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Hey everyone, at Renda’s suggestion, I have started an on line family tree. I don’t know everyones birthdays, etc. If you will review and tell me who I have left off I will add them. Also, I didn’t know everyones grandkids names, etc. I have no plans to leave anyone out and will be thrilled to hear from you all with new data. There is a link to the Tree on my blogroll. Thanks. Hoping to hear from you soon! If you are new to the blog format, here is the link http://www.myheritage.com/site-21395272/bowling
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Roy & Reno
My daddy was a carpenter. He was known to be the best in the county. He never owned a car so he always walked out to work unless one of the boys were working with him and they had a car. One cold, snowy winter evening he came home way after dark. I was 3 or 4 at that time. Our house had a long narrow kitchen and the back door was at the end. The big coal and wood stove that momma cooked on was at the end of the kitchen near the door. Mom was cooking when dad came in. He was grinning from ear to ear. He wore a heavy Macanaw jacket and he had it buttoned up and was holding something in it. As soon as he got the door closed he said “looky here Rachel at what I’ve got” and started opening his coat. He brought out the cutest little white puppy with black spots all over it . That’s how Reno came into the family.
Reno and the puppy I drowned are the only two dogs I can ever remember us having until we moved off of Big Branch. We might have had more but I don’t remember any. In any case, Reno survived for many years. He was the laziest dog. He usually wouldn’t even bark at strangers. When he treed brother Roy on the front porch was his one claim to fame!
Back then we had an outside toilet. Folks just referred to these necessities as “the out house”. Well now, the out house was way down the hill away from the house so if the boys had to pee it was mighty inconvenient to go all that way when they could just pee off the front porch. This was a nightly parade at our house since there were 3 or 4 of the boys home at the time. This was nothing new to Reno and he usually never moved from his favorite spot on the front porch.
On one particular night he must have been sleeping to soundly and was startled because when Roy went out to pee, Reno went wild! He started growling and raised his hackles, no doubt for the first and only time in his life, and started going after Roy.
We had a long front porch across the front of the house with a handrail around it. Roy couldn’t get away from him. Reno was trying with everything in him to eat Roy up! Finally, Roy decided he had ran out of options and had to climb upon the handrail to escape. Reno wouldn’t back off and let him down!
Now, here was Roy’s dilema, what to do? Stay upon the rail untill Reno went away, which was not looking likely, or holler for someone to come and get the dog off him which would provide ample amunition for ribing for weeks to come! Being the practical sort, he chose the ribing and woke up the house. Daddy had to go get Reno so Roy could come back in the house. Daddy loved a good laugh so the good natured teasing began. This story has become a family favorite. When all us kids get togather and talk about old times, someone always brings up Reno and Roy. Truely, it is the little things that seem so simple that over time become the source of treasured memories
I don’t know if you have been to Hyden, Ky. lately or if you have ever been there before but I have to brag a little about my home town! When I was growing up in the 1960’s Hyden was essentially the same size that it is now. There has been a little growth out toward the mouth of Hurts Creek and up toward the high school but that is about all. Hyden was a great place to be young in. All us teens would gather up at Joseph’s resturant or in front of the bank and sit in the few cars we had or sometimes even on the hoods of them. Everybody knew everybody else and we all had a great time there. We were not harrasses by the town police, in fact, they were our friends. We showed respect by not damaging anything that was around. We didn’t know what drugs were. We only heard about them from the TV. We really thought we were doing something if we drank beer or hit the cherry vodka!
The hyden drive-in was the place to be come Friday and Saturday night. When we weren’t at the drive in or just hanging around in front of the bank, we would gather up down by the river at Wendover and park. There we did a great deal of teen socializing or necking, which ever was the mood. The boys were always in the mood! Actually, the girls were too but “good” girls weren’t supposed to act that way. What our parents didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them!
When I got married at age 18 I didn’t think with much sorrow about leaving. Hyden was just a place to be from then. A few years later I was back, divorced and raising 3 boys as a single mother. I became a nurse and gave 16 years of my life, body and soul, to the Mary Breckinridge Hospital. I lived in and around Hyden almost all of those 16 years. After that I moved to Hazard and then to Manchester. I only go back to Hyden ever once in a while. The city officials have done well for years with keeping it clean. In fact, it is one of the cleanest small towns that I know of in southeastern Kentucky.
That being said, I have been suprised, amazed and proud of the job the city is doing now to beautify Hyden! The new lamps, cobblestone sidewalks and veterans square beg to be visited! Everytime I drive through I wish I had time to get out and walk on the streets and sit a while in the square beside the fountain. I plan to take a day this summer to do just that! I want to go over to the new parking garage and look at it and I would love to have the time to take some music lessons at the bluegrass/traditional music college there. Maybe I can when I retire if I am still able to function! Anyway, as you go through Hyden, slow down and take a look. All you Leslie Countians who have left the area, you should see our hometown now!!