My Old Kentucky Home, Part 1

I spent last Friday in Chicago at a large tradeshow for my company. I had a productive time and ended up getting home late. The next afternoon one of my aunts was holding a surprise 90th birthday party for my grandma back in Central City, Kentucky. I was raised in Indiana but was born in Lexington, Kentucky. In fact most of my family is from and still lives in Kentucky. I was staring at the clock last Friday at it was telling me that if I was going to get their in one piece I had better go to bed and get up real early for the long trip ahead. I went to bed and got the necessary couple of hourse rest and hit the road early the next morning. It was a long drive and since Thomas was with his mother this weekend, it was a solitary trip and I had to keep my own company for most of the trip with only the occasional call to my brothers breaking up my own silence. I spent a long time thinking about many things. One of those items was centered around the fact that I had not been in Kentucky to visit my relatives in almost if not over a decade. In some cases I would be seeing cousins and aunts who last saw me as a teenager. At this point I wasn't feeling particularly pleased with myself. However, I was planning on making the most of my time there by reconnecting with as many relatives as possible. In the last few years I've learned (or been reminded) that the past is the past and we only can control what we do today.


The miles passed on and I began enjoying the drive more and more. For this road trip I had made sure to pack my John Mellencamp collection as well as some Allison Krauss and Union Station cd's. As I approached Seymour, Indiana (home of John Mellencamp) I made a quick detour for some breakfast and a quick trip past the church that I used to go to when I lived back in Indiana. To my surprise the church had been converted to a private residence. As I drove past the now private driveway I read the old church's sign which now read "Remember, God's Still in Charge". Mellencamp's collected works kept me going until I was just outside of the Louisville. There I changed to the more appropriate bluegrass tunes of AKUS. It's funny the feelings I have about Kentucky that rise every time I cross the Ohio River. I only have a few memories of actually living there, too few to completely explain the bond I feel. I know I was raised (consciously or not) by my parents to feel more like a displaced Kentuckian than a Hooiser so it shouldn't be that much of a mystery, except that I'm a grown man and it's been over a decade since I've been back.