Showing posts with label La Center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label La Center. Show all posts

Monday, April 8, 2019

Oh, Kentucky

If you want to get your week off to a depressing start, check out Thomas Capps's (excellent) report for Channel 6 on the runaround that sick former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers are getting from the U.S. Department of Labor and its Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program.

For the moment, at least, what is said to be Kentucky's oldest continuously running fair is no more.

Bad jobs news from Elizabethtown and Raceland. Good from Leitchfield. Hiring in Hardin (I love The Brass Lantern).

I've talked before about the fantastic meeting coverage in today's journalism. Well, I'm not sure that anyone does it consistently any better than Michael Monks in The River City News. His blow-by-blow from a Bromley city-council meeting reads like a freaking Dragnet:

"Effectively at 6:45 tonight, Ludlow is going to make the next fire run?," Chief Keller asked.

"As soon as I call them," Mayor Denham said. "I'll call them shortly when I get done with this."

"OK," the chief said, with a laugh.

Just fantastic.


Spring break is over at Kentucky's public schools, and The Courier-Journal has the 411 to bring your tan-and-fine self back up to Louisville-and-environs speed.

Bowling Green's Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science has selected the high-school sophomores who would make up its Class of 2021, and they hail from 54 of Kentucky's counties. Over its 11 years, Gatton has invited students from all but three Kentucky counties. 

Groundbreaking is set for tomorrow for the Henderson County Public Library expansion ("light refreshments"!).

What's next for 112 W. Broadway in Mayfield?

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Oh, Kentucky


Some more from the Gimlet Edmonson News in Brownsville: "The new location of Jacob’s Home Furnishings opened with a steady stream of customers all day. With tears in his eyes Jeff Jacobs thanked everyone for their support over the years for their businesses and family. 'We really appreciate it all more than you will know and we can’t say thank you enough by letting us work with what we dreamed of doing, we won’t let you down, we’ll take care of you when you do business with us.'"


Christmas parades: Owensboro, Nov. 17; Berea, Bowling Green, Cadiz, Lawrenceburg, Madisonville and Paducah, Dec. 1; Richmond, Dec. 7; Hopkinsville, Dec. 8, La Center, Dec. 15.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Rest In Peace, John W. Allen (1934 - 2018)

So when the Cuba Cubs won the Kentucky High School Athletic Association boys' basketball championship in 1952, they advanced to the state tournament by beating the Wickliffe Blue Tigers, 54-42, in the final of the First Region tournament at Murray College. Per (indispensable) Bob Mays, here were the scores leading up to that championship:

-- Symsonia Rough Riders 42, Brewers Redmen 38 (quarterfinals)
-- Cuba 74, Clinton Central Red Devils 39
-- Wickliffe 62, Bandana 47
-- Bardwell Indians 71, Sharpe Green Devils 58
-- Cuba 61, Symsonia 34 (semifinals)
-- Wickliffe 74, Bardwell 62

Wickliffe's first-round win over Bandana followed a 63-55 win over the same team in the District 2 tournament championship at Paducah Tilghman High. This was the "(l)ast year for Bandana, Barlow-Kevil, Ballard County, Blandville and Wickliffe (highs, as) they became known as Ballard Memorial the next year," per (again) (really, super) Bob Mays.

One of the players on the Bandana team was John W. Allen, a boy originally from Guthrie, all the way over in Todd County. And he must've been pretty good, because then he went on to play three seasons for the Paducah Junior College Indians (including one for future trail-blazing Vanderbilt University coach Roy Skinner). He completed his degree at East Texas State Teachers College, and then he moved back home to western Kentucky and coached the Ballard Memorial Bombers (it appears he might've been an assistant coach). 

By 1957, things were coming together for the consolidated Bombers of Ballard County. The team failed to win even a single Second District tournament game in its first four seasons of existence. In 1957, however, it played Tilghman to triple overtime before losing, 67-65, in the district final, and advanced to the semifinals in the First Region. Things were looking up in La Center.

But life happens. Back when he was in Texas, John W. Allen had met a woman, Wanda Boyd. In 1957, they married, and, that fall, John W. Allen began a 35-year career of coaching and teaching in Texas high schools. He never moved back. Mr. and Mrs. Allen had children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Texas, and he embraced the new teams of his adopted home--the Dallas Cowboys, launched in 1960, and Texas Rangers, arriving in 1971--while staying true to his old-standby University of Kentucky Wildcats.

Mr. Allen died a week ago today. He was 83. Rest in peace.


Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Oh, Kentucky

Christmas parades: Irvington and Owensboro, Nov. 18; Central City (Rep. Melinda Gibbons Prunty (R-Belton) was there), Nov. 19; Ashland, Nov. 21; Lebanon, Nov. 24; Brownsville and Danville, Nov. 25; Greenup, Nov. 28; Cumberland, London, Monticello and Richmond, Dec. 1; Arlington, Barbourville, Beaver Dam, Bowling Green, Cadiz, Corbin, Fordsville, Georgetown, Glasgow (things got contentious), Harlan, Hartford, Henderson, Lawrenceburg, Madisonville, Marion, Munfordville, Murray, Paducah, Somerset and Winchester, Dec. 2; Dawson Springs, Evarts and Nortonville (there, too), Dec. 3; Mount Sterling, Dec. 4; Lexington, Dec. 5; Bardstown, Dec. 7; Frankfort, Dec. 8; Augusta, Cave City, Edmonton ("Christmas Dreams Do Come True"), Elkton, Hanson, Hopkinsville, Paintsville, Salem and Whitesville ("One Team, One Family, One Holiday"), Dec. 9, and La Center (sixth-annual Ballard County parade) and Oak Grove, Dec. 16.

On JFK in the Jackson Purchase.

Anton International is expanding.


Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Oh, Kentucky


Christmas parades: Irvington and Owensboro, Nov. 18; Ashland, Nov. 21; Lebanon, Nov. 24; Brownsville and Danville, Nov. 25; Greenup, Nov. 28; Cumberland, London, Monticello and Richmond, Dec. 1; Arlington ("Around the Block"), Barbourville, Beaver Dam, Fordsville, Georgetown, Harlan, Hartford, Henderson, Lawrenceburg, Madisonville, Marion, Munfordville, Murray, Paducah ("Let It Glow, Let It Glow, Let It Glow"), Somerset and Winchester, Dec. 2; Dawson Springs and Evarts, Dec. 3; Mount Sterling, Dec. 4; Lexington, Dec. 5; Bardstown, Dec. 7; Frankfort, Dec. 8; Augusta, Cave City, Elkton, Hanson, Hopkinsville and Paintsville, Dec. 9, and La Center (donated canned goods and nonperishables go to the Ballard County Food Pantries) and Oak Grove, Dec. 16.

Kentucky is reportedly spending 15.8 percent less per public-school student than it was in 2008.

With about 40 percent of the state's regulations on combat sports rolled back, the WWE has returned to Kentucky for the first time in six years.

The Franklin-Simpson SKYCTC is doing something about Kentucky's CDL-driver shortage.

Rest in peace, Mr. Ausenbaugh, Western Kentucky State College attendee as an infant, Nebo Aces basketballer, one-time coal miner, journalist in Princeton and Russellville (and elsewhere), husband of former gift-shop manager for Barren River State Resort Park, and bonafide hall-of-famer. Barry Rose in Bowling Green's Daily News:

He probably wouldn’t have liked this analogy, but Ausenbaugh was the rock of a dream team of sorts on Western Kentucky University’s faculty that began in the mid-1970s under the direction of David B. Whitaker, head of the Department of Journalism.

In photojournalism, Jack Corn and Mike Morse created a nationally recognized program. In print, Bob Adams – or “Mr. A,” as we called him – taught the basics and shepherded the College Heights Herald staff. Jim Highland taught public affairs reporting and told us we could do practically anything.

Ausenbaugh, a former regional editor of The Courier-Journal, brought us back to reality and taught us how much we had to learn. To us, he knew everything about writing and editing, knew every Kentucky editor who might hire a young student for the summer and could throw in stories from his days at what he called the "Curious Jumble." He probably knew more Kentucky history and its towns than anyone in the History Department.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Oh, Kentucky



McDowell Elementary students are headed to Hi Hat. "Who wouldn’t be excited about a brand new school? And it’s going to be state-of-the-art. ... It’s going to be an awesome thing going to a school that can’t flood. It’s going to be hard, but change is good."

Kentucky for sale ("NEW YORK—Battling for the National Invitation Tournament Crown, three players are caught in ballet poses as Roger Hicks, left, of West Virginia University, shoots from far out in the court as Buck Sydnor, (77), and Don Ray, (96), both of West Kentucky State, reach vainly for the ball. West Virginia won, 47 to 45 in the closing seconds at Madison Square Garden March 25."):



The Paducah Sun is hiring in La Center and Kevil ("6 nights a week pay up to 1800 monthly"). And Page Trucking is hiring for “Local and Regional work out of Morgantown, KY and Bowling Green, KY (TOP PAYING JOBS $240-300 PER DAY)."

Bad jobs news from Coppers Creek, Debord and Lovely.

"The very day they put the tavern in," indispensible Gina Kinslow reports in the Glasgow Daily Times, the owners of Magaline's Antique Mall decided to sell their Cave City business of 25 years.


Monday, February 27, 2017

The Freakin' Weekend (1971)

After "Kentucky, February 27, 1971," I'm probably going to have a new No. 1, but here's my Jet Soul Brothers Top 20 this (freakin') weekend 1971:


Meanwhile, way down in Bowling Green on Feb. 27, 1971, ...


I'm looking forward to a happier trip than a couple of weeks ago to Murray ...


Hooray for TV ...



Less than a year now to Sapporo 1972 ...




I can't imagine how excited I would be if two guys from Muhlenberg County came on TV and opened a whole show reaching millions of homes with a song they wrote about Bowling Green! But that's exactly what happened Feb. 28, 1971, with the Everly Brothers' appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and it must've been just an absolutely thrilling moment for 8-year-old Ray Harper!

And I wonder if he watched the NBA game earlier that afternoon, too.


By the way, it's district-tournament time around Kentucky ...


Per the Tilghman Bell ...


Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Oh, Kentucky


"Not everyone gets a supportive family to go to during the holidays ..."

Here's how they harvest the pecans in Kevil.


Christmas parades: Owensboro, Nov. 19; Ashland, Nov. 22; Lebanon (still time to enter a float), Nov. 25; Sebree, Nov. 26; Bardstown, Dec. 1; Maysville, Monticello and Richmond, Dec. 2; ArlingtonBeaver Dam (I've got to check out this Ky. Wildflour Cakes place), Berea, Bowling Green, ClintonFrankfort, Glasgow, Harlan, Henderson, Madisonville, Manchester, Paris, Somerset and Winchester, Dec. 3; Boyce, Owenton and Schochoh, Dec. 4; Hickman and Lexington, Dec. 6, and Augusta, Cave City, Elkton, Hopkinsville (entry deadline extended), La CenterNicholasville and Pikeville, Dec. 10.


Somebody in or around Hoptown's getting coal in her or his stocking.





A Hazard homeless shelter needs more revenue if it's going to start staying open again during the day.


This week in Ballard County ...



Monday, May 2, 2016

Oh, Kentucky

Oh, how I love this road:



And, oh, how I love this terrain:




This, though, is unnerving.


Jenny Smith in Madisonville's Messenger delivers a thought-provoking and heart-wrenching feature on a 94-year-old local woman from Brooklyn whose family was poor enough in the Depression that her father came to her when she was 7 and asked her to give up a bracelet her godmother had given her, to be sold for money to buy food for the family. Man, that's rough.


Sam Neace with chilling news in The Hazard Herald: No. 1 on the Centers for Disease Control’s list of U.S. counties most vulnerable to soon developing an HIV and Hepatitis C epidemic is Kentucky’s Wolfe County. No. 3 is Breathitt County. No. 4 is Perry, and No. 5 is Clay. “Out of the top 220 counties on the CDC’s list, 54 of them are located in Kentucky,” he reports.


Who lobbied Real Legislature hardest this past session?




A member of the Brass Lantern dynasty took top honors in the Kentucky Monthly recipes contest, or his "
Bison with Bourbon Bacon Butter and Pickled Onions."


"MovingKentuckyForward.com" is for sale.

You going to the prom?


Rest in peace, Ed Davender, whom Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader describes as "arguably the most under-appreciated star player in University of Kentucky basketball history."

Monday, November 30, 2015

Oh, Kentucky




Louisville wins again in Lexington.

Building a (new) bridge in Aurora.

"Because Kentuckians are often celebrated for their fighting spirit, those individuals and groups in the state who have questioned war have often been downplayed or ignored by historians."

“Whatever Christmas was before, whatever losses you’ve suffered, however far you’ve traveled, Christmas has to be where you are now—that’s the last line: ‘it has to be here.’”

Christmas parades: Hazard and Owensboro, Nov. 21; Ashland, Nov. 24; Russell Springs and Williamstown, Nov. 28; Lexington, Dec. 1; Louisa, Dec. 3; Central CityHarlan, Maysville and Walton, Dec. 4; ArlingtonBowling GreenFrankfortGrayson, Hopkinsville, LawrenceburgMadisonville, Middlesboro, Munfordville, Murray, Paducah, Somerset and Winchester, Dec. 5; Hickman, Dec. 8, and Benton, Elizabethtown, Elkton, La Center and Nicholasville, Dec. 12.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Oh, Kentucky




Given that they were already getting off to follow the football state championships in Bowling Green today, the Mayfield school kids should get together and sue to get an extra day off. It seems only fair.


Lots of rescheduling and not-rescheduling news to follow for the boys on the Christmas-parades beat: Lebanon, Maysville (odds are good for a Santa appearance) and Smiths Grove, today; Beaver Dam/Hartford, Bradfordville, Clinton, Columbia, Frenchburg, Glasgow, Greenville, HendersonHorse Cave, Lawrenceburg, Madisonville, Marion, Middlesboro, Munfordville, Paducah, Princeton, Shelbyville and Somerset, Dec. 7; Evarts and Owenton, Dec. 8; Clay and Richmond, Dec. 13; Benton, Cave City, Elkton, HopkinsvilleLa Center, Murray and Stamping Ground, Dec. 14, and Central City, Dec. 15.

Shocker.


Good jobs news from Morganfield.


Have I ever mentioned how much I love #TBT?