Beech Tree News Network

Hometown Character

Greenville, Kentucky was my hometown until I was twenty-two, when I married and left home. Now Morgantown, Kentucky has been my hometown for around fifty-seven years.  Both of my children married here. I have grandchildren here. That ties it to the kitchen post.

In Greenville, Dim Bandy drove a 1939 Ford pickup truck for the Square Deal Grocery Store. Dim was slight-built man about 6’5, a bachelor-living alone with his coon dogs- which he was very liberal in loaning out if you asked him…a likeable guy, Dim. You could hear Dim coming before you could see him. The pickup had a used World War Two Jeep engine. It had a very distinct sound. Engines were hard to come by after the war. The word jeep had the military designation of G. P. -general personnel. It later evolved into jeep.  One of my Granddad’s called it a jeet.

Mose Willis was a lawyer in Greenville, a bachelor and also a Republican. He drove a 1929 Model-A Ford. A Republican in Muhlenburg County was a no-no but Mose was his own man. Some of the mean democrats said he passed the bar when he was asked one question: “how far is it from Greenville to Owensboro?”

“45 miles,” Mose answered.

“That’s close enough,” the bar agreed.

Of course, that was a nasty put-down. Mose shot the nay-sayers out of the saddle when he was elected County Attorney of Muhlenburg County. Somebody liked him.

Mose was a cousin of Howard Willis Vaughn of Rochester. Howard wrote a history of Butler County. He was a teacher at Butler County High School.

Howard “Droopy” Drake borrowed Weldon Baize’s fishing boat, I’m told. When Droopy was pulling trailer and boat out of Weldon’s drive, Weldon stopped him and put a pin the boat motor’s propeller.

“It won’t hurt for that prop to turn,” Droopy told him.

“Yeah, Weldon said, “but that thing’s only got so many turns in it.”

One of the characters in Butler County played baseball back when. He played in the field and when the ball went into the woods everyone started noticing how quickly he could run in and retrieve the ball. Come to find out, he was hiding baseballs in several places in the woods.

Lee, (his last name escapes me), a black man, had a slaughter house on the edge of the city limits in Greenville. The Jewish folks obtained their meat from him. Elic Cohen operated a large hardware store in Greenville. Elic was also the local Jewish Rabbi. He personally picked up the meat at Lee’s slaughterhouse-performing the kosher ceremony right there on the meat, before he left Lee’s place. One day he told Lee that sometimes he was too busy to pick up the meat. So Elic left the Kosher bit and instructions for Lee to perform the ritual and bring the meat to him. So, you had a black Methodist acting as a Jewish Rabbi. What else is new?

Kindest Regards.