I’m going to date myself pretty badly here, but remember when you were a kid in school and your pencil went dull? If you were a vain child like I was, it bothered you a lot. Suddenly, your pretty cursive (Your grand capital G! Your elegant capital S!) looked mushy. The lead on the page was f…

I’m not sure who has or doesn’t have access to cable TV service in our neck of the woods, but I do know, for sure, that Charlie Brown Road is not among the more gifted. We mostly rely on satellite TV, except for a few folks who still use antennas to make do with all the TV they want or need.

You may recall the story about the old fellow who had a routine of walking around the Social Security office, picking up every piece of paper he found. He’d examine the paper closely and say, “No, that’s not it.” He’d then throw it back down.

The other day, I was in Gucci Kroger's adjacent liquor store to buy a bottle of bourbon.

No one at the hunting camp wanted to sleep in the same room with Bubba because he snored so loud. The other guys drew straws each day to see who had to bunk with him.

I want to start with a query we have received. Do you know the name of a business located on Fifth Street between Main and Broad in the early 1950s? There was the drug store on the corner at the intersection of Main and Fifth. I think Lucy’s Restaurant was beside the drug store. The place I …

I’m not sure if it was, or still is, just a Letcher County thing, but when I was growing up the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day were unofficially called “firecracker season.” After school evenings and all day weekends consisted of an almost steady roar of exploding firecrackers…

December 25th has passed, and January 1st has passed, but wait -- we're not done with the season yet, because today is January 6th.

A new state-by-state comparison of the nation’s health ranks Kentucky near the bottom in a variety of significant categories. Though the 2020 America’s Health Rankings® Annual Report from United Health Foundation may underscore Kentucky’s longstanding position as a state with serious health …

We heated our old house on Blair Branch with a combination of wood and coal. The kitchen cook stove was started with a fire made with short, slender sticks of “stove wood”, as was the big “warm morning” heating stove in Dad’s and Mom’s big bedroom. After the wood fires were going strong, bot…

Things took a promising turn on a father-and-son deer hunt when they heard noise in the brush. A deer was coming their way.

Seasonal traditions for this time of year abound in cultures around the world and in the United States. Settlers traveled to the Appalachian region before it was legal to do so. They were independent-minded people who wanted freedom from the crowding and restrictions of the established colon…

A few nights ago, we were sitting in the living room when a car pulled into our driveway unexpectedly. Seeing its lights, my instinct was to look around for a place to cower. Being part Grinch and full introvert, I never expect something good will come from an unexpected visit. If I’m honest…

My closest friend, when I was growing up on Blair Branch, was Truman Caudill. Actually Truman was my best friend off and on because his parents moved around a lot and often spent 1 or 2 years at a time in Indiana before his mom would move back home for 3 or 4 years while his dad would rent a…

Perhaps you heard about the guy who had gotten one of those toy model car sets for Christmas.

With Christmas just two days away, it is imperative - especially after such a trying year that we have faced - to remember our blessings this year.

If you’re looking for a partner in crime to help you indulge in your every last craving this holiday season, look no further, kids, because I am your girl.

My younger brother, Andy, was already talking about gardening two weeks ago. He is ready to get all the tomato cages and fall bean hoops set aside and spend a day cutting down corn stalks and all the dead stuff that grew several dozen varieties of fresh vegetables between April and the end o…

I heard about an elderly mountaineer who was snookered into paying $600 for an old, gray-faced Clydesdale horse that he intended to use to plow his cornfields.

With Christmas just over a week away, it gives one time to reflect on things that truly matter.

I laughed when I heard about the inmate who tunneled out of jail and came up across the street in a children’s playground.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this story before, but if you are younger than 40, you probably missed it. In fact, if you are younger than 50, you probably didn’t spend a lot of time reading a weekly newspaper in the early 1980s unless an elementary school teacher forced one on you. I’m …

That's what I'm doing at my house. Sort of. Yesterday I put out a sweet figurine of a little boy on a sled transporting a Christmas tree, titled “Riding Into Christmas.” My sled keeps getting stuck.

On his first day in jail, Bubba was sitting on his bunk when he heard another inmate down the cell block yell out, "twenty-two." Every prisoner within earshot burst out in laughter.

Reports of scams to the Attorney General’s Office have skyrocketed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with dollar losses up as much as 8,000 percent compared to 2019. In August 2020, employment and work-from-home scams accounted for nearly half of the dollar losses reported to our office.

As the number of COVID-19 cases in our community rises, and the seasonal flu an active threat to many, we are concerned about being able to continue to serve the needs of our community. While Saint Joseph London is prepared to handle for a surge of patients, we are limited in the number of p…

If I had caught myself going to the garden three hours after dark, on a night when the temperature was supposed to drop into the low 20s, nobody would have been the least bit surprised. I love turnips and mustard greens so much that I’ll try to save them from a hard freeze if I’m able.

Thanksgiving is again upon us. I think of it as an American holiday, but while several of its aspects are uniquely American, its roots rest in ancient harvest festivals.

Social media’s abuzz following Gov. Andy Beshear’s latest shutdown in response to a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases.

I always enjoy the story about the lady who was looking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store, hoping to find the perfect one for her family.

Maybe you’ve heard about the very elderly gentleman who walked into the senior citizen’s hall, reeking of cologne. With a flower in his lapel and tonic in his hair, he had made an obvious attempt to look dashing. He sashayed across the room, his cane clicking as he went, and took a seat besi…

"In this historic election." How many times have you heard this over the past two weeks? In truth, there are some historic elements. This election had the greatest number of votes cast in history. Is that historic or population growth? It's also a higher voter percentage than we have seen in…

It was a beautiful summer day when a group of guys loaded into the car to go to the bowling alley. Driving along with the windows down, they were enjoying the pleasant weather.

An old time mountain preacher stood up one Sunday morning to deliver his sermon, but unbeknownst to him, some mischievous boys had glued some of the pages of his Bible together.

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos visited inner-city Louisville recently, bringing a declaration sure to refire Kentucky’s charter-school movement.

Across the nation and around the world, the number of coronavirus cases is on the rise. This alarming trend has raised concerns that the economic lockdown from the spring could return. Leaders in Frankfort can and should be creative in using available resources and developing guidelines to p…

A woman went into labor at the lake and the baby was coming fast. Her husband began yelling frantically for a doctor. There just happened to be one fishing from a boat nearby. He motored to shore and delivered the baby boy.

Did you hear the one about Tracey Hayes, who simply followed what Gov. Andy Beshear urged Kentuckians to do by issuing a COVID-19 executive order expanding unemployment insurance to cover additional groups of workers?

Halloween is once again almost upon us, and while it isn't anticipated with quite the excitement of Christmas, it is, nevertheless, our second biggest holiday in America. While we gear-up for it, collectively spending billions on our preparations, we probably don't give much thought to the o…

I always enjoy the story from long ago about the captain and his crew coming under attack by a pirate ship.

Three little boys were standing in the front yard when a firetruck rumbled by. They noticed a spotted dog sitting up top, and they wondered what purpose he served.

A slogan, but also a commitment. This year, October 24 is World Polio Day. Of course, every day is "world polio day" in the fight to eradicate this pervasive virus that most commonly affects children under 5, but which can attack at any age, and typically produces life-long paralysis or death.

Mid to late October was pretty much the end of harvest time on Blair Branch before the 1960s and also the end of an era. By the 1940s, hillside farms were already dwindling down to inherited acreage that was far too small for a single family to subsist by living mostly off the land. Many, if…