The World In Casey County

Having projects in Tennessee and Columbia I have found frequent journeys down Highway 127 Southward to be necessary as I travel to the jobsites.As I travel to Algood, Tennessee, I usually take the highway across Wolf Creek Dam and through Clinton County and Albany to the Tennessee line at Static, Kentucky. You know when you have entered Tennessee because beer and liquor is now legal. You then have a choice of turning around to go to Jamestown , Kentucky or heading South to Jamestown , Tennessee. Not much difference except Jamestown, Tn. is on top of the plateau, and Jamestown, Ky. is near Lake Cumberland. The biggest difference is how easy you can buy a Budweiser. Going to Jamestown, Tn. takes you through the countryside home of Sgt. Alvin York, the most decorated veteran of WW 1. I would venture a guess that that particular part of Alvin's home has not changed much since he was shipped off to France around 1917. The little settlement has a beautiful park on the side of the creek with a bucolic looking mill. The creek is always a greenish -blue color and makes me feel a little nostalgic for my own childhood. Alvin's wide spot in the road is named 'Pall Mall"; you know like the extinct brand of cigarettes.I think Alvin died in the 1950's. He was played in the 1941 black and white movie by Cary Grant, along with help from Walter Brennan. York killed 28 German soldiers, captured 132 if my memory is close, and received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his troubles.I would like to have known York. Even today there are many York family members around the region. Nearby is also the home place of Cordell Hull who was the Secretary Of State for FDR from 1933 to 1944, and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945. Those two gentlemen certainly made their small communities proud. I can't say the same for native son Al Gore who failed to carry his own state against W in 2000. He did invent the Internet and Global Warming if you believe him. Some of these facts come from my friend the Past President who implies he knows a Foxtrot when he sees one.When I come back across the Wolf Creek Dam I always travel fast over the concrete because the Corps of Engineers seem to think there is some implied or imminent danger of a collapse and subsequent release of millions of gallons of water that would turn 1500 miles of shoreline into stinking red mud and dead fish. It seems the damned dam builders built the thing over limestone caves in the early 1950's. Our only bright spot would be a collapse in mid summer which would wipe out half of Ohio's population and the resident Buck Eye Navy.I have Scuba Dived close to the dam and the water is the clearest here than anyplace else, and I saw no man-eating catfish which is commonly rumored. AS I approach near home I often cut through Middleburg in Casey County. This is the home where I visit my dad's grave , with his father, grandfather, great grandfather, and great great grandfather all buried in a row. Middleburg, like Pall Mall has not changed much in all those years. The only new addition is a beautiful white swan swimming on the old mill pond. Where did he come from?? Up the road is a field with a smiling lama whose best friend is some sort of small donkey. Otherwise seems the same. Every house has a snarling, mixed up dog and two or three old cars rusting in the ground. Some things never change. Me?? I just wonder about the swan and blow by the lama and donkey listening to Jimi Hendrix at 70 mph. All Along the Watchtower isn't any more out of place than the big white duck. I'm betting the rednecks have swan for New Years Lunch.