The Whistle Stop, Scottish History, A Mother’s Day Tribute, Coal, And More
So many favorites at The Whistle Stop
Women in Rural Electrification (Kentucky W.I.R.E.)
Liz Curtis Higgs’ latest: Biblical hope in a Scottish history
Time Capsule: 50 Years Ago in Kentucky Living
So many favorites at The Whistle Stop
You can always count on Bob and Martha Jean Owsley to order the homemade coconut pie they love so much at The Whistle Stop restaurant in Glendale. That is, except when Martha Jean orders the butterscotch pie.
The Owsleys always get their favorite entrees, too, country ham and pork tenderloin. Except when they try the fried chicken, or the Kentucky Hot Brown, or the meatloaf, or the fried green tomatoes, or…well, you get the idea.
Yes, The Whistle Stop is open. Every Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. they serve many of the same favorites as they have since 1975.
Owners Mike and Lynn Cummins found out just how much the Owsleys and others enjoy The Whistle Stop and how much they would miss it when we at Kentucky Living mistakenly reported that a fire had closed the beloved restaurant. We apologize for the mistake and for the confusion it caused. One customer had even been crying for several hours before calling.
To all of their customers, the Cumminses have a special message: “Thank you for your patronage and your loyalty to The Whistle Stop. We can’t wait to see you again. Please come soon.”
You might also want to try out the Cummins’ latest venture. They have opened Pesto’s Cafe & Bakery in Elizabethtown on Ring Road. Pesto’s serves a mixture of Italian and American fare, including paninis, soups, salads, pastas, and espresso drinks. Pesto’s has some of the same bakery items found at The Whistle Stop and has added even more.
Both restaurants also cater events. The Whistle Stop has an upstairs room for private parties–birthday parties, rehearsal dinners, Christmas parties–where the food is always served buffet style, whatever the occasion. The room is available by reservation only. Contact The Whistle Stop Restaurant, 216 East Main Street, Glendale, KY 42740, (270) 369-8586, www.whistlestoprestaurant.net
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During summer months when air conditioners work hardest, do energy-intensive tasks such as laundry and dish washing during off-peak energy demand hours, usually in the early morning or later evening.
Women in Rural Electrification (Kentucky W.I.R.E.)
W.I.R.E. is taking applications for $1,000 scholarships. The scholarships are open to any eligible student whose family is served by a Kentucky electric cooperative and has at least 60 hours of credits at a Kentucky college or university by the start of the fall term. W.I.R.E. will award three scholarships. The deadline for application is June 18. For an application form, go to www.kaec.org and click on the link at the bottom of the New Info box, or call your local electric cooperative or the Kentucky Living office.
For golf, bourbon, and fun, don�t miss the 65th Bourbon Open Golf Tournament in Bardstown, May 14-16. One of the longest-running golf tournaments in Kentucky, the Bourbon Open includes champion prizes, daily flight prizes, and a hole-in-one contest. The tournament at the My Old Kentucky Home golf course annually attracts more than 500 golfers, who also enjoy bourbon tasting and live music on Friday night. For more info, e-mail bourbonopen@bardstown.com.
“Affordable energy in ample quantities is the lifeblood of the industrial societies and a prerequisite for the economic development of the others.”
–John Holdren, science advisor to President Obama
Liz Curtis Higgs’ latest: Biblical hope in a Scottish history
by Penny Woods
Louisville author and motivational speaker Liz Curtis Higgs has been telling tales since she attempted her first novel–handwritten in a notebook–at the tender age of 10. Successful careers in broadcasting, public speaking, nonfiction writing, and children’s books honed Higgs’ storytelling talents, bringing her back to her first love, writing fiction. The author of 27 books, with more than three million copies in print, Higgs has written five historical novels. Her latest, Here Burns My Candle (WaterBrook Press, $14.99), is a Scottish historical novel spread across the rich backdrop of 18th-century Edinburgh and based on the Old Testament story of Naomi and Ruth. Through the eyes of a wealthy widow and her family, readers experience all the drama of the 1745 Jacobite Rising and all the emotional conflict warfare inevitably brings to a household where loyalties are divided.
The biblical Naomi and the novel’s heroine, Lady Marjory Kerr, both experienced a deep emotional and spiritual growth through their roles as mothers-in-law. Higgs says her research of the book of Ruth made her re-examine her relationship with her own mother-in-law and with her newly acquired daughter-in-law. “Could I be more loving, like Ruth? More supportive? More sacrificial? In a word, yes. Could I share our son with this fine young woman? Would she love him, as we do? Again, a big yes,” says Higgs.
Both Naomi and Lady Marjory also suffer dramatic reversals of fate and great loss, yet still find hope in the midst of hopelessness, something Higgs wants to convey to her readers. She quotes from 2 Corinthians 4:8, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair.”
Higgs’ speaking and writing has taken her all over the world, so what keeps her in Kentucky? She says, “Quite simply, it’s home. Our family is here, our friends are here, our church is here. And it’s a beautiful place to live. On a sunlit spring morning, when the countryside is carpeted with wildflowers, Kentuckians get a glimpse of heaven on earth.” A look at Higgs’ photography, one of her hobbies along with reading, seeing period films, and singing in her church choir, only emphasizes her love of Kentucky’s boundless beauty.
Penny Woods for Joseph-Beth booksellers, pennymouse1@yahoo.com,(800) 248-6849, www.josephbeth.com.
Time Capsule: 50 Years Ago in Kentucky Living
Silver Jubilee
Rural electric systems all over America are observing this year (1960) a “Silver Jubilee Celebration,” a sort of unified 25th birthday program for the Rural Electrification Administration.
National magazines, newspapers, radio, and TV will carry the story of REA and what it has meant to America’s rural people and to the entire nation. All across the country individual cooperatives and their state associations will hold their own local “birthday parties” for REA.
In Kentucky, a luncheon meeting is planned for May 9 in the Flag Rom of the Kentucky Hotel in Louisville to observe the 25th anniversary of the creation of REA by executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 11, 1935.
Like daughter, like mother
by Cindy Flanagan Lamb
When a child embarks upon the task of writing a Mother’s Day tribute, she must count Mom’s favorite things–gardening, canning, collecting antiques, and settling down with a good television program.
One show in particular, The Waltons, got her attention. The eldest, John Boy, could do no wrong. I had one thing in common with the character in that I was a writer, too. So was Mom back in the day–her coverage of the JFK inaugural for the Times Journal in Russell County was the stuff of legend. Her society notes were good but that night in Washington, D.C., was magic.
We lived all over Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas before returning to my father, Dravo Flanagan’s, hometown, Russell Springs in 1975. I headed west not long after.
As a journalist on the Los Angeles arts and entertainment market for many years, Mom’s handwritten letters kept me rooted in family and my home state.
Using business savvy as well as the sturdy will of parenthood, Mom opened a state licensed day care, Toddler’s Inn, under her own roof. It was a garden of its own, taking the tiny citizens of Russell County from the alphabet and song to table manners and art.
There wasn’t a child who spent quality time with Miss Nita who didn’t arrive in first grade knowing “Yes ma’am,” counting and letters, the value of handwashing, and how to be fair and wait their turn.
They’re out there today, in high school, college, the workplace, most beyond Russell County. I trust their offspring will appreciate things in life much finer than texting and Wii–like planting potatoes eye-to-the-sky; or the fragrance of a steamy kitchen when it’s pickling time; what rivers border the Commonwealth; to ask your grandparents to tell you stories about their childhood; honoring our flag each morning.
My mom knows that raising a family and a garden are much the same: you’re gonna get down in the dirt, it’s hard work, and the rewards nurture you and all others who come to your table.
My Mom turned 80 in April, and I’m struggling with a proper tribute. There are so many events over the years, she is loved and respected by so many, I’ll try to imagine what John Boy would do. Probably what I’m doing now–remain at his desk, writing what he sees from his window.
Happy Mother’s Day. See you for supper.
Gov. Steve Beshear and other governors met with President Obama in early February to discuss energy policy. Following are excerpts from a letter Gov. Beshear submitted to the president as part of that meeting.
We all want to use our natural resources, whether fossil-based or renewable, in as an environmentally sustainable manner as possible.
As governor of a major coal-producing state that generates more than 92 percent of its electricity from coal, I know there is much at stake. Kentucky’s industrial development has occurred because we’ve had relatively low electricity rates based on coal-fired generation. We are the 3rd largest in automobile manufacturing, and we produce 30 percent of the nation’s stainless steel and 40 percent of the nation’s aluminum.
The nation as a whole relies on coal for about 50 percent of its electricity. To meet our nation’s growing energy needs in the next 20 to 30 years, coal will have to be a substantial part of the mix.
During our work on an energy plan for Kentucky, much analysis went into the possibilities for renewables to generate electricity. We simply do not have the solar and wind resources for baseload generation in the state.
I hope you understand my concerns over recent events at the federal level that appear to have the goal of turning coal into a marginal resource. The current focus on coal is not just a Kentucky issue, it’s not just a coal-state issue, it is a national issue. The future of our nation’s energy security and economic development depends on our ability to continue using our coal resources, our most abundant, reliable, and low-cost energy source.
Efforts to construct newer, cleaner coal-generation facilities are being thwarted, by both federal policy actions and by environmental organizations. However, our nation’s existing coal-generation fleet has an average age of 40-plus years, and these older facilities are not only much less efficient, they contribute a higher percentage of carbon dioxide emissions than would newer advanced coal technologies. Advanced coal generation needs to be afforded the same opportunities that renewable generation and generation from natural gas are being given.
