Kentucky—Wherefore Art Thou?

John Butch Preston

johnhprestonauthor.com

My name is Ted. A young cheerleader and her mother came to our door one day selling magazines subscriptions. We chose Southern Living magazine, whereupon the girl then said, “Are y’all frum down south?

     This immediately made me wonder what her inquiry would have been had we chosen The New Yorker magazine? Native Kentuckians from up north, no doubt.

     This incident seems to put Kentucky in the twilight zone, calling into question Kentucky’s identity as a state. If being neither north nor south then to what area of the country do we belong?  A close look at our geographical location and general cultural characteristics should provide an answer.

     Weather-wise, according to Southern Living, we share our growing season with all our surrounding neighbors whether north or south, but the main Kentucky weather zone extends all the way down to northern Texas and up through the lower Atlantic Coast.

     Geographically, looking at a map, we seem equally in-line with Virginia, putting us well below the Mason-Dixon line. To our immediate north we share borders with three Mid-Western states, but the waters of the Ohio River prevents Kentucky from actual physical contact with them, while on our lower side, sharing our long, straight border with Tennessee ties us more closely to the South, where we share rivers, lakes, and national parks with both Tennessee and Virginia.

     Although we grow a lot of corn, giving us a Mid-Western characteristic, we are best known for raising tobacco, a southern product also famously grown in North Carolina and Virginia. But surprisingly, it has been recorded that cotton was once grown in Pike County.

     When it comes to people, Kentucky has had several notable historical figures, but the most famous Kentuckian today can be no other than Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC, the epitome of the gentile, southern gentleman in a white suit, string tie, and goatee. It should be noted here that the title of Colonel is a Kentucky brand, stemming from the fact that we elected so many ex-confederate colonels as governors after the Civil War.

     Although Kentucky was considered a neutral state at the time, it had a confederate capital at Bowling Green, and native son Jefferson Davis added a thirteenth star to the confederate flag to represent Kentucky—the only state to have two presidents in office at the same time, Lincoln and Davis. (We can celebrate that with our famous plantation drink, the mint julep.)

     As far as religion goes, the perception is that Kentuckians are predominately Evangelicals, which means politically we lean to the right, as does the South in general. But practically all religions and denominations exist here to some degree or other. But what is sadly amiss it seems to me, is that we have lost the tradition of inviting the preacher home for a fried chicken dinner on Sunday.

     Feuds of course are a southern phenomenon and no other state in the Union comes close to Kentucky in having the most famous as well as the most numerous. The causes are said to be family honor and vengeance, but a big contributing factor was that eastern Kentucky was once labeled the Nation’s “Last Frontier.” (In other words, the last place to become civilized.)

     In sports, Kentucky is an original member of the Southeastern Conference.  Its two biggest rivals are Tennessee and Duke. It commonly rules in basketball while Alabama dominates in football.

     Country music originated in the South and Nashville became its capital. But as we all know, without a steady supply of Kentucky’s many prodigious musical talents from the Country Music Highway, Nashville would be just another hick town.

     The Deep South, the Spanish moss set, the so-called aristocratic South, excludes Kentucky, of course, but they also exclude any state north of Georgia or Mississippi, thus making north or south, in this case, a somewhat relative term. But the state does have a Magnolia, Kentucky, located in LaRue County—though from personal experience it was a speed trap at one time, which is generally regarded as a southern custom.

My conclusion from these observations: If the South were a hand, Kentucky would be its fingertips.