DAY 70: PROUD GRANDMOTHER

I love the Finley Picnic! It really is one of the best kept secrets in Marion County. They have an awesome dinner, and it's always a treat to go and see everyone up there on the ridge.

This particular year, my mother-in-law, Dorothy Brady, made a little purse-sized photo gallery of what she was proud of. Her granddaughter, Sarah, had just been chosen Marion County's Junior Miss, and Dorothy was prepared to show her pride at the Finley Picnic!

This particular photo captured the whole mood for me of what a proud Grandma does at a country gathering. So sweet!

DAY 69: HIS NAME IS EARL

Earl Martin is, simply, a good old soul.

He lived on a farm in Raywick, and worked on that farm to earn his keep for many years. He was approaching 80 years old when my husband and I decided to visit him. 

 

When asked if there was anything he needed that we could bring to him Earl was quick to ask for a pair of work boots - as he showed us the holes in his shoes.

He also said he was ready to "retire". He expressed a wish to go to Cedars of Lebanon where his brother had lived.

The next visit we brought the work boots he desired, but Earl wasn't so forthcoming with conversation that time. It was almost as if he was afraid to talk to us! I couldn't figure out why that was.

The picture, below, is one I took of him on that disturbing visit; just seeing it again makes me SO SO SAD. My heart was so heavy for him! I just could not get him out of my mind.

Soon after this visit, though, Earl realized his dream of retirement.

Little did I know that his friends and neighbors were already busy working on a project to retire Earl.

He now lives out his dream at the retirement home of his choice, Cedars of Lebanon nursing home. I saw in the local paper - maybe last year - that he was voted Valentine "King" by his fellow residents there. And I visited a couple of times and it was obvious that he'd become somewhat of a celebrity because of his dancing and his good nature...

I am happy for Earl Martin!

He deserves a nice retirement from his lifetime of labor!

I don't know of very many people who look forward to living in a nursing home, but for Earl that was the goal on which he had pinned his hopes and dreams.

DAY 68: SPOCK at CEDARWOOD

This is David Louis Mattingly/ aka "Spock".

He was my youngest favorite uncle. I was his oldest favorite niece.

He had a window-washing business toward the end of his life. He is pictured here at Cedarwood Restaurant, a tool of his trade flung across his shoulder.

He died too young - a victim of cancer - and a cruel form of that disease; his cancer was in his face and head.

He chose almost from the beginning not to comply with the recommended treatments from his doctors.

It really was difficult for his family and friends that he made the choices he did; but they were his to make.

At the funeral home, one of his best friends spoke. He told a story that made everyone just get down laughing. He described a time when we still had railroad tracks in Loretto and St. Francis. He said he and Spock and maybe a few other friends had a peculiar hobby...they liked to let some of the air out of their car tires so that they could ease up on the tracks --- and ride the rails. They could lay out on the hoods of their cars and the cars would just follow the rails through all the scenic beauty that was to be beheld between Loretto and New Hope.

On the most memorable of those occasions, the friends were riding the rails (and probably smoking a little marijuana) when they got the rude awakening that they were right on track to meet up with a train heading right toward them.

They barely got off the track in time, and the locomotive sped past them.

This is one of those stories that is so crazily dangerous that it's only funny at the funeral. I was there - and it WAS funny.

Spock spent some time in the metropolis of Holy Cross, Kentucky.

He somehow became locally famous for what the locals called the "Spock Burger".

There was once a big billboard out in a cow pasture near rural Holy Cross that touted out the Spock Burger.

I always thought it hilarious and wondered what out-of-towners/aka "tourists" must have thought when seeing that Star Trek-like billboard out in the middle of a cow pasture...in the middle of nowhere.

Here it is...and in my opinion, it's the best billboard ever in Marion County...

DAY 67: MAGISTRATE

This gentleman is a former Magistrate of Marion County.

I first met him years ago when he and his wife attended dances where I would sing, starting when I was only about twelve years old.

Years later, I ran into him time and time again when I was running for the office of Marion County Clerk. It was hilarious! I would go to certain neighborhoods, campaigning, and this guy seemed to always pop up!

He would be visiting someone and just happened to be the one to answer the door when I went to all his relatives' houses! He was, simply, everywhere!

I ended up thinking he was my campaign Guardian Angel because he seemed to pop up everywhere I went...

Mr. Magistrate, you've always made me laugh! 

DAY 66: SEX OFFENDER INVESTIGATION

A few years ago, Marion County citizens realized - in collective horror - that there was a 'sex offender' living right in town, directly across from Lebanon Elementary School!

The Lebanon Enterprise dutifully published a big article about it.

And then one day I was riding by the rented digs of the offender (which I often did, as he was right in my neighborhood) and spotted Enterprise reporters on the door step. So naturally, I took a picture of the story within a story.

I felt the reporters were nervous. And that they did not appreciate my photographing them just when they'd rung the doorbell hoping to get comments from the local sex offender.

But I thought I should take the picture, and I did.

Not enough is written about the stories behind the stories, I think.