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October 27, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener This article first appeared in the October 27, 1977, Daily Statesman. Topics include the then-new Pizza Hut, the Saw Mill that used to be in the city limits, and the major upgrade to Stereo Broadcasts at WAIN. The article starts with one of dad's most common themes, walking and the state of Columbia's sidewalks, a topic that he continued to write about for 40 years. --Pen By Ed Waggener Walking is the vogue thing to do today in Columbia. A few years ago, anybody walking one-half mile to town would have had four Good Samaritans take pity on them and offer a ride. Today, pedestrians are not bothered so much. The benefits of walking are being proved in the reduced heart disease in the country. I thought two years ago that pedestrians would be needing to wear a patch which would say, "I'm walking because I want to," to keep motorists from offering unwanted rides. Today, it isn't so. Walking power! Yet, the walkers aren't exercising their political power to make things as they should be. Sidewalks are in sad shape in Columbia, and a pedestrian often takes his life in his own hands whenever he ventures off the few proper sidewalks in town. The clenched fist of Black Power won its battle. Now, I suggest, the Boot-In- the-Rear insignia for Foot Power. The symbol could show an L.L. Bean walking shoe firmly planted in the lard-ass rear of a bureaucrat. If more attention were paid to pedestrians, a lot of out traffic problems would disappear. Oh yes, we do have pollution from automobiles! Just spend a day on the corner of Jamestown Street and Russell Road when the traffic is idling and there are cars backed up to Montgomery Street. My mother, who lives at 705 Jamestown Street, says that this is the biggest drawback to living in the middle of the commercialized corner. The businesses are good neighbors. The moving traffic provides a break in the monotony, but the fumes are another thing. No new-comer to walking The message in Robert Frost's "Walking by the Woods in Snowtime" was that the poet enjoyed the beauty of the snowy woods, but he felt guilty about lingering because he thought he should be working. I never like to see fun-seekers go to walking merely for the fun or health of it, or to see people say they want to work merely to exercise. The work should be useful. With the satisfaction of doing something useful, the fun will come. And the health. But it won't be sought. It will be a welcome fringe benefit. James "Boss" Wilson is the dean and champion of Adair County walkers. Wilson doesn't walk for the health or the fun of it, although he enjoys walking and says he sees a lot more country by walking. He walks for one reason: To get from here to there. If he's offered a ride, he generally accepts it. But walking is the way he gets around; it's economical, practical, and healthy. He walked to Louisville Boss Wilson now lives about eight miles out on East 80, near Rufus Conover's Store. When he decides to come to Columbia, he just heads in that direction. "Whenever I want to go anywhere," he said, "I stick my hat on my head and strike out." When his sister was in a Louisville hospital eight years ago, Wilson took off, walking, to Louisville. It took him 24 hours. "I make about four miles an hour," Wilson said. He doesn't mean to make a practice of walking to Louisville. "I wouldn't do that again unless I had to," he says. But short trips to the next town are no problem. "I've walked to Burkesville lots of times," he says. And he says that Sparksville is no trouble at all to make. He's walked to Russell Springs, to Edmonton, and even to Glasgow. If it's raining, he goes right on, "unless it's raining too hard," he says. For Boss Wilson, walking is a practical solution to travel. It hasn't hurt his health. "I've never been sick a day in my life," he says. Another man walked 100 miles Earl Mann, night manager at the Circle R Restaurant, where Boss Wilson takes most of his meals, says that he has walked 100 miles before. "But it wasn't my idea," he says. "I was in the infantry and they told me to walk the 100 miles." He adds, "I did." Those roads need blacktopping Henry Marusak, the Democrat nominee for county judge, is focusing on industry and roads as his two main goals. One of the roads he wants blacktopped should have been done years ago. It's the old Columbia - Russell Springs Road. Several families live on the road - the Badgelys, the Calhouns, the Lawlesses, and the Williamses - and it should be blacktopped for their sakes. The road is paved to the Adair County line from Russell County. From Bill Murray's junkyard on East 80, the Old Columbia - Russell Springs Road is blacktopped about one mile. Only about three miles of blacktopping is needed to have hard surface all the way through, Marusak says. As things stand now, it is far easier for people out there to shop in Russell Springs than Columbia because of the better Russell County road. If Columbia merchants are to have an equal shot at this market, the road ought to be blacktopped. We'll have FM stereo Monday The word from out on Radio Ridge is that WAIN-FM will be back on the air Monday, broadcasting in stereo. The station is getting a fantastic new sound. The power is up on the AM side so that the reach of the station is much greater. "We've got equipment at WAIN now that equals anything in Kentucky except maybe WVLK in Lexington or WHAS in Louisville," a station spokesman said on Wednesday. We hope to have more on Alan Reed, the new station manager, in Saturday's Daily Statesman. Can remember when it was corn field Allen Phelps took Wednesday dinner (lunch, to city folks) at the Pizza Hut. He had to look around and remember. "I used to plow that field over there, when my uncle, Finis Phelps, owned it," he said, pointing to the Harvey Addition, which is bounded by Willis, Harvey, Tutt, and Jamestown Streets. Phelps said that he could remember when there was only his uncle's house, Noah Loy's house (where Burger Queen is today), and the home of Press Miller in that end of town. The site of the Pizza Hut is where one of the package liquor stores stood right after Prohibition, Phelps said. I remember that I used to mow Mrs. George Harvey's yard, when she owned the Pizzas Hut corner. Things have really changed. There was a sawmill in the city I don't remember just when it was, the late forties or early fifties, I guess, but Luther Wheet had a garage on the east side of Highway 55 immediately north of the Cumberland Parkway out that way. And Frosty Gabbard had a sawmill just south of that. Gabbard was a huge man with rugged features. To see him once was to never forget him. I remember that he owned the only REO truck I ever saw in Adair County and that he "invented" a motorized tricycle made from two full-sized bikes. Sawmills were an iffy proposition Several fortunes in this area trace their origins to sawmillings after World War II. A lot of bankruptcies, or at least financial failures came from the same business. There was a saying in those days which alluded to the hazards of sawmilling. A person would say, "I don't like that SOB, I think I'll just give him a sawmill." The saying is still around, except now it's "I don't like that SOB, I think I'll give him a newspaper." The life of a country newspaper editor is a mighty hard life. A Pooh-Bear Clock A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh's clock always says 11:00a.m., so that anytime Pooh is hungry, which is all the time, he looks at the clock and says, "It's eleven o'clock. I'd better have a little smackerel of something." Customers in David Wells insurance agency frequently tell him that his clock is not working, if they are there any time except high noon. His clock always says "12:00." His answer is the same. "It's working, all right," Wells says. "I get off at 12:00 to go to lunch. That clock is right where I want it to be." All he has to do, when he's hungry, is think, "It's twelve o'clock. I'd better go to lunch," and leave. Grudgingly, I guess, I have to admire a person who can get his job done without being a slave to a time piece. Craftsman still around Some people complain that craftsmen don't care as much anymore. I don't believe it. The quality of the housing going up in Columbia today is some of the best in history. I was especially impressed with the brickwork on the spacious new home of Marilyn and Wayne Livesay on Bull Run Road. The mortar lines on the house are as straight as tablet rules, and detail work was done with painstaking care - you can tell. Carl Hutchison of Columbia was the bricklayer. This story was posted on 2019-06-09 10:07:13
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May 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener September 30, 1977 Around Adair with Ed Waggener May 17, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener April 4, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener April 11, 1978, Around Adair Around Adair: It must have happened in Columbia Around Adair with Ed Waggener The BMW Isetta: A vexing car that invited bullying Around Adair Around Adair View even more articles in topic Around Adair with Ed Waggener |
 
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