Tenn. is not really a rival to Ky, I just like to stir the pot a little. I like Tenn. also, especially Cade’s Cove and Dolly’s gravity defying chests.
We have a rivalry between all the SEC schools in basketball going back to the Rupp days. If an SEC team beats Ky their season is considered a success even if they win no other games that year, if they beat Ky twice in one season the winning SEC school immediately commissions a bronze statue dedicated to the coach. Back in Rupp’s day some of the gyms had spectators sitting so close to the out of bounds line that they would pull the hair off the legs of a Ky guard hoping to throw the inbounds pass off target. Then of course there was the Ernie and Bernie show back in the ‘70s at Tenn. UK has won more basketball games than any other school and is second only to UCLA in national championships. Lewavull also has a basketball team.
We have Amish in Central and E. Ky and are the proud home of Shakertown just outside of Harrodsburg, Ky. If you haven’t been to Shakertown it is worth the trip. There is another Shaker community in Ky that I believe is in Union City or may be Union county, though I have never visited.
Yard sales are still legal in Ky though Franklin county is moving to require the purchase of a license to have one. This is to be expected because Frankfort is our state capitol and is in Franklin county and the pols have to feel important somehow. The good news about our legislature is that they only meet every two years that helps keep the mischief a little lower.
Our politicians tend to stay bought longer than Tenn.’s which is a distinct advantage, and they are cheaper to purchase. Tenn. has no state income tax but is just smart enough to fund their government with a large sales tax for the tourists to pay. We are cursed with both, our sales tax is not as large as Tenn.’s though.
We also have the Abbey of Gethsemani, founded in the 1840’s by the French and one of my favorite places in Ky, though I am a Protestant of some sort. I think Gethsemani is the oldest monastery east of the Mississippi or maybe in the U.S., can’t remember. Gethsemani is spelled on my coffee cup just that way though spell check spells it with and e at the end. I am going with my coffee cup that I purchased at the Abbey.
Ky also produced both presidents in the Civil War, and John Hunt Morgan, and Larry Flynt, though we don’t consider Flynt a strong selling point. We offer fast horses, faster women, and the best bourbon made anywhere. Bluegrass music was invented here and I would bet we invented the rocking chair also, not to mention Mint Juleps and Colonel Sanders and his Ky Fried Chicken. Recent years have bought wine vineyards, I am pretty much ignorant about wine but people that know tell me it is good stuff. We have Cumberland Falls and Cumberland Lake which at one time and may still be the largest man made lake in the world. Also great bass, catfish, and trout fishing. The largest herd of elk east of the Mississippi in Eastern Ky and a bunch of turkeys, the eating kind, deer also abound. In Eastern Ky we hunt deer with guns, here in Central Ky they use their cars, I have never understood that. We are in the middle of the geese migratory path, the bad thing about it is they crap on about everything, the good part is you get to shoot em. PC only shows up in college towns and our kids outgrow it quickly.
Most Kentuckians consider man made laws suggestions and at worst a minor inconvenience. We have 4th generation moonshiners that make shine as great grandaddy taught them. We have one of the lowest taxes on cigarettes in the nation which tends to keep our funeral homes busy and smuggling cigs to northern liberal states is a growing industry. Our pot is considered among the best in the world and if the truth be known is our largest agr crop.
We have had an influx of rich liberals into Ky in recent years which after fouling their own nests are attempting to do the same to ours. Don’t think that will work out well for them as common sense is still in vogue in Ky. Quite a few Hollywood movers and shakers have bought tons of land in Ky and so in some towns it is not unusual to see socalled stars wandering around small towns. So far the Hollywood folks have been a benefit to our area.
If you are settling on the border of Ky and Tenn. it is probably a smart move cause when the SHTF you can run to a sane state where everyone is armed including my 78 year old mother. It does make for a more polite society.
I must tell the truth about Tenn., my grandfather on my dad’s side had the good sense to move to Ky from Tenn. I still have some relatives there and a family graveyard on the banks of Norris Lake, the family farm is under Norris Lake.
Antique shops abound all over the state and I purchased a complete set of 1840’s Empire glass draw pulls at a yard sale for ten bucks Sunday. Mission furniture is around the area though most don’t know what it is, God bless em. Eastlake and Victorian furniture is everywhere and one of the foremost authorities and restorers of Roycroft resides in Lewavull.
We are not an insular state and after 3 generations your great grandchildren will be considered natives.
What’s not to like?
I was at a town garage sale in Kingsport, TN a few years ago, sponsored by the local paper. A rep from the paper was walking around with an open mike asking trivia questions of those in attendance. One of those questions was “would you pronounce the capitol of Kentucky ‘Lew-is-ville’ or ‘Lewey-ville’. As he walked by, I looked at my wife, rolled my eyes and remarked “I’d pronounce it Frankfort”. He overheard me, and I walked away with a very nice glass mug...it was a trick question, and I bit.
Wow, lots of information. I think I will cut and paste it into a Word file for future reference.
We liked both states a lot, and found a lot of similarities in the kind and polite people. I had to pick up my husband from the Nashville airport at two o’clock and would be kicked out of our hotel an hour away at eleven. I didn’t want to have to wait at the airport in the heat and sense I brought my yorkie with me on the trip, our options were limited. So I just drove very very slow on the freeway. I didn’t get one single finger, wasn’t tailgated at all, wasn’t even honked at. Here in California, I would’ve gotten all that and probably run off road as well.
We went to near Harrodsburg, but missed the Shakers. Looks like that will call for a return trip ;)
yard sales needing a license? That’s absurd! Even here in the socialist state of California they don’t do that. I wonder if they do in Tennessee?
I do worry about a bunch of liberals moving in, since East Tennessee in East Kentucky are so beautiful. But we specifically chose the Tri-Cities area since it is somewhat a low income area. Thought that would keep out those who have to have granite and McMansions.
Thanks for all the valuable information!