By Steve Flairty
KyForward columnist
When Rich Dailey talks about what he likes about his adopted state of Kentucky, it sounds like he sees the place as somewhat of a pleasant sanctuary.
“Silence and solitude are certainly not unique to Kentucky,” said Dailey, “but they are the first two qualities that I experienced after I moved from a noisy suburb of Akron, Ohio, to the stillness of a cabin on Dale Hollow Lake in 1982.”
You might even call Dailey a shade “touchy feely” about his Bluegrass experience.
“It seemed such a tactile thing, and it made an impression on me,” he continued. “There are so many quiet places to escape to in Kentucky, and I’ve never lost sight of that fact. Today, Cindy (his wife) and I are blessed to live in a rural part of Pulaski County, a place where it takes a dozen throws of a stone to reach the road from our porch. In this great Commonwealth, you don’t have to travel far to reach out and grab it with your hands.”
Dailey is one of the many who responded recently to my request to find out what people like most about the state of Kentucky. I directed the query to people who either were native to the state or who now live here, and most expressed, by their words, that they feel some real passion about the place called in the 1700s “a dark and bloody ground.”
The attractive landscapes were mentioned continually. Mary Jo Harrod, Nicholasville, called them “varied…mountains and flatlands, rivers and lakes.” Lexington resident Eric Fruge sounded poetic, saying: “Its mountains are a palate of exciting colors in autumn and its streams ripple with the solace of lazy summer waters.”
Two teachers at the Nicholasville Elementary School, Josh Logsdon and Cyndee Banta, like the natural wonders at the parks found here. Logsdon mentioned the Mammoth Caves and Banta praised Natural Bridge and the Red River Gorge, along with western Kentucky’s Land between the Lakes.
“I seriously never get tired of the breath-taking views that God gifted the state of Kentucky,” said Banta.
Saying she is “proud to be raised in the western part of the Bluegrass state by a coal miner mother,” Stephanie Brown noted that her mother “taught me to celebrate all four fantastic seasons by appreciating the beauty in the barges and birds in the summer as we swam in the Kentucky Lake, to watch the fall ball at Pennyrile Park as the lovely leaves lingered on the trees, and the lake served as a mirror for their beauty.”
Beauty, you say? There are plenty of other items that fit that category, according to Mt. Sterling resident Cynthia Wilson. Besides the land, she noted, there are “black fences and chestnut-colored horses in the fields…Corvettes and caves, baseball bats and bourbon, an American zoo and an Australian zoo (Kentucky Down Under), racetracks and railways…and, we have the Kentucky Wildcats.”
Lisa Dawson-Knight was raised on a commercial vegetable farm near Claryville, where I lived as a child. She noted that her “greatest pleasure and memory growing up in Kentucky on Pleasant Ridge Road was the sunset and sunrise. The most beautiful skies you’ll ever see.”
Another Claryville neighbor, Marian Woeste-Welch, remarked that her family lineage long ago includes those who moved from Cincinnati to northern Kentucky, which “felt more right for the Woestes,” where the “farm, clean air, hard work, (and) family Kentucky values helped form my five siblings’ work ethic,” she said. “Neighbors were important, lending a hand, trading (work), and lifting (each other) up. Kentucky still draws me back, offering literally everything the heart can yearn for in one state.”
Madison County circuit court clerk Darlene Snyder enjoys the country side roads she and her husband, Mike, take while riding their motorcycle and taking pictures of the scenery. Who wouldn’t enjoy the sights found along Poosey Ridge Road?
There’s an attraction that comes from the state’s abundance of good writers, too. Former Kentucky Book Fair director Connie Crowe, of Frankfort, worked closely with Carl West, nationally noted journalist who founded the KBF, and who was raised in Grants Lick, in Campbell County.
“I love living in Kentucky because of its rich literary tradition,” said Crowe, “from the lyrical historical narratives of Janice Holt Giles to the harsh spotlight thrown on Appalachia under Harry Caudill’s works to the pragmatic and illuminating work of Wendell Berry.”
A Cynthiana herbalist, Melinda Boyer, noted that Kentucky is “chock full of plants and animals now gone in other states,” and Aimee Lamb, a Georgetown dental hygienist, likes the “yummy recipes handed down from generation to generation (including sweets, she said, ‘in moderation’).”
I like to muse about the sizeable number of “everyday heroes” in the state whom I’ve had the opportunity to write about in my book series. Two of them, Roy Pullam and Josh Nadzam (as is the already mentioned Darlene Snyder), appreciates what they recognize in their fellow Kentuckians, too.
“There is still a kindness in the people of Kentucky,” Pullam said, “in an era when it is said that eyes are turning away from the legitimate needs of individuals.
“A classic example of this is (that) in five years in Henderson, three people have given kidneys to complete strangers way down upon the transplant list. There is a true gravitas in giving another life to a father that will now see his children grow to be adults.”
Pullam, as I wrote in 2008 in the second volume of Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes, overcame a childhood lived in extreme poverty to influence thousands positively through his sponsorship of the Junior Optimist Club as a middle school teacher in Henderson. Today, along with decrying the negative stereotypes often heard about those in the Bluegrass State, Pullam submits: “I found such a beauty in the prose of Kentucky lives.”
Josh Nadzam matriculated from near Pennsylvania to the University of Kentucky and won both academic and athletic awards after a difficult childhood living in the projects, where he saw drug abuse happening all around him, and saw many of his friends die. He appreciates the fact that he was “given a chance to have a chance” by a track coach at UK, and he sees other Kentuckians acting in the same positive vein.
Stating that people northward tend to live a more hurried life, he remarked: “In Kentucky, people take their time to talk to you and seem to genuinely care about your well-being. This is just a great place!”
Beth Underwood remembers the folksy times she experienced going with her physician father on house calls in Cynthiana in the ’60s and ’70s.
“It wasn’t unheard of for payment to come in the form of a fresh-baked pie, vegetables fresh from the garden, or even turtle soup,” she said. “Although much has changed since then, I think Kentuckians still regard each other with a true sense of compassion and caring.”
My friend Susie Bullock works out her passion for Kentucky through her position as a philanthropy officer for Christian Appalachian Project (CAP), a private service organization that helps thousands of poor and vulnerable people in Kentucky, as well as other mountainous states in the region. She expressed eloquently—in a jocular tone but powerfully messaged—what she most appreciates about the Commonwealth:
“Sweetie pie, it’s the people. We’re real, we’re proud, and we stick together. We’ve become accustomed to the ignorant from all parts of the world picking on and making fun of us. We say in our most concerned tone, ‘Bless your heart, honey. If you were half as smart as you think you are, you would know not to judge a person’s intellect by his or her dialect.’
“Then we go back to what we were doing. I travel frequently. When I meet a fellow Kentuckian in an airport or restaurant, we don’t try to figure out what drew us together in that moment and what compels us to inquire which of the Commonwealth’s 120 counties is home and whether we know any of each other’s relatives. It’s what Kentuckians do. I love that about us.”
I agree with Susie. I like to call what she says being real “Kentucky by Heart.”
Steve Flairty is a teacher, public speaker and an author of six books: a biography of former Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and five in the Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes series, including a kids’ version. Steve’s “Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #4,” was released in 2015. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Monthly, a weekly NKyTribune columnist and a member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. Contact him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or visit his Facebook page, “Kentucky in Common: Word Sketches in Tribute.” (Steve’s photo by Connie McDonald)