in 2010. “People were waiting for us to have a walk-in store, so we already had a great following,” she says. Traffic from a building co-tenant and next-door neighbor, Work the Metal, helped expand the walk-in business. Chavez-Graziano is quick to add that the building, constructed in the 1880s and originally home to a leather-tanning company, is a destination for Louisville shoppers looking for unique, locally made products.

An “OK” first year and second year, according to Chavez-Graziano, preceded an upturn in the third year that has not stopped. An Oxmoor Mall store opened in 2013, and a Fourth Street shop opened in November 2015.

The original wholesale clientele still served by Cellar Door Chocolates and the retail business have been complemented by a Gourmet Chocolate Club, in which members receive a monthly delivery of luscious chocolates, and a burgeoning mail-order business in recent years. Possibly due to Cellar Door’s presence at the Emmys, California has become the largest market for mail-order chocolates.

Most recently, the company ventured into “bean-to-bar” chocolate-making, elevating Cellar Door Chocolates to membership in an exclusive, elite group among chocolatiers internationally. This means that Cellar Door roasts cacao 24

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

beans sourced from around the world and produces chocolate in-house, rather than merely melting chocolate from another producer. The process is rare, and Cellar Door is the only chocolatier in the state that offers bean-to-bar.

Chavez-Graziano says the decision to go into roasting beans was a natural progression. “We already offer a superdelicious, high-quality confection, so why not make our own chocolate?”

Bean-to-bar takes the company into a whole new stratum of quality and true, handcrafted differentiation among chocolate-makers. ChavezGraziano imports cacao beans from Central and South America and just recently imported beans from Vietnam.

She likens cacao beans to varietal grapes in that they possess distinct flavors. “You have chocolate from the Dominican Republic, and then you have these different farms within the country that have these different types of beans,” she explains. She adds that flavor variety can vary not only from country to country but from one tree to another on a farm.

Aside from the amazing flavor of the in-house produced chocolate is the price. Cellar Door Chocolates’ prices often are below those of local chocolate competitors and definitely below that of one famous international chocolate-maker.

Kitchen efficiency and plain old common sense offset the expense of roasting. “You won’t see a lot of frills on our packaging because it’s going to end up in the garbage,” says ChavezGraziano of the company’s simple but elegant white boxes and labels, adding that packaging costs are, of course, passed on to customers.

The lone frill might be brightly colored wrapping for individual pieces within some of the boxes. Bourbon buttercreams—specifically Cellar Door’s Bourbon Ball Museum Box—are a virtual rainbow, denoting flavors as varied and unusual as sorghum, bourbon and Coke, and baked apple.

New products are constantly added to the company’s staples, along with holiday and seasonal chocolates (“Zombunnies” for Halloween, for example). The museum box is an innovation in and of itself, according to Chavez-Graziano, who believes the selection that is routinely updated is the first of its kind.

So what’s next for Cellar Door?

Planned are a bonbon bar and a license with Churchill Downs to produce chocolates starting this year, part of Chavez-Graziano’s goal to continuously innovate while, of course, creating a fantastic product at a reasonable price … and being nice at the same time. Q

Explore Scenic appalachia

the Historic Headquarters of Frontier Nursing Service in Wendover, KY, original log cabin home of Pioneer Nurse-Midwife Mary Breckinridge.

(859) 899-2707 frontier.edu/wendover Designated a National Historic Landmark

Rotary Bourbon Ball!

February 18, 2017

9

270-883-1792

B U S I N E S S

S H O W C A S E

VOTED BEST B&B FOR INTERIOR DESIGN AND DECOR!

604 POPLAR STREET BELLEVUE, KY 41073 859-491-9354 | (888)585-7085 WWW.CHRISTOPHERSBB.COM CHRISTOPHERS@TWC.COM

Farm House Inn Bed & Breakfast

735 Taylor Branch Road, Parkers Lake (606) 376-7383 www.farmhouseinnbb.com

Halcomb’s Knob Bed and Breakfast A “WORLD AWAY” RETREAT ONLY 30 MILES FROM LEXINGTON, KY 859.925.9936 | halcombsknob.com

Relax & Rejuvenate, just an hour

from Lexington.

Snug Hollow Farm Bed & Breakfast

(606) 723-4786 info@snughollow.com

CLIFFVIEWRESORT.COM RED RIVER GORGE ZIPLINES & CLIFFVIEW RESORT 455 CLIFFVIEW RD CAMPTON, KY 41301

www.snughollow.com BBAK member

Southern Grace Bed and Breakfast FIVE STAR LUXURIOUS FARM STAY, SPECTACULAR FISHING, PRIVATE POOL, ALPACAS, COOK TO ORDER BREAKFAST. 855-LUXSTAY | southerngracebb.com

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

25

T

wo years ago, Joseph Eckl had the choice to stay at home or live on campus as an incoming University of Louisville freshman. He had his own room growing up and shared a bathroom with his younger brother. So, when he decided to move into UofL’s Community Park residence hall, he knew it would be a major transition.

“It was the first time that I ever shared a room, and I had a roommate that never said anything or did anything,” Eckl said. “I never realized how much I valued having my own room until then. Other than that, and the occasional homesick feeling, the transition wasn’t that big of a deal.”

But when his freshman year was drawing to an end, the computer information systems major knew he wanted to get out of a dorm and into a more independent situation.

“I was looking for an apartment and already had found some roommates. I wanted to live somewhere nearby and preferred somewhere new, and University Pointe offered both,” he said. “My favorite part of living here is the new apartment building environment; that’s a rarity when you’re in college.”

Not as rare as one might think, according to UofL Campus Housing Director Julie Weber.

“Housing has become quite a competitive advantage on college campuses. Some surveys and studies across the country will tell you that housing is in the top three or four criteria by which students make college and university decisions,” Weber said. Availability of major, quality and reputation of a program, and dining facilities make up the other criteria.

“It’s become a big decision factor for students, and a university has to be able to compete on all facets of what students are making decisions on,” she said.

26

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

To stay competitive, UofL is joining higher education institutions across the country in building and renovating student living spaces into upscale apartments or suites, complete with swimming pools, fitness centers, fully equipped kitchens with full-sized appliances, private bathrooms, granite countertops, and many other amenities that weren’t available to college kids some 10 years ago.

This year, two such living communities opened on UofL’s campus. Owned and operated by private companies (but still contracted to abide by the university’s rules and living regulations), these buildings offer high-end living to students during their time at the Louisville campus.

The Nine, for example, even has bluetooth speakers in each bathroom’s showerhead.

“We joke that we call it The Nine because it’s done to the nines,” said The Nine General Manager Brittany Westerfield. “We do want it to feel like home here. We don’t want it to be just a place where they rest their head.

We want it to be that this is their home for the next two years, three years, four years.”

Junior Alex Birch chose to call The Nine home. The sports administration major moved to Louisville this year from Connecticut to join UofL’s cheer team.

“I love it. Compared to up north, the prices are really cheaper, and just in general, I would have never been able to find something like this up there. And it’s beautiful,” Birch said. “The rooms are very state-of-the-art; this is a huge upgrade for me.”

Outside the rooms, Birch and her neighbors can enjoy a fully equipped fitness center, yoga room, four large-screen televisions, self-serve Starbucks coffee bar, gaming areas, swimming pool, outdoor fire pits and outdoor television screens for special events.

From Cinder Blocks to Granite Countertops Kentucky university dorms have gone upscale with luxurious accommodations

By Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley

“I didn’t expect to live like this as a college kid,” she said.

Birch has already signed a contract to live at The Nine for the 2017-2018 academic year. Likewise, Eckl renewed his contract to stay at University Pointe.

Since University Pointe’s amenities are similar to those at The Nine, staying there was a no-brainer for him.

“Yeah, I’m happy with my decision,” he said.

Both Eckl and Birch say that while they appreciate the finer things offered in their new homes, they also take advantage of the state-of-the-art study rooms with large computer monitors and whiteboards, as well as on-site computer labs.

“Our rule as an institution and as a housing department is to make sure that living on or near campus is not just about the swimming pools or the shiny objects,” Weber said. “At the core, all the time, is to make sure that around the swimming pool and shiny objects, those things that we know will help students be successful in college are maintained.”

University Pointe General Manager Rae Ann Pearson said surveys have indicated that students request more study spaces over posh features.

“These [study rooms] are pretty popular, and they’re occupied way more than what you would think,” Pearson said. “These amenities get used more than the game room, more than the fire pit.”

Additionally, Weber said national data has shown that students who live on or near campus are more likely to be academically successful.

“Our own data here at UofL supports that,” she said.

“Those students do the best on three academic criteria that we track: retention, GPA and the number of credit hours completed.”

Weber said on-campus students also are more likely to use

the library, tutoring services and other academic resources.

“I don’t think there’s any substitute for sitting down with a group of your classmates” or walking over to a professor’s office when a student has particular questions about a course, Weber added. “It’s helping them get to graduation, and that’s the most important thing for us.”

UofL now has a mandatory live-on-campus policy for first-year students to give those students that opportunity for success, Weber said. All incoming freshmen are assigned to either traditional dormitories (Miller Hall, Threlkeld Hall or Unitas Tower) with two-bed rooms, community bathrooms and a common kitchen for the entire building; or dorms with suites (Community Park and Louisville Hall), which offer more privacy, including private and semiprivate bathrooms.

First-year students also have the chance to apply for UofL’s Living Learning and Themed Communities, where students with similar majors and interests can reside together in a shared environment.

Once they’ve completed their first year, students have the option to move into the more posh living options UofL now offers.

You might think these students would have a rude awakening once they reach the real world and realize their “luxurious” living is at an end. But Weber disagrees, saying that students “get it” that life will ask more accountability and responsibilities of them.

Pearson added that University Pointe teaches students how to communicate and take control over their own living spaces.

“Even though we’re on campus, it’s still a real apartment building,” she said. “You have to place a work order for us to come to your unit and, if not, we won’t know what’s F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

27

going on. We don’t send housekeepers in there to clean up after you or anything like that.”

Since it is an apartment building, students must pay rent, and prices vary from year to year. While cable, internet and utilities are included in the rent, if students in an apartment go over a cap amount, they must split the overage.

Weber said UofL strives for affordability, notwithstanding the newer, higher-end living arrangements.

“One of our goals is to make sure we keep a range of affordable options,” Weber said. “These high-end options can get fairly pricey, although our market has a lot of competition in it right now.”

Unlike most apartment buildings in the real world, however, all UofL resident buildings offer 24-hour security and protection. The campus is under the jurisdiction of University of Louisville Police, and all properties are locked 24 hours a day with card access given only to residents of each particular building. The front desks are staffed around the clock, and all students must pass the front desk every time they go in the building.

Eckl said if he were living anywhere else near campus, he would be concerned for his safety. “[But] all the news I hear about are in properties that are older, less nice, or farther away from the center of campus.

Living in a brand-new building practically on campus, I feel as safe as I ever have,” he said.

Top and middle, the lobby area and a common area of The Nine apartments; above, a bedroom in the new University Pointe; right, an example of a University Pointe kitchen 28

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

Photos courtesy of the University of Louisville

Spiffing Up Statewide The University of Louisville is not the only higher education institution in Kentucky that’s upgrading its living quarters to compete for students. Universities across the Commonwealth are building new, higher-end apartments to give students more amenities while they complete their degrees.

Courtesy of UK Campus Housing

University of Kentucky

online

Architectural renderings of the future University Flats, top, and Lewis Hall, above

Two new buildings will open this year on the University of Kentucky’s campus offering slightly different living arrangements than previous UK students have experienced.

University Flats is scheduled to open in August and will offer upperclassmen and graduate students two- and four-bedroom apartments, complete with full kitchens, granite countertops, full-sized beds, closets and high-speed internet and cable.

The new Lewis Hall, also slated to open later this year, will offer similar amenities, and will house the new Lewis Honors College.

Penny Cox, UK’s director of Housing Project Implementation & New Strategies, said students may not have swimming pools outside their doors, but they do have an environment of study rooms, collaborative learning and other programs that connect housing and academics.

“We think as an institution we stand up pretty well with other schools in the state,” Cox said. “We’re connecting our ultimate mission, which is to graduate that student with a diploma and high credentials so that when they leave, they get a job.”

BACHELOR’S • MASTER’S • DOCTORATE

onsite

DEGREE PROGRAMS SOME PROGRAMS ARE ALSO OFFERED

EDUCATION CENTERS IN FLORENCE LEXINGTON LOUISVILLE

ATHLETIC TRAINING | BUSINESS | COMMUNICATIONS COMPUTER SCIENCE | COUNSELING | CRIMINAL JUSTICE

EDUCATION | HEALTH CARE | MINISTRY | NURSING OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY | PUBLIC HEALTH | SOCIAL WORK Not all programs are offered at onsite locations.

866.498.4968 | indwes.edu

INDIANA UNIVERSITY FEBR UARY 2017 • K E N T U C KWESLEYAN Y M O N T H LY 27

Eastern Kentucky University

Courtesy of EKU Housing

The assistant dean of students and student affairs at Eastern Kentucky University acknowledges that competition for future students is high, but says the institution is holding its own when it comes to posh, new offerings for its resident students.

April Barnes said two new buildings— New Hall B and New Martin Hall—will open in the fall, offering suite-style, twobedroom units with a shared bathroom.

Both buildings also will have a limited number of so-called “super suites,” complete with a kitchenette and two full bathrooms.

Barnes said the goal is to make sure the school is meeting this generation’s needs.

“They have different needs than when their parents went to school,” she said. “[These rooms] provide enough privacy, and it’s not the old community bath style. It provides a more intimate setting that is a bit more comfortable for our students.”

The kitchen area of the newly renovated dorms at Eastern Kentucky University

Courtesy of WKU Housing and Residence Life

Western Kentucky University

Artist’s rendering of the exterior of Hilltopper Hall, which is slated to open in 2018

30

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

WKU’s Student Life Foundation, which oversees campus housing, has just launched a 10-year master plan that includes the fall 2018 opening of a new building, Hilltopper Hall, and the demolition and replacement of two other residence halls—Barnes-Campbell and Bemis-Lawrence.

Brian Kuster, WKU’s vice president for student affairs and executive director of the Student Life Foundation, said Hilltopper Hall will have suite-style rooms with private baths. “Most of our students today have not had to share a bathroom growing up, so we’re trying to meet their needs and what their expectations are when they come to college,” Kuster said. “As our students’ expectations change, we want to make sure the options change with them.”

However, Kuster said housing plans focus on providing more spaces for academic support—study rooms, 24-hour dining, group-study areas, and even what Kuster calls a “makerspace,” a multipurpose room where students can work on bigger projects, whether it be art or architecture.

“It’s really about finding those niches to study either individually or in groups,” Kuster said. “University housing is really more than a place to live. It is part of the education process. Students are in class for the most part… But a lot of time is spent in the residence halls, and we can provide them not only with study skills but also social skills, and that’s really what [on-campus living] is all about.”

“ WE ARE CALLED TO CREATE OUR OWN LIVES.” —Thomas Merton

Bellarmine offers students a holistic education, seeking to inform and inspire the mind, body and spirit. With a 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio, students receive more focused, individualized attention from instructors. At Bellarmine, learning extends beyond the classroom with study abroad and internship opportunities open to all students, regardless of major. Bellarmine strives to make a world-class education affordable, offering merit scholarships to all admitted freshmen. For more information or to schedule a campus tour, visit bellarmine.edu/explore.

Explore the world. Start within.

N OV E M B E R

2 0 1 6 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

29

A great leader deserves a great education.

Today’s business environment is competitive.

That’s why it’s important to seek out an advanced degree. Sullivan University’s MBA prepares students by teaching them practical leadership, communication, problem-solving and managerial skills.

Prepare yourself by studying with the best, because at Sullivan University, we believe in you.

Visit sullivan.edu to register today.

sullivan.edu LOUISVILLE

LEXINGTON

ONLINE

FORT KNOX

LOUISA

NORTHERN KY

3101 Bardstown Rd. Louisville, KY 40205 (502) 456-6505 (800) 844-1354

2355 Harrodsburg Rd. Lexington, KY 40504 (859) 276-4357 (800) 467-6281

2100 Gardiner Lane Ste. 301 Louisville, KY 40205 (502) 413-8830 (866) 755-7887

63 Quartermaster St. Fort Knox, KY 40121 (502) 942-8500 (800) 562-6713

122 S. Main Cross St. Louisa, KY 41230 (606) 826-2971 (800) 844-1354

207 Grandview Dr. Ste. 300 Ft. Mitchell, KY 41017 (859) 331-1548

For more information about program successes in graduation rates, placement rates and occupations, please visit: sullivan.edu/programsuccess.

Brew Toppers Western Kentucky University and Alltech are partnering in a new educational program on brewing and distilling

By Dana McMahan

T

his is not your uncle’s beer class. While the idea of studying alcohol might raise a chuckle from past students who studied the bottom of a bottle after class, it’s a serious business at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.

And by business, we mean an actual business. WKU and Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Co. have teamed up to build a working production brewery on campus that serves as a laboratory for students enrolled in the school’s new program in Brewing and Distilling Arts & Sciences.

The multidisciplinary certificate offered by the program is designed to complement an existing major in a related field by providing a background understanding of the science, business and history related to the brewing and distilling industries, along with an internship. A student graduating with this certificate is equipped to become competitive in the marketplace.

And the marketplace is booming. A study conducted by Alltech puts the count of craft breweries worldwide at 10,000— with more than 4,000 of those in the United States.

That’s a nearly 20 percent growth over last year. Distilling is booming, too: Bourbon is a $3 billion industry in Kentucky, according to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, generating more than 15,400 jobs. And production of our native spirit has increased more than 170 percent since 1999.

photo credit: Brantley Gutierrez F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

33

THE GATTON ACADEMY OF MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE IN KENTUCKY

• Founded in 2007 • 1906 College Heights Blvd. #71031 Bowling Green, KY 42101-1031 • www.wku.edu/academy • 270-745-6565 • 160 students currently; accepts approximately 95 students each year.

From all across Kentucky, students come to The Gatton Academy on the campus of Western Kentucky University. Since 2007, juniors and seniors in high school who are interested in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields have attended The Gatton Academy to finish their high school work while, at the same time, starting college.

Gatton students conduct research with professors, travel abroad, and attend college classes. Students are challenged academically and thrive in a supportive environment designed just for them.

The Washington Post has named The Gatton Academy as one of America’s Most Challenging High Schools. The Daily Beast ranked The Gatton Academy as the No. 1 public high school in the U.S. in 2012, 2013, and 2014, the first two years named jointly with Newsweek. What does an opportunity like this cost? The Commonwealth of Kentucky pays for all tuition, fees, and room and board. You, too, can have a future filled with infinite possibilities at The Gatton Academy.

INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

• Founded in 1920 • 1500 Alliant Avenue Louisville, KY 40299 • iwuenroll@indwes.edu • 1-866-498-4968 • Number of students – 14,102 Indiana Wesleyan University is a Christian university focused on the liberal arts and professional education. Indiana Wesleyan was founded in 1920 and implemented an innovative adult learning model in 1985 with the mission of providing education for adults in a manner that was affordable and accessible.

The Louisville and Lexington Education Centers serve students looking to further their education and offers associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business, education, nursing and other disciplines. Adult students can choose from convenient, one-night-a-week onsite classes at either Louisville or Lexington or opt to attend completely online.

In addition to the Louisville and Lexington, approximately 3,000 students attend classes, on the main campus in Marion, Indiana. Another 10,000 adult students study online or at one of the 17 education centers in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.

Academic program and admissions information are available by calling 1-866-498-4968 or by visiting the website at indwes.edu.

34

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

It seems strange that Kentucky— bourbon’s birthplace and originator of 95 percent of the world’s bourbon— wouldn’t already have a program in place to prepare aspiring distillers and brewers. But the industry has changed in recent years, says Pete Weiss, marketing manager for Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Co. “And more recently, people are wanting to open their own craft distillery as much as craft breweries. They need to have the business sense along with the background … At the end of the day, they not only brew and distill but also run the business behind it.

“The idea of increasing education came when [Alltech founder] Dr. Lyons realized there was no formal degree here in brewing and distilling,” Weiss says. Pearse Lyons, an Irishman, earned a master’s degree in brewing and a Ph.D. in yeast fermentation in England. “Distilling is one of Kentucky’s largest exports; it’s what we’re known for,” Weiss continues.

While people going into the field typically would have biology or chemistry degrees, there was no real degree specific to the industry, he adds. “That’s what this program does teach. It is a combination of business, science and hands-on training.”

••• So how did it come about? WKU President Gary Ransdell and Lyons struck up a conversation when they ran into each other, Weiss explains.

“Dr. Lyons talked about our brewing and distilling academy we were trying to launch, and the issues with accreditation, credentials that would mean something in the industry. The next week, Dr. Ransdell and his team of folks walked in and said, ‘We’re serious. We want you to build your brewery on campus.’

“We didn’t have tanks at the time, but as fate should have it, a brewery that was closing called us up and asked us to buy their tanks. So we had space, tanks and staff to make it happen right then and there. When Dr. Lyons sees an opportunity, he steps up to make it happen. President Randsell, too.” The conversation happened in fall of 2015.

“By March 2016,” Weiss says, “we had a brewery up and running.”

While the brewery, located in WKU’s Center for Research and Development, serves as a laboratory for students, “it really is a true craft brewery,” Weiss says. “It’s not just a college lab they’re doing pretend work at. It’s an actual production brewery.

They can go see their product in a major retail environment. We want students to take pride in what they’re creating, what they’re making. And to take that experience and go to any

craft brewery in America and say, ‘I’ve seen the marketing, sales, hands-on brewing’ and apply that.” Even if it’s Alltech’s competition? Yes, Weiss says.

“We want the industry to grow as a whole.”

Although the brewery is completely run by Alltech and headed up by one of its top brewers, Joe Walls (the students can’t legally brew beer), the experience of learning from a master brewer is invaluable.

Take the problems that pop up in the day-to-day operation of running a brewery—when the pH balance is off, for instance, or fermentation isn’t happening like it should, or filters clog up, it’s a teaching moment for Walls.

Then there’s understanding the difference in malts, and working with yeast—it’s “a living, breathing thing that can act differently every time you touch it,” Weiss says. “As much as it is a science, it is an art. They have to feel what will go right.”

Besides those nuances, students learn the nuts and bolts of how the machines work. “From an Alltech perspective, from a brewery side, it’s hands-on experience on equipment,” Weiss says. “It can put a brewer way ahead of the game coming into the industry. We’ve got employees who started out on home brewers, working on 5 gallons with no automation. Our new system [which is 310 gallons] is completely automated top to bottom, [so for them] it’s learning all over again.” For students, gaining this realworld experience is “getting one step ahead” in their career, he says.

Their experience also includes developing products to take to market.

Since opening the campus brewery, “we’ve had an IPA come out, a big imperial stout, and those are things that Joe can bounce ideas off students coming in there,” Weiss says. And in July 2016, the brewery released College Heights Ale. Named for WKU’s anthem and featuring the campus’ iconic clock tower on the label, the beer is available at Kroger stores across Kentucky, Weiss says, along with Meijer and Liquor Barn, with expansion plans in Nashville.

Part of the proceeds from sales of the brew go back to WKU, Weiss says. “We want it to be not just a tool for teaching but a way to make money.” And it’s succeeding. Kroger stores usually rotate their beer selections after a quarter, he says: “The fact that they kept it on is good news.” Not surprisingly, it’s especially popular locally. “It has definitely taken off in Bowling Green.”

The program is unique in its field.

While “there are a couple other programs with smaller breweries on

When your dedication to wellness grows...

Become a Nurse-Midwife or Nurse Practitioner Earn a Master’s or Doctoral Degree through our Innovative Distance Education Programs Learn more about FNU’s programs at www.frontier.edu/kymonthly

ENROLLING NOW for our NEW Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program

[make it happen] MAKE YOUR FUTURE HAPPEN AT SULLIVAN TECH. It starts with an idea. Maybe you’re writing some code or tinkering with a gadget or creating an original design when suddenly it occurs to you, What if I made a career out of this? Or maybe you’ve always known you wanted to get into tech and design. At Sullivan Tech, we harness your talent and curiosity to prepare you to stand out in your chosen field. We challenge you to reach your potential so you can get the most out of your future career.

sctd.edu (800) 844-6528

3901 Atkinson Square Drive Louisville, KY 40218 For more information about program successes in graduation rates, placement rates and occupations, please visit sctd.edu/programsuccess

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

35

campus, this is really the only one able to produce the volume we are as well as distribute,” Weiss says. “If it was at full kick, we could brew 10,000 barrels a year.”

The program just launched in 2016, but successes are already coming. “We actually hired a student from the first batch of classes that went through,” Weiss says. The science major was such a hit at the brewery, she’s now the Bowling Green sales rep for the company. It’s not just brewers and distillers that come out of the program—the industry needs professionals in marketing and sales as well. And more successes can have even greater impact, says Weiss. “If we can get Kentucky on the map for craft brewing and distilling … when people think about these industries, they think Colorado, North Carolina, the coast. If we can draw more people in, that could develop new techniques.” Q

Left, Weiss pours hops into a batch of College Heights Ale. Above, Alltech Brewing and Distilling Company is the program’s sponsor and home to favorites such as Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale.

Booze 101 So what does education in brewing and distilling look like? Take a peek at WKU’s program description: “Humans have been brewing alcohol since the dawn of recorded history, and distilling stretches back over a thousand years. Brewing and distilling play a major role in the Kentucky and U.S. economy. Industries as diverse as farming, tourism, construction, and retail all rely on, and contribute to, alcohol production.”

Students take four courses for the certificate.

BDAS 300—The Science of Fermentation in Brewing and Distilling is an intensive introductory study of the science of fermentation … with particular application to brewing and distilling.

ENT 312—This class is an introduction to entrepreneurship. It examines the entrepreneur as the basic building block of the economic system via the discovery or identification of opportunities. Emphasis is placed on identifying and defending feasible opportunities within the industry and market, while recognizing and managing the complex systems in which entrepreneurs live and work that motivate or constrain innovation.

HIST 341—A Cultural History of Alcohol examines the history of brewing and distilling and takes a close look at the role alcohol plays in the historical development among various world cultures over time.

36

EB R LY Y 22001175 K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • JF U NREU/ A JU

BDAS 495—Internship in Brewing/ Distilling is a variable-credit internship placement in a sector of the brewing or distilling industry, under the supervision of the program coordinator and local personnel. Experience could include but is not limited to brewing, distilling, marketing, management or other industry-related work. It can be repeated for up to six credit hours.

Intrigued? Take a closer look at A Cultural History of Alcohol—known on campus as Beer Class.

“The intent of this course is not to study the history of beer or bourbon or any individual kind of liquor,” the syllabus from professor Andrew McMichael begins, “but rather let us analyze the social and cultural connections in various societies across time and space. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans to Ancient Japan to English and American Puritans to the American Revolution, alcohol played a major role in how those societies constructed relationships that were both interpersonal and that crossed national boundaries.”

The course explores a number of questions, it goes on, “using alcohol as a lens through which to examine people.

How did alcohol shape the events prior to the American Revolution? How did Americans’ relationship with alcohol change over time? Why Prohibition?

Most importantly, what was the meaning

of drink and drinking over the course of world history?”

Required readings include The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition by W.J. Rorabaugh, and articles such as “Bootlegging Mothers and Drinking Daughters: Gender and Prohibition in Butte, Montana” in American Quarterly; “The Rum Trade and the Balance of Payments of the Thirteen Continental Colonies, 1650-1775” in The Journal of Economic History; and “The ‘Poor Man’s Club’: Social Functions of the Urban Working-Class Saloon” in American Quarterly.

In the final exam, students answer questions such as: “Analyze the gendered use of alcohol among Native Americans, using the readings for this unit as a basis for your argument.”

Anyone else ready for a drink?

Barbara Kingsolver, photographed by Annie Griffiths

carnegiecenterlex.org

2017

Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame Biographies written and writing samples selected by James B. Goode The Bluegrass State is home to numerous exceptional writers. The Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame was created in 2012 by Lexington’s Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning to recognize authors “whose work reflects the character and culture” of Kentucky. Since its inception, the Hall has honored 29 writers.

This year, the Hall of Fame committee has selected five writers whose work spans from the 19th century to the present day. The 2017 inductees are Barbara Kingsolver, Gayl Jones, Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb, Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr. and A.B. Guthrie Jr. On the following pages, you’ll find profiles of these writers, along with excepts of their work.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

37

Barbara Kingsolver • b. 1955

M

atthew Gilbert of the The Boston Globe once characterized Barbara Kingsolver as the “Woody Guthrie of contemporary American fiction,” primarily because of the broad spectrum of social/political issues that appear in her writing. In a 2010 interview, she discussed her fiction with Maya Jaggi of The Guardian: I don’t understand how any good art could fail to be political. Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person… It is… a powerful craft…

Kingsolver was born on April 8, 1955, in Annapolis, Maryland, but grew up in Carlisle, Kentucky, where her father, Wendell, had a medical practice. When she was 7, her father took the family to Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), Democratic Republic of the Congo, where her parents were public health missionaries. This experience prompted Kingsolver to pen the 1998 novel The Poisonwood Bible. This epic story about an evangelical Christian family on a mission in Africa became her best-known work. The novel, which was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the National Book Prize of South Africa and was an Oprah Winfrey “Oprah’s Book Club” selection.

While researching for the novel, Kingsolver read Jonathan Kwitny’s Endless Enemies, a book characterized as “America’s worldwide war against its own best interests,” and said of the experience: “The analogy struck me as novelesque: a study of this persistent human flaw—arrogance masquerading as helpfulness—could be a personal story that also functioned as allegory.”

Kingsolver has been the recipient of the 2000 National Humanities Medal,

38

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

James Beard Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Edward Abbey EcoFiction Award, Physicians for Social Responsibility National Award, Arizona Civil Liberties Union Award, and Orange Prize for Fiction. Every book Kingsolver has written since 1993’s Pigs in Heaven has been on The New York Times Best Seller list. Additionally, Kingsolver was named one of the 100 Best Writers of the 20th century by Writer’s Digest.

Kingsolver holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from DePauw University (magna cum laude) and a master’s degree in biology and ecology from the University of Arizona. She has held a variety of jobs, including archaeologist, art class model, grant writer, housecleaner, X-ray technician, biological research assistant, medical document translator, copy editor, typesetter, science writer and feature writer for journals and newspapers.

Since 1985, she has focused on writing and publishing, having published numerous newspaper and magazine articles and 14 books, including novels and collections of short stories and essays.

One seminal moment in the direction of Kingsolver’s thematic focus occurred when she moved with her first husband, Joe Hoffmann, to a small cabin in the desert outside Tucson, Arizona, where they became active in organizations that investigated human-rights violations and supported Latin American refugees seeking asylum. She later wrote of the experience: I had come to the Southwest expecting cactus, wide open spaces, and adventure. I found, instead, another whole America… this desert that burned with raw beauty had a great fence built across it, attempting to divide north from south. I’d stumbled upon a borderland where people perished of heat by day and cold hostility by night.

This set the course for her social and political activism. Since then, Kingsolver has been deeply involved with disparate parts of what she calls “other whole Americas.”

She says of her writing process: “I tend to wake up very early… I always wake with sentences pouring into my head. So getting to my desk every day feels like a long emergency… people often ask how I discipline myself to write… For me, the discipline is turning off the computer and leaving my desk to do something else.”

Excerpt from Homeland: Homeland is a three-part story featuring 11-yearold Gloria “Waterbug” St. Clair, who is charged with replacing her grandmother as a “Beloved Woman,” whose responsibility is to be the keeper of her Cherokee tribe’s history, myths and legends. This is a daunting responsibility for Waterbug to remember Great Mam’s knowledge of family history, the myths of the Cherokee Nation, and the lessons to be found in nature.

In section III of the story, Great Mam reiterates the folktale behind Gloria’s Cherokee name, Waterbug.

What follows is a conversation between Waterbug and Great Mam about this colorful creation myth.

Before there was a world, there was only the sea, and the high, bright sky arched above it like an overturned bowl.

For as many years as anyone can imagine, the people in the stars looked down at the ocean’s glittering face without giving a thought as to what it was, or what might lie beneath it. They had their own concerns.

But as more time passed, as is natural, they began to grow curious. Eventually it was the waterbug who volunteered to go exploring.

She flew down and landed on top of the water, which was beautiful, but not firm as it had appeared. She skated in every direction but could not find a place to stop and rest, so she dived underneath. She was gone for days and the star people thought she might have drowned, but she hadn’t.

Here, the story takes a turn with her disappearance as she explores the world beneath the water to look for an answer. As is typical in many Native American creation myths, an explanation is given as to how land formed upon the great expanse of water.

When she joyfully broke the surface again she had the answer: on the bottom of the sea, there was mud. She had brought a piece of it back with her, and she held up her sodden bit of proof to the bright light.

There, before the crowd of skeptical star eyes, the ball of mud began to grow, and dry up, and grow some more, and out of it came all the voices of life that now dwell on this island that is the earth. The star people fastened it to the sky with four long grape vines so it wouldn’t be lost again.

Waterbug brings the story into the present in her conversation with Great Mam, who derives the essence of folktale by implying how it is passed to succeeding generations. The tale has its own evolution, as it is added to while the earth also progresses through time.

“In school,” I told Great Mam, “they said the world’s round.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t round,” she said.

“It’s whatever shape they say it is. But that’s how it started. Remember that.”

These last words terrified me, always with their impossible weight. I have had dreams of trying to hold a mountain of water in my arms. “What if I forget?” I asked.

“We already talked about that. I told you how to remember.”

“Well, all right,” I said. “But if that’s how the world started, then what about Adam and Eve?”

Gayl Jones • b. 1949

I

n a 1982 interview with Charles Rowell, Gayl Jones said that, just like most people, she felt “connections to home territory— connections that go into one’s ideas of language, personality, landscape.”

Born to Franklin and Lucille Jones on Nov. 23, 1949 in Lexington, Jones formed early “connections” with the South that are reflected in her personal life as well as in her writing.

After high school, she left Kentucky to attend Connecticut College, where she received a bachelor’s degree in English in 1971, and was accepted into the graduate studies creative writing program at Brown University, earning a master’s degree in 1973. By 1975, she had earned her doctor of arts degree in creative writing.

Jones studied under poet Michael Harper, who introduced her first novel, Corregidora (1975), to Toni Morrison, who became her editor.

Following graduation, Jones’ second novel, Eva’s Man (1976), was published. She taught briefly at Wellesley College and then was an assistant professor of English and Afro-American and African Studies

at the University of Michigan. While at Michigan, Jones’ short-story collection White Rat (1977); a volumelength poem, Song for Anninho (1981); and a volume of poetry, The HermitWoman (1983), were published.

Jones left the United States for Europe in the early 1980s. While there, she published another novel, Die Volgelfaengerin (The Birdwatcher), and the poetry collection Xarque and Other Poems (1985). Her first book of literary criticism, Liberating Voices: Oral Tradition in African American Literature (1991), was published after her return to the U.S. in 1988.

Jones’ novel The Healing (1998) was a finalist for the National Book Award. Just one year later, her most recent novel, Mosquito (1999), was published.

Jones sometimes uses traditional oral storytelling in delivering her stories. Much of her work explores a theme of contradictory, co-existing emotions. This theme, specifically of love and hate, is especially visible in Corregidora when Ursa and her mother discuss the grandmother’s relationships with her former owner and lover, Corregidora: “I think what really made them dislike Martin was because he had the nerve to ask them what I never had the nerve to ask.”

“What was that?”

“How much was hate for Corregidora and how much was love.”

She draws many of her themes from her AfricanAmerican heritage and personal life experiences.

Perhaps most important throughout the psychological development of her characters are their indelible voices that speak their truth.

Jones’ controversial novel Eva’s Man was published in 1976. This is the story of Eva Medina Canada, who, because of a long history of severe sexual and emotional abuse, ends up in a mental institution for murdering her lover and castrating him with her teeth. Some have criticized the novel, saying that it depicts characters that perpetuate negative stereotypes about African Americans.

Jones’ said to June Jordan in a May 16, 1976 edition of The New

York Times Book Review: “I put those images in the story to show how myths or ways in which men perceive women actually define women’s characters… Right now, I’m not sure how to reconcile the things that interest me with ‘positive race images.’ ” Written almost 25 years after Jones’ first novels, The Healing draws on many of the same psychological themes and oral storytelling techniques from her earlier works, using black dialect and stream-ofconsciousness narration that fuses time and place throughout the novel.

What prompts Jones to write such incredibly violent and painfulto-read stories of abuse? Jones responded in an interview with Claudia Tate: “Aside from seeing myself outside of the conventional roles of wife and mother… and my wanting to make some kind of relationship between history and autobiography, I cannot… I generally think of Eva’s Man as a kind of dream or nightmare, something that comes to you, and you write it down.”

Jones’ honesty in her work continues to awe readers with its complex style and depth of emotion.

“Deep Song,” from The Iowa Review The blues calling my name.

She is singing a deep song.

She is singing a deep song.

I am human.

He calls me crazy.

He says, “You must be crazy.”

I say, “Yes, I’m crazy.”

He sits with his knees apart.

His fly is broken.

She is singing a deep song.

He smiles.

She is singing a deep song.

“Yes, I’m crazy.”

I care about you.

I care.

I care about you.

I care.

He lifts his eyebrows.

The blues is calling my name.

I tell him he’d be better do something about his fly.

He says something softly.

He says something so softly that I can’t even hear him.

He is a dark man.

Sometimes he is a good dark man.

Sometimes he is a bad dark man.

I love him…

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

39

Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb • 1876-1944

P

aducah native Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was perhaps one of Kentucky’s most versatile writers and personalities from the 1920s to the ’40s. Journalist, essayist, syndicated columnist, novelist, poet, scriptwriter, actor, storyteller, humorist, lecturer and Academy Award ceremony host were among the many roles Cobb played in a career that spanned more than 50 years.

As a journalist, he wrote for the Paducah Daily News, Louisville Evening Post, The Evening Sun (New York), The Evening World (New York), The Cincinnati Post and The Saturday Evening Post.

Cobb was anti-Prohibition and a prominent member of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment.

The Association is credited with the demise of Prohibition in 1934. His crusade prompted him to write a novel, Red Likker (1929), which was touted as the only American novel devoted entirely to the whiskey industry. The novel is set in the postCivil War era and focuses on an old Kentucky family headed by Col. Atilla Bird, who operates Bird & Son Distillery until Prohibition closes it in 1920. Cobb once lamented that prior to Prohibition, “Men of all stations of life drank freely and with no sense of shame in their drinking… Bar-rail instep, which is a fallen arch reversed, was a common complaint among us.”

Cobb authored 69 published books, including novels, memoirs, short story collections, essay anthologies, and collections of newspaper and magazine articles. His first book, Talks with the Fat Chauffer, debuted in 1909, and his last was 1950’s Piano Jim and the Impotent Pumpkin Vine, published posthumously.

Although many of his works had a

40

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

serious bent, several were comedic and infused with his rural Kentucky hyperbolic wit and sense of humor.

Three of his short stories—“AllAmerican Story Teller,” “Peck’s Bad Boy” and “Pardon My French”—were adapted to the movie screen in 1921.

He continued writing for the film industry well into the 1930s.

The Woman Accused, starring Cary Grant and Nancy Carroll, was released in 1933. Cobb teamed with director John Ford and Fox Studios, who made Judge Priest in 1934, which starred Will Rogers in the title role and included the writer in a small acting part. This was the most elaborate of Ford’s Cobb films and was based on three specific stories: “The Sun Shines Bright,” “The Mob from Massac” and “The Lord Provides.” Ford later adapted the material from the Cobb stories for the 1953 film The Sun Shines Bright, in which Charles Winninger played the role of Judge Priest.

Cobb appeared in 10 movies between 1932 and ’38. His major roles were in Pepper (1936) and Hawaii Calls (1938). He was selected to host the 6th annual Academy Awards in 1935.

Critic H.L. Mencken compared Cobb to Mark Twain. Cobb also garnered respect from the renowned Joel Chandler Harris and others, but his literary reputation faded rapidly at the turn of the 1940s. Many critics have suggested that his writing was caught in the wake of post-Civil War, when, according to Bruce Eder, “his benign vision of the rural south no longer seemed relevant or accessible amid the rising of the civil rights movement and the call for an end to segregation.” Cobb’s style, like many of the local-color writers of the era, grew increasingly dated and out-ofstep with contemporary writing.

After a period of declining health, Cobb died March 10, 1944 and is buried in Paducah’s Oak Grove Cemetery.

Excerpt from Cobb’s 1929 novel Red Likker, Chapter XII, “The Gentle Art of Distilling.” In this scene, Col. Atilla Bird, patriarch of the Bird & Sons Distillery, is entertaining Gilmartin, an eastern U.S. reporter who is visiting to interview Bird for an article on the bourbon industry.

“You have heard, I reckon, of the powerful stuff that the natives make up in our mountains and sell without ever getting Uncle Sam’s consent— Moonshine?”

“Yes, but I thought it was so called because they made it at night for fear of revenue agents.”

“Not at all. It’s because it’s so white and clear—like liquid moonbeams. It’s a mighty innocent looking fluid, but you don’t want to tamper with it much while you’re standing on rocky ground—you might bruise yourself when you fall down.

Yes, indeed, the ‘free stiller,’ as he calls himself, has quite a little vocabulary of his own. I reckon you never heard of such a thing as a ‘blind tiger,’ did you?”

Gilmartin confessed that he never had.

“Except hereabouts you probably never would,” continued the Colonel.

“It’s a term that’s peculiar to the high country down there. I presume it always will be. It’s like this: you’ll be going along up through the mountains and in some isolated place you’ll come to a tight log-shack that hasn’t got any door to it that you can see nor any chimney nor any window either. Where a window ought to be there’s a little squared opening that appears to be boarded up solidly, with a semicircular shelf or sill like half a barrel-head projecting out as a sort of underlip at the bottom end of the planking.

“We’ll assume you’re thirsty and you crave an uplifting beverage to relieve that thirst. So you get down off your horse and you walk up to that little rounded shelf and you put down on it two-bits or six-bits or a dollar—it depends on what size flask you want—and then you get back on your horse and you ride off without looking back. It’s not mountain etiquette for you to look back and, on the part of the total stranger, might be unhealthy.

“Well, in half an hour or so you come again. While you were away, the blank-face shutter has revolved and the money you left there has disappeared and in its place is your bottle of white likker. You take it and withdraw, taking care not to go prying the premises or showing any undue curiosity whatsoever while you’re in the vicinity.

“Afterwards you’ll probably remember that the shack apparently has no eyes, so to speak, and that the mud-daubing between the logs made stripes along the walls and sort of mildly suggested a tiger’s streaked coat. Hence the name.”

Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr. • 1861-1949

Seamon Cotter’s life spanned Joseph two centuries of monumental change for African Americans—the end of slavery in the 19th century and the long battle for equality in a whitedominated world of the 20th century.

The great black historian and author Joseph R. Kerlin said that Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr. was “… an Uncle Remus with culture and conscious art.” Cotter was a highly regarded storyteller, poet, playwright and educator who extolled the virtues of advancing his race. According to Joan R. Sherman in her work Invisible Poets: Afro-Americans of the Nineteenth Century, he encouraged the self-help ethic, pride, humility, hard work, education, and a positive, optimistic outlook ...

Cotter was born in Bardstown to Martha Vaughn, a literate and religious woman who was freeborn of mixed blood—African, Native American and English. His father was Michael Cotter, a white man of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He had learned to read by age 4 but dropped out of school after completing the third grade to help support his family. He had no more formal education until 1883 when, at 22, he enrolled in a night school for black students in Louisville. Cotter attended that school for 10 months, earning his high school diploma and teaching credentials.

He continued his education by studying at Indiana University,

Kentucky State Industrial College and Louisville Municipal College. There is no record of him having earned a college diploma, but by 1892 had earned life teaching certificates as a grammar teacher and school principal.

During a career in education that spanned more than 50 years, he served in various teaching and administrative and capacities at Western Colored School, Ormsby Avenue Colored School, Eighth Street School, Paul Laurence Dunbar School and Samuel ColeridgeTaylor School in the Louisville area. He founded the Paul Laurence Dunbar School in Louisville in 1893 and served as principal of the black high school until 1911, when he took the position as principal at Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, which he held until 1942. Paul Lawrence Dunbar is said to have visited Cotter’s family in 1894, which prompted several correspondence exchanges of poetry and discussions about the craft. Cotter maintained a close friendship with Dunbar.

He married fellow educator Maria F. Cox in 1891, and they had four children: Leonidas, Florence, Olivia and Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr., who also became a promising poet, but died at 23.

Cotter’s early poems were published in prominent newspapers of the day such as the Louisville Courier-Journal. He won an Opportunity Prize Contest sponsored by the newspaper for his poem “The Tragedy of Pete.” Cotter also contributed to various periodicals, including National Baptist Magazine, Voice of the Negro, Southern Teacher’s Advocate and Alexander’s Magazine.

Historian Sherman says that during five decades of writing, Cotter’s interests ranged from industrial education in the 1890s to the “zoot suit.” He was known to satirize the “the foibles and frailties” of African Americans. Cotter experimented with a variety of forms and styles of poetry.

Among those were the traditional ballad and various sonnet forms. His subject matter included social satire, historical tribute, racial issues and philosophy.

Cotter died at his Louisville home on March 17, 1949 and is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery.

“Frederick Douglass,” from Links of Friendship

O eloquent and caustic sage!

Thy long and rugged pilgrimage To glory’s shrine has ended; And thou hast passed the inner door, And proved thy fitness o’er and o’er, And to the dome ascended.

In speaking of thy noble life One needs must think upon the strife That long and sternly faced it; But since those times have flitted by, Just let the useless relic die With passions that embraced it.

There is no evil known to man But what, if wise enough, he can Grow stronger in the bearing; And so the ills we often scorn May be of heavenly wisdom born To aid our onward faring.

Howe’er this be, just fame has set Her jewels in thy coronet So firmly that the ages To come will ever honor thee And place thy name in company With patriots and sages.

Now thou art gone, the little men Of fluent tongue and trashy pen Will strive to imitate thee; And when they find they haven’t sense Enough to make a fair pretense, They’ll turn and underrate thee.

“Dr. Booker T. Washington to the National Negro Business League,” from African American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology ’Tis strange indeed to hear us plead For selling and for buying When yesterday we said: “Away With all good things but dying.”

The world’s ago, and we’re agog To have our first brief inning; So let’s away through surge and fog However slight the winning.

What deeds have sprung from plow and pick!

What bank-rolls from tomatoes!

No dainty crop of rhetoric Can match one of potatoes.

Ye orators of point and pith, Who force the world to heed you, What skeletons you’ll journey with Ere it is forced to feed you.

A little gold won’t mar our grace, A little ease our glory.

This world’s a better biding place When money clinks its story.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

41

Alfred Bertram Guthrie Jr. • 1901-1991

B

edford, Indiana native A.B. Guthrie Jr. moved to Kentucky in 1926 to become a reporter with the Lexington Leader, where he was to spend the next 17 years as city editor, editorial writer and executive editor.

He began writing fiction in the early 1940s and in 1943 published his first novel, Murders at Moon Dance. In 1944, he was awarded a Neiman Fellowship from Harvard University, where he studied fiction writing. His novel The Big Sky, which traces the 1830 journey of a group of frontiersmen from St. Louis to the Northwest Territory, was published in 1947. Lewis Gannett, writing in the New York Herald Tribune, said the novel “belongs on the shelf beside the best stories Walter Edmonds and Kenneth Roberts have told of frontier days back East.”

In 1947, Guthrie went to the University of Kentucky English Department, where he taught creative writing until 1952. This period was productive for Guthrie, as he wrote and published his 1949 novel The Way West, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1950. The novel was another epic tale of a northwest journey, picking up where The Big Sky had left off and telling the story of a group of families from Missouri who traveled to the promised land of Oregon.

In 1952, RKO Pictures and Winchester Productions’ Howard Hawks directed a film version of The Big Sky, casting Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Arthur Hunnicutt, Jim Davis and Elizabeth Threatt in the primary roles. The movie The Way West was released in 1967, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring Douglas, along with Robert Mitchum and Richard Widmark.

Guthrie was hired in 1951 by

42

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

director George Stevens to adapt Jack Schaefer’s novel Shane to the silver screen. Guthrie received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay in 1953.

In 1952, he was tagged by HechtLancaster Productions to produce the screen adaptation of Felix Holt’s novel The Gabriel Horn, which was given the movie title The Kentuckian.

20th Century Fox bought the rights to Guthrie’s 1957 novel These Thousand Hills before it was in the final galleys.

The movie was released in 1958, directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Richard Egan and Lee Remick. Guthrie published five additional novels in the 1960s and ’70s, but none received the acclaim that his work enjoyed through the ’40s and ’50s.

Guthrie wrote an un-romanticized version of the settling of the West.

His fiction was historically accurate, and his depiction of the challenges of the rugged landscape and frontier journeys were anything but idealized.

Guthrie said of his avoiding writing the myths about the West: “I have a sense of morality about it. I want to talk about real people in real times.

For every Wyatt Earp or Billy the Kid, there were thousands of people trying to get along.”

His published works consisted of six novels, a book of essays, a children’s book, a book of poems and five mystery novels.

In 1931, Guthrie married Harriet Larson, who died in the early 1960s.

They had two children: Alfred B. III and Helen (Miller). Guthrie married Carol B. Luthin in 1969. He died in 1991 and is buried on his ranch in Choteau, Montana.

Excerpt from The Big Sky: Chapter Two Note: Boone is fleeing the consequences of a fight at a store where, in a drunken brawl, he has broken the nose of his neighbor, Mose Napier. He is looking for shelter for the night.

Boone hunched down, shivering, until after the gleam in the window itself had died. Then he edged ahead like a hunter and came to a small farmyard and made out the house and, to his right, the outline of a barn. He stole to the barn and felt for the door and let himself in.

The warm odor of cow came to his nose. He heard a soft breathing. “Saw Boss!” he said under his breath, closing the door behind him. He stood without moving, letting the animal warmth of the place get to his skin, then shifted his bag to the arm that held his rifle and stepped forward saying, “Saw! Saw!” His hand groped ahead, meeting nothing, and he wondered where the cow was, until his foot touched soft hide and he realized she was lying down.

“Saw!” he said expecting her to rise.

“Saw!” But she lay there, and he thrust his hand down to the warm hide, wondering at her gentleness. He felt in the straw at her side to see that it was dry, and brought himself around and eased down on his butt in the soft litter and snuggled his back against her…

Out of the tired cloud of his mind Ma’s face appeared, the dark watery eyes, the broad nose, the pinched mouth, the sad look of having given up to work and worry about.

Pap… before he could stop it, a sob broke in his throat. He turned his face against the flank of the cow and let himself cry. “Good luck to you, too, Ma,” he said.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

43

44

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

P E N N E D

KENTUCKY MONTHLY'S 9TH ANNUAL WRITERS SHOWCASE

POETRY

FICTION

NONFICTION

Joseph Anthony // Lexington Dennis L. Brewer // Richmond Leanne Edelen // Louisville Chad Horn // Harrodsburg Libby Falk Jones // Berea Ellen Birkett Morris // Louisville Jim Shields // Lexington Karen M. Weber // Erlanger

Linda S. Prather // Lexington

Diantha Daniels // Martin Anthony Stallard // Lexington

FEBR UARY 2017

• K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

45

POETRY I COULD BE FROM HERE

THESE ARE NOT MY HILLS

I’m from a little Republican town in South New Jersey,

Born in Camden.

But I could be from here.

These are not my hills: These rugged, ancient sentinels of earth and stone, armored with maple, walnut, oak, hickory, pine and spruce These are not my hills.

These are the hills of my father and his fathers before him.

These are not my hills: These hills which cast dark, cooling shadows upon nameless hollows and creeks that follow serpent’s winding trail These are not my hills.

These are the hills of my mother and her mother’s before her.

I grew up on 7th avenue, the poor Democratic,

Catholic part of a Protestant town.

But I could be from here.

I spent my twenties poor in Manhattan, and then in 1980 migrated to Perry County where people all knew where you were from.

They did the county dance when they met people from Knox, or Breathitt or even down in Clark or Bourbon.

They figured out how they were connected

pretty quick.

But I got puzzled glances.

“Who’s your daddy?”

My daddy ain’t from here, but he could have been.

He was working class, just like you.

Not a Baptist, though.

I found a little hilltop church with Father Rock and people stopped asking me where I was from the fifth year we lived in our mountain home,

right across from Glomawr.

They knew we weren’t native but they had gotten used to our faces.

Our sixth year, though, we moved to Lexington, and I started buying old photos at yard sales.

Everyone had ancestors

and I wanted some, too.

It’s been thirty years and people only occasionally ask where I’m from.

Well here, I tell them.

At least I could be.

JOSEPH ANTHONY // LEXINGTON

46

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

These are not my hills: These hills that cradle in their laps Rising Spring fog and lingering Summer mist.

These are not my hills.

These are the hills of my children and my children’s children.

These are not my hills: These brooding, nurturing hills joined hip to hip as a sanctuary for animal and fowl in an endless march.

These are not my hills: But I belong to them in thought and fleshly heart.

DENNIS L. BREWER // RICHMOND

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH nearby in the plaza a child twirls ceremonious circles under her dog’s leash: spindly legs frolicking bold and spontaneous. tethered, the chihuahua wags its tail at the excitement the energy the innocence. gray sky above a babbling fountain: dark clouds hold still overhead, threatening; still, the little girl in high tops and polka dots knows better – fearless and frenetic she spins in glory, dancing, ponytail curls waltzing in the wind boldly defying the weather and making a spellbinding Sunlight for all to see.

KATIE CASWELL // LOUISVILLE

CONTRARY CONNOR

THEN DREAM

“Young man, if I ask you something you must truthfully reply.”

Connor’s Dad said regarding his most recent lie.

“You may not say things like the sky is orange when it is really blue.

You will find yourself grounded until you can say what is true.”

Connor retired to his room and laid upon his bed His father’s words playing over and over in his head.

His eyes grew heavy and slowly started to close Drifting into a dream as he slipped silently in a doze.

Connor imagined a world where right was wrong, weak was strong, Old was new, and false was true.

His mind’s eye saw so many things in contradiction.

A mid-day moon hung high in the sun’s position.

Dogs were out taking their owners for a stroll.

While fish caught their dinner with a hook and pole.

Grown-ups frolicked in delight on the playground at the park as children sat on benches watching with envious eyes full of snark Cars floated past, turtles ran fast, Pigs said moo And hiccups ah-chooed.

Connor decided that he liked this contrary surprising scene.

That is until he heard the man’s blood curdling scream.

He spun around to find the cause of the monstrous shriek.

And what he saw made his stomach fall and his knees get weak.

A father and son next to each other but not embraced in a hug.

Instead bellowing a painful howl at one another to show love.

To Connor, this behavior looked not just odd but bizarre.

His hugs and closeness with his Dad were his favorite, by far.

He could not trade them for a cold loud scream.

The thought of which made him eager to leave this world of dream.

Connor willed his eyes open and gazed upon his room.

He missed his Dad and urgently needed to find him soon.

Searching through the house with tears streaming down his face He found his Dad, who gathered him up in a loving embrace.

“I will not lie again.” Connor sobbed. “I will only say what is real.”

He knew why now that a world full of contradiction is not ideal.

No limit to how far we’d go If simply dreaming made it so.

Dreams lighten hearts of every age …

Play make believe upon life’s stage.

LEANNE EDELEN // LOUISVILLE

BIGFOOT TAKES A BACK SEAT TO BLUEGRASS BACK-ROAD BOZOS Kentucky roadsides are littered with clowns standing statuesque, eerily costumed glowing grease-paint outlines sadistic frowns overly-sweaty and underly-groomed bloated guts from cotton-candy consumed torn tights, gowns agape, (overexposes) death-like stares, as if recently exhumed red beady eyes, even redder noses sound of sweet circus song decomposes clown-gowns adorned with sick, wilted flowers sometimes seen striking demonic poses goofy-gloved-juggling-superpowers Jealous are Bigfoot, the deer, and raccoonsClowns stole their spot- (head)- light; Burst their balloons CHAD HORN // HARRODSBURG

So often dreamers help us see Things hidden by reality.

With gentle brush strokes bold and bright, They tease the darkness from the light.

JIM SHIELDS // LEXINGTON

ON THE MOUNTAIN, AUGUST You don’t need to come here unless you love blue mushrooms shining in dark leaves, blueberry bushes standing tall, the hum of hornets.

You don’t need to come here unless you love silence and rain, love the whip of wet grasses on your bare legs. love drinking water from a hidden spring.

You don’t need to come here unless you love dark nights where your inner eye opens and you dream in all the colors of wildflowers.

You don’t need to come here unless you love yourself and your forebears and family who’ve made you, whom you make new.

You don’t need to come here unless you love time, want to fill your blueberry pail with minutes, never pick them all.

LIBBY FALK JONES // BEREA

THE GRADUATION PICTURE Behold a smile like deep, clear water.

Unmuddied.

Unfiltered.

Inhaled joy of what life has to offer Exhaled clarity of the embrace.

KAREN M. WEBER // ERLANGER

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

47

WHAT BROKE MY HEART It was the sparseness of your cabin. The slanted porch and wood gone grey.

Your tiny kitchen with one

clean pot set on the stove.

The small bedroom with the iron frame bed I was sure you inherited from your grandmother. It was the bottomland that made up your farm alongside the river. The God willin’ and the creek don’t rise hopefulness of it all. The

small patch of zinnias that you picked to put in our baskets each week. It was the story you told me while we stood by your truck of a strict father who didn’t let you go to the movies, at least not the ones you wanted to see. Your worn shoe peeking out from the

bottom of your jeans. The sight of your back under your thin t-shirt as you unloaded bushel baskets from your truck. It was your marriage to a woman who bought vegetables from you, and how I asked at the yearend party where she was and you said I don’t know,

FICTION LESSONS FROM THE SPARROW I pulled the faded green sweater closer around my thin shoulders and shivered slightly. I suspected Dr. Burgess had turned down the thermostat in hopes the cold would distract me from what he was saying. And I had to admit that it was working. “Did I ever tell you the story about the sparrow, Dr. Burgess?”

He sighed. “No, Ms. Carroll, you didn’t.”

I smiled at him across the desk as my thoughts wandered back seventy-two years. /// “Mary Elizabeth!”

Mother’s voice was shrill, and she’d used both names. I was in deep trouble.

“What’d you do, Mary?” Jimmy Lee’s eyes widened. Like me, he knew both names meant Mom was really mad, not just stand-you-in-the-corner mad, but go-cut-me-a-switch mad.

Standing in the hallway outside my bedroom, I heard her mumble, “This child is going to be the death of me.”

“Oh, no,” I whispered glancing sideways at Jimmy Lee. “Bobber.”

Opening the door, I stepped inside, my gaze going to the shoe box in the middle of my bed. Mom stood on the opposite side, hands on her hips, eyes glaring and nostrils flaring. Her flaming red hair, much like my own, seemed to stand on end. I picked up the box and looked down at the tiny brown bird inside. His head bobbed up and down.

“He flew into the window,” I said, my own temper starting to rise. “We named him Bobber because his head keeps bobbing up and down. See?” I held out the box so she could look inside, believing that the sight of Bobber’s little head going up and down would melt her heart, as it had melted mine.

“Birds have lice, and they carry disease. Now you take that bird outside right this minute and bury it.”

“Mom, he isn’t dead!”

Mother jerked the bedspread from my rumpled bed.

“Well, he’s almost dead. At the very least, he’s dying. It’d be a kind thing for you to do, Mary Elizabeth.”

“Would you bury me if I wasn’t dead, Mommy?” Jimmy Lee asked from the doorway, his face pale.

“Of course not, honey, but you’re not a bird.”

“God made the birds too, Mom!” I exclaimed, horrified that my own mother would contemplate such a thing.

Emotions flitter across her face: anger, frustration, and finally, acceptance. She couldn’t argue with God. “Okay, but get it out of your room.”

I grabbed Jimmy by the hand and headed outside. In the backyard, I went over to the hose and got some water. I placed drops of it along Bobber’s tiny beak.

“Can we take him to the vet, Mary?”

48

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

“I don’t think so, Jimmy. I don’t have enough money.”

“How much does it cost?”

“More than two dollars, and that’s all I’ve got.”

Jimmy stared into the box, a huge tear clinging to the edge of his eyelashes. “Gosh, that’s a lot.”

The bird’s tiny head continued to bob up and down as if he had a pounding headache. I could tell he was suffering.

“Mom’s right, you know. I should probably go ahead and kill him.” My voice quivered as hot tears ran down my cheeks.

Jimmy wiped at his own tears. “If I were a man, I’d do it for you.”

I hugged him. “I know you would.”

Forgetting about the lice and diseases, I picked up Bobber and held him in my hand. His head stopped bobbing. My closeness seemed to comfort him.

I sat down crossed legged on the grass. “You know the sparrow was the bird that stayed around Jesus when he was on the cross.”

Jimmy plopped down beside me. “Really?”

“Yep. This is a very special bird.”

Jimmy scooted closer and put an arm around my shoulders. “He likes it when you hold him.”

“It makes him feel better because he knows he’s not alone.” I stroked the small head. “Well, little bird, it’s up to you and God now. You have to choose. No one has the right to make that choice for you.”

Jimmy and I sat quietly for the next thirty minutes while I held Bobber until he stopped breathing. Then we buried him under the old oak tree in the front yard. We both felt good. Bobber didn’t die alone, and he made the decision, not us. That moment set the pace for the next seventy-two years of my life. I’d learned a lot from that little sparrow. /// “Ms. Carroll?”

I reached across the desk and gently squeezed Dr. Burgess’s hand . He was such a nice young man. It seemed as though the doctors kept getting younger as I got older.

And he was taking my illness so personally, almost as if it were somehow his fault.

“Ms. Carroll, did you hear what I said?”

“Yes. Yes, I did.”

Dr. Burgess stood and came around the desk. “Is there someone here with you?”

“My granddaughter, Mary Carol, is in the waiting room.

She’s named after me, you know.”

“Would you mind waiting here just a minute? I’d like to talk with her.”

I listened as they whispered outside the door. He was afraid I hadn’t understood. I understood just fine. I was old, not senile. My cancer was growing at a rapid rate. I

as if she just vanished one night, leaving you a sky full of stars but no moon in sight. It was the picture of you, your shirt off, young and strong, your heart still in tact.

ELLEN BIRKETT MORRIS // LOUISVILLE

This poem appeared in Surrender and The Revivalist.

K NTUCKY More than 1,000 Kentuckians die from prescription drug overdoses each year. Stop the epidemic through safe use, storage and disposal of your prescription medicines.

had maybe six months, no longer.

Mary Carol followed the doctor back into the office. “Grandma, are you ready to go home now?” She looked at me through teary eyes.

“Yes, I’d like that.” I grabbed my walker, stood, and started the slow process of making it out of the building and to the car.

Mary Carol was quiet during the short ride home. I knew she was hurting. Thinking about my death. My funeral. Well, I wasn’t dead yet.

“How’s art school?” I asked to break the silence.

“Oh, I don’t know, Grandma. I was thinking of dropping out and coming home. Maybe it was all just a dream. I mean, there are too many great artists out there already.”

“Did I ever tell you the story about the sparrow?”

Mary Carol grinned. “Yes, Grandma, you did. About a hundred times.”

“Well, Mary Carol, you remember it.

Don’t you go burying things before they’re dead. Not dreams and not people. Life is everlasting. People die, and babies are born every day. Dreams never die unless you let them.”

She looked at me thoughtfully. For the first time, the true meaning of the story had come out for her. She pulled into the driveway, parked the car, and hugged me. “I won’t forget, Grandma.

I promise.”

The old house looked comfortable.

In my eighty years, I’d lived many dreams there. The sparrow had taught me never to bury anything before it died. I snorted remembering the doctor’s words. Six months, no longer. I made up my mind right then and there that I’d live at least eight months just to show him I could.

My gaze drifted to the ancient oak in the front yard. “Look, Mary Carol, the sparrows are nesting. We’ll have babies soon.”

Visit us online to learn more about proper use and storage and to find a prescription drop box near you.

www.kyma.org/know-your-meds-ky

2016 DECEMBER 017 JANUARY 2

INSIDE A STORIED HOME

PLUS

Display until 2/14/2017

17 Activities for 2017 MacPhail Antler Artist Dan ning Faux Furs Donna Salyers’ Stun

thly.com

www.kentuckymon

VIEW OUR CURRENT ISSUE FREE AT

KENTUCKYMONTHLY.COM

LINDA S. PRATHER // LEXINGTON

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

49

NONFICTION FLY My first spring as principal at The David School, a mother sparrow chose to build her nest in the elbow of the gutter on the front porch. Really a brave—even foolhardy—thing for a bird to do, since this long, covered porch is a favorite hangout spot for our bunch of 35 rambunctious high school students before and after school and during the lunch break.

Even when the students are in class, it’s still noisy out in front of this woodsided building that looks more like a hunting lodge than a 21st century school.

For at this tiny non-traditional school nestled in the wooded hollows of eastern Kentucky, the principal still goes out onto the porch every 55 minutes to pull the rope that rings an old-fashioned school bell to signify the changing of classes. So you might argue that the location of this nest was safer than a conventional tree for keeping eggs safe from live predators, but it was certainly not a secluded spot for nurturing a family of young chicks into adulthood.

Nevertheless, a month later, it was obvious the number of our school’s “family of chicks” had officially increased by three. We’d first noticed mom flying back and forth with bits of yarn and straw for several days the end of March. Then a few weeks later, there were three tiny heads poking up out of the nest any time mama left it.

Like our growing high school teens, these young birds, too, seemed to be always ready to eat something.

And then early one morning at the end of April, I was coming in to work and saw one of the chicks hopping around under the Adirondack chairs on the porch.

It couldn’t fly yet, but it was out of the nest. I went in quickly to alert my colleague, Jason. I should mention here that Jason is an Appalachian Kentucky native and a practical outdoorsman. I, on the other hand, while filled with good intentions, could best be described as an “outsider” (recently transplanted from 35 years in Indiana) and an idealistic city slicker.

“Should we put it back in the nest?”

I asked with obvious concern.

He looked at me as if I had two heads. “It’ll either learn to fly,” he said without any emotion, “or else a snake’ll git it.”

That did it.

Now, I’d like to point out that one of the perks of being the principal of a small, nurturing school like this one is that, if I need something done, I can go to the gym where we have a bunch of healthy, strong high school students

50

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

playing basketball every single morning before school, and I can ask a few folks to come give me a hand with a special project. So that’s exactly what I did— choosing to ignore Jason completely as he fell over laughing in the corner.

Of the three boys who volunteered for this special assignment, two were among those students most likely to give a teacher a hard time for almost any academic request. But a little “sparrow rescue?” They were totally cool with it.

And at least when I was looking, they didn’t laugh at me. Not once.

We got a stepladder and went out to the porch. One of the boys carefully picked up the tiny feathered body, its heart beating wildly, and handed it to the other, who was perched on the ladder so he could reach up to set the little bird, still covered with black down, gently back in the nest.

But by the end of first period, not only was the first chick right back on the ground again, but the other two had followed. My guys knew what to do though. Yep, they went and got the stepladder and carefully picked each of the little chicks back up and gently returned them to the nest again.

Even if Jason was still doubled over.

Now, not only are our students are among those most likely to give a teacher a hard time, they also hunt and fish in their spare time. In other words, they understand and have deep respect for the “Circle of Life.” But they’re also good Kentucky country boys, which means they love and respect their mamas. And that includes their lady principals.

So, without complaint, in between classes, they put those little birds back in the nest three more times, until even I was willing to admit that their time to either make it or not had come.

I’m pleased to say that they all did make it—flying awkwardly and tentatively in shaky circles at first, but then gradually gaining confidence until they flew higher and higher and then away for good that afternoon. Even though I, too, understand the “Circle of Life,” I’d like to think that the extra support we gave them when they were still vulnerable enabled them all to avoid becoming prey for a snake instead.

Those three boys are all now “out of the nest,” too. James graduated in June, the first in his family to do so, and started at the community college this fall. Lucas has a semester to go, but he’s already in the process of enlisting in the U.S. Army. And Dakota didn’t quite finish with us, but, with our support, he passed his GED and has started a job in customer service.

Over the course of the last four years, I—and the rest of the staff at

The David School—put each of those young men safely “back in the nest” numerous times. But now their time to either make it or not has come. I’d like to think that the extra support we gave them will enable them to avoid the pitfalls and dangers out there in the real world.

Fly, James.

Fly, Lucas.

Fly, Dakota.

Fly. DIANTHA DANIELS // MARTIN

KENTUCKY LIGHT SHOW Poetic invitations in silhouette on a side street in the sky. Backlit, still, and silent-lettered. Lines on the marquee of a memory. Shine’s Kentucky. No other takes me where the story is to what a film is all about on the landscape of its mystery.

It’s COOL Inside, there in my sheltered summer ‘50s shade.

The voice behind a smile beyond the circle in the glass above; a paper fragment offered for a coin or two emerges from a slot below. Showing Now’s exhibit ends abruptly at the Enter door. Beyond, an ever-changing weeklyblend of posters standing in the silence of their place behind their doors of glass in their homes of brass on the street of Attractions Coming Soon.

The ticket taker stands waiting with a hand out and a smile; a ticket, torn in two’s, more than a pass to find the big room. This will forever be a souvenir of not just any other day on its way to midnight. Stopping by to wish upon Refreshments at the counter there, then to the darkness of the big room where the arc of one’s now is waiting to be drawn.

Shadows play, dancing on and in-between soft folds on a velvet skin.

Curtains parting, hidden secrets soon to be revealed told by pictures in a story.

Light rushes, from a place I cannot see, to kiss a snow-filled window; a silent white, but for one moment more. The landscape of a mind’s imagination comes to life. Someone’s waiting to be charmed again.

Who will I be in what remains of the weekend? Jim Thorpe-All American, another searching to find a way away from imminent peril in When Worlds Collide, or escape from The Creature from the Black Lagoon or Invaders from Mars? John Wayne?

I could be anyone and that, forever more, more than enough.

A childhood world of echoes; from Hollywood, the soundstage sends its message. Warner Bros. social voice is anything but subtle. 20th Century Foxes listen for the lion’s roar.

Columbia’s pretty lady in a silken gown holds a torch for someone, but not me.

The globe of Universal’s international.

RKO is in its day; Howard Hughes at play somewhere in his Culver City sandbox on Romaine St. in L.A. Republic; its cowboys and its good and bad. The gates of Paramount stand closed and far beyond my reach.

B-movies, Widmark, Ryan, Mitchum, Russell and the light that is Marilyn.

Starring and Co-starring; with Score and Music by and Color by, in Sound by someone. Filmed in something.

Filmed at somewhere. Produced by and Directed by.

The picture show begins.

Light illuminates the darkness.

Motion shapes the essence of the air.

Beyond an open window to the message, what once stood still became unfrozen in a symphony of time, creatively composed. From out of somewhere on the darkness road, light danced frame to frame with others in the night. Light chasing light at the speed of everything; a Technicolor cloud, suspended on a stained-glass window to a sky beyond tomorrow.

Coming Attractions—Starting Friday Matinees and cliffhangers; Will the hero survive the fall in this my longest winter?

Pictures larger than life; life must surely be more than this. Life is larger than anything … isn’t it? Someone tell me. I am only ten. Time is standing on a corner on the street I know as Main.

There’s seven years a teen to be, a promise of tomorrow. I’ve not seen the previews of attractions coming in a life, and that to me is frightening.

What am I left to be? How long would it take; to reconcile the Montgomery Clift or the Lawrence Harvey in me, or the James Dean-Natalie Wood uncertainty in a coming of my age?

What would become of my heroes?

In the darkness, no one can see inside my shy uncertainty. The big room will be there through my spring and summer, the autumn of October until the light show in it falls, like the last of leaves in a winter’s darkness, on their way to find their rest in time. All this I will know, before the song I knew is silent.

ANTHONY STALLARD // LEXINGTON Reflections on the Kentucky Theater, then and now on Main Street in my hometown.

Is Preserving America’s Heritage an Integral Part of Your Charitable Giving and Estate Plan?

The Sons of the American Revolution Foundation and the Center for Advancing America’s Heritage provide a unique opportunity for you to join other patriotic and generous foundations, corporations and individuals by donating to complete and endow the SAR National Education Center and Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Museum will tell bold, emotional stories about the Revolution and show how it continues to influence freedom and independence worldwide.

For details see www.sar.org For information on how you can be a part of this important project, please contact: Samuel C. Powell ldunn@sar.org SAR Foundation, Inc. 809 W Main St. Louisville, KY 40202 (336) 227-3557

Local contacts are available to meet with you.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

51

Composed from the

Heartland

Kate Thomas and the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference have been educating and encouraging writers since 1997.

By Diana C. Derringer

K

ate Thomas held a dream in her heart a long time.

That dream moved toward reality in 1996 and came true the following year. As the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference approaches its 21st year, Thomas’ dream continues to draw writers and those who want to write from several states. A planning committee of volunteers has been instrumental in keeping the conference going … and growing.

First Steps Thomas grew up near Burkesville in south-central Kentucky. She fondly recalls “within this small area in the bend of the Cumberland River was a one-room school, a grocery store, a mill for grinding corn and a little white church.” She attended that school through eighth grade.

During Thomas’ final year, she was allowed to teach occasionally. From that experience grew her desire to teach young children, which she did later.

Thomas’ interest in writing began in high school. “I had a wonderful teacher who encouraged me and gave me good grades on my attempts at writing,” she says.

She met and married Wallace “Wally” Thomas while a student at Western Kentucky University. They remained partners in life and ministry until his death in 2009. She completed her degree in early childhood education at Spalding University in Louisville.

Teaching, juggling the responsibilities of two children, and assisting a pastor husband would be more than enough for most people. Thomas is not most people. “I couldn’t shake

Kate Thomas, right, converses with author Debbie Green 52

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

what seemed to be a call on my life to write and also to start a writers conference,” she says. She believed the conference needed to be held in the central part of the state, specifically Elizabethtown, since three major highways lead there.

However, first things first: She and friend Joyce Joines traveled to Taylor University in Upland, Indiana for “the first writers conference either of us had ever attended.”

Thomas also wanted to attend the American Christian Writers Conference in Nashville. A back injury left her barely able to move. Nevertheless, her friend once again accompanied her, this time to help her walk. After enduring the trip, Thomas had to sit in the auditorium while everyone else attended workshops.

Writer Donna Goodrich approached Thomas to ask why she sat alone rather than in a workshop. Thomas explained her injury as well as her “heart’s desire to see a writers conference established in the heart of Kentucky.” Goodrich said, “Well, why don’t you start one?” When Thomas said she didn’t know how, Goodrich volunteered to help.

That promise “clinched it” for Thomas. In October 1996, she, Goodrich, and three or four other friends began piecing together the first Kentucky Christian Writers Seminar (now Conference). Thomas addressed 500 invitations by hand, adding a personal note to each. That required working until the wee hours of the morning a few days. However, welcoming 60-plus people from several states for the first conference in 1997 made all her hard work worthwhile.

A cake in celebration of KCWC’s 20th anniversary

Growing Gains and Pains Through the years, Thomas and the planning committees have continued to tweak the conference. People have told them the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference is one of the best in the area. Attendance fell only once. A few times, the conference’s finances hit “the bottom of the bucket,” according to Thomas, but donations always brought them up again. She hopes a recent 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status will lead to improved finances, further growth and overall improvement.

The planning committee tried holding the conference at a state park one year. Although the park provided a beautiful setting for a successful conference, it lacked sufficient space for workshops. So the committee members returned the event to Elizabethtown.

Headaches, both moderate and intense, come with the territory in planning such large events. During the meet-andgreet session one year, conference leaders learned their keynote speaker could not attend due to a family health crisis. The group quickly huddled and prayed. Barbara Wells, that year’s conference coordinator, suggested asking a workshop presenter to also serve as keynote speaker. She accepted the challenge and “did a super job.”

Although Thomas admits to moments in which she wanted to throw in the towel, those never lasted long. She reminded herself that the conference began as a “God event.” That gave her the inspiration she needed to continue. She says Goodrich and many others were “always willing to give me guidance and encouragement.”

Building Confidence and Credits While working on the annual conferences, Thomas has found time to write four books and co-author another. She also has written for magazines and compilation books. Her first book, New Every Morning: A Daily Touch of God’s Faithfulness, contains 365 daily devotionals. She based many of them on her experiences through the years. It is now in its second printing.

Thomas loves the letters, emails and calls from people who share how her work has touched their lives. In addition, she finds joy in the writing success of hundreds of others who either began or expanded their writing careers by attending the conferences.

For people who want to write but don’t know where to start, Thomas says, “I’ve been there!”

“Attend writers conferences,” she continues. “Get acquainted with writers in attendance. Attend workshops that meet your writing needs. Read good books on writing.

Inquire … for suggestions and helpful materials. Keep a list of your own ideas and experiences that you might use.

Once you start writing, set aside a time and a place to write. Consider … a writers group in your area. Don’t give up … persevere!”

Naturally, Thomas encourages attendance at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. She describes it as a “safe place” where “we can encourage, inform and inspire those who are hesitant to step out in faith.”

Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College communications professor Carlton Hughes offers a workshop, “So, You’re a Newbie: A Primer for First-time Attendees.” The number of newcomers continues to grow, and his 2016 workshop attracted an overflow crowd. By the time a conference ends, those newbies take with them the knowledge and encouragement they need to “go forth boldly and write.”

Wells vividly recalls her first conference in 2002. “I arrived with a rough draft manuscript, a brochure with a bio, picture and workshop title,” she says. “I remember feeling so alone and more than a little scared.” Sally Stuart, the keynote speaker that year, mentioned the need for a book for pastors’ wives. Wells says, “That was exactly what

my manuscript was about.” With that encouragement, Wells published her book. She also has served in numerous positions with the conference and remains on the advisory board.

Each year, the writing credits grow. Many participants recognize a need and choose workshops geared toward that need. Pam Harlow, a member of the KCWC planning committee, began a blog for teachers and also completed an e-book assignment.

Since Sue Davis Potts began attending the KCWC in 2007, she has published several articles, poems and children’s stories in regional and national magazines and anthologies. She also has published a children’s book and a motivational book for those experiencing disability or life struggles.

Attendee Joyce Cordell published her second historical novel based on the Bible as a result of the KCWC. The conference also gave her the tools and confidence to begin a blog, and she recently began using social media to promote her work.

Whatever a writer’s genre, KCWC offers relevant workshops. Many attendees write for both the Christian and secular markets. Several have years of experience and a portfolio stuffed with writing credits, yet they keep returning.

Conference faculty offer widespread experience and opportunities. Well-known authors and writers, marketing and social media pros, teachers, editors, agents and others deliver keynote addresses and lead workshops. They serve on panels, mingle with participants, and hold one-on-one sessions for critiques, suggestions, edits and possible contracts. The annual faculty list at kychristianwriters.com includes Kentucky’s Liz Curtis Higgs, Stephen M. Vest and Ann H. Gabhart. You also may find Kentucky natives Sandra Aldrich and Virginia Smith, plus such out-of-state authorities as Dr. Dennis Hensley, Michelle Medlock Adams, James Watkins and Cecil Murphey.

An Ongoing Labor of Love “Kate has a very soft, gracious and kind voice—but don’t let that fool you,” Wells says of Thomas. “She has ... strength to ‘finish the course.’ Kate’s vision and faithful steps to achieve her goals [have] brought joy to many grassroots writers in Kentucky. Kate has a listening heart. One of her favorite sayings is: ‘Well, just go forward unafraid. God will guide you, and all of us are here to help you.’ ” Through Thomas’ efforts, potential writers have penned books, articles, poetry, drama, devotions and more. Conference participants have grown into conference leaders and presenters.

Thomas envisions that transformation growing as KCWC continues to reach out to budding writers. She sees people of all ages encouraged to “pick up the pen or go to the computer and begin to write.”

Quoting Mother Teresa, Thomas says, “We are all pencils in the hand of a writing God who is sending love letters to the world!” For many, that began in the heart of Kentucky, thanks to the love and labor of Kate Thomas. Q

Kentucky Christian Writers Conference 2017 June 22-24 Keynote Speaker: Twila Belk Location: Grace Heartland Church, Elizabethtown For further details: kychristianwriters.com F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

53

CULTURE

Off the Shelf

Kentucky Based Author Laura Frantz Delivers a Sweeping Novel

(P)-Paperback (C)-Clothbound (H)-Hardback

CAPTURING KENTUCKY Kentucky: A Photographic Journey

By Linda Doane Farcountry Press $12.95 (P)

A treasure for any fan of the Bluegrass state, this collection of 94 color photos by photographer Linda Doane. The Louisville resident has been traveling the globe, camera in hand, for almost 30 years. Along the way, she has won awards and been published in books and magazines for photos of sporting events, political conventions, concerts and rock stars.

But with the publication of this book, Doane’s first love of Kentucky is

“Truly, a book to savor and revisit.”

—JOCELYN GREEN, award-winning author of The Mark of the King Her wilderness survival skills are without rival.

But her greatest talent is keeping other people’s secrets.

LauraFrantz.net

N Available wherever books and ebooks are sold.

54

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

apparent. She captures more than just horses and bourbon, although those are spectacular, too.

She also digs deeper into the Commonwealth to show scenes readers may not have viewed before. From a cascading waterfall in Bad Branch State Nature Preserve to a creaky old covered bridge in Frankfort to a fog-encased sun rising over the scenic Cumberland Gap, each photo is a treasure.

This 80-page book would make an excellent addition to any Kentucky lover’s coffee table.

— Deborah Kohl Kremer

A Racing History Icon

Second-Floor Life

James C. Nicholson has focused his writing on the sport of Thorough­bred racing, especially related to Kentucky. In The Notorious The Notorious John Morrissey John Morrissey:

By James C. How a BareNicholson Knuckle Brawler University Press became a of Kentucky Congressman $29.95 (C) and Founded Saratoga Race Course, Nicholson lays out another slant on the racing world by profiling a colorful, roughhousing man of many and varied experiences from the mid-1800s. As a young man, Morrissey collected a nice financial haul as a tough prizefighter with street cred. He became a politician, serving as a U.S. congressman and New York legislator, and he gambled with proficiency.

In fact, he established a gambling house in New York at Saratoga Springs. There, he organized the first Thoroughbred race meet in 1863.

Nicholson’s book draws nuanced connections between Kentucky’s equine culture to those outside the state, adding powerful perspective to the industry’s study.

Giving readers a fly-on-the-wall view of what it is like to grow up in a funeral home, The Undertaker’s Daughter delves into a The Undertaker’s world not Daughter: A many have Memoir experienced.

By Kate Mayfield Set in the Gallery Books 1960s and $16 (P) ’70s, the story begins with a collection of the Kentucky family’s life on the second floor. It seems to be an average life in a small town … But then every few days, young Kate would hear the words, “We have a body.” She and her siblings then would fade into a world of respect and silence, and remain there through the visitation and funeral.

The story and anecdotes of small-town Kentucky, as well as those of death and bodies, are charming as told from a young girl’s viewpoint.

Author Kate Mayfield hails from the tiny town of Jubilee (Russellville) on the Kentucky/Tennessee border.

She attended Western Kentucky University, graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and now lives in London, England.

— Steve Flairty

— Deborah Kohl Kremer

BOOKENDS Named Kentucky Poet Laureate in 1984, Lee Pennington hadn’t published a book in 23 years after his previous 19. That changed recently with the release of Appalachian Newground, which, according to Pennington, “is, in some small way, my recognizing and honoring the land of my birth.”

That region, in western Greenup County, has its share of noted writers, featuring Jesse Stuart, along with a terrain that is both beautiful and challenging to eke out a living by farming. Pennington became close friends with Stuart while the two were classmates at McKell High School.

Metaphorically, they drank from the same cup.

This 171-page collection, published by Winchester Cottage Print, includes mostly poems, some prose, and a play called “Ragweed.” Complementing the literary craftiness of Pennington, the black-and-white illustrations by Jill Baker form a comfortable seat alongside the writer’s deep thoughts about all things mountain and rural—and home.

•••

Author Donna Finch Slaton and Heart to Heart Publishing take young readers on a colorful adventure into the countryside with Ben Beagle Plays. Ben, an observant dog for sure, sees animal friends such as birds, cats, rabbits and squirrels all around the farm where he lives. Slaton,

a retired librarian, remains quite active as president of the Historical Society of Hopkins County.

The book, both enjoyable and educational, includes a section of beagle facts and has comprehension questions at the end. It is illustrated by Donna Brooks.

•••

Apex Publications has joined forces with Justin Stewart, Tressina Bowling and Shawn Pryor to publish an extraordinary book. Kentucky Kaiju is part art book and part monster manual, combining the two to create the ultimate field guide to the kaiju (Japanese for “strange beast”) of the Bluegrass State.

From 29-foot beavers roaming the forests of Black Gold to thunderous trees walking Thousandsticks to a gigantic robot that fell from another galaxy to Future City, this book has an overwhelming array of kaiju. Though photographic evidence of kaiju is rare, each creature presented in An illustration from Kentucky Kaiju this guide has been artistically rendered by Stewart and Bowling, with descriptions of their creation, location and proclivity to violence penned by Pryor.

Kentucky Kaiju lets you travel deep into the hills of Kentucky and uncover all of its monsters without ever leaving the safety of your home.

CALLING ALL COOKS! Submit your favorite original recipe for a chance to win great prizes and see your dish featured in our May issue!

Submissions due by

March 10, 2017 S U B M I T YO U R R E C I P E AT K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY. C O M Prizes: In addition to having their recipes featured in our May 2017 issue, the recipe contest winner and runners-up will receive great Kentucky-themed prizes!

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

55

OUTDOORS

Field Notes

The Reel Men

BY GARY GARTH

O

Gary Garth, courtesy of The Capital City Museum

n the ground floor of The Capital City Museum near At some point, Benjamin Meek visited Snyder’s shop, and the corner of Ann and Broadway streets in Frankfort, the Meek brothers likely used a Snyder reel as a model for a small room is filled with simple fishing reels made their early designs. Around 1835—about the same time the with a jeweler’s precision and an angler’s passion. They are Meeks began making and advertising reels—a customer, antique tools to be sure, and certainly antiquated by today’s Judge Macon Brown, arrived at their Frankfort shop on standards. But so finely machined are they that any of the Main Street with a reel he wanted repaired or perhaps reels on display today could be lined, locked onto a rod, copied. His specific request is unknown, but it is generally and again used to subdue a hard-fighting, stream-bred assumed this was a Snyder reel. smallmouth bass from nearby Elkhorn Creek.

There are no examples of Snyder’s work among the early Anglers might be surprised to learn that Kentucky is the reels on display at the museum. A foot-driven metal lathe, home of the multiplying level wind reel, often known as the used to machine many of the reels, is part of the exhibit and Kentucky Reel, and the forerunner of the modern baitwas used by the Meeks, Milan, Gayle and others. It was casting reel, the foremost tool modeled on a lathe Snyder had in in any bass fisherman’s—or his shop. saltwater fisherman’s—arsenal.

“Only a handful [of Snyder About 30 of these early reels reels] were made,” said Downs. and the stories of the men who “They’re pretty rare.” made them are on display as The exhibit includes about 30 part of the museum’s Frankfort’s reels from size 1 (smallest) to size Fishing Reels: Jewels of the Bluegrass 6. Each was handmade, and a exhibit, which will be open few were widely recognized for through mid-October 2017. their craftsmanship. In 1893, a The reel exhibit, which B.C. Milam & Son reel was opened late last year, sprang awarded a gold medal at the from an idea hatched when the Chicago World’s Columbian Old Reel Collector’s Association Exposition. Similar honors national convention came to followed. town in 2013.

The early reels—handmade “This exhibit grew from and award-garnering—were also that,” said museum curator the fishing tools of the wealthy John Downs. “And it has been and well-to-do. very popular.”

A Milam reel price list from It’s easy to see why. Modern sport fishing can 1860 lists brass reels from $13 to $23. A trace its roots to the tools in the exhibit room.

“German Silver” model was $16 to $26. Reels See more The multiplying reel—which allows more line to fitted with a balance handle in place of a photos from the crank added $1 to the price. be retrieved than can be taken up by one exhibit at revolution of the reel handle—revolutionized Quality reels today are not inexpensive, kentuckymonthly.com fishing. The earliest reels had a 4.2-to-1 gear but in 1860, a Milam reel cost about what a ratio, which became an industry standard for soldier in the U.S. Army earned in a month, more than a century. according to Downs.

The reels on display came from the “This was when $1,000 a year was a pretty workshops of brothers Jonathan F. and Benjamin F. Meek, good salary for a worker,” Downs said. “Sixteen dollars was Benjamin C. Milam, George W. Gayle and James L. Sage a lot of money.” and—in the case of everyone except Sage, who died Of the items on display, the most affecting for me was a childless—their offspring. Many of the reels were made in scarred, No. 2 brass reel stamped “B.C. Milam FRANKFORT, Frankfort.

KY.” Downs unlocked the case and handed me the reel. The The Meeks and Milam are the best known of the bunch, gear movements were clockwork smooth, but the old reel and Milam, who apprenticed in the Meek brothers’ shop, obviously had seen plenty of on-the-water use. The display probably garnered the longest-lasting fame of the early reel case also included a multipiece, well-used, wooden rod: men. But they weren’t the only ones who built and refined B.C. Milam’s personal fishing gear. the Kentucky Reel.

Hanging above the case is a grainy photo of an old man They weren’t even the first. with a full, white beard standing creekside, rod and reel That honor belongs to George Snyder, a reel-making in hand. pioneer about whom surprisingly little is known. Snyder Milam. Reel maker. Fisherman. Kentuckian. Kindred spirit. died in 1841.

Go see for yourself.

Snyder was born in or about 1780 in Pennsylvania and The Capital City Museum is at 325 Ann Street. Hours are moved to Kentucky around 1803, settling in Paris. He was a 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Admission is free. watchmaker and silversmith, and also an avid and apparently For more information, go to capitalcitymuseum.com or skilled fisherman who is credited with building the first call (502) 696-0607. multiplying reel in the United States. Snyder owned, or had Readers may contact Gary Garth at outdoors@kentuckymonthly.com at least seen, a British-made 1-to-1 level wind reel and likely developed his multiplying design from this simple tool.

56

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

VOICES

Past Tense/Present Tense

The Tools of the Trade

BY BILL ELLIS

E

very trade has its tools. The carpenter, the plumber, the electrician, the bricklayer, the farmer—even the historian. My tools have evolved over the years. When I started research and writing in the 1960s, the tools included the card catalog in libraries and secondary sources in printed versions, including books, journals, magazines and newspapers. Primary sources such as archives of letters and public documents became part of my kit. I have enjoyed interviewing all kinds of people from politicians to farmhands to Kentucky River folk to schoolteachers and administrators and many others to put a personal touch on my research and writing. Moreover, the old Smith-Corona portable typewriter worked fine.

The historian’s kit today includes the internet (of which you have to be quite wary) and the other electronic media available in libraries and online. At the touch of a key, you can read a speech of Abraham Lincoln’s or hear the words of Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural address in 1933. Most of these services are free. I have grown dependent on my laptop.

We are all historians of a sort.

“Everyman His Own Historian,” Carl Becker said in 1931. Of course, “Everywoman” has always been both participant and observer. We are all influenced by the circumstances of our lives.

As I have written before, I grew up in a working-class family with parents and relatives either on the farm or in manual labor or factory work. I have to admit that the little red-headed kid who grew up on Snow Hill outside Shelbyville in the 1940s and ’50s still has an inclination to be suspicious of those who grew up with a silver spoon in their mouth. If you never worked with your hands, getting dirt under your fingernails by mowing grass, hoeing a field of tobacco on a hot day, sweating in a clothing factory, delivering newspapers in the early morning fog, or any number of the “dirty hands” jobs many people still do today, how can you fully understand our history, our culture, our state, our nation?

I don’t do much manual labor anymore because there are many people who do those tasks for me. I have great respect for them. My wife and I moved into a condo in Lexington in the middle of last year. I no longer have to mow grass and trim 300 feet of forsythia hedge several times a year. After I turned 70 at “The Old Ellis Place,” I gave up on my love of gardening. My body demanded a reprieve. My wife still does all the domestic things she has done for many years and for which I am so grateful. I try to stay out of the way most of the time and not muck up the works. Or am I just a lazy old man like Earl in the comic strip “Pickles?”

One of the consequences of getting older is an increased longing for the good old days. I try to balance that with a full realization of how hard those days were when there was no air conditioning in homes or autos, when you changed the oil in your car yourself every 500 miles rather than 5,000 or 10,000 miles performed by a specialist today, when you walked to school (whoever heard of such a thing!) … the list goes on and on. “Duck Tape” has now replaced bailing wire as the standby for a quick repair.

I am not too sure I could survive without modern

conveniences. Individuals interviewed before the turn of this century for “The Great Depression Oral History Project” at Eastern Kentucky University firmly believed that younger generations were ill-prepared for such an event again. Having lived through the worst depression in the 20th century, they knew they could survive anything. Are we still that tough?

What do you think?

Things that connect us to the past are important. I enjoy visiting museums or displays that feature old tools, farming implements and historic industrial machinery. Pictured are some of the items I have saved over the years from old family tool kits. Many of these I had not seen for a long time until we had to vacate our old house. The “Old Kentucky Home” washboard is easily recognizable. The handle worn on one end came from one of my great-grandmothers.

I was told it was used to stir clothes in a boiling tub over a fire. Without context, that object has no meaning. What a far cry from the modern clothes washing machine with its multiple settings. Easily recognizable is the metal iron that had to be heated to just the right temperature so as not to burn clothes. It would soon cool and be placed back on the wood or coal stove.

The wooden level on the left side of the picture looks as if it were handmade. The keyhole saw on the right has my father’s initials incised in the handle. A small wooden-handled, interchangeable screwdriver must have been a keepsake because I never witnessed it used.

The three items at the bottom are somewhat of a mystery.

A “knapping” or “napping” hammer is heavy on the metal end. It was used to break up rock or shape stone. Was one of my ancestors a stonemason? Was the hammer used to break up limestone to be placed on a country lane?

Just below the washboard is a tobacco tool, according to George Duncan, retired extension professor of agriculture at the University of Kentucky. Gene Cravens and Al Patrick in my Sunday school class at Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington had experience cutting tobacco in their younger days. They suggest the device was used to split a stalk of tobacco to be placed on a stick. Later, a standard removable “spear” was put on the end of a tobacco stick, replacing this older device. Have any of our readers ever seen such a tool being used?

My father made the “tomahawk” tobacco-cutting tools and “spears” that were for sale to tobacco farmers at his shop. I also recall using a “corn knife” as well to cut tobacco stalks. Below the tobacco tool is a tool my wife and I used for years to weed a flower garden. Many years ago, someone cut the sides from a hoe and the long handle to make this tool. The handle is roughened with usage.

You must have similar family keepsakes in your tool kit.

One hundred or more years from now, your great- or great-great-grandchildren will notice your long-dead Fitbit in an old drawer. They will wonder with amazement. “What is that? Why did Grandpa and Grandmother keep that old thing?”

Readers may contact Bill Ellis at historian@kentuckymonthly.com F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

57

CALENDAR

Let’s Go

7

February SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

Ongoing Mike McKay: Singularities, UK Art Museum, Lexington, through April 23, (859) 257-5716

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

1.

Is That an Audubon?

Exhibit, John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, through Feb. 8, (270) 827-1893



8.

14.

15.

1

7.

12.

13.

Backward & Forward – 20th Century Quilts Exhibit, Kentucky Museum, Bowling Green, through March 5, (270) 745-2592

Valentine’s Day

19.

0

The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Lexington Childrens Theatre, Lexington, (859) 254-4546

26.

2

Louisville’s Got Talent, The J – Jewish Community Center, Louisville, (502) 459-0660

58

SATURDAY

2.

3.

9.

10.

11.

16.

17.

18.

24.

25.

Dancing with the Stars Live!

EKU Center for the Arts, Richmond, (859) 622-7469

A Visit with the Eagles Weekend, Kenlake State Resort Park, Hardin, (270) 474-2211

Love, Loss and Bull Blowout What I Wore, Rodeo, Murray Theater Workshop State University, of Owensboro, Murray through Feb. 25, (270) 683-5003

4.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444

Valentine’s Day Tour & Tasting, Wilderness Trail Distillery, Danville, (859) 402-8707

A Midsummer Jump ‘n’ Jive Ben Vereen, Night’s Dream, Big Band, Boone Norton Center for Jenny Wiley County Public the Arts, Danville, Mainstage, Library, 1-877-HIT-SHOW Pikeville, through Burlington Feb. 25, (606) 886-9274



The Great War: Kentucky & Beyond Exhibit Opening, Hopewell Museum, Paris, (859) 987-7274

FRIDAY

NEW: Extended Listings!!

To assist our readers with planning ahead for upcoming events and activities, Kentucky Monthly will now feature calendar listings for the current month as well as the first 15 days of the following month!

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

23.

Art of Food, Carnegie Visual Arts Center, Covington, through Feb. 24, (859) 957-1940

The Barber of Seville, Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington, (859) 257-4929

Owensboro Art Guild Juried Exhibition, Owensboro Museum of Fine Art, through April 14, (270) 993-3671

Ongoing Valentine’s Day Celebration, Historic Boone Tavern, Berea, (859) 985-3700 through Feb. 28

More to explore online!

Visit kentuckymonthly. com for additional content, including a calendar of events, feature stories and recipes.

Let’s Go!

A guide to Kentucky’s most interesting events Bluegrass Region

Ongoing February Valentine’s Day Celebration, Historic Boone Tavern, Berea, (859) 985-3700, boonetavernhotel.com Mike McKay: Singularities, UK Art Museum, Lexington, through April 23, (859) 257-5716, finearts.uky.edu/art-museum February

1-25 Have a Seat: Chairs by Kentucky Artisans, Kentucky Artisan Center, Berea, (859) 9855448, kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov 2 Dancing with the Stars Live! EKU Center for the Arts, Richmond, (859) 622-7469, ekucenter.com 3 Delbert McClinton, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org 3 1964: The Tribute, Lexington Opera House, Lexington, (859) 2334567, lexingtonoperahouse.com 4 I Have a Dream Children’s Ball, Lyric Theatre, Lexington, (859) 280-2201, lexingtonlyric.com 4 Fireside Chats, Fort Boonesborough State Park, Richmond, also Feb. 11, 18 and 25, (859) 527-3131, parks.ky.gov 9 Into the Woods, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, 1-877-HIT-SHOW, nortoncenter.com 10 Carmen! Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington, (859) 257-4929, lexphil.org 10 KECU Downtown Frankfort ArtWalk, downtownfrankfort.com

10 Close To You – Music of The Carpenters, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org

23 Much Ado About Nothing, EKU Center for the Arts, Richmond, (859) 622-7469, ekucenter.com

11 Valentine’s Day Tour & Tasting, Wilderness Trail Distillery, Danville, (859) 402-8707, wildernesstracedistillery.com

24 The Barber of Seville, Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington, (859) 257-4929, lexphil.org

11 Romeo and Juliet, presented by the Lexington Ballet, Lexington Opera House, Lexington, (859) 233-3925, lexingtonballet.org

24 The Music Maker Blues Revue, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, 1-877-HIT-SHOW, nortoncenter.com

11-12 Antiques Show, Athens Schoolhouse, Lexington, (859) 2557309, antiqueskentucky.com

25 Rusalka Concert, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org

12 The Great War: Kentucky & Beyond Exhibit Opening, Hopewell Museum, Paris, exhibit through Oct. 1, (859) 987-7274, hopewellmuseum.org

27-28 Daydreaming in an Open Land, Doris Ulmann Galleries, Berea, through March 31, (859) 985-3530, dulmanngalleries.berea.edu

12 Russian String Orchestra, Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington, (859) 257-4929, lexphil.org 14 Second Tuesday Teas, White Hall State Shrine, Richmond, also March 14, (859) 623-9178, parks.ky.gov 16-19 Cinderella, Lexington Opera House, Lexington, (859) 2334567, lexingtonoperahouse.com 17-18 Tubman, Lyric Theatre, Lexington, (859) 280-2201, lexingtonlyric.com 18 Ben Vereen, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, 1-877-HITSHOW, nortoncenter.com 19 The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Lexington Childrens Theatre, Lexington, (859) 254-4546, lctonstage.org 20 The Venice Baroque Orchestra, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, 1-877-HIT-SHOW, nortoncenter.com 21-28 The Places We Live Exhibit, Morlan Gallery, Transylvania University, Lexington, through March 29, transy.edu

March

1 The Grapes of Wrath, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org 1 The Ugly Duckling, Lancaster Grand Theatre, Lancaster, (859) 583-1716, lancastergrand.com 4 PB&J Series: Music Builds a Beat! Lexington Hearing & Speech Center, Lexington, lexphil.org 4-6 Blue Grass Trust Antiques and Garden Show, Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington, bgtantiquesandgardenshow.org 9 What’s Going On – The Marvin Gaye Experience, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org 9 The Ginger Bread Lady, Carriage House Theatre, Lexington, studioplayers.org 10 The Other Mozart, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, 1-877-HIT-SHOW, nortoncenter.com 10-12 Lexington Comic and Toy Convention, Lexington Center, lexingtoncomiccon.com

11 St. Patrick’s Parade and Festival, downtown Lexington, lexingtonstpatsparade.org 11 La Traviata, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org 12 Odd Squad Live! Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, 1-877-HIT-SHOW, nortoncenter.com

Louisville Region

February

1-11 Funny Girl, The J – Jewish Community Center, Louisville, (502) 459-0660, CenterStageJCC.org 2-5 Baltimore, presented by the UofL Theatre Arts, Thrust Theatre, Louisville, (502) 852-7682, louisville.edu 4 Louisville Orchestra, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, also Feb. 25, (502) 587-8681, KentuckyCenter.org 4 John Lennon and Me, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 584-7777, KentuckyCenter.org 9-11 Kosair Shrine Circus, Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, Louisville, (502) 585-5497, kosaircircus.com 10 2nd Friday Bluegrass Jam, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough, also March 10, (270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov 10-12 Sondheim Company, Hardin County Playhouse, Elizabethtown, also Feb. 16-19, (270) 351-0577, hardincountyplayhouse.com 10-12 Sweethearts Weekend, Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls Of Rough,

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

59

CALENDAR

Let’s Go

(270) 257-2311, parks.ky.gov

11 Beautiful Dreamer Ball, Kreso’s Restaurant, Bardstown, (502) 348-5971, stephenfoster.com 14 Musique Romantique, The Seelbach Hilton, Louisville, (502) 968-6300, LouisvilleChorus.org 14-18 Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 584-7777, KentuckyCenter.org 16 Compassion & Cooking Breakfast, Noosh Nosh, Louisville, (502) 690-6585, nooshnosh.com 18 Newsies, presented by StageOne, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 584-7777, KentuckyCenter.org

3 Bourbon Classic Cocktail & Culinary Challenge, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 583-4555, KentuckyCenter.org 9-19 The Nance, Henry Clay Theatre, Louisville, (502) 216-5502, PandoraProds.org 11 Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen, Louisville Palace, (502) 883-5774, LouisvillePalace.com 14 The Illusionists, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louisville, (502) 583-4555, KentuckyCenter.org

23 Sex, Death, and Falconry, Ekstrom Library, Louisville, (502) 852-8977, louisville.edu 24-26 In the Rest Room at Rosenblooms, Shelby County Community Theatre, Shelbyville, also March 3-5, (502) 633-0222, shelbytheatre.org 25 Brantley Gilbert, KFC YUM! Center, Louisville, (502) 690-9000, kfcyumcenter.com 25 Here Come the Mummies, Mercury Ballroom, Louisville, (502) 583-4555, mercuryballroom.com 26 Louisville’s Got Talent, The J – Jewish Community Center, Louisville, (502) 459-0660, CenterStageJCC.org March Ongoing Humana Festival of New American Plays, Actors Theatre, Louisville, through April 8, (502) 584-1205, actorstheatre.org March

1-4 Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike, Thrust Theatre, Louisville, (502) 852-7682, louisville.edu

60

March

4 The Magic Flute, Kenton County Public Library, Covington, kcpl.org 10-31 The Nothing That Is: A Drawing Show in 5 Parts, Carnegie Visual Arts Center, Covington, through April 4, (859) 957-1940, thecarnegie.com

Western Region

Northern Region February

18 Wild Kratts Live! Louisville Palace, Louisville, (502) 883-5774, LouisvillePalace.com 20 The Taste of 502, The Seelbach Hilton, Louisville, (502) 266-7427, 502Foodie.com

Visual Arts Center, Covington, (859) 957-1940, thecarnegie.com

February

3-5 The Buffalo & The General Winter Photo Workshop, General Butler State Resort Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov 11 Perfect Harmony Dinner/ Dance Theatre, General Butler State Resort Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov 11 Team Karaoke Challenge, Carnegie Visual Arts Center, Covington, (859) 957-1940, thecarnegie.com 12 P’s in a Pod, Boone County Public Library, Florence, bcpl.org 16 All Shook Up, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, nku.edu

1-8 Is That an Audubon? exhibit, John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, (270) 827-1893, parks.ky.gov 3 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – 50 Years of Dirt, Glema Mahr Center for the Arts, Madisonville, (270) 821-2787, glemacenter.org 3-5 Kentucky Sportsman’s Show, Owensboro Convention Center, Owensboro, (270) 6878800, kysportsmanshow.com 3-5 A Visit with the Eagles Weekend, Kenlake State Resort Park, Hardin, (270) 474-2211, parks.ky.gov 4 Buffalo Night, Barren River Lake State Resort Park, Lucas, also March 4, (270) 646-2151, parks.ky.gov

16-19 Agnes of God, Washington Opera House, Maysville, (606) 564-3666, maysvilleplayers.net

4 First Day Hike: Monthly Hiking Series, Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, Dawson Springs, also March 4, (270) 797-3421, parks.ky.gov

17 Jump ’n’ Jive Big Band, Boone County Public Library, Burlington, bcpl.org

4 Lynyrd Skynyrd, Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org

21 Kentucky Gathers Dulcimer Group, General Butler State Resort Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov

9 A Year With Frog and Toad, Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org

23-24 Art of Food, Carnegie

9-25 Love, Loss and What I

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

Wore, Theater Workshop of Owensboro, (270) 683-5003, theatreworkshop.org

10-11 Bull Blowout Rodeo, Murray State University, Murray, murraystate.edu 11 Brunch with the Eagles, Kenlake State Resort Park, Hardin, (270) 474-2211, parks.ky.gov 11 2nd Saturday Hike Winter Tree ID, Lake Barkley State Resort Park, Cadiz, (270) 924-1131, parks.ky.gov 11 Sweetheart Dance, Lake Barkley State Resort Park, Cadiz, (270) 924-1131, parks.ky.gov 11-12 Valentine’s Getaway, Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, Dawson Springs, 1-800-325-1711, parks.ky.gov 16 Vocal Trash, Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org 16 Scotty McCreery, Glema Mahr Center for the Arts, Madisonville, (270) 821-2787, glemacenter.org 18 Owensboro Rotary Bourbon Ball, Hines Center, Philpot, (270) 883-1792, facebook.com/Owensbororotary 18 Paducah Symphony Orchestra, Carson Center, Paducah, also March 11, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org 18-19 Discover the Dinosaurs Unleashed, Owensboro Convention Center, Owensboro, (270) 687-8800, owensborocenter.com 19 42nd Street, Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org 22 Michael Bolton, Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org 23 Pinkalicious, Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org 23-25 The Marvelous Wonderettes, RiverPark Center, Owensboro, (270) 687-2787, backalleymusicals.net

25-28 Owensboro Art Guild Juried Exhibition, Owensboro Museum of Fine Art, through April 14, (270) 993-3671, owensboroartguild.org 26-28 March Madness Exhibit, John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, through April 9, (270) 827-1893, parks.ky.gov March

Barbecue, Bourbon & Bluegrass Owensboro, Kentucky

4 Sandi Patty Farewell Concert, Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org 5 Artrageous, Clemens Fine Arts Center, Paducah, (270) 534-3212, artsinfocus.org 9-12 Scrapbooking Weekend, Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, Dawson Springs, (270) 797-3421, parks.ky.gov 12 Rent! Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org

Southern Region

oztylerdistillery.com February

10-12 Lone Star Championship Rodeo, WKU Agricultural Expo Center, Bowling Green, (270) 269-2363, lonestarrodeocompany.com 11 Melissa Manchester, SKyPAC, Bowling Green, (270) 904-1880, theskypac.com 11-12 Sweetheart Night, Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park, Burkesville, (270) 433-7431, parks.ky.gov 13-18 Backward & Forward – 20th Century Quilts Exhibit, Kentucky Museum, Bowling Green, (270) 745-2592, wku.edu/kentuckymuseum 18 God Save the Queen, SKyPAC, Bowling Green, (270) 904-1880, theskypac.com 20 A Tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber, SKyPAC, Bowling Green, (270) 904-1880, theskypac.com March

3 Burlesque to Broadway, SKyPAC, Bowling Green, (270) 904-1880, theskypac.com 11 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, SKyPAC, Bowling Green, (270) 904-1880, theskypac.com

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

61

CALENDAR

Let’s Go Eastern Region

Educating the new network of care The modern healthcare system relies on a diverse network of professionals. Spencerian will help you discover which program works for you. And to get our students into the heart of the medical industry, we will be moving to a new location this year.

February

3 Steep Canyon Rangers, Mountain Arts Center, Prestonsburg, (606) 886-2623, macarts.com 4 Dancing With Our Stars, Boyd County Community Center, (606) 329-8888, highlandsmuseum.com 10-12 Valentine’s Celebrations, Carter Caves State Resort Park, Olive Hill, (606) 2864411 and Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, Corbin, (606) 528-4121, parks.ky.gov 16-25 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jenny Wiley Mainstage, Pikeville, (606) 886-9274, jwtheatre.com

502-447-1000 | spencerian.edu Spencerian College is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools to award certificates, diplomas, associate and bachelor’s degrees. For more information about program successes in graduation rates, placement rates and occupations, please visit spencerian.edu/programsuccess.

R

THEATRE Frankfort, KY www.grandtheatrefrankfort.org Ticket Office: 312 W. Main St M-F 10am-3pm Box Office: 308 St. Clair St.

National Players “The Grapes of Wrath” Mar. 1 Johnny Peers & The Muttville Comix Apr. 13

Music of the Carpenters February 10 rience Marvin Gaye Expe March 9

20 Travis Tritt, Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center, Pikeville, (606) 444-5500, eastkyexpo.com 24 Southern MuskyFEST, Morehead Conference Center, Morehead, (606) 780-4342, southernmuskyfest.com

3-18 Peter and the Starcatcher, Jenny Wiley Mainstage, Pikeville, (606) 886-9274, jwtheatre.com

Paul Thorn Band April 28

www.grandtheatrefrankfort.org K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

19 Annie, Paramount Center for the Arts, Ashland, (423) 274-8920, paramountartscenter.com

March

50 2.3 52 . 74 69

62

18 Comedian Bill Engval, Mountain Arts Center, Prestonsburg, (606) 886-2623, macarts.com 18 Scotty McCreery, Paramount Center for the Arts, Ashland, (423) 274-8920, paramountartscenter.com

G A N D

16-26 To Kill a Mockingbird, presented by Artists Collaborative Theatre, Elkhorn City, also March 9-19, (606) 432-5063, act4.org

4 Winter Sunrise Elk Watch, Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park, Buckhorn, (606) 3987510, parks.ky.gov

For additional Calendar items or to submit an event, please visit kentuckymonthly.com. Submissions must be sent at least 90 days prior to the event.

MARKETPLACE

Frankfort’s Fishing Reels Jewels of the Bluegrass Exhibit Capital City Museum

325 Ann Street • Frankfort, Ky. 502-696-0607 Exhibit open until October 15 Monday-Saturday 10-4 Admission Free Baitcasting reels were perfected and handcrafted in quantity in Frankfort.

Come see a collection of these gems.

VOICES

Vested Interest

Famous Faces W

e have a game in our family. Maybe I should say I have a game. If I see someone who looks like someone else, I just go with it. It drives my children nuts.

Actually, in all fairness, most everything I do drives my children nuts.

“Why do you insist on speaking to everyone?” Sydney, my youngest daughter, often asks.

“What’s wrong with being friendly?” I ask.

“Everything,” she answers. “These people don’t know you. You always told us not to talk to strangers, and here you are talking to anyone and everyone. Give it a rest.”

•••

include McClanahan, Mark Harmon from NCIS, William Sanderson (best known as Larry, as in “I’m Larry; this is my brother, Darryl, and this is my other brother, Darryl”) and Jonathan Harris, whom older STEPHEN M. VEST folks will remember as Dr. Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Zachary Smith from the 1960s sci-fi program Lost in Space.

The first time I saw Dr. Smith, I was sure that it was my vivid imagination playing tricks on me. I was working weekends at the Convenient Food Mart near the intersection of Shelbyville Road and Hurstbourne Lane in Louisville. With all the flamboyance he was known for in his acting career, he shouted over the potato chip racks from the beer aisle, “Damn it, man, don’t tell me you’re out of Heineken again … No, never mind; here it is.”

On his second or third similar weekend beer run, I mustered the courage to stammer, “You’re, you’re Dr. Smith.”

“Yes, yes, I am, my fine boy.”

It turns out Harris’ son, Richard, lived in the nearby Vieux Carre townhomes. I wasn’t much of a conversationalist then, so each time he came in, I would stammer again, “You’re, you’re Dr. Smith.” Each time, he would respond, “Yes. Yes, I am.”

Most of the time, when we think someone looks like someone else, it remains secret. While we may think a person looks like someone famous or someone from our neighborhood or church, it is just a reference point between us. It makes long waits in crowded airports much more tolerable. “Hey look, MaryLou is getting another cup of coffee,” or “Dan has mustard on his sweater.”

Occasionally, it sneaks out. Example: We were headed into Rookie’s Restaurant in Henderson once when a robust man with a white beard was exiting. As I held the door for him, I said, “I know many people think The Old Man and the Sea is your best work, but I prefer Hills Like White Elephants for its simplicity. And For Whom the Bell Tolls is your best novel.”

••• “Well, thank you,” said the man My wife’s famous encounters are with a wink. much more legendary. She was once hit The actor Jon Lovitz, actually not Steve Vest Katy, my eldest daughter, was quick on by the guy from the 1980s Dr. Pepper to point out, “Dad, you do know that’s commercials. (“Wouldn’t you like to be not Ernest Hemingway, right?” a Pepper, too?”) She was hugged and kissed by George “Of course I do, Katy. Hemingway died before I was Clooney. And she was literally picked up (over his head) by born, but he [the stranger] got the joke and played along. I the 6-foot-7, 300-pound professional wrestler Hillbilly Jim, think he thought it was funny.” first in Bowling Green’s Lost River Cave Pizza and again at “No,” said Katy. “I think he said, ‘Thank you’ so you’d Frankfort’s Office Pub and Deli. “I bet many a man has move along. I’m pretty sure he thought you were delusional.” tried to pick you up, li’l darlin’, but few have succeeded the “Come on, Katy. I didn’t mention his cats. That would way I have,” said blue-eyed Jim Morris through his full have been screwy.” beard, with a wink.

••• Jim, the subject of a new book by Bowling Green’s Gary While I see my daughter’s point, I’m not annoyed when P. West, can’t go 15 feet without someone stopping and people talk to me as if I’m actually Jon Lovitz. With his saying, “You’re, you’re Hillbilly Jim.” He always smiles. recent appearance on The New Apprentice, it happens more “Yes. Yes, I am.” often than you might think.

••• ••• As annoying as Sydney finds my behavior, I must be More than 30 years ago, the legendary Ed McClanahan rubbing off on her. The other day at Thai Smile, Frankfort’s (one of the most famous Kentuckians I have ever known) famous Asian restaurant, when I said hello to Stephanie wrote a book called Famous People I Have Known about the Jackson West, whom I’ve known since she was Sydney’s cast of characters he had met during his years of age, Syd said, “Dad, you actually know Rachel from Friends?” wanderings. They included Jimmy Sacca from the 1950s I’m not delusional enough to think Stephanie is Jennifer music group The Hilltoppers; Ken Kesey, who wrote One Aniston, but I responded correctly when I said, “Yes. Yes, Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; and Carlos Toadvine (aka Little I do.”

Enis), the All-American Left-Handed Upside-down Guitar Player.

Readers, and those looking for a speaker for a church or civic group, If I were to write a similar book, my collection would may contact Stephen M. Vest at steve@kentuckymonthly.com FEBRUARY KWIZ ANSWERS: 1. C. 1673; 2. A. 1818; 3. C. 7,917; 4. B. Robertson; 5. B. Harley Davidson; 6. C. Olive Hill (Tom T. Hall’s hometown); 7. C. Henderson; 8. C. Italians; 9. B. Alabama Gov. George Wallace; 10. C. A muffler spark

64

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

CCvin's of BBdsttn invites yy to visit r new Fllsteel studio.

"Crafting furniture is like cooking: the better the ingredients you use, the better the finished result. Flexsteel takes great care in selecting all the materials they use in building their furniture. Their exclusive, lifetime-guaranteed blue steel seat spring design has been delivering unmatched comfort and durability since 1927."

-Flexsteel

LLking to Build

Re-deccate?

Corvin's of Bardstown prides itself with having a friendly and knowledgeable staff that is always ready to help with all of your flooring and furniture needs!

Whether you're changing one room or whole home or business, make Corvin's your destination where the options and possibilities are endless!

"Flooring covers the world. In every space conceived and built by men and women, around the world, wherever we live, flooring provides inspiration, comfort and safety. It protects health and well-being, and helps people lead better and happier lives."

- Tarkett Flooring

CRAFTSMANSHIP Bringing Artistry and Durability Together in Metal Roofing

Can a roof really exhibit craftsmanship? After all, its first purpose is its function—to keep what’s under it protected and dry. And yes, there are certain steps and practices you have to follow in order to do that correctly. But beyond that, if a roof can be installed in a way that not only does its job but also looks beautiful, and if that beauty comes from steps that the installers take—from conscious choices to make the roof look beautiful, as well as long-lasting and durable—then you’ve got a result that is a form of artistry. And that is craftsmanship. Our installers can look at a Classic Metal Roof when they’re finished and take pride in their part in its creation—and so can you.

Discover why more people are choosing metal

Visit ClassicKY.com or Call 877-960-7663