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Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
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Jackson Brower: Pennsyltucky - Southern vs Northern areas Pennsyltucky Cultural Comparisons: Southern Area vs. Northern Areaincludes topics of local politics, sports favorites, big college and professional; most common farm crops, driving habits, friendliness, the way people talk, religious affiliations, the cars the two regions drive, economic trends and oil & gas, famous local rock groups and more. Writer's Note: This non-scientific study will use two western Appalachian towns as its reference points, mainly because I have lived near both. The first is Columbia, KY, county seat of Adair County, population 19,000. The second is Washington, PA, county seat of Washington County, population 208,000. We'll take into account politics, favorite sports teams, social customs, driving habits, friendliness, speech patterns, local history heroes, top religions, most common cars, economic trends and even local rock music favorites. By Jackson Brower We'll look at 12 categories that give written snapshot summaries of life in both areas. It's interesting, because one is very rural and the other is both suburban and rural. One is a small population, and the other is 10 times larger. The towns of Columbia, KY and Washington, PA and their surrounding areas do have some things in common, but there are many differences as well due to geographical location and other factors. The main thing that both areas have in common is that they were initially settled by rough and ready American pioneers who dared to venture across the Appalachian Mountains in the late 1700s and early 1800s seeking better lives for their families. There were some more adventurous ones who kept going west, but for many, the western foothills of one the oldest mountain ranges in the world looked quite good, indeed. Let's start with local politics. Adair County, KY is predominantly Republican and voted Romney in the 2012 election. Washington County, PA is predominantly Democrat but surprisingly voted Romney, too. In 2008, it passed over President Obama as well and voted McCain. Let's talk professional sports team favorites. For NFL fans, in South-Central Kentucky, it's a tossup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Tennessee Titans. Around here is Steelers country and only the Steelers. Pittsburgh is the only town in the country whose sports teams, Steelers, Pirates and Penguins, all have the same colors: black and gold. Concerning MLB fans, most Kentuckians root for the Cincinnati Reds. The main reason is proximity, but a huge reason is that the Louisville Bats are Triple-A affiliates of the Reds. Prior to 1999, the Louisville minor league team was known as the Louisville Redbirds. Hockey is a pro sport that is slowly catching on in Kentucky, due to the formulation of the Nashville Predators in 1998. Please excuse me if I brag a little about the Pittsburgh Penguins who have won three Stanley cups within the last 25 years. On the other hand, we have the Pirates, who almost broke the "worst team" record with losing seasons 19 years in a row. Amazingly enough, they broke the spell last year and made the playoffs. Let's move on to big college sports favorites, specifically basketball and football. Columbia, of course, has the steadily improving Lindsey Wilson Blue Raiders, but we're talking bigger schools. Adair County big college fans would most likely root for the UK Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals or the WKU Hilltoppers. Up here in Washington County, PA, we're big fans of the Pitt Panthers, WVU Mountaineers and the Robert Morris Colonials. I must say, at this point, that we Pennsylvanians were just as surprised as you Kentuckians that Robert Morris snuffed UK in the NIT tournament last year. Next is the topic we'll call "most common farm crops". In Adair County, KY it's corn and tobacco, and in Washington County, PA it's corn and hay. When I lived in Adair in the early 80's, peppers were a significant crop for farmers, but I'm not sure if that is still the case. Close by to Pittsburgh there are some mushroom farms where the "shrooms" are actually grown underground in shallow caverns. Moving on, we can now discuss a topic well known to all of us - driving habits. The differences here are like night and day. In South-Central Kentucky, drivers wave to each other and generally do not drive too fast. Here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, drivers never wave to each other and always drive too fast. Down in your area, drivers are so courteous that they not only signal for themselves, they also signal to the driver behind them that the car in front of them is going to make a turn. Up here, many drivers just don't use turn signals at all. During my ten-year residency in Adair County, I never experienced an episode of road rage. Here in the Pittsburgh area, road rage incidents occur all the time. This leads us to the topic of friendliness. In the Adair County area, folks will generally speak to you first, and they are very friendly. I remember walking around the Public Square in downtown Columbia many times and having several conversations with folks who were rarely in a hurry. These conversations were not only with people I was acquainted with, but also with total strangers. From reading Columbia Magazine, it appears that Adair Countians are just as friendly as they were back in the 1970s and 1980s. There is no evident reason to expect otherwise, but please comment if you disagree. Up here in suburban South Hills Pittsburgh, you generally have to speak to folks first before they'll speak to you. And when they do, for the most part, it will be only briefly, because chances are they'll be in a hurry. But don't get me wrong, there are a lot of friendly people in Southwest PA, but the bottom line is that they are not quite as friendly as they are in good old Adair County, KY. Let's go for examples of accents, or the way people talk. Up here in northern Pennsyltucky, we are only about 40 miles from the Mason-Dixon Line, so there are some folks, especially in Greene County, PA, who have a bit of the southern twang in their voices. But the closer you get to the "Burgh", the more accents change. Here are some comparison examples of the language differences between South Central KY and Southwest PA. How about the plural of you? In your area it's "yawl". Here it's "yinz" (I know that sounds really weird, and it is, even to someone like me who was born and raised here). How about a small creek? In KY, it's a "branch". Up here it's a "run". An expression like "say again" in your area is "do what?". Here, it is "huh?". A term for "neat looking" in your area is "right smart". Here it's "sweet". A directional term in KY is "down yonder". In PA, it's "over there". In KY, an expression for "don't be stupid" is "get your mind right". Up here, it's "get with the program". While we're at it, we might as well mention the top religions of Adair County, KY and Washington County, PA. In your area, the top two are Baptists and Methodists. In our area, the top two are Roman Catholic and Presbyterian, the faith to which yours truly ascribes. Local history heroes in South Central Kentucky include Daniel Trabue and the Longhunters. In Southwest Pennsylvania ours are George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellioneers. Let's take something as simple like most common cars. These are "guesstimates", but I would venture to say that around Columbia, KY you'd see more Fords and Chevys than any other cars. Around Washington, PA, it just seems like there are more Toyotas and Hyundais than other cars. I have done random counts of cars going down the road, and about 7 out of 10 are Japanese or Korean. My dad is rolling over in his grave, because he was a real stickler on the idea of buying American-made products, especially cars. Concerning local economic trends, there are some similarities relating to the oil and gas business. In Adair County, the Discovery Channel gave national attention to the oil businesses like Travis Coomer Drilling Co. and Jimmy Reliford Drilling Co. that brought fortune and fame to Columbia, KY and its residents in 2013. Here in Washington County, PA we are still in the heart of the Marcellus Shale gas boom. In 2005, near the town of Hickory, PA, a big company called Range Resources tapped the first horizontally drilled natural gas well in the world using a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, and the rest is history. To conclude this exercise, let's leave on a fun note, and take a look at famous local rock groups who hit it big nationally. In close proximity to Adair County over in Metcalfe, the Kentucky Headhunters struck gold in 1992 with their first hit, "Dumas Walker". Up here, in neighboring Allegheny County, Donnie Iris and the Cruisers topped the charts with their first hit, "Ah Leah", in 1977. It is my hope that this piece will bring a better understanding of what Pennsyltucky is all about. Reader comments are, of course, welcomed and encouraged. - Jackson Brower, late of Barnett's Creek, Adair County, KY This story was posted on 2014-03-01 04:32:06
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