| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
September 15, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener This article first appeared in the September 15, 1977 issue of the Daily Statesman. Topics included Olin Loy's squirrel soup, memories of grocery store long-arms, Candidate Bert Janes, and the non-retirement of Buell Collins. --Pen By Ed Waggener Terrible things are happening in the varmint world. K.I. Riddle, a proper citizen of the fashionable College Park area, suffered 11 stings when he ran over a yellow jacket while mowing the yard. It hurt, he says, but no worse than the laughter which greeted when he fled into the kitchen to escape the critters. Instead of sympathy, his wife Maxine and son Steve doubled up at the mirth in the flight. "I guess," he told them, "that when they lay me out you two will pass by laughing." Steve Riddle did help in the revenge, burning out the yellow jackets while K.I. stood a safe, but hollering distance, away. It was no easier for Mr. McGowan Mr. Riddle's plight was no more pitiful than that of Mr. James R. McGowan, a proper citizen of the fashionable (all Columbia neighborhoods are fashionable) Green Hills. Mr. McGowan was respectably waiting in line at the First National Drive-in Bank when he felt a live creature crawling up his pants leg. He smote it with his hand before it reached his knee, but he felt a sharp sting, and felt the creature continue on its appointed rounds up one leg and down the other. When it ran out, McGowan caught sight of a baby field mouse. When he regained his composure, he hastened to the doctor's office, but reports are that the physician and his assistants had a hard time maintaining the solemnity the occasion deserved. To make matters worse, Mrs. McGowan received a letter from a "Robert Rodent" complimenting the tastiness of Mr. McGowan's leg. A Democratic love-in We are still waiting for the announcement of the Democratic Party love-in, at which all factional considerations are laid aside, and members of the party of Jefferson, Jackson, Truman, and Henry Morgan make up. Now, we understand, the feast has a hold-up. Friends kid Democratic sheriff Olin Loy that he is supposed to be out killing squirrels for squirrel soup to be served at the affair. Loy says that's no laughing matter. "I can remember when eating squirrel soup was a real meal," he says. The grocery business is different now Remember when you did business with the grocery which gave you the best credit? Things have really changed since then. Today's supermarkets have a much greater selection, but sometimes you miss the old oiled floors, the shelves piled to the ceiling, and the salt fish barrels. Sometimes you miss the loose candy, the milk in glass containers, the luncheon meat and cheese which had to be bought fresh-cut. And the grocery store manager - he, or she, is different today. Then, he was not only the family's banker, he was a close economic adviser as well. When the account would get old, the grocer's frown stopped spendthrifts from getting a lot of popsicles, chewing gum, knick-knacks, or too much fresh meat instead of staying with beans. But when the account was paid up, times were good. The creditor's face shown brighter, and often, after a particularly heavy bill was paid off, he rewarded you for your faithfulness with a round-steak or at least candies for the kids. But if you were unfaithful to the grocer during the time the account was high - if you wandered off to buy from a "cash and carry" store, there was no reward, but a stern reminder to next time, pay cash with him rather than taking off the "good cash business" to a competitor. The colors in the old store were different. Packaging went in more for Reds and Yellows, or Oranges and Blues, as in the case of the old RC Cola bottles, the Post Toastie boxes, and the old Wheaties containers. The cereal was stored on the top shelves, some six feet or more from floor level. There were two ways to get them down. One was by main strength and awkwardness. You jumped up and tapped the bottom of the bottom box until the top box came plummeting down. Or you could call the grocer and he would get his "long arm", a device made specifically for such a purpose, and get the box down in an orderly manner. I haven't seen a long arm for 15 or 20 years. They say they don't make them anymore. Now there was a campaigner Bert Janes of Metcalfe County was a phenomenal candidate. They say that the reason he was such a good campaigner was that he was one of the first people to ask the wife in the family for her vote. Other candidates still followed the old tradition of pulling up in the drive of the farm home, blowing the horn, and having the man of the house come out and plot politics, an exercise from which womenfolk and children were, by convention, not allowed to take part in, in those days. They say he was a good thinker on his feet, too. Once he was out campaigning in a remote area of Metcalfe County. He knocked at the door and held out a card which said, "Vote for BERT JANES for Jailer of Metcalfe County." The woman obviously couldn't read. She said "I'm sorry, mister, but you are wasting your time. The only candidate we're going to vote for is Uncle Bert Janes." Janes snatched the card from her hand, the story goes and said "Well, if you want to go vote for the old fool, just go ahead." And he left. He got the vote, and probably with less humiliation of the woman than if he had explained who he was. Janes was an uncle of Mrs. Bill Dunbar of Tutt Street, Columbia. Twenty years in: but he can't retire Buell Collins is working on his 20th year as a school bus driver in the Adair County School system. in many professions, that's enough to retire. And some would call driving a school bus hazardous duty. Collins drives Bus Number 12, and he'll likely keep on driving it after he completes this year. "It's a big job looking after the kids," he says. This story was posted on 2019-09-15 10:12:10
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Around Adair with Ed Waggener:
September 23, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener October 8, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener August 20, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener February 14, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener October 1, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener Around Adair: It must have happened in Columbia December 2, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener February 28, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener October 21, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener July 4, 1980 Around Adair with Ed Waggener View even more articles in topic Around Adair with Ed Waggener |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
