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April 13, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener The article below first appeared in the April 13, 1978 edition of the Daily Statesman. Topics included continued appreciation of the Miss Lake Cumberland Beauty Pageant, a spontaneous bluegrass concert by Oswald Stotts and Bill Spears outside the Alpine in Burkesville, and an update on Mayor Squaredeal Downey's Dogwood Project. --Pen By Ed Waggener Lake Cumberland keeps winning friends Sue Stivers, Director of the Miss Lake Cumberland Beauty agent, shared a note she received from Edward A. Schellhous, Associate Director of Admissions, the University Cincinnati, in which he said, "If I had the authority and-or power, I would certainly nominate Columbia, Ky, as America's most hospitable and friendly city." Mr. Schellhous was a judge in the contest. That's pretty strong language, but I know the people of Columbia will be highly appreciative of the note. It seems that Mrs. Stivers and the Pageant just keep winning friends for Columbia. And now, what next? The June Dairy Day is the next major event in Columbia, with the Adair County Fair following shortly after. Nobody has asked for my opinion, but I'm hoping that mother mini-super event might be squeezed in in May. One thing that is being thought about is to get a Bluegrass band in here one Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday afternoon. Bluegrass bands aren't too plentiful in Adair County, though the makings of some good ones are here. Steve Doss and Ben Gordon Berley had an excellent one, Wolf Creek, in Columbia for the Mark Twain Festival one year. But it has since disbanded. Then there's Oswald Stotts, the Bill Monroe of Independent Ridge. I've seen Stotts and Bill Spears of Campbellsville in action. They are great. It was in Burkesville I had motored down to the Alpine in Burkesville in the company of my Hoosier cousin, Bobby Chef, and his wife, Andi. After supper, we stepped outside the Alpine, gazing at the wonders of the city below, when Stotts walked out carrying his guitar and Spears appeared with a banjo. They had just eaten dinner. I inquired as to why they were in Burkesville, armed with those instruments. "Why," Stotts said, "we came to pick and sang at the Fairgrounds, but we didn't like the way they acted down there." They were both downcast, as Blue Grass pickers and sangers get when they don't have an audience. Stotts looked me straight in the eye and asked, in the pitifullest manner, "Would you folks listen to us?" I have always favored promoting the arts, and I agreed, and the rest of our party acquiesced and lent their ears, as well. Stotts and Spears cut down on "Rocky Top" and "Deliverance" and the melodious sounds pealed through the Cumberland River Valley below, filling all Burkesville with joyous music. The owner of the Alpine at first asked that Stotts and Spears desist. "I don't allow picking here at the motel," he at first said, but some cars came to the hill, and new potential listeners were there, and he relented. We caught four of them, after about one-half hour, and begged them to take our place listening to the pair. Finally, we secured four replacements, and Stotts gave us a demit--permission to leave. I am told that a multitude joined the hoedown, and that finally, the owner of the restaurant, seeing that he had erred grievously in asking the boys not to pick and sang, invited them into the restaurant to perform for the public. The foot-stomping lasted well nigh to midnight. I am sure that Stotts and Spears still get requests to perform. I know that even though I was a captive, and not a fully appreciative listener to that musical history in the making that night-that despite that, I should enjoy nothing better than hearing them sing again. They did not go into singing professionally, although I am sure that they could had they chosen. Stotts has continued as one of Russell Montgomery's best Coca-Cola salesman. And Spears, he is a legend in Taylor County and especially at Union Underwear Campbellsville, where he is the company machinist, the fixer of things, the maker of new devices. James Beard, who is really an Adair Countian masquerading as Taylor Countian, knows Spears. "I didn't know he could pick and sing," Beard says, "but I do know he can make anything. I know he is one of the smartest men at Union Underwear," Beard said. "He works for the company and has a machine shop on the side. It's a sight what that man can do." But I know the two in a different light. Flatt and Scruggs, in their good days, would have eaten their hearts out with envy had they heard Stotts and Spears on top of the hill. It is ironic, that the singing took place near the grave of Capt. John McLean, who asked to be buried on top of that hill, because the inscription on his grave says, "It is the nearest place to heaven I'll ever be." Could have been Capt. John knew that one day, the duo of Stotts and Spears would bring Bluegrass Heaven to his hill. For a few hours, the old soldier was there. In Blue Grass Glory Land. We might be able to beg Stotts and Spears out of retirement. A Bluegrass music hall coming? There is talk out of Taylor County, conveyed by James Beard, through whom much news from The North is disseminated throughout Adair, that there are plans for a Bluegrass Music Hall at the top of Green River Hill, near the Tebb's Bend Memorial and the turn-off to the Green River Lake State Park. The hall would be in Taylor County, but it would be about as nigh Adair County as one can get and still be in Taylor. Beard says that Marion Davenport is the man behind the project. Score another one for Square Deal Squaredeal Downey is proud of the progress being made in the Dogwoodification of Columbia. He's ordered (and is paying for out of his pocket) another 500 of the littlest dogwoods from the nursery in McMinnville, and the nursery is sending us some more red dogwoods to make up for what must have been an oversight Saturday. Mitch Harris, the owner of Adair Nurseries, was in McMinnville on Wednesday and he was bringing them back last night. Harris is also bringing back a load of beautiful greenery and blossoming plants for sale at his nursery. Squaredeal says that the public is being very cooperative about the non-profit project. Squaredeal himself donated the Dogwood House, on Monroe Alley, as a distribution point. The only thing bothering him, he says, is that a very few skinflints have questioned the bargain they are getting, and one or two impossible people have thought the Mayor would get the dogwoods planted on private property! What do they expect," he asks, "handstands for fishheads? These trees are a bargain at twice the price." Otherwise, the Dogwood Project is doing well. This story was posted on 2020-06-21 11:03:49
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Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Around Adair with Ed Waggener:
May 31, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener June 13, 1980 Around Adair with Ed Waggener April 15, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener April 14, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener September 29, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener November 2, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener May 5, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener January 18, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener February 9, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener May 1978 Around Adair by Ed Waggener View even more articles in topic Around Adair with Ed Waggener |
 
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