Home Sweet Home

Just returned from spending Christmas with my family in my hometown of Corbin, KY. It's a small but quaint town nestled into the hills of southeastern Kentucky. I look forward to seeing family and the occassional friend or acquaintance I bump into in the "Walmarts". I haven't officially lived there in a while (since I graduated HS in 85). But its fun to go home. Things have changed some. A few highlights...

Above is our claim to fame, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sign says "Sanders Cafe." Go to Corbin, and you can eat where it all began. Harland himself set up shop & concocted his secret recipe that's shure to clog arteries and add inches to your waist. Oh, how I enjoy the occasions to participate in some finger lickin' chicken. Unfortunately, some years ago the powers that be failed to recognize this little piece of international history and allowed the neighboring town of London to claim its status as chicken capital, bringing in a large yearly festival that I think is called the Chicken Festival, though I'm sure I'll be corrected. Oh, and bringing in big sums of tourism dollars. And of course, not using those dollars in Corbin.

From time to time, you see something that makes you go "hmmmm." Like drive-thru tobacco marts. Apparently, in an effort to make getting cigarettes more convenient, the drive-thru tobacco stop was created. Heaven forbid that anyone would, oh, say, have to get out of the car and walk into the place to buy cigs. Nothing against smokers - we all do stuff that's not good for us (except for that dude at the gym who eats wheat germ and is a perfect specimen of health...he'll probably drop dead at 40... oh, and see my note above about KFC - no redeeming health benefits there, though they tried that lame Atkins promotional package a few years back). But no need to fear - if you inadvertently drive past one of these places, there's another one just up the road (no less than 3 on a 4-mile stretch close to my home).Our president said the other night that small business is the backbone of America. So, I guess you can go down to the local Lowe's and buy yourself one of those backyard sheds for the Lawnboy and old bicycles and instead set it out on a major highway and start a business! Not sure which part here is the "unique" part - the tan or the gifts. I do wish I had looked in the phonebook for the astronomical number of tanning places in this town of roughly 8,000 people. I'm sure its pushing one tanning bed per resident.

Lastly, this made me laugh and do a double-take. Driving home from Grandma's, I came across this little house with a postage-size front lawn with somewhere between 20-30 of these giant blow-up things crowded into the lawn like Macy's floats in the off-season hangar. These things were literally side by side, touching each other. Nice use of the roof space, too.

I've often heard the little town that borders us (Chesterfield) referred to as Chestertucky. I used to be amusingly offended. But no more. I willing embrace my home sweet home and all it stands for. Speaking for myself and many I know, we all turned out to be pretty decent folk. Still lots of good decent folk there, too. Frankly, drive around most towns and you can find similar and often more head-scratching things than those above.

If you need me, I'll be at Home Depot picking out a storage building. Anybody know the going rate on deep-fried twinkies? Do I need a permit for that?