Reader's Write

Begging for more

Dear Mr. Vest,

After reading the “AA Highway” article in the March 2008 Kentucky Monthly (page 36) I wonder if you could be tempted to send me an advance copy of the “Country Music Highway” article promised for the July edition. My wife and I plan a trip through eastern Kentucky in June to northern points yonder. U.S. Route 23 is part of our path. We did the trip last summer (South Shore to Jenkins) but stopped only in Prestonsburg and Pikeville. Our limited knowledge of sights to see and experiences to have there left us ignorant (if not innocent) of what we drove past and missed. Also, when I was a kid in Ohio, I often heard about the three R’s—“reading, ’riting, and Route 23.” In order to move on and make amends I need to experience the true beauty of eastern Kentucky.

Actually, the best place we ever lived was Kentucky. We lived in married housing at UK while my spouse was earning her Ph.D. A married couple and two kids in a small apartment. We were poor—a “good” time was window-shopping and people-watching at Fayette Mall—but happy. Luckily, while living in Lexington, we traveled to other Kentucky points: Louisville (of course), Frankfort (is Daniel Boone really buried there?), Hodgenville (on Lincoln’s 165th birthday), Covington, Paducah, Morehead, Maysville, Cumberland Falls, and other great places found only in the Bluegrass State. Once in Natural Bridge State Park we spent a memory-filled evening watching locals clogging, three generations doing what ancestors brought from the old country. We lived in Kentucky only four years, but they were our best. Kentucky has history, culture, diversity. Kentucky Monthly reminds us expatriates of what we loved and learned there. Thanks. (Just kidding on the “advanced copy.”)

Sincerely,
John T. Collins, Miami, Fla.

Thanks for “bending”

I did earlier receive your communication notifying me that Kentucky Bend (Madrid Bend, New Madrid Bend, or even, to Tennesseans, a part of Bessie Bend) would be added to the Kentucky map portrayal in your March issue. I did not write back to you sooner since “there be many a slip...” in case your promise was not carried out by whoever might be responsible for the detail involved.

So I wanted to see for myself the altered map in this issue—which I just received. And there “it” was! You, sir, are of course a man of your word. Please convey to Kelli L. Schreiber (or to whoever made the addition on the map) my thanks.

I appreciate your “humoring me” and making the decision involved. Perhaps 99 percent of readers (my wife suggest 99.9 percent!) will not even notice the change.

I immodestly mention that perhaps you might recall my focus (in part) on this unique and unmatched area in my River at the Door, as well as, Upriver, Columbus, Ky., as the Nation’s Capital. (The books are now out of print, as we closed our publishing company, River Microstudies, in December, 2006.)

I grew up in Kentucky, and my wife is “native-born.” We retain close ties with and visit the state.

Sincerely,
Allen Anthony, San Antonio, Texas