Survey Says ...

Now, shame on you, Dr. Oz, labeling our little town nestled deep in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, as "unhappy". Have you been here? Did you take a survey of town folks? Out of those town folks you would have found doctors, lawyers, and other professionals who graduated from Hazard High School, went off to College, came back to make their living in this "unhappy" surrounding. You would have also found professionals who sought this "unhappy" little town to settle in to practice their different trades. You would hear stories about how The Dukes of Hazzard loved this "unhappy" town so much they kept coming back. Why, guess what? When my children were young, The Dick Clark Show came to this "unhappy" place. I could go on and on really but what's the use.

I was born in this "unhappy" place, got married, went to CA to be with my husband while he served his country, and it was there I got highly educated in adultery, drunkenness, murder, etc. All the things I was taught to shun was very prominent in CA in that time frame known as the Fifties. Yep, I wrote back home and told my folks what I had seen and they told me to take the first air flight out of that "modern day evil place". Dr. Oz, I saw a side of living that my sleepy little "unhappy" town in KY could not hold a light to.

However, I did find something good. There was an Owl Drugstore nearby and I would go down there to get a soda time and again. I would ask for a "cherry coke" and honestly, they asked me to tell them how to make it and they would...but, from behind the prescription counter, this voice came forth, "Hey, I know how to make cherry cokes...and with this the voice came to life when this fine man came to the counter and asked me where I was from. I told him Hazard, Kentucky...he threw back his head and laughed, "Oh, I know where you are from. I know that area well." With this said and my mind in a tizzy because I didn't know anyone would know where Hazard was. He went on to tell me the names of all the little towns up and down Perry County, i.e., Duane, Blue Diamond, Jeff, Typo, on and on. I was thrilled because I had found someone that knew my home territory.

I asked him if he were a native of our county and he told me no but that he had worked in his younger days for the Jewel Tea Coffee Company and they gave him the route he had spouted out to me. He must have made enough selling coffee to these "unhappy" people in Hazard and surrounding little villages to buy into one of the chain drugstores. Everytime I look at my Jewel Tea dishes that I have collected through the years (and they are highly sought after) I think of this man, and thought of him again when I read the Dr. Oz segment.

So, you see, Dr. Oz you have judged a little town as "unhappy". I betcha a poll would find you more happy people in that area than unhappy. You could have gone around Hazard and been surprised at what you could find that would fall on the other side of this coin. I am proud to say that Hazard High School offered me an education that most people meeting me thinks I was a member of the higher learning clan. I know times in Hazard have changed and I don't live there anymore but my heart is still there and I get rilled up when I hear it talked about. The younger generation coming up there might be disgruntled for some reason or another but it appears most of them always find themselves coming back to "the mountains". Why, because the people are true, what you see is what you get, no facades which is a way of life in CA if it has not changed. Hazard and Harlan Kentucky are well known from sea to shining sea.

Just to tell you, Dr. Oz, I don't watch your show and I bet your watching audience has fallen, or has it?