Not What It Use To Be

Have you ever seen someone going up and down the creek, what we now call streets, that never offer a smile or speak a friendly word to anyone? My old friend, Zeke Branson, up the river way, has a very good answer to it. He says they were weaned on vinegar. I believe Zeke has something there. Vinegar in the old days was really something. It would make you pucker up your lips. I say the type vinegar you get today is very mild compared to what it use to be. Today maybe the vinegar has been diluted too much along with other things. The coffee is not what it use to be. The ground coffee of years ago - you could smell for a mile at least before you reached someone's place - up and down those hollars. It is not what we have had in the past. I think it is good to remember those days. I trust that we never forget what we have been raised to.


It has been a long time ago since Sam Stamper hauled goods from my dad's store to Blue Grass Hollow in a wheel barrow. No doubt, Sam did a lot of trading on the way of genuine Barlow knifes, salt, & bacon with a wheelbarrow and a lot of muscle power. I can see those plank sidewalks as we had in those days in Hazard. We've made a lot of progress since then. I also remember Matt Horn & Bill Campbell. Matt worked with me on the mail route back in the thirties and when I was first married in 1930, we purchased our first furniture from Bill Campbell. Some of it is still in use today in my home. Memories will long linger in my mind to the fatherly advice I received from both.

Good to hear from Mr. and Mrs. George Mistler, along with Mom Mistler. I can never forget you folks. I recall those days in the thirties when we were neighbors on Oakhurst Avenue. Those were days I will never forget. 1961