Went up to see Butcher Holler, and Loretta's brother was up there doing a tour, but the road was actually cut off, so I couldn't get up there. Spent a pleasant afternoon chatting with her niece and nephew in her brother's store and then headed up to Liberty KY, followed by Paris KY (which was neat because my wife's name is Paris) and then Albany KY (having grown up near Albany NY, I also collect Albanys) and then to Nashville, and then back home. I was a technical trainer teaching the new voting machines and was really enjoying the travel. Went back to KY and TN a couple of more times. And the Johnson County Clerk, in Paintsville, liked my presentation and knowledge so much that she requested I be sent back to assist them at election time, but my company had pulled me off the road in a contract dispute.Oldgringo wrote:You've got the (Snuffy Smith) picture. Harlan and Hazard used to be pretty rough coal mining areas in far eastern Kentucky (sung about by Flatt and Scruggs). For that matter, prior to completion of I-40 there were areas; e.g., Cosby, in east Tennessee that were not for 'flatlanders'.jimlongley wrote:Trying to figure where Harlan and Hazard comes in to Hatfield and McCoy, which occurred along the Tug river, the eventual border between Kentucky and West Virginia.Oldgringo wrote:1. A wife really needs to know how to cook eggs - even if she is your first cousin.
2. Rural east Kentucky as in:
a. Hatfields vs McCoys as in,
b. Harlan and Hazard as in,
c. way off the beaten path.
I taught a class in Paintsville KY a few years back and had people in my class related to both families, and a couple of Loretta Lynn's cousins. Fun class: One of the election officials I was teaching the new equipment to had not spoken to another in something like 30 years, one was a Democrat and the other a Republican, cousins to each other, and one a Hatfield and the other a McCoy. I made the mistake of pairing them off (randomly) to operate some of the equipment. Thankfully the County Clerk, one of Loretta Lynn's cousins, clued me in and I corrected the error.
I cook the eggs in my house, my wife destroys them.
WV is another story - or was when I was Chief Field Engineer on a coal-fired power plant project on Mt. Storm, WV, circa 1971-72.
Aah, those were the days, weren't they? I didn't need a CHL back then, I was exceedingly handsome and fit, extremely intelligent and bullet proof. Thanks for the memories. {SIGH}
I don't know what my home company would have done if they found out I was carrying, they hired me specifically to go on the road to teach and although they had language in the employee manual about not bringing a "dangerous weapon" into the office, they contracted with the voting machine company to provide me, and I never went to the office.
BTW, my GPS got lost several times while I was touring KY and TN.