Steve Flairty grew up feeling good about Kentucky. He recalls childhood day trips (and sometimes overnight ones) orchestrated by his father, with the take-off points in Campbell County. The people and places he encountered then help define his passion about the state. After teaching 28 years, Steve spends much of his time today writing and reading about the state, and still enjoys doing those one dayers (and sometimes overnighters). “Kentucky by Heart” shares part and parcel of his joy. A little history, much contemporary life, intriguing places, personal experiences, special people, book reviews, quotes and even a little humor will, hopefully, help readers connect with their own “inner Kentucky.”
By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
When my younger brother, Mike, and I were small boys growing up in the tiny Northern Kentucky communities of Grant’s Lick, and later Claryville, my father insisted that our family’s short vacation trips focus on traveling our state.
Probably cost had something to do with it, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t all. Dad had a positive feel for Kentucky, especially the rural parts and rural people. I could sense it.
On those trips, Mom would fix sandwiches, usually bologna or ham, along with macaroni salad, along with sweet iced tea, all carried in a Styrofoam container in the back seat behind Dad, the driver. Most of the time, we’d do the overnights by sleeping in our Ford Galaxie station wagon rather than paying for motels. The nights could get pretty hot, but we were tired from traveling. That said, I remember resting pretty well on that flat, spongy material inside the back of the car that Dad salvaged from somewhere.
The whole idea of those “little” trips was fine with me; I didn’t long for anything much fancier because the trips rescued me, for short periods, from time working in the family’s tobacco crop. For little “Stevie,” that was a sore spot. Except for a few things, like burning tobacco beds or throwing used-up tobacco stalks off a wagon and making them stick upright in the soft ground, working in burley was a dreaded curse for me.
But I digress.
Dad, before he married Mom and had his two-year hitch in the Marine Corps, worked for the Highland Construction Co. paving roads throughout Kentucky. That included isolated parts of Eastern Kentucky and the wide open areas of the Pennyroyal in the western section, along with his native Bluegrass area and also southward towards the Tennessee border. I could always tell he had worked pretty hard on that job. But also during his time with Highland, he most assuredly developed a real liking for the land he saw and the people he came to know.
Later, my father took a job driving a truck for Clover Leaf Dairy, a wholesale ice cream company in Fort Thomas. He never lost his deep-seated sense of place, Kentucky-style, though. On our trips, Dad educated Mom, Mike and me about the places we visited and always told of his friends he’d made.
Sometimes, we’d even take the time to search for his old friends by going off on the main roads.
I admired Dad because I thought he was an expert on Kentucky–probably because he was—he being experienced with the geography, people and all. Dad seemed to know how to get to places without much trouble, and I loved to follow along on his road maps while he drove. Mike tended to sleep. Mom and Dad talked a lot with each other.
But however you might say it, my early years were done in a Kentucky way…and as family.
Perhaps not surprisingly, after a career as a public school teacher and now a nonfiction writer of Kentucky stories, my love for the Bluegrass state remains strong, a downright passion. Just check out my collection of over 500 Kentucky-based books, including the six I wrote. Listen in on some of my conversations, or peruse my house décor, Kentucky motif…or listen to my defensive responses when people outside the state act condescendingly toward our way of life here.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe all Kentuckians are saints. That’s why I write a book series about the state’s heroes—and not all citizens are heroes. We have some sore aspects in Kentucky to deal with, also. Certainly, our state has problems that all of us need to tackle vigorously: health-related concerns, our economy, education and threats to our environment.
Those are just a few.
But even with the challenges, there are a whole lot of us long-timers who appreciate the deep sense of place and shared roots in this intriguing place where Daniel Boone brought his followers. And, if one is a recent transplant, I believe that given some time, that individual will embrace the specialness, too. It’s a sort of growing by faith and knowledge thing, you might characterize it.
I call it Kentucky by Heart.
I’ve listed 10 of my all-time favorite Kentucky nonfiction books (about Kentucky or by a Kentucky author). I must say that the list is quite arbitrary, and it will likely draw some respectful questioning from my readers, and maybe even some strong-minded arguing, and that’s fine.
Hopefully the list will also serve as helpful jumping off places for future KBH columns and to better examine the state’s fabric, which is a pretty broad term.
Generations, John Egerton
Joe Creason’s Kentucky/Crossroads and Coffee Trees
Night Comes to the Cumberlands, Harry Caudill
Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
Trapped, Murray and Brucker
The Bluegrass Conspiracy, Sandy Denton
Citizenship Papers, Wendell Berry
The Kentucky Encyclopedia
A Literary History of Kentucky, William Ward
Wild Ride, Ann Hagedorn Auerbach
Dale Faughn felt like sharing some sage advice with me on a summer day at his home several years ago, so he talked to me about the proverbial “turtle sitting on a fencepost.” Faughn is a near 90-year-old former teacher from Fredonia who won numerous awards in his 60-year career in education, including induction in 1998 to the National Teachers Hall of Fame. He also was one of three Kentucky poets laureate named in 1986. A lover of his community, he was recognized for being a blood donor for giving 25 gallons of blood from his 135-pound body.
“You can know it did not get there by itself,” he said, reflecting on his high level of success at his profession, but knowing he had lots of help along the way.
The couple of hours I spent with Faughn for the book I was writing have provided a wealth of stories I’ve shared in various speaking venues, but the turtle metaphor probably best exemplifies the gentleman’s abiding sense of gratitude.
I think about the man’s words frequently whenever I hear someone brag that he pulled himself “up by my own bootstraps.”
Well, maybe so, to a point. Doing consistently well in endeavors doesn’t simply fall in one’s lap, a free gift. But hard work aside, the common and tired phrase needs to be retooled to fit reality, I believe. Others help us along the way, often crucially.
For the modest success I’ve had as a teacher, speaker and writer, I freely admit the good fortune has as much, probably more, to do with “angels” around me than my talents and dedication. Kentucky angels, I might add.
Northern Kentucky native Steve Flairty is a teacher, public speaker and an author of five books: a biography of Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and four in the Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes series, including a kids’ version. He is currently working on “Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #4,” due to be released in spring 2015. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Monthly, a weekly KyForward columnist and a member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. Read his KyForward columns for excerpts from all his books. Contact him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or visit his Facebook page, “Kentucky in Common: Word Sketches in Tribute.” (Steve’s photo by Connie McDonald)