By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
It’s still early before the holiday season, but it might be interesting to imagine what gift-wrapped items Kentuckians might appreciate finding under their trees on Christmas morning.
• Harold Rainwater, the founder, and director of the Asbury University Equine Center, in Wilmore, might like to see boxes of chocolates at Christmas for all his hard-working students who have trained mounted police horses for work all over the country. Two of the horses, Emmitt and Kaiser, were a part of the recent tribute service for Rosalynn Carter in Atlanta.
Two police horses at the recent Rosalynn Carter tribute service trained by Asbury Equine Training Center students Kristen Ippilito, Libby Vandervennet and Olivia Schnorbus. (Photo courtesy of Harold Rainwater)
• University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari might like to find a Reed Shepherd stuffed animal to keep at his bedside—reminding him that he finally has a reliable shooter on his team.
• The state’s teachers might like to find under their trees an effective antidote for politicians who portray teachers as reckless advocates of poisonous, “woke-infested” curriculum. Most teachers I know want their students to learn to read, do math, and develop a zest for learning—and for their students to behave themselves. Just that simple.
• Governor Andy Beshear might like to receive a box of pixie dust to spread over his and the heads of the Kentucky General Assembly to insure, at least, a modicum of bi-partisan cooperation.
• Kentucky’s farmers might like to find a package of ideas for profitability stretching beyond the age of tobacco production.
• The Kentucky History Center, in Frankfort, might want to find a giant box of out-of-state visitors to come to their location and educate themselves about a state having much to offer.
• Kentuckians might like finding a special book under the tree—a biography of the afore-mentioned and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter to read about what servant leadership looks like.
• UK football coach Mark Stoops might like to be gifted a rabbit’s foot or other good luck charm to extend his good luck playing Louisville toward winning more games against SEC teams.
• Travelers of the Bluegrass might like to find under their tree a map showing three of the prettier road routes in Kentucky: US 60 between Versailles and Frankfort, US 27 between Lexington and Paris, and Old Frankfort Pike from Lexington to Frankfort. Scenic rides in any season!
• I might like to find a box of seeds under my tree that grow up to look just like my neighbor’s beautiful Mexican sunflowers.
• Rural Kentuckians, in particular, might like to receive for Christmas a copy of a wonderful storyteller’s new book, The Back Page: Byron Crawford’s Kentucky Living Columns. It’s folksy and easy to read, and it demonstrates Crawford’s love of the state he has traversed many times, sharing the “little” stories that make up the fabric of the Commonwealth. It is published by Kentucky Electric Cooperatives and distributed by Butler Books.
• A collection of family stories, in book or similar form, might be a welcome gift to many Kentuckians. It might take some friendly cajoling of someone in your clan to put it together, or maybe it’s YOU. For help, I’d recommend connecting with the Carnegie Literacy Center in Lexington to see if they might have a class or mentor to make it happen.
• Bardstown, Danville, Bardstown, and Stanford. What Kentucky-lover wouldn’t want to spend a leisurely day visiting one of the three relatively small towns just west of the center part of the state, each with a quaint and homey feel, replete with good restaurants, good shops, and friendly people? You might want to receive a gas card that covers the cost of travel—but it’s not that much. The distance between the towns is relatively short, but after consulting with my wife, I’ll recommend visiting each on separate days in order to savor the experiences. Each town has a good web site for guidance in your itinerary, or just take my word for it—go!
And the best gift we can all give is our Kentucky best to each other. . . and let’s not keep it hidden under the Christmas tree too long.
For those Northern Kentuckians who enjoy wine and like to drink it in a serene place out in the country, you might visit Dennis and Bonnie Walter’s StoneBrook Winery near Camp Springs, not far from Melbourne. Though winemaking has been a more contemporary enterprise for the couple, the farm has been in the Walter family since the mid-1800s. The Walters are a friendly, down-to-earth couple, and you’ll be greeted by an outdoor model train running briskly near the front door. As for the product, wine, it’s amazing what can be produced on the hillsides of a place in Campbell County some ten miles southeast of Cincinnati.
