Kentucky II

I've been to Kentucky three or four times.  The first time, I visited Shelbyville, Kentucky, where my grandfather grew up, about an hour outside of Louisville.  I was eighteen years old, and all my grandfather's sisters - my great aunts - were still alive. I remember having a really wonderful trip, spending time with a whole cast of relatives only a few of whom I'd met before, experiencing my first big summer thunderstorm, and feeling a sense of heralding from a place, a feeling that I'd never had before .  I still think of Kentucky as being a place that I am "from", in a blood line sense.   I was taken to lunch at Wakefield- Scearce Gallery, seen in the postcard to the left, which  houses one of the largest collections of English furniture, silver, limited edition porcelains and decorative accessories in the country.  It also sells traditional mint julep cups for about $500 each.  My 18-year old self didn't really get what all the fuss was about.   

 My next visit was with my grandmother, at the time in her 80s, while I was in my mid 20s. We visited Maysville, Kentucky, where she grew up.  We stopped to see the house she grew up in which had a huge flood wall in front of it; however, during her childhood there, the house looked directly out over the Ohio River.  We knocked on the front door, and the lady who lived there seemed to remember my grandmother and let us look inside, my grandmother pointing out where a rowboat had been tied to the banister during a huge flood.  After a few days, we drove from Maysville through Lexington (stopping in to visit a few horse farms), and on to Shelbyville.  While there, some cousins took me to Mammoth Caves.  

The last time I visited, our entire family went for one of our cousin's weddings.  This particular cousin, Jill, had visited all of the California cousins in California, and even stayed with us for a time in San Francisco.  The wedding was beautiful and fun and we loved being there as part of the family.