Wherever they are, Adair Countians still care

One of the most heartening realizations to come from the Downtown Revitalization effort is that, wherever they now live, Adair Countians care about what's happening at home.

During the past month, there was a call from Sharon Kelsay Mandt, who now lives in Somerset and works with the Lake Cumberland Area Health Department. "Who's in charge of the flower bed at the Campbellsville Street exit off the Square?" she wanted to know. The reason, she said, was that she would be holding a conference at Lindsey Wilson and she wanted all of Columbia to look its best when her conference attendees came through town. When she was told that the flower bed was up for adoption, she quickly volunteered to take on the project herself, to honor a beloved Lindsey Training School teacher, Helen Flatt.

Ms. Mandt was also concerned about the absence of a street marker on Lindsey Wilson Street at Campbellsville. No sooner had she requested action on the sign through Mayor Curtis Hardwick, than a fresh marker magically appeared in time for the meeting.

Ms. Mandt suggested winter pansies for cold weather color on the Square.

Ann Heskamp Curtis, who now lives in Torrance, California, sent the Heart of Adair some newspaper photos of murals from El Segundo, California, along with a note, "Keep up the good work." Murals are a major part of the revitalization effort underway there. The Heart of Adair murals committee, headed by Margaret Arnold and Donna Vaughn, have visited several communities with murals, including Burkesville and Paducah, and have received correspondence about the murals project in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

And, retired Air Force Colonel James E. Chapman, Anchorage, who now flies for United Parcel out of Louisville, passed along to "the wonderful people of Columbia and Adair County" a copy of The Brevard (FL) Technical Journal, with an item marked concerning surplus computer equipment available to schools and other colleges, high schools, junior high schools, elementary schools and other non-profit community based units. Interested qualifying entities should write NASA/KSC, EGG FL, INC., EDD-EXCESS, KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL 32899.

Colonel Chapman's distinguished military career included a stint as pilot of Air Force One for President Carter.

World's best kept secret may be out

Phil Coffey of Keltner says that his father, Elroy Coffey, always feels obliged to talk with visitors in the community. Once Mr.Coffey the elder saw some folks who were out of their car, leaning on a fence, taking in the vista from the prominence of downtown Keltner toward Pulaski County. After greeting the visitors, Mr. Coffey asked them what they were doing. "We come here every year at this time, to enjoy the view," one of the visitors told him.

"And where are you folks from?" Mr. Coffey asked.

"From Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg, Tennessee," they replied.

Now, this story is just another proof of what we Adair Countians already know.

It doesn't get any better than this.

And that is proven by the many people who settle here from other parts. They have looked the country over and there just isn't anyplace like Adair County.

Peer cities report: Drive-in restaurants

A recent feature article in the Lexington Herald on the Parkette Drive-In on New Circle Road in Lexington wistfully noted the demise of the drive-in restaurant as an institution. The article said that the Parkette was one of only two remaining drive-ins in Lexington, the other being the Lexington Sonic.

As in so many areas, Columbia matches up evenly in this department with Kentucky's two other principal cities-Louisville and Lexington. Because the Courier-Journal has not recently, to our knowledge, done a proper counting of Louisville's drive-in restaurants, we can only assume that they have two or fewer drive-in restaurants, too.

Columbia, of course, has Sandy and Jay Rowlett's Sonic Drive-In, just as Lexington has a Sonic. The venerable Circle R-originally built by the late Jessie Keith as the Hilltop Cafe and reborn and rebadged the Circle R by Runie Wooten and her late husband, Ruel Wooten, to become nationally renowned while headed by J. D. Harper and continuing in the limelight with Charles Marshall's son Jerry in command-is the greater counterpart of the Parkette. And I can personally vouch for Sandy and Jay: They have the best and what looks like the busiest Sonic in the chain, right here in Columbia.

Mr. Roosevelt and the Gradyville election

Glenn Stephens of Stephens Construction says that people around here don't know there's a whole world outside of Adair County. "They think because people in Adair County eat meat and smoke tobacco, they're the same all over the world. But if they went to California, they'd find that people don't eat meat and they don't use tobacco. "My mother," he recalls, "told the story about a woman in Gradyville after the 1932 election."

"I just don't see how Mr. Roosevelt got to be President," the Gradyville lady said, "the way the election went in Gradyville."

Expansion Northward prospects fogged

The unstoppable shift in the focus of growth to North Columbia, is fogged by at least one obstacle: fog. This according to no less an authority than Oral Hancock. In collaboration with climatologist Charles Sparks, the team of Hancock & Sparks counted heavy fogs every day in August. According to their science, there will be a snow for every one of those frosts. Hancock says that that's not all: The fogs are so heavy they are impeding progress. "Some mornings," he says, "they can't cut a tree until eleven in the morning. The fog is so thick they can get them to fall."