Bars, Berries, and Bickett Stories: Tales from Raywick with Charlie Bickett

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Welcome back everybody.
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This is uh I think episode 22, is that right?
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Of um twenty-three.
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Mildly amusing.
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I'm James Spraggens, your host.
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Special treat today.
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Um our guest is Charlie Bickett.
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So about two weeks ago, um I forget what day of the week it was, doesn't matter, but it was about 10 o'clock in the morning.
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And um I get a call from Kurt Mattingley.
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Uh and he says, Hey James, it's Kurt.
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I'm standing here with Charlie Bickett, and he would like to he would like to give you a copy of his new book.
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Um and uh I kind of felt like I knew where this was going.
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He said, And maybe you would consider having him on your podcast.
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I said, Well absolutely do that.
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So um and I said uh I tell you what, just uh give me his number and um I'll reach out to him and we'll we'll make arrangements.
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We said, Well, his phone's not exactly working right now.
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We're we gotta do something about that.
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He said, Well, what are you doing right now, James?
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I said, Well, I'm nothing.
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Where are you?
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I'm at home.
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Well, how about we just stop by?
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I said, Okay, give me 10 minutes.
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Okay.
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So I got myself presentable and everything.
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And um uh they rang the front doorbell and we stood on the front porch for a while.
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I'll um I'll get Amy the picture that uh that Charlie and I took um and we'll post it on the Facebook page.
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But um so we um uh made arrangements and I said um well okay, well let's do a show.
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I said, Well, Charlie, what are you doing on Wednesday?
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Nothing.
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Oh, okay.
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Well, how about you meet me Wednesday at 10 o'clock, whatever it was.
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Uh okay, fine.
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Well I get a call back uh a little bit later from Kurt.
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Well, Charlie's got a he's got a little he forgot he has a little court appearance on Wednesday.
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So and nothing big.
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He has to straighten out something with his driver's license, and that's all worked out and everything.
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Anyway, so we um I said, Well, I'm leaving town.
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I'll call, I'll reach out when I get back, we'll make this happen.
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Well, we just made it happen.
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I think you're gonna enjoy this episode.
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Charlie talks about his book called Ray Wickians.
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Um he talks about uh some personal history, Ray Wick history.
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Uh we're gonna talk about um uh their history running taverns uh in that area.
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Um and I I really uh we filled up an hour very quickly and I feel like we barely got we didn't get very deep.
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We could have him back.
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So uh and perhaps we will.
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But I want to tell you something.
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Stick around to the very end.
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We're gonna come back after our conversation wraps up.
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Stick around.
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Um Charlie offered to sing us a song.
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It's a song called Home Out in Texas.
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Uh The Man Can Carry a Tune.
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I'll just say that.
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Stick around for that, you're gonna enjoy that.
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Um This is Mildly Amusing.
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I'm James Braggins.
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Thank you so much for joining us again.
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We'll be right back.
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Welcome back everyone.
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This is Mildly Amusing.
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I'm your host, James Braggins.
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Um and um as I um as you know already, our guest today is Mr.
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Charlie Bickett.
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Uh um I freely admit I come into this conversation with a lot of ignorance.
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I don't know a I really am the I'm the only one around here who I don't know anybody who knows less about cornbread mafia, all that stuff uh than me, than I.
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And uh so I'm here to get an education.
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But we're not just gonna talk about that stuff.
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We're gonna talk about your family history, we're gonna talk about uh your personal history, and um I'm really interested, you're very interested in the history of your home, Raywick.
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Okay.
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Uh I want to talk about that.
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I want to talk about uh how it got its name and um um and um uh what its name used to be, which is Sheep's Defeat.
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Sheep's Defeat.
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That's the craziest name I ever heard.
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Um anyway, uh Mr.
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Vickett, thank you so much for being here.
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Thank you.
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So you have just come out with a book um and um this is which book is this?
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This is your book.
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This is number four, yes.
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This is number four.
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Okay.
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Let me ask a simple question.
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What what made you start to write these books?
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Why are you writing these books?
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Is this your you want to you feel like I gotta get this stuff on down on paper?
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Why are you writing these books?
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Obviously you like to sell some books.
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Yeah.
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But go ahead.
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That's one of the reasons, not the main reason about selling books.
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Um I I I was born in a family of storytellers.
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My dad and mom.
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Dad would tell a story, he could pick up a piece of cheese and and and have everybody gazing at him, talking about this piece of cheese for a hour.
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And he's just a storyteller and he could repeat himself.
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Mom was the same way.
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Mom would tell the old stories, we sang old songs like Home Out in Texas and all that, which when I'm drinking, I usually sing.
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What's the name of it?
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Uh uh Texas, the Home Out in Texas.
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Okay.
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Anytime you want me to sing it, I will.
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Well, we can get to that.
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Absolutely.
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But anyway, uh that was we was gifted that all of our family sort of gabbers and researchers about our families, and my daddy, and here in the 70s, there was a set of bickets, four of them came in from Icon, Ohio, and they owned a big security system, and the family still does.
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We were just reaching the last couple of years, me and Robbie have been researching this, and uh that you know, 60 years ago, it was all word of mouth.
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So here come these four two bald-headed guys, two old gray-headed women, and another, and they started telling daddy about we were royalties.
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We was uh uh we we we were in the king's favor.
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We solicited 1,300 acres from the king of the government for fighting my William T.
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Bickett fighting in the American Revolutionary War.
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Well, we'll find out a lot, that's false.
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And just the computer is happening because there's more bickets right here in Mary.
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There's more bickets outside of Mary Kanye than there is there.
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But anyway, 50% of my friends are Bickets from all over the country.
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Are you saying that your ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War was a loyalist, a loyalist to the King?
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Yes.
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Gotcha, gotcha.
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So anyway, uh uh we came to uh Kentucky.
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Uh he fought in the American Revolutionary War, William T.
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Bickett.
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And on the way down from Scotland to Ireland, that's still up in there, that uh uh he was uh uh we had a son named Nathaniel, that's where I come in, my line, Nathaniel Bickett.
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And suspiciously he had another son uh when he got to Kentucky, and at birth that kid died.
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And uh all the other kids were gone, except for Nathaniel, and so there's always a little bit of talk about how'd he die, you know.
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And back then, uh uh Arnold came out of nowhere, and that sort of throat in a cog in the wheel with all the Bickett boys, William Bickett.
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You know, who's gonna get this land now, you know.
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But anyway, Nathaniel wound up with it, and he's my line of Bickettes.
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And uh and you still you all still own some of that original track.
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We own around 500 acres of the original 1,300 acres.
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And one of the other things you talked about, you said your mother was also okay.
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First of all, your father's J.E.
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Bickett.
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Yes, sir.
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Who was a magistrate?
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32 years.
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32 years.
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What was your mother's name?
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Khalida's family.
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Khalida Kirkpatrick from New Haven, Kentucky.
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Kirkpatrick from New Haven.
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Okay.
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All right.
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And mom was a storyteller.
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She's mom went around singing all the time, just these old songs there, and we'd laugh, and and uh we all we all sung with her, especially around the holidays.
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You know, mom would get going, she'd drag us kids up there in front of the church.
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We we live on the downside of Ravick, and she'd have about six kids behind her.
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We'd be walking up Ravick through snow, and there'd be people laying around drunk all on the street in Ravick.
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And she held our us kids tight as hell, you know, going to church there.
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I remember that so plain how.
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And they already always respected Mama.
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You know, everybody, you can see all the women in Ravick going to church on a Sunday morning or Saturday or whatever.
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But I remember that, and uh we partaked in all the singing and all this and that, and uh so I don't know where we went wrong, but uh uh but uh we uh there's a lot of good memories of my family missing.
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Well I I I don't know.
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We we we were talking about it.
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Are you saying you strayed from the teachings?
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What are you saying?
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No, no, no.
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I I I believe in Jesus, but I believe in him in my own way.
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I gotcha.
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But uh uh mine was instrumental.
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You know, their dad had one leg.
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Uh he had it uh had an accident on the way to Louisville, going to join the army in 42 or 3 or whatever.
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And he was on another uh he was with another guy was with him on Indian Harley motorcycle.
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And on the way on St.
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Mary's Curve by the church they wrecked, and uh Daddy had a bed cut, which led to Gang Green.
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Okay.
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And then uh uh Dr.
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Bowdy, I don't think you remember him, he's the one that amputated his leg and had another gentleman on that bike with him, named Mike Horsty.
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And but he wound up joining the Army and he went to the war.
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In fact, all the harsies went to World War too.
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But he was junior hardesty, and he would live near Raywick, right?
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Junior, yeah, he was a mail carrier, poster cap uh all these years.
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He's but anyway, Daddy would have uh he he got home and uh uh uh uh he when he was married, he he uh he uh ran for magistrate and he won.
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And uh so anyway, he's the longest magistrate around, 1932 years.
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And uh, but I looked back, mom had polio on one leg, and dad had one leg gone, and we always made jokes of it.
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All the kids with daddy, and that's the way we were.
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But I wonder how they raised nine kids.
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Daddy never had a public job.
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He worked in oil fields, gas fields, he was a magistrate, he was uh all these things.
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And Dad said at the end of the last ten years, he said, Charlie, he said, you know, I could have, when I had this leg cut off, he said, I could have gone down to the Social Security office, walk in with crutches, fall down right in front of the floor there.
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He's I got the insurance, he said, Well I got social security just like that.
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I guess so.
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But Daddy wasn't like that.
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Daddy, you know, he was a man's man, you know, he he he he was a worker, everybody loved him to death.
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And uh uh he you know he helped and ravic in every way he could.
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Dad, when he was mad, he had judicial powers.
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And people would get drinking, get drunk, get in fights.
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And these women, the wives of these women would come down knocking on the door all parts of the night.
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I want a warrant for this, I want a warrant for her, I want a warrant.
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And Daddy would issue them the next day.
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He called Henry Smith up, which was his best friend.
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Henry's from Ray Wick.
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Right.
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And uh uh the Smith boy's all from Raywick.
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But anyway, he said, uh let this guy go where he just drunk JT, and then the daddy said, stick it to him right there.
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He said, He got a little smart.
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Oh my god.
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So, but anyway, I think in the 80s they changed all that.
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They went just strictly to uh uh taking care of the roads and all that.
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But uh uh Deb Deb was dad was well liked, and Mama was loved to death.
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You know, then she got her GED when she's 30, 40 years old.
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She worked at the county extension office for 30-something years.
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And I remember we would go out there, but they have an open house day.
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They would have a hundred kids.
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They would be pulling on mom, mama would be crying.
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It didn't matter if it was a fat kid, ugly kid, or whatever.
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Mama looked, doesn't it look like Trish?
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Talk about my sister, the one who got killed.
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Every little child, she said, doesn't she look like Trish?
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And of course we shoot her right back at her, you know, say something smart to her just and then shut up, shut up.
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Well anyway, mom never did a uh get over, and that's what killed daddy when Trisha got killed.
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Uh that was back in the 80s, I think.
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And uh uh we was there at the night of the uh bar, the night that the guy shot both of them twice in the head, burned them up.
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Could have also done something to you're referring to to what exactly?
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Tell me it's right.
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Uh well let me stop you for one thing.
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Let me say one thing.
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Uh I meant to mention this.
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You're accompanied by your friend, confidant, uh, editor, literary agent Kurt Mattingley, who is the who called me a couple weeks ago and got this whole ball rolling.
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Yes.
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So welcome to Kurt and Kurt if you feel that you need to uh weigh in on any of this.
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And sure.
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Okay, all right.
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Now I'm sorry, now what do you what do you what is this shooting you're referring to?
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Well, when my sister and brother-in-law got murdered back in the 80s, okay.
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They lived in Florida for years, they retired from public.
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Daddy, everybody wanted them to come out.
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Tricia's and the youngest sister.
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Yeah.
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Well, they come out, they've built the home on the farm that daddy gave them some land.
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And a year and a half later, this guy comes up, they sold a boat they bought from Florida to this dude.
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He's still locked up.
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And uh well he sold.
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Where did the shooting take place?
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At on our farm.
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Okay.
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My brother-in-law sold him a boat, and the check was no good.
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Well, my brother-in-law, being hot-tempered as he was, but he's a good guy, Rick Gaddy, uh, he told him, I want my money, I'm going to get a warrant.
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Well, he comes up there, this guy did, and uh walks right in the door, shoots my sister in the kitchen, shoots my brother-in-law.
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My sister gets up running with her two dogs, shoots her again, goes in, executes uh my brother-in-law, Rick, sets the place on fire, burns the place down, and we and she was so burnt they couldn't do an investigation except do a DNA.
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They didn't know whether she was assaulted or not.
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Because you know, she well anyway, that night there was probably a hundred people up there.
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And I'm sitting at the bar, they said there's a fire up on Bickett's.
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And of course, Joe Keith and Jimmy's still locked up.
00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:57.279
So uh we all went up there and uh the firefighter, which was Mike Troutman, all walking around the fire gagging.
00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:05.279
Here they are, just like that, when they said that mama just fell backwards, daddy hugged, and uh it was a pretty rough night for a bit.
00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:07.759
Uh yeah, it's not the kind of night you'll ever forget.
00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:08.080
No.
00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:09.279
Right, right.
00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:12.559
Tell me a little bit more, let's back up and give me a little bit more about your father.
00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:13.919
I mean your your family.
00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:15.519
So you are one of how many?
00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:16.240
I'm the one of the things.
00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:17.519
Give me the names and give me the order.
00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:19.440
Little thorough the oldest one, he died.
00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:19.600
Okay.
00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:21.919
Joe Keith wrote the cornbread mafia.
00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:26.320
Jimmy Bickett is the head of the cornbread uh uh uh hemp stock.
00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:26.799
Yeah.
00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:29.200
And then there's uh Kathleen and Marceline.
00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:32.159
Marceline died, uh, Kathleen died here a few years ago.
00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:35.360
And uh Kathleen's the one so good at France Keith.
00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:36.480
Yeah, you remember that.
00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:43.919
But anyway, uh uh then there's uh uh Jimmy, then there's Beverly, and she's sort of the mom of the bunch.
00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:46.720
She worries about all the boys and kids and all this and that.
00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:52.159
Then there's Robbie, and then Robbie works, he's a parole probation officer, gonna retire here pretty soon.
00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:54.559
He's been over 30 years over Etown.
00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:55.120
Oh, wow.
00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:57.679
And then, of course, Trish, the one that died in the fire.
00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:02.960
But there's nine of us, and uh uh uh we never did want nothing.
00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:07.440
I mean, and you know, there's you know dad every day worked his butt off.
00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:09.360
Of course, Dad liked to drink a little bit too.
00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.480
Well, and that's where the old saying about his leg comes in.
00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:18.960
Daddy was sitting at the bar, and and I know about half of them would be lying, but there's no way he could stab himself that many times.
00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:28.000
Every time you see somebody stranger, your dad, well, dad would have tennis seat, he'd come in there, he'd be sitting with Norris Brady and Junior Williams and Stilly, and they'd be drinking.
00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:32.399
Try to give us another beer here, and I'd give him a slice of cheese, and these strangers come in.
00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:34.720
And Daddy, just like me, had to show off.
00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:38.000
And Daddy would reach out, of course he's got a wooden leg now, you remember that.
00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:41.120
And his sockets made out of rubber.
00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:46.000
And Daddy would pretend he's fussing this guy here, cussing him this and that.
00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:53.919
And he would take a knife or what he stabbed that in his leg, and that I mean, it looked like a real piece of meat he stabbed in there.
00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:55.759
And they would back out of there.
00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:56.559
They would back out.
00:15:56.720 --> 00:16:00.720
But mama's mama would always say she she always called Daddy Bickett.
00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:03.679
She said, I can always know when Bickett was drinking.
00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:11.519
He said, next day, you know, she'd do his clothes, and she and I put them up on the line of those holes in his pants around his leg.
00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.600
But now that actually happened, but at how many times it happened, I don't know.
00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:20.399
But yeah, but that was one of Daddy's favorite legacies, I reckon.
00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:20.639
Right.
00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:21.600
Whatever.
00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:33.120
Your books uh from but uh from my uh close inspection, um they're kind of a series of anecdotes and tales and memories, right?
00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:33.519
Yeah.
00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:43.600
And these are things that you you come from a storytelling family, as you said, so you just heard all these things and you just have the ability to just remember and hang on to these things.
00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:47.919
Well, the most interesting story I wrote in there was about the robbery in 1957.
00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:48.399
Okay.
00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:52.320
Me and Kirk Maddenly were sitting down, I was telling Kirk, I said, I want this put in there too.
00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:56.639
And so I'm doing per se what my daddy told me what happened in 1957.
00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:56.799
Okay.
00:16:56.960 --> 00:16:58.080
And here's what he told me.
00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:05.920
1957, he he had a bar in Raywick, but behind the bar was a place called Harry's Place, Harry Malone.
00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:07.519
And he had a crap game going there.
00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:09.839
The bar you're talking about, is this Squire's Tavern?
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:12.000
No, the building behind the Squire's Tavern.
00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:12.400
Yes, it was.
00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:13.119
But that's what I meant.
00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:13.680
Yes, yes.
00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:14.319
Okay, gotcha.
00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:16.880
Yeah, it called Squares, Bickets, Charlies, and all that.
00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:18.880
Well, anyway, they had a crap game.
00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:37.200
It was on a weekend night, and uh they had a lot of people come in from Nelson County, LaRue County, uh uh Adara County, and they would literally, this is the truth, and I remember as a young man, not this particular instant, they would walk in with sacks of money, bags of money, and they'd go to this crap game.
00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:42.000
Well, anyway, let's let's pretend this, and Harry's place didn't have a crap table, they had a pool table.
00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:45.039
Now Renee Harsh said, she's I thought they was playing poker.
00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:48.640
I said, no, you can't play over uh eight people in a poker game or nine.
00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:52.400
So when the paper said 15 people, they had been shooting crabs.
00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:57.200
So they were shooting crabs on this pool table, and they had boxes all around the pool table where the dice wouldn't go off.
00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:03.680
But here come these three guys in, and two of them had pistols, and one of them had a sawed off shotgun.
00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:08.960
And he told, they told everybody to get up against the wall, but leave your money there.
00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:15.680
So they left the money there, and so they had them all against the wall, and Junior Harsey being the tallest of all of them, he didn't want to lose that money.
00:18:15.759 --> 00:18:24.880
He had his BFO in his hand when he reached up like that to the ceiling where he shoved his hand with his BIFO against the ceiling where they couldn't see it, where they saw it.
00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:25.920
They got his money.
00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:26.400
Oh wow.
00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:31.200
Well, anyway, they the robberies were taking place and they went out and captured everything.
00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:34.480
Well, while we're talking about this, Kenny Browning came down.
00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:35.680
Did you see this clipping?
00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:39.200
I said, No, the same clipping that we was writing this book about.
00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:45.119
And it was in the clippings where Ravik, these masked robbers, came into this crap game.
00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:46.559
Well, was this in the Enterprise or something?
00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:57.759
Yeah, uh and uh uh and uh it they came in, pulled guns, and uh they took five thousand dollars cash, which equivalent, I think we said fifty thousand right now, maybe, I don't know.
00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:01.200
Yeah, but anyway, so they cut so anyway, they leave out.
00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:03.119
Everybody leaves out so in 1957.
00:19:04.079 --> 00:19:04.799
That's a lot of money.
00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:11.279
Well, yeah, so there's a lot of beef people, uh, cattle people, there's a lot of people that bought money.
00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:12.480
Raywick was a place to go.
00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:15.359
It was like Little Vegas, like it was in the 80s and 90s.
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:16.720
Everybody came to Ravick.
00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:19.200
Well, the robbery took place and they leave out.
00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:24.319
Well, right before the robbery, this guy walked out and said, You're gonna go take a pee, but he never did come back.
00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:26.960
And so he left the door unlocked.
00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:28.880
The robbers came in and robbed them all.
00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:31.839
Well, finally they decided well they had to be gone.
00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:36.960
Well, they go out and they walk outside, look all around, and uh and uh it was all dark.
00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:44.480
And uh this one guy named Leslie Greenwell, a real rich guy back in those days, it was an enterprise.
00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:46.480
Uh he called the state police.
00:19:46.720 --> 00:20:02.960
Then the state police called the sheriff's office, and you got a bunch of law down there coming to an illegal game where they're selling moonshine, where they're selling illegal drinks, shooting craps, everything, and they responded to them like they was uh beckoned to their command.
00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:03.359
Yeah.
00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:07.119
And and there's more stories behind it, but this is all speculation.
00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:12.880
But anyway, the people that robbed it, supposed to be some brothers, lived right across the street.
00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:15.200
And uh They were from Raywick?
00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:15.839
Yes, yeah.
00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:16.559
Supposedly.
00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:17.440
But that's what Daddy.
00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:17.920
Okay.
00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:26.000
And and Daddy said back in the day, you know, you always hear the word or murder, but daddy said what gave it away weeks later, people would whisper.
00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:28.000
He called just like a speakeasy.
00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:30.960
Uh they would whisper, you know, this so-and-so rob the place.
00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:32.640
And you didn't one thing led to another.
00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:34.559
Finally, it sort of came out.
00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:40.720
It was a it was a couple of brothers which seemed super guys, uh, both of them, the whole family was.
00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:42.880
But that was supposedly who done it.
00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:46.640
Of course, then there was other speculations about John Dillinger in that bus.
00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:50.319
Of course, Daddy always made a joke that John Dillinger was too scared to come to Ray Wick.
00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:54.000
But anyway, John Dillinger was in the area.
00:20:54.160 --> 00:20:54.240
Yes.
00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:58.400
Yeah, grabble switch, he's a hotel, yes, of course.
00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:06.559
But anyway, the the robbery was completed, and so they put a 25, this Leslie Green will put a$2,500 reward.
00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:11.599
I mean, here's a guy from Nelson County putting a$2,500 reward.
00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:17.359
And what we think it was the inside deal, while it was, something's going on, whatever.
00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:24.160
Well, somebody who was in the game tipped him off, made sure that the door would be open, I guess.
00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:24.640
Yeah.
00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:26.960
And then eventually they obviously split it later on.
00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:28.240
Do you believe that theory?
00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:28.960
Do you believe that's the?
00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:30.799
Yeah, I that that's the theory I'm sticking with.
00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:34.720
There's other theory, but that's the one that my dad told me about, but he always stuck with that.
00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:37.920
Because Junior Harsey came down and knocked on the door that night.
00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:43.119
And he said, Bickett was being robbed, Bickett would be in robbed, because Daddy, I think, was Magister 57.
00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:44.559
I don't know, 1957.
00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:48.880
So anyway, they all went up there and there was Emma Macaulay there.
00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:50.720
The Hardesty boys were there.
00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:56.799
And the and this the news cliff thing it said the the robbers made this one guy get naked.
00:21:57.279 --> 00:21:59.680
And y it this is it this is not me.
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:00.559
Daddy didn't.
00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:02.240
This is in the paper.
00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:09.599
So one thing we could figure out when these people came in, these gamblers and crapshooters from all over the town, they bought some muscle with them.
00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:16.480
You know, they wouldn't go and walk into a bar with that much capital on them, and not somebody gonna watch them.
00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:21.759
So I say somebody got sort of smart ass with those that, and they just pulled a guns on strip.
00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:25.519
And I don't know if they got anything off of them, but that was in the newspaper in the article there.
00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:28.799
And so that sort of added sugar to the story there.
00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:35.039
But anyway, years later, uh uh uh just a few years later, Harry, which owned the place.
00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:35.839
Who was Harry?
00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.319
Harry Malone once built built the fifth wheel.
00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:39.599
You know where the fifth wheel's at?
00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:40.160
Of course I do.
00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:44.319
Well, that that that's he built that in 1968 or nine, something like that.
00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:44.799
Okay.
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:48.240
And then he had another building right next to it where he kept whiskey.
00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:49.599
He had all wired up.
00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:53.599
Is that the little building between Squire's Tavern and Okay, gotcha?
00:22:53.839 --> 00:23:02.319
So anyway, uh uh uh kids would go around and throw a bottle on top of it, and he had all this electronic devices, which is just it was like IA today.
00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:06.000
That we do it on purpose just to get that siren going on.
00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:08.720
And uh Harry Malone lived that behind the church.
00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:11.440
He had to walk over, turn the siren all off, he looked around.
00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:15.200
So finally he built uh the fifth wheel.
00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:21.519
Now, uh he didn't own that block building you're talking about, it's just still standing.
00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:21.920
Okay.
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:26.079
This is this was the lounge that during the Vicket dream.
00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:35.759
Uh uh during the 80s, it was two or three years when uh the CBM took the uh my place over, uh had members that contact me.
00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:36.799
CBM.
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:38.160
Cornrad Mafia.
00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:38.640
I'm sorry.
00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:44.960
Now this story is legitimate because the newspaper clippings.
00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:45.359
Yeah.
00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:47.359
Um so you you were talking about his books.
00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:56.400
Uh Charlie and I met through I mean, I've known Charlie for about 30 years or so, just through family and his old his old place down in Ray Wick.
00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:02.160
But his first couple editions of his book were based off of his Facebook posts.
00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:13.839
So I used to do technology consulting and Charlie knew I was good with computers and stuff, and he's like, What's his Facebook I can hear about a few years back in his infancy or whatever?
00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:16.079
And I said, Oh, you would love Facebook.
00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:26.319
And so we got him started and he would post stories daily or every couple of days, and people were pretty responding to it because of his storytelling ability.
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:32.640
And he's like, Well, you know, how do I get my posts where we can see a bunch of them at a time?
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:32.960
Right.
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:35.759
And we just took out the idea of self-publishing a book.
00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:36.240
Right.
00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:36.640
Okay.
00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:40.079
So you've been from day one of this publishing.
00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:40.480
Okay.
00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:42.480
And you're talking about where you knew him.
00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:44.960
I first met you.
00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:45.839
I've only met you.
00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:49.200
This is the fourth time I think I've ever met you, but in person.
00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:53.680
But um you had a club just as you turned to go to Howardstown.
00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:54.079
Go through.
00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:55.279
Yeah, old garage, yes.
00:24:55.519 --> 00:24:56.480
Yeah, it was an old garage.
00:24:56.559 --> 00:24:56.880
That's right.
00:24:57.039 --> 00:24:57.279
That's right.
00:24:57.359 --> 00:24:58.240
How long did you run that?
00:24:58.400 --> 00:24:59.599
Uh about eleven years.
00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:00.559
Was that that long?
00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:06.720
Yeah, it was quite a bit there, but uh A B C busted me so many times I just had to sell it.
00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:07.839
And so I got rid of it.
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:12.240
And then uh uh but uh uh that's the best deal I ever made.
00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:18.720
But but anyway, yes, I owned uh I I ran bars, or I either owned or ran a bar, either in St.
00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:24.000
Mary's and I worked at a couple bars in New Haven over 40 years.
00:25:24.160 --> 00:25:26.000
So I know all about the people in Ravig.
00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:30.079
I don't need no sociology uh uh uh somebody tell me what about that.
00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:38.079
I can sort of study people and uh make a real quick uh deal of it when I I interviewed for a unit director at the prison.
00:25:38.400 --> 00:25:40.079
All the state was eligible to interview.
00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:40.720
I'm talking about people.
00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:51.680
Yes, prison, but I didn't put two years in, and I I was a mayor for eight years, and so I had these little small credentials that I can put on the application.
00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:55.680
And they had people from all over Frankfurt and Louisville applying me this job.
00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:56.720
I got the job.
00:25:57.200 --> 00:25:58.720
And that was a big controversy.
00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:04.079
I remember it says some of the staff members of that asked, which maybe it was a little bit asking, I don't know.
00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:11.680
But anyway, uh I I got that job there, and and uh but uh and then all of a sudden, like some of the CBMs approached me while I was there.
00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:13.920
Johnny Boone's one told me to get out of the bar.
00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:16.799
He told me, Charlie, get out of this bar, there's gonna be some bad shit going on.
00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:19.279
And that's what he told me in in 85.
00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:24.400
And he was referring to the the big bust and uh, you know, the CBM.
00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:30.240
Well anyway, I sell it to these members, and they go in there and it looked like the Taj Mahog when they got done with it.
00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:30.640
Uh-huh.
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:39.279
They when I had it, you walk in, old wooden floor, concrete could crack, uh, bathrooms you had a never did work.
00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:51.920
They went in, put an ivory bar in, stone uh support the wall, put put a uh ivory of uh uh marble uh uh bathroom, everything, three bathrooms in the wind and deal.
00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:52.240
Yeah.
00:26:52.400 --> 00:27:06.400
And just had everything perfect then one night uh this young kid came in with his wife, his girlfriend shooting pool, and then uh uh me and uh I'll just put this me and the ex-sherf was bartending.
00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:13.519
And uh these guys walked up to one was CVM and they smacked that boy around every way.
00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:15.519
And it got me really pissed off.
00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:16.240
Why?
00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:21.519
Because they walked right in, which I knew this one person was affiliated with this bar, my bar.
00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:24.400
So I was in sort of, do I do something?
00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:26.960
You know, still I'm not the owner, I'm just working for him now.
00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:31.039
So anyway, uh by that time I told this one guy, I said, You need you need to help me break it.
00:27:31.119 --> 00:27:32.160
So we broke it up.
00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:38.079
Well, that guy that night, that young boy, he's probably about 18 then, 19, he leaves out.
00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:41.920
And this is about 11 o'clock when the the fight started.
00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:48.000
And uh me and three or four more in there, and I told uh this one guy, I said, I'm going home.
00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:51.920
Well, at 2 o'clock that morning, that boy from New Haven comes back with the thing of dynamite.
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:54.559
He busts the wind out, throws the dynamite in the bar.
00:27:54.880 --> 00:27:55.519
Boom.
00:27:55.759 --> 00:27:59.519
It didn't turn that much up, but it caused a lot of uh controversy.
00:27:59.599 --> 00:28:04.480
It had the ATF down there, had ABC, DEA, every organization around.
00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:07.920
And finally one of the CBM got smart with one of them, said, Do what you want.
00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:14.400
He said, we can have analysts down here and even take an uh environment inside, you know, if it was dynamite.
00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:19.119
Well, anyway, they dropped it all because nobody would say nothing.
00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:20.640
They didn't say, you know what happened.
00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:28.160
Well, the CBM went down seeing that boy's parents, and that boy's parents' father was in the bulldozing business, and that's why he got his.
00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:28.720
That's right.
00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:30.799
I was wondering, uh road builder or something.
00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:32.160
Yeah, way bigger than that.
00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:36.640
But anyway, uh uh he came and blowed it up, and anyway, his daddy paid for everything.
00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:49.440
Well, a few months later then, you know, of course, uh uh the DEA hit, and I think they all got locked up in the 90s, I'm not sure, but they closed her down, and they had big change all around it.
00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:53.519
Property of the DEA or federal government, and everybody went out and tore the change every day.
00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:55.440
They had to come down and put it back on.
00:28:55.599 --> 00:29:04.400
Well, it came up opportunity through Daddy and Bill Hagan, I think, to be able to buy that place back without any interference from any other body interested in it.
00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:10.160
So we buy the bar back, and uh we started operating and we were packed.
00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:12.480
I think that's back when Jimmy Thomas was packed, too.
00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:14.160
Balshawk, fifth wheel.
00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:16.000
You're talking about this was in the mid-90s.
00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:17.200
Yes, I mean everything.
00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:18.559
I think Ray Wick was rolling.
00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:24.000
Yeah, it was booming but of course I had my rednecks and the CVM, but they changed it completely around.
00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:28.960
You know, their eye heads closed up at nine o'clock, they had top bands, they had top everything.
00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:34.079
And so you and they had women coming in Ray Wick that you never thought was even living.
00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:36.720
The women was invited to Ray Wick.
00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:45.359
And uh, you know, back in the old Balony and cheese days when I run it, we had steak and shrimp, frog legs, anything they wanted, it was there.
00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:48.079
Uh and then getting to the vendors.
00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:55.920
We had Uncle Charlie's, we had Friday Olay, we had uh uh two or three more vendors that sold steaks and food as that.
00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:06.079
I knew them all good friends, but by the time the CBM took it over, they was bringing rows of tendon, steaks, shrimp, bologna, cheese.
00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:08.720
I mean, just they had to buy new freezers.
00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:11.759
And uh they wasn't buying nothing, they was bartering.
00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:18.000
They uh, you know, you let's say, for instance, Fried O'Le guy, you know, he wanted two pounds of dope or whatever.
00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:23.440
Well, they wanted three crates of crabs or whatever, and that's the way they did business.
00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:25.599
And the people go by and they just look at what.
00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:27.440
I'd love to have been your CPA.
00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:29.440
Well, you guess who it was?
00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:30.480
Junior Harsty was.
00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:31.279
All right.
00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:32.000
All right.
00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:36.079
So, but anyway, uh uh they they did a rock and roll deal there.
00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:40.400
They they they uh they really did good, but they uh they went in there too strong.
00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:44.079
And then uh uh that sort of met when they met their Waterloo.
00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:48.240
Uh then about that time that's when Daddy ran for magistrate again, his last time.
00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:49.920
He ran against William Thomas.
00:30:50.079 --> 00:30:59.200
And we think maybe the boys all being busted, uh going to jail, which half of Marion County was like was going to jail, affiliate with families in Marion County.
00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:03.279
And people back then were still, you know, still considering marijuana sort of a bad drug.
00:31:03.519 --> 00:31:05.440
You know, it wasn't like busy day.
00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:12.960
And so anyway, they uh uh they uh I didn't lost my memory back going on.
00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:15.279
What was I talking about?
00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:16.400
Let me go back to something.
00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:20.079
Okay, so you're okay, so yeah, you said that they met their Waterloo.
00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:21.119
Okay.
00:31:21.599 --> 00:31:30.480
Um so a couple of episodes ago, I went to Al Al Cross's house and Dennis George and I, and we interviewed him.
00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:32.559
And of course, he was around for all that stuff.
00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:39.279
He was the one that talked about he might have had his name on a bar stool at Squire's Tavern, and he knew everybody there.
00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:44.799
But one thing I didn't really get out of him is why did people talk to him?
00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:46.079
They knew he was a reporter.
00:31:46.319 --> 00:31:51.039
Well I mean, but they he and he had to go and write stories and he had to have their names in the story.
00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:51.680
It was simple.
00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:56.079
And then he'd go see them on Friday and see him again, and everything was all why would they talk to him?
00:31:56.400 --> 00:32:07.599
Well, when they already got in the woods, uh Al, Steve, and uh they had the other people they affiliated with the news media, and uh they they weren't Steve Lowry.
00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:08.880
Steve Lowry at the interview.
00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:12.160
They wasn't very well taken, and but they started, they're just doing their job.
00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:17.119
They weren't doing no more than what these people and uh these big stations showing this and that.
00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:19.920
But Al and Steve was at the right place at the right time.
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:25.119
You know, they right there in the midst of everything helicopters, law shootings, this and that.
00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:31.759
Well, anyway, uh uh they uh they got together and uh uh uh there goes my Alzheimer's again.
00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:32.799
Where I'm at.
00:32:33.119 --> 00:32:37.519
Well, we were talking about how the the you know, Al Cross and and Steve.
00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:38.000
Oh, yeah.
00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:42.799
They were also just friendly guys and likable people.
00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:46.960
And okay, and like and as you said, it was a generally understood, well, they're just doing their job.
00:32:47.119 --> 00:32:51.279
Yeah, and and they was everybody most of the people, my crowd liked them.
00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:56.400
But then they came in a couple of times, somebody got out, a couple of them didn't like Al Cross.
00:32:56.960 --> 00:33:00.480
Well, Al came in one day, I think Steve did, and I'm running the bar.
00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:01.599
Daddy was in the bar.
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:04.319
Of course, Daddy, you gotta see the guys Daddy hung out with.
00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:07.599
They some Pete Farmers and Joe Downs, they sort of ran Ray Wick.
00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:14.400
You know, they was a big Well anyway, but they came in the bar there and uh uh they gave him a little shit, Al.
00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:16.079
And finally Daddy jumped right up.
00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:17.519
Of course, I was right there with Daddy.
00:33:17.680 --> 00:33:20.880
He said, Al Al Cross is a friend of mine, Steve Laurie is too.
00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:21.119
Okay.
00:33:21.279 --> 00:33:23.839
He said, Y'all don't like it, go on down the road.
00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:24.160
Yeah.
00:33:24.319 --> 00:33:25.279
And they had to like it.
00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:27.440
That's the way Daddy done put his one leg down.
00:33:27.519 --> 00:33:29.039
I reckon put his foot down.
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:31.920
But uh, but uh he sure did it.
00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:34.079
Yeah, I supported him, plus everybody around supported him.
00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:39.039
Everybody liked Steve, you know, he got roots in Ray Wick, uh, uh, built a house in Ray Wick.
00:33:39.119 --> 00:33:39.200
Right.
00:33:39.440 --> 00:33:42.799
Al came down, so uh I I was very well welcome.
00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:57.759
I would come in the bar at night, we'd be out in the woods, out in the fields, out in the bottoms, and uh he'd walk in and he'd bring his little machine in, and he'd he said, I'm gonna plug that up, he'd plugged it up, and all the news that he'd done would go to the journal or whatever newspaper he was working for at the time.
00:33:57.839 --> 00:34:01.759
While he's sitting out sitting in the uh bar with Was it a fax machine?
00:34:02.319 --> 00:34:04.559
Yeah, some kind of machine where he would talk, dictate.
00:34:04.799 --> 00:34:05.119
Wow.
00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:10.079
And so he'd come outside and daddy be sitting, they was crazy about daddy, and daddy give us a beer.
00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:12.639
And that's the two read bears and after three, four pounds.
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:14.639
And she says, Daddy, somebody got to pay for this shit.
00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:17.280
I said, Yeah, yeah, everything be okay there, this and that.
00:34:17.360 --> 00:34:19.440
And I would volunteer reluctantly.
00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:19.840
Uh-huh.
00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:31.199
But they was a bunch of good people, and at the end, they was well liked by the CBM too, because you know, they really but they didn't put them in that spot.
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:32.800
You know, right, right.
00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:40.320
And so uh and and to this day now, I've seen Al a couple times, and uh he'd been around them particular fellows there, and they'd be best of friends.
00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:42.320
Yeah, cut up and talk this and that.
00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:45.039
But uh I I was I I was a good guy.
00:34:45.360 --> 00:34:58.239
After seeing Al's name in print all the times that we've published books and the stories I've read, I got to meet him finally when Charlie had this last book event and came down with his wife, and I think they bought a piece of art from Charlie too.
00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:03.760
Charlie's his artwork was uh one of the main focus that uh of this book.
00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:04.880
Well, let's talk about that.
00:35:05.039 --> 00:35:12.320
You said that you that you haven't really expanded on that uh in conversations and in and it hadn't been written about or whatever.
00:35:12.559 --> 00:35:13.599
Tell me about your art.
00:35:13.679 --> 00:35:14.559
How did you get started?
00:35:14.639 --> 00:35:16.079
Would you call yourself a folk artist?
00:35:16.480 --> 00:35:16.960
Very much so.
00:35:17.119 --> 00:35:17.360
Okay.
00:35:17.679 --> 00:35:18.559
Local folk artist.
00:35:18.719 --> 00:35:19.039
Yeah.
00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:28.719
And I I go back in the years what I think things look like, just like the old Macaulay schoolhouse with a structure there, the foundations, all the left there, just like my cabin, too.
00:35:28.960 --> 00:35:32.559
Uh I went and looked at it with a friend of mine named Joe Lampion.
00:35:32.800 --> 00:35:38.400
And we looked at that cabin, we walked around, stared at it, and I just went back a hundred years in my mind.
00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:42.320
You know, there's kids out there playing marbles of probably dogs out there, just and the kids in the school house.
00:35:42.559 --> 00:35:43.039
Chickens.
00:35:43.440 --> 00:35:47.360
And that's the and that schoolhouse was from eight to eighteen-year-old.
00:35:47.440 --> 00:35:47.519
Okay.
00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:48.800
Two-room schoolhouse.
00:35:48.880 --> 00:35:54.800
This these uh Lampion ladies, uh uh, I forgot their names, but taught school then.
00:35:55.199 --> 00:35:58.000
And and so I reconstructed the schoolhouse.
00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:12.800
I re in fact I painted about 15 houses that most of them was gone, but I went to the owners and just the history that I had and sort of redrawed it, and then of course I add my little uh things in it about the the dogs barking and all that, just like the St.
00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:14.400
Francis Xavier Church.
00:36:14.559 --> 00:36:19.039
Uh uh, I remember Father Swartz many a times out there be waving people down.
00:36:19.199 --> 00:36:21.199
Uh uh, I'm going gambling today.
00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:23.440
Of course, he he knows who it is, he's waving down.
00:36:23.519 --> 00:36:26.400
He knows when they pull it out of the bar, they got some money.
00:36:26.480 --> 00:36:28.880
And he'd get right out there, or he'd come down the bar.
00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:31.519
I'm going gambling today, I'm going to raise his boys.
00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:32.719
Come on, come on.
00:36:32.800 --> 00:36:35.519
And then Jimmy Big would say, well, save me two Hail Mary's.
00:36:35.599 --> 00:36:38.559
He said, I'm gonna say you I'm gonna say three of them before you give me.
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:43.599
But anyway, but uh he did that, and and they had something at the church every year.
00:36:43.679 --> 00:36:47.119
I don't forgot what it was, uh, where all the priests would come down.
00:36:47.199 --> 00:36:48.719
I think it's 40 hours maybe.
00:36:48.880 --> 00:36:55.360
And Father Schwartz would invite all his priest friends from all over Kentucky, and they would come in just like you have in a seance.
00:36:55.760 --> 00:37:01.679
They would come and park the church lot up, and here he comes down, and he says, I need fifth of this, fifth of that.
00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:02.719
He hit me up.
00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:08.880
He'd hit Joe Downs up, he'd hit Coot Down up, he'd hit Jimmy Thomas up, and they'd give him money and they'd have a party.
00:37:08.960 --> 00:37:10.639
All the women would cook food for him.
00:37:11.199 --> 00:37:17.199
And as you would you drive through Ravik on the next day of a big party in Ravik, there's several cars in Ravik.
00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:19.840
Well, when that party's over, there's several cars up to church, too.
00:37:20.159 --> 00:37:21.119
So they they didn't go nowhere.
00:37:21.519 --> 00:37:22.320
Did you paint that one?
00:37:22.480 --> 00:37:23.199
No, no, no.
00:37:23.280 --> 00:37:24.639
I I just that's one of the stories.
00:37:24.800 --> 00:37:25.599
I painted the church.
00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:35.679
But your paintings are in my mind, as I have uh a background in art as well, and they're they're valuable because of the historical element of them.
00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:44.320
And there's there's a a style and a perspective that you paint in that is it's a classic folk art style.
00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:45.679
That's the way I would put it.
00:37:46.239 --> 00:37:47.760
It's not meant to be realistic.
00:37:48.320 --> 00:37:49.599
Um it's it he uses burns.
00:37:49.920 --> 00:37:54.000
But you also have like they're not thought bubbles, but you put what the the words above their heads.
00:37:54.159 --> 00:37:54.719
Yeah, some narrations.
00:37:55.119 --> 00:37:56.639
Almost like in a in classic cartoon.
00:37:57.280 --> 00:38:01.039
And it reminded me of some some things you might see in a history book or something, you know.
00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:10.400
And he started, he paint he has a ton of uh artifacts like he he get would get an old saw blade and paint a winter scene across an old saw blade.
00:38:10.480 --> 00:38:19.280
Or you know, I don't want to use a cliche like a cracker barrel, but it's something that you might see hanging on a wall and like you know, that's that you don't see every day.
00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:20.400
And that's where it caught my eye.
00:38:20.480 --> 00:38:22.480
He kind of decorated his old cabin that way.
00:38:22.639 --> 00:38:22.800
Right.
00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:24.559
And I was like, You got something here.
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:26.719
How many pieces would you say you've you've done?
00:38:27.039 --> 00:38:27.440
Thousands.
00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:29.039
Well, I'd say hundreds of them.
00:38:29.119 --> 00:38:31.760
I've got all kinds around in my cabin, outside my cabin.
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:32.719
Do you paint every day?
00:38:32.880 --> 00:38:33.760
Yeah, I paint every day.
00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:35.280
Well, I I'm starting to paint every day.
00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:37.360
This book sort of consumed me about a year and a half.
00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:37.920
Yeah, right.
00:38:38.079 --> 00:38:39.440
And so I yes, I started painting.
00:38:39.519 --> 00:38:40.320
Again, I'm painting some.
00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:43.599
I got about eighty or ten old uh call all uh oil cans.
00:38:43.760 --> 00:38:45.760
I'm making uh uh bird houses out of it.
00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:46.079
Okay.
00:38:46.239 --> 00:38:54.960
And what I do, they already rusty, and I use the rust in the cans for the hole, and I paint it all up, put my bird scene on it, and they just hang them up, you know, whatever.
00:38:55.039 --> 00:38:56.320
But just something preoccupying.
00:38:56.559 --> 00:38:57.760
I can't do nothing else anyway.
00:38:58.079 --> 00:39:00.159
It's just uh simple as that.
00:39:00.400 --> 00:39:00.880
Huh.
00:39:01.119 --> 00:39:01.840
That's neat.
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:03.519
Um have you ever had a show?
00:39:03.840 --> 00:39:04.159
Have you?
00:39:04.639 --> 00:39:04.800
Yes.
00:39:05.039 --> 00:39:06.079
Did you do a show here at the library?
00:39:06.480 --> 00:39:07.360
I thought that that's right.
00:39:07.599 --> 00:39:12.320
And then I did a show down uh my place when I I don't even remember the creek berries.
00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:17.199
Well, I painted a bunch of, I went and got thousands of these rocks around uh agate rocks.
00:39:17.360 --> 00:39:19.039
And I painted I never heard of it.
00:39:19.119 --> 00:39:20.239
There's an Enterprise article about it.
00:39:20.400 --> 00:39:23.599
Yeah, yeah, Steve Laurie from the Steve Laurie really did that.
00:39:23.679 --> 00:39:26.719
And uh I sold a ton of them things.
00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:32.880
I went to Green County and I was picking up so many of these little round rocks out of the riverbeds, I started ordering them.
00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:34.480
I went, I said, bring me a truckload of them.
00:39:34.639 --> 00:39:38.000
And they dumped them, and and the the remains are still at my cabin.
00:39:38.480 --> 00:39:39.360
Most of them look like strawberries.
00:39:39.519 --> 00:39:57.119
Yeah, but anyway, they dumped them out, and me and my daughter and off would go through them, get the roundest, most strawberry-lucking rock, and we spray them red, and we sat there with them popper magic marker, start putting white dots on them, and I take another little brush corner, make my leaves, this and that, and set them there.
00:39:57.519 --> 00:39:58.400
Yeah, like an assembly like that.
00:39:58.480 --> 00:40:00.559
Yeah, and flip the other side, do it again, and spray them.
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:01.920
You got your creekberries.
00:40:02.079 --> 00:40:04.960
I had a contract with uh uh cracker barrel.
00:40:05.199 --> 00:40:07.599
I went down there and cracker barrel said, yes, we want them.
00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:09.760
So anyway, so we'll get back with you.
00:40:10.079 --> 00:40:18.239
And so they sent me a letter and and they described they wanted 200 pounds of those rocks.
00:40:18.480 --> 00:40:20.800
And I said, what the hell's going on here?
00:40:21.199 --> 00:40:23.920
They're gonna uh put them in containers themselves.
00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:24.079
Right.
00:40:24.400 --> 00:40:25.519
They're gonna display them.
00:40:25.679 --> 00:40:25.760
Right.
00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:27.840
I'm trying to figure how I'm gonna melt them, you know.
00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:34.559
And there I had mama was helping me, I had every woman, everybody in Ravage help me make me wheezed on those rocks up the strawberry.
00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:37.599
Yeah, that's what they were paying you for them because I'm trying to think how much they were gonna sell.
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:39.920
I gotcha.
00:40:40.079 --> 00:40:49.039
And but but anyway, about a year later, I went back and they sold all out, but they wrote me a letter they said that uh uh we talked it corporate and they were a liability issue now.
00:40:49.280 --> 00:40:50.880
Kids were grabbing them, gonna eat them.
00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:53.280
And they they quit buying from it.
00:40:53.360 --> 00:40:54.000
Just the dumb kids.
00:40:54.159 --> 00:40:57.760
Yeah, yeah, just I mean that'd be the most publicity wanted to joke, maybe.
00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:01.920
But I'm taking pressure.
00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:03.920
No, but that the lawyers ruined all the fun.
00:41:04.400 --> 00:41:04.960
Yeah, yeah.
00:41:05.119 --> 00:41:06.559
But that that actually happened.
00:41:06.719 --> 00:41:10.800
I was pretty impressed with the cracker barrel and that before we wrap up.
00:41:10.880 --> 00:41:12.559
I want to get to a couple other things.
00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:18.159
Um I want to know your family's history in nightclubs and bars.
00:41:18.400 --> 00:41:21.440
When was the who was your father the first person to open up a place?
00:41:21.679 --> 00:41:23.360
Oh, my granddaddy and his granddaddy.
00:41:23.679 --> 00:41:24.079
Talk about that.
00:41:24.239 --> 00:41:26.079
When was that and what was it called, and where was it?
00:41:26.320 --> 00:41:31.280
We were all on Main Street, the same bar that we've owned on the corner, kind of close to the church.
00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:31.599
Yes.
00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:32.159
Yeah.
00:41:32.480 --> 00:41:38.719
Uh my great-granddaddy, uh uh Louis Petit Bickett ran a store bar there.
00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:40.719
My granddaddy, Earl Bickett.
00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:52.239
It was like a like a just like a general store kind of place, but also at well we're getting to the bars, they were mostly stores, and finally, yeah, in the 60s and 70s, you know, uh Daddy had a key market there.
00:41:52.480 --> 00:41:53.920
Him and Joe Paul Darty and Albert.
00:41:54.239 --> 00:41:54.639
We didn't know that.
00:41:54.800 --> 00:41:55.679
There was a key market in front.
00:41:56.400 --> 00:41:57.039
Yes, sir.
00:41:57.199 --> 00:41:59.519
And uh we was competition with the Blafferts.
00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:00.719
You're right.
00:42:00.960 --> 00:42:08.719
Yes, sir, and that didn't go well with Daddy, all the farms, but what got dad, just that's dad, credit got him, and he had to close up.
00:42:08.880 --> 00:42:13.840
Well, from there, he started a bar, and here's where I come in about 71.
00:42:14.159 --> 00:42:18.639
Uh uh there's three or four generations of bar owners, so I took over about 72.
00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:23.679
I got fired at Lily Tulip, and so I had to get a job, so Daddy gave me that job.
00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:28.320
And so I went on and did my cleanup, put new pool tables, new jukeboxes.
00:42:28.400 --> 00:42:35.199
Uh Daddy couldn't believe that uh back then we didn't have any bands, we just had a jukebox, Merle Hager and Fest Domino and all that.
00:42:35.360 --> 00:42:37.280
Now what give me when when was this?
00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:39.679
This is probably from 72 to 80.
00:42:39.920 --> 00:42:40.239
Okay.
00:42:40.480 --> 00:42:43.360
And no music, no live music, it's just a redneck bar.
00:42:43.440 --> 00:42:44.400
And it was called Squires.
00:42:44.719 --> 00:42:45.679
Squares and Charlie's.
00:42:46.079 --> 00:42:46.719
We changed during.
00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:47.519
I see.
00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:54.960
And so uh, but we would have uh uh played that jukebox and and uh I was making more money out of that jukebox than it was anything else.
00:42:55.039 --> 00:42:55.199
Yeah.
00:42:55.280 --> 00:42:56.400
I mean and daddy couldn't believe it.
00:42:56.559 --> 00:42:58.480
I opened that up and pulled all the quarters out of that.
00:42:59.199 --> 00:43:03.599
Of course, Daddy old school, you know, he thought uh played one record all night long.
00:43:04.239 --> 00:43:14.559
But anyway, we went there, then like I'm saying, uh and then '86 I was enticed to get out of there, go to the prison where I work almost nine years, and that was in '86 to '94.
00:43:15.119 --> 00:43:21.519
And then, like I'm saying, uh the CBM took it, and then it it was closed down about a year and a half later.
00:43:21.599 --> 00:43:26.639
Then we took it over, then it was burnt down by uh uh of course they said it was ice and it.
00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:27.920
No, somebody burned it down.
00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:29.039
We know who burnt it down.
00:43:29.440 --> 00:43:30.719
But that's my theory.
00:43:30.880 --> 00:43:32.079
And then uh When was that?
00:43:32.159 --> 00:43:33.039
I remember the building.
00:43:33.519 --> 00:43:36.800
It's probably uh okay, I I get out now.
00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:38.320
It was still there in the mid 90s, wasn't it?
00:43:38.480 --> 00:43:39.199
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:43:39.360 --> 00:43:39.679
All right.
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:54.239
But uh now it was it was just uh and that's probably where you're gonna it's it was probably our competition what burned it because because in the back room where it started, there was a flute, uh uh uh stove hole in the side there where the flute went through.
00:43:54.559 --> 00:43:57.039
And right below that there was our breaker box.
00:43:57.280 --> 00:43:59.840
And somebody went up there, went into the flute.
00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:04.079
Blue and dropped some amount of explosive or whatever, and caught it a fire.
00:44:04.239 --> 00:44:15.760
Well, here comes the fire truck and everybody down, and so we found two beer cans over there, and it was in December, it was freezing, and the two beers cans, one was open, one wasn't.
00:44:15.920 --> 00:44:18.400
Only two or three people drank start them back in those days.
00:44:20.880 --> 00:44:25.679
But anyway, but during my investigation, I found out, but you know, that that's history.
00:44:25.760 --> 00:44:27.039
You know, we couldn't prove nothing.
00:44:27.199 --> 00:44:31.760
But uh did the bar move out of downtown Raywick to that place at the bottom of the road.
00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:33.440
Well, when we I was gonna bring that up too.
00:44:33.679 --> 00:44:34.800
When we got burned up.
00:44:34.880 --> 00:44:36.800
Uh uh when they burnt up.
00:44:37.119 --> 00:44:37.920
And you ran that?
00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:38.320
Yes.
00:44:39.199 --> 00:44:39.920
I was in there a few times.
00:44:40.320 --> 00:44:40.400
Okay.
00:44:40.639 --> 00:44:41.760
That place was rocking too, man.
00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:43.599
So I was too young to be in there, but I was.
00:44:43.760 --> 00:44:44.159
Oh well, I did.
00:44:44.239 --> 00:44:44.719
Well, we're not gonna be able to do that.
00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:46.239
Well, you couldn't spend that legality.
00:44:46.719 --> 00:44:47.119
Well, you talk about it.
00:44:48.079 --> 00:44:49.039
Ain't no statue on that one.
00:44:50.239 --> 00:44:53.920
But anyway, no, it it it was uh uh, like I said, we was rock and roll.
00:44:54.239 --> 00:44:58.639
So once we got burned, we thought everything's all over, and Daddy wasn't gonna give it up.
00:44:58.800 --> 00:44:59.599
Daddy was still living.
00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:02.480
And Daddy said, Y'all got any money to buy this place down the road here?
00:45:02.639 --> 00:45:03.920
Charlie Downs owned it.
00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:05.280
And we didn't.
00:45:05.440 --> 00:45:09.440
He wanted$40,000 for it, which it wasn't no money, it was big money to us back then.
00:45:09.920 --> 00:45:12.320
Well, Daddy arranged Sug Brown.
00:45:12.480 --> 00:45:15.440
I don't give a he he he he bought it.
00:45:15.679 --> 00:45:18.320
And we we paid it off in two years.
00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:19.760
That's how booming we were.
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:20.400
I'm sure.
00:45:21.360 --> 00:45:21.599
Yeah.
00:45:21.760 --> 00:45:23.519
And so I'll tell you how booming it was.
00:45:23.599 --> 00:45:24.719
I know we've got a few minutes left.
00:45:25.119 --> 00:45:30.400
Uh it was so booming, we had so big of a crowd down on the hill, Cherry Run.
00:45:30.719 --> 00:45:33.440
State police would come up for every week, citation, citation.
00:45:33.599 --> 00:45:35.280
Of course they want to look at the young girls too.
00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:37.599
A bunch of young troopers, a bunch of young girls.
00:45:37.679 --> 00:45:39.360
Yeah, I'm gonna rake that place every time.
00:45:39.920 --> 00:45:40.559
So speaking.
00:45:40.800 --> 00:45:42.559
But anyway, but they would come up first.
00:45:42.800 --> 00:45:46.880
Finally, we got so big, and Emmer George got us out of every bit of trouble we ever had.
00:45:47.199 --> 00:45:48.639
It seemed like every two weeks we went and seen Emma.
00:45:50.320 --> 00:45:51.679
We went and seen Emmer.
00:45:51.840 --> 00:45:57.280
Well, anyway, but the main night was we sitting out front, we had uh the great white.
00:45:57.360 --> 00:45:58.719
I don't know if you remember them or not.
00:45:59.039 --> 00:45:59.760
Yeah, the 80s.
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:00.480
Yeah, yeah.
00:46:00.719 --> 00:46:02.079
That was who played at our bar.
00:46:02.320 --> 00:46:03.679
Trying to think what their big song was.
00:46:03.920 --> 00:46:05.920
But anyway, so here they was playing.
00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:07.199
We had it packed.
00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:13.360
Well, here comes all the blue lights in from one end, and we was all, you know, all the, then here comes all the red lights in one end.
00:46:13.519 --> 00:46:15.519
So the hell these red lights now.
00:46:15.679 --> 00:46:18.000
They were far marshals from Adara County.
00:46:18.639 --> 00:46:22.239
Well, they came in, told us to their attention that we were called.
00:46:22.559 --> 00:46:26.000
Well, the the main chief farm marshal was the best of friends of Daddy.
00:46:26.559 --> 00:46:29.280
And he'd been on our farm a dozen times fishing.
00:46:29.360 --> 00:46:31.119
His name is Hulk, H-O-L-K.
00:46:31.519 --> 00:46:32.639
Well, here he comes in.
00:46:32.800 --> 00:46:34.800
He walked in, all those troopers there just like gun ho.
00:46:35.039 --> 00:46:37.039
We're gonna close this place down right now.
00:46:37.199 --> 00:46:42.239
He started shaking hands with me, hugging my sister Kathleen, giving her a kiss.
00:46:42.480 --> 00:46:43.519
How's JE doing?
00:46:43.599 --> 00:46:44.480
How's Daddy doing it?
00:46:45.039 --> 00:46:48.239
He said, I'm gonna be back up fishing this week, and those troopers just looking at him.
00:46:48.320 --> 00:46:50.880
And finally, this one trooper said, Can we get this candle going?
00:46:51.039 --> 00:46:52.000
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:46:52.239 --> 00:46:56.719
So anyway, they put two troopers on both sides of the door, inside and out.
00:46:56.960 --> 00:46:58.400
And so Mr.
00:46:58.559 --> 00:47:04.480
Hulk, the far chief, he started clicking, one, two, three, and troopers running them all out.
00:47:04.639 --> 00:47:10.559
Well, somebody opened the back door up, and so as fast as they'd run them out, counting them, well, they were coming in the back door.
00:47:10.880 --> 00:47:13.840
And finally, one of the troopers said, No, we can't do this.
00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:14.480
They come in.
00:47:14.559 --> 00:47:17.760
So anyway, uh, Hulk said, well, hell with it, hell with it.
00:47:17.920 --> 00:47:19.440
And he said, We'll be back again.
00:47:19.599 --> 00:47:22.639
These main trooper said, What are you gonna do right now?
00:47:22.880 --> 00:47:24.719
You know, he thought they were gonna lock us up.
00:47:25.119 --> 00:47:30.159
And anyway, uh Hulk called me over, and I don't think Robbie was with us.
00:47:30.320 --> 00:47:33.519
He said, uh, Charlie, the only thing I'm gonna tell you to do is don't do this again.
00:47:33.920 --> 00:47:35.280
Look here, it burned.
00:47:36.079 --> 00:47:43.360
Yeah, it burned them up wide open, and that's Ben Franz somebody that that years before that that just paid off.
00:47:43.519 --> 00:47:46.079
But he said, I remember he said, Don't do this no more.
00:47:46.239 --> 00:47:48.000
And those troopers didn't like it at all.
00:47:49.199 --> 00:47:52.239
But uh yeah, they were counting them people and they was coming in.
00:47:52.480 --> 00:47:52.800
Okay.
00:47:53.280 --> 00:47:56.239
So um you had that place for some years.
00:47:56.559 --> 00:48:00.960
Um after that, you had the place that was in the old gas station, right?
00:48:01.280 --> 00:48:01.519
Okay.
00:48:01.840 --> 00:48:04.639
And that so we're all we're still in the 90s, right?
00:48:05.199 --> 00:48:05.440
Okay.
00:48:05.599 --> 00:48:07.039
And how long did you run that place?
00:48:07.280 --> 00:48:08.159
Probably about 10 years.
00:48:08.400 --> 00:48:10.000
And then it kept going for another year.
00:48:10.239 --> 00:48:11.679
Yeah, that's years after that.
00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:12.320
Okay.
00:48:12.800 --> 00:48:24.880
Um what the main stay in Raywick, one of the main stays was, of course, um uh Fifth Wheel, which was which was always running, which later on became I I'm trying to get like some history down.
00:48:25.920 --> 00:48:28.000
So which later became Backyard Burger.
00:48:28.079 --> 00:48:28.239
Yeah.
00:48:28.559 --> 00:48:29.679
Is anything in there now?
00:48:29.920 --> 00:48:32.480
No, we've bed at four o'clock.
00:48:32.559 --> 00:48:34.639
It uh they had a booming business there.
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:34.880
Yeah.
00:48:35.039 --> 00:48:39.920
And I don't know, I I think people wanted to increase their sales, and they went to Levin in here, I think, somewhere.
00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:40.559
But they did.
00:48:40.639 --> 00:48:42.800
They moved in with good buddies and yeah, yeah.
00:48:42.960 --> 00:48:46.000
But that it was it it had people everywhere just like Boss Hog.
00:48:46.159 --> 00:48:47.840
You know, me and Boss Hog never to get along.
00:48:47.920 --> 00:48:49.119
Yeah, but he was a businessman.
00:48:49.360 --> 00:48:50.639
Boss Hog Jimmy Thomas as well.
00:48:51.039 --> 00:48:51.440
Yes, sir.
00:48:51.760 --> 00:48:52.880
And he was a businessman.
00:48:53.119 --> 00:48:58.239
I seen him early in the morning, late at night out in the road, sweeping the road, picking every piece of glass and bottled up.
00:48:58.320 --> 00:48:58.480
Right.
00:48:58.639 --> 00:49:00.400
No, that I mean, but that's how he was.
00:49:00.960 --> 00:49:02.400
He ran one hell of a place.
00:49:02.559 --> 00:49:05.519
Of course, they he was the little guy who carried the big stick, they call it.
00:49:05.599 --> 00:49:05.760
Right.
00:49:05.920 --> 00:49:07.599
And you know, he'd carry the old bed around.
00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:09.840
But but Jimmy, he made it known.
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:11.039
He was the boss there.
00:49:11.119 --> 00:49:12.719
He didn't give a shit who came in there.
00:49:12.800 --> 00:49:13.119
Right, right.
00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:14.559
That's a CBM too.
00:49:14.719 --> 00:49:16.320
He didn't carry, he ran the place.
00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:16.559
Yeah.
00:49:16.719 --> 00:49:19.280
And and Jimmy was getting it to him many a time there, this and that.
00:49:19.360 --> 00:49:22.800
You know, uh, and the Chiefs of May would be out there backing him up, all that.
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:27.199
But Jimmy bought, I hate to say this, but he bought a lot of class to Ray Wick.
00:49:27.519 --> 00:49:33.039
You know, there's Jimmy had all these people from Louisville he knew, and uh uh they knew everybody and they'd come in.
00:49:33.199 --> 00:49:37.280
And of course, I had my old Radneck bar with the local uh my customers and all that.
00:49:37.440 --> 00:49:39.519
But he was there, had everything new.
00:49:39.599 --> 00:49:42.320
Now I was the first one that had mixed drinks in Ray Wick.
00:49:42.559 --> 00:49:45.920
And Jimmy, Jimmy came right in after that and had a mixed drink.
00:49:46.079 --> 00:49:48.400
And uh they said that was something that you're not gonna happen.
00:49:48.559 --> 00:49:49.679
Well, it did happen, of course.
00:49:50.079 --> 00:49:51.519
Back then it was politics, you know.
00:49:51.599 --> 00:49:52.800
Right now, I don't know what you do.
00:49:52.880 --> 00:50:02.639
But in the 90s, when I was um uh known to be there a time or two, um, it was either Wednesday or Thursday night.
00:50:02.800 --> 00:50:06.400
It was like everyone, and there was always a good band playing.
00:50:06.639 --> 00:50:10.800
Sometimes it would just be jukebox, but at I'm talking about the at the fifth wheel.
00:50:10.960 --> 00:50:13.119
Yeah, but they would always have, and I think about that.
00:50:13.199 --> 00:50:20.960
So this leads me to a question I want to ask you about up until a certain point, maybe 2000, maybe I don't know what it was.
00:50:21.280 --> 00:50:26.239
Um this place, Marion County was jumping.
00:50:26.480 --> 00:50:27.440
Lebanon had stuff.
00:50:27.679 --> 00:50:29.760
You had O'Hickeys in Lebanon, you had all these other things.
00:50:29.920 --> 00:50:31.920
James Bob was going on, cocaine hit the scene.
00:50:32.400 --> 00:50:34.400
I mean, cocaine was already it was here for a while.
00:50:34.800 --> 00:50:36.880
It was here, but that it made everything jump.
00:50:36.960 --> 00:50:39.840
It made everybody jump and made a lot of people stupid.
00:50:40.079 --> 00:50:40.639
For sure.
00:50:40.800 --> 00:50:42.480
And and and I can relate to that.
00:50:42.559 --> 00:50:43.360
I was on it too.
00:50:43.599 --> 00:50:53.679
But but they, you know, these people got on Coke and thought, you know, they was invincible, you know, they challenged the law, they challenged the judges, they challenge each other, then they get paranoid and all that.
00:50:53.840 --> 00:51:01.840
But that was and that came in, that came in in the 80s, you know, like saying it while back before that, but that wasn't a bar and raw not pulling with it.
00:51:01.920 --> 00:51:02.480
Let me put it this way.
00:51:02.719 --> 00:51:03.440
Well, I'm sure that's true.
00:51:03.519 --> 00:51:04.239
I'm sure that's true.
00:51:04.400 --> 00:51:09.679
But what I'm getting at is my question is sort of what is your theory?
00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:12.480
Why did it all come to a uh screeching halt?
00:51:12.639 --> 00:51:19.519
You had you could go to Braffits, you could go to Riverside, you could go to uh Pines, you could go to St.
00:51:19.599 --> 00:51:21.360
Mary's, had a great club for a while.
00:51:21.599 --> 00:51:22.800
Um what was that called?
00:51:23.039 --> 00:51:24.320
The Raven Two Friends.
00:51:24.639 --> 00:51:25.360
Two Friends, Two Friends.
00:51:25.440 --> 00:51:29.039
That's what I was thinking, and then JT's because Jimmy and Teresa moved their operations there.
00:51:29.280 --> 00:51:30.639
That place was jumping.
00:51:30.880 --> 00:51:33.280
Um Lebanon had stuff going on.
00:51:33.440 --> 00:51:35.119
You had uh the brick house.
00:51:35.280 --> 00:51:36.000
Remember the brick house?
00:51:36.159 --> 00:51:36.800
I do remember that.
00:51:36.880 --> 00:51:38.719
Um Cozy Corner in Loreto.
00:51:39.280 --> 00:51:40.559
Cozy Corner in Loreto.
00:51:40.880 --> 00:51:41.840
I mean, all these stuff.
00:51:42.559 --> 00:51:50.960
And now I mean you got Shelby's pub that's getting going, and they're doing a good job dropping seven days a week, and that's a nice, nice place.
00:51:51.199 --> 00:51:57.599
But is it a matter of all these other Marion County used to be the only weapon?
00:51:57.920 --> 00:51:58.159
Yes.
00:51:58.480 --> 00:51:58.800
Okay.
00:51:58.960 --> 00:52:18.320
And so you had people on a Friday night, whether they were going to the clubs or having dinner at Henning's restaurant, getting a drink at the Galaxy, whatever, um, they would be from Royal County, Green County, Adair County, Crazy County, uh Taylor County, ever and then I guess it is it as simple as that.
00:52:18.480 --> 00:52:22.159
We kind of lost our distinction as the center of all this activity.
00:52:22.400 --> 00:52:24.800
Well, I think Rayvick was the hub of a lot of this activity.
00:52:25.039 --> 00:52:25.280
It was.
00:52:25.519 --> 00:52:29.440
It was back in the day when uh marijuana was the big thing.
00:52:29.599 --> 00:52:37.840
Uh there was little fat little groups of people uh on all the towns that you just mentioned.
00:52:37.920 --> 00:52:38.079
Right.
00:52:38.239 --> 00:52:40.480
They would come to Rayvick, they would come to my bar.
00:52:40.639 --> 00:52:46.960
I didn't know the external part of the CVM, but I sure as hell knew what the inside was because everybody met there.
00:52:47.360 --> 00:52:54.400
Uh one guy came in and uh uh uh one day and and a guy down the road to New Haven got assassinated, shot, killed.
00:52:54.800 --> 00:52:58.159
And his group came up there, about 15 of them, they were wild.
00:52:58.719 --> 00:53:01.840
And then we had to call in a few people too, just to make sure.
00:53:01.920 --> 00:53:05.039
But there's people in New Haven, Holy Cross, Low Red, St.
00:53:05.280 --> 00:53:05.679
Everywhere.
00:53:05.760 --> 00:53:15.280
They would come to Raywick and they would send uh I remember and but they would have these crops like Casey County and this and that, and they would have these crops.
00:53:15.440 --> 00:53:21.920
These hillbillies would grow this marijuana, these hillsides, and Pike County and everywhere.
00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:25.920
And they would come to Raywick, and all of a sudden you get to meet these characters from all over the country.
00:53:26.079 --> 00:53:31.679
Didn't have no teeth, wearing flip-flop, bell bottoms, uh just tattoos all of them.
00:53:31.760 --> 00:53:42.880
And you say, Well, whoo, these son would be well later on that winter, here they come in with gold teeth in, jewelry all on, uh pictures of their mother tattooed on them and all that.
00:53:42.960 --> 00:53:45.760
Well, they hit it, but they made a lick, but they didn't know how to act.
00:53:45.920 --> 00:53:50.960
They still that the those to say about the donkey, you pass the donkey, it's still a donkey.
00:53:51.199 --> 00:53:54.480
And they was the most troublemaking bunch of people I've seen in my life.
00:53:55.039 --> 00:53:55.920
They didn't know how to act.
00:53:56.159 --> 00:54:12.719
I think it was you think it was families that their offspring didn't carry on the tradition, or that there was nobody to hand off the bars to, and then there was probably some sort of a an element of they were afraid of getting in trouble with the law because you operated in that kind of gray area.
00:54:12.960 --> 00:54:14.000
Yeah, well we did we all did.
00:54:14.079 --> 00:54:24.000
And right week the law was a big factor there, and you and we tried to stay in good there, but they was challenged several times and uh and they lost several times, they relocated several times.
00:54:24.320 --> 00:54:26.880
But the bar says, Yeah, yeah, it's all over.
00:54:27.039 --> 00:54:28.480
I don't think anybody can bring it back.
00:54:28.559 --> 00:54:30.480
Uh it it just uh it was like a dinosaur.
00:54:30.719 --> 00:54:38.719
It was fun when it was going on, but uh I think uh money, drugs, and the law had a whole lot to do with uh the demise of Ravick.
00:54:38.800 --> 00:54:38.960
Right.
00:54:39.119 --> 00:54:41.599
And but but uh Ravik's still capable of doing something.
00:54:41.679 --> 00:54:43.679
You know, you still people talk about Ray Wick.
00:54:43.920 --> 00:54:44.079
Right.
00:54:44.159 --> 00:54:44.639
Oh yeah.
00:54:44.800 --> 00:54:47.760
And uh uh Ravik's my hometown, and I love it.
00:54:47.840 --> 00:54:52.480
And you know, the biggest bench right was when I went up there in the church steeple here a few months ago.
00:54:52.960 --> 00:54:57.920
And I said, people can fly over the world, and I said there I went up there right at the church steeple and looked down at Ravick.
00:54:58.000 --> 00:55:03.840
And I said, I probably only out of 30, 40 people ever saw Ravick at this bird's eye view.
00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:04.239
Yeah.
00:55:04.400 --> 00:55:05.519
And it's it's so neat.
00:55:05.599 --> 00:55:06.159
It was so neat.
00:55:06.559 --> 00:55:07.199
Did you paint it?
00:55:07.280 --> 00:55:07.760
Did you do it?
00:55:08.159 --> 00:55:10.880
No, but but I I stole something while I was in church.
00:55:12.079 --> 00:55:12.960
Do tell.
00:55:13.119 --> 00:55:14.079
Do tell.
00:55:14.400 --> 00:55:15.199
There's a picture of you.
00:55:15.679 --> 00:55:16.400
You couldn't find your Bible.
00:55:16.559 --> 00:55:18.000
And you said, well, I better take this Bible.
00:55:18.480 --> 00:55:19.679
I stole a broom, though, too.
00:55:19.840 --> 00:55:20.320
A broom.
00:55:20.480 --> 00:55:25.519
There was upstairs where the bell was, the picture in there, I was hugging the bell.
00:55:25.679 --> 00:55:29.840
And I looked over where my dad was in the broom business back in the 50s.
00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.000
And I looked, and there was this broom just like a you would see in a witch's broom.
00:55:34.159 --> 00:55:44.400
It was a metal handle and just setting up against a corner, and the whole floor, all three floors as we climbed those ladders, would have crickets and birds shit and everything on each floor there.
00:55:44.559 --> 00:55:50.159
So whoever took that broom up there probably swept it one or two times and at the end said F it.
00:55:50.239 --> 00:55:50.800
And then said it.
00:55:50.880 --> 00:55:52.079
And I'm not going back up there no.
00:55:52.320 --> 00:55:56.480
Because those ladders was made out of old beans and they would shake wide open.
00:55:56.559 --> 00:55:56.719
Right.
00:55:56.880 --> 00:56:01.280
But uh that was an interesting uh cheap advancer for me.
00:56:01.519 --> 00:56:01.840
Okay.
00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:02.159
Okay.
00:56:02.400 --> 00:56:05.599
I hope we didn't just put you in legal peril by that this admission.
00:56:05.920 --> 00:56:08.480
Um Well, listen, I've thoroughly enjoyed this.
00:56:08.800 --> 00:56:09.760
This has been a lot of fun.
00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:11.679
Would you be willing to come back sometime?
00:56:12.000 --> 00:56:15.039
Because I feel like we haven't scratched the surface of the surface.
00:56:15.360 --> 00:56:20.400
No, no, I don't think we have, but I'm saying I uh I've tried to be a little reserved right now, but listen, man.
00:56:20.559 --> 00:56:23.840
But uh Well, maybe I can get you to come out of your shell the next time.
00:56:24.480 --> 00:56:25.920
We'll be here all night.
00:56:28.400 --> 00:56:29.679
Let this fella give me a gummy.
00:56:29.920 --> 00:56:30.559
We might be here.
00:56:33.280 --> 00:56:39.599
Nah, but but you know, Ray Week's a good time, you know, uh had the former mayor of Ray Week, Phyllis Troutman, and me and her big on them.
00:56:39.840 --> 00:56:42.800
But she told me one day, and she she was very civic.
00:56:42.960 --> 00:56:43.360
Oh, yeah.
00:56:43.599 --> 00:56:47.760
And and and she took my job and and I've uh I took it back from her.
00:56:48.079 --> 00:56:53.760
But anyway, she told me, she said, Charlie, why do you write so many stories about bad things that happened in Ray Week?
00:56:54.320 --> 00:56:59.519
And I said, Well, uh, I can write a book when I made my first communion, I reckon that'd be a good thing.
00:56:59.760 --> 00:57:03.119
And I just given her two or three different analogies, what I thought.
00:57:03.199 --> 00:57:05.119
And I said, people ain't gonna buy that shit.
00:57:05.440 --> 00:57:11.440
And they wouldn't, you know, bigger pair of lashes that Marietta Cecil uh slipped and fell down up the road there or whatever.
00:57:11.599 --> 00:57:13.199
They wanted some juicy stuff.
00:57:13.599 --> 00:57:15.039
She said, Okay, okay, then.
00:57:15.119 --> 00:57:19.760
And uh, but uh yeah, but Phyllis was a good civic lady, I tell you, she I thought a lot of her.
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:20.960
She was a nice lady.
00:57:21.039 --> 00:57:21.519
I like that.
00:57:21.840 --> 00:57:33.440
A lot of people think Ravick, since it was a small little town, you still had when we opened uh when we incorporated Ravick, we had to do the same meetings, the city of Lebanon did it.
00:57:33.519 --> 00:57:46.880
We've had the five grants the same, and the biggest thing that I can say who robbed for mayor of Crenshaw, uh, when we just got in there, uh Marion County received uh, I think about$40,000 to split up the little towns.
00:57:46.960 --> 00:57:47.119
Yeah.
00:57:47.280 --> 00:57:59.599
And we was up the courthouse, and though they were the Lincoln Trail, uh giving these checks out, and uh, I remember so plain, uh, Mayor Crenshaw looked at me and uh uh Thompson was uh mayor over at Loretta.
00:57:59.920 --> 00:58:03.119
He said, I want my check to go to them, Ravick and Loretta.
00:58:03.280 --> 00:58:03.440
Okay.
00:58:03.599 --> 00:58:08.880
Now, you know, I thought he was how neat is that now, you know, uh because you know they had plenty of money.
00:58:09.039 --> 00:58:11.280
There we were, starving to death for money.
00:58:11.360 --> 00:58:12.880
Uh we didn't have no money.
00:58:12.960 --> 00:58:13.119
Right.
00:58:13.360 --> 00:58:20.800
And then uh uh in the one place where they gave us$7,500 to tear down this old building, we ran out of built money.
00:58:21.039 --> 00:58:25.280
And I had every kid in Ravick hard turn the f floor down, city down.
00:58:25.599 --> 00:58:27.119
I told Dad, I said, we need more money.
00:58:27.199 --> 00:58:30.719
You need to go see Judge and go see and uh he said, Oh, it'll work out.
00:58:30.800 --> 00:58:31.920
Well, we was all drinking.
00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:32.400
Uh-huh.
00:58:32.719 --> 00:58:38.800
And a bunch of us that was working there, my customers, let's just set that sunwitch on fire.
00:58:39.039 --> 00:58:41.360
We went down and there was the second floor still standing.
00:58:41.440 --> 00:58:41.920
It's in the book.
00:58:42.159 --> 00:58:43.199
Which building are we talking about next week?
00:58:43.360 --> 00:58:44.079
The store on the corner.
00:58:44.159 --> 00:58:46.159
Yeah, where the Rabik Park is.
00:58:46.239 --> 00:58:46.559
Yeah.
00:58:47.199 --> 00:58:49.039
It covered half the park, that big store.
00:58:49.199 --> 00:58:50.880
It's a Wheelbomer's General store.
00:58:51.039 --> 00:58:55.199
So we had the roof off of it, most of the side, and we ran out of money.
00:58:55.519 --> 00:58:58.320
And so the devil got into us.
00:58:58.559 --> 00:58:59.760
We set that thing afar.
00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:03.119
Every fire department in two states, I exaggerate, came out.
00:59:03.360 --> 00:59:05.760
And Daddy, Daddy said, these roads are gonna block.
00:59:06.079 --> 00:59:07.360
Even daddy said, leave it alone.
00:59:07.440 --> 00:59:08.239
Let it burn on down.
00:59:08.400 --> 00:59:09.280
Let it burn on down.
00:59:09.519 --> 00:59:10.559
And it did burn on down.
00:59:10.639 --> 00:59:12.480
The next day, Daddy would doze it all in.
00:59:12.639 --> 00:59:14.320
But that's for little old stories like that.
00:59:14.480 --> 00:59:17.679
You know, it didn't happen in a minute, but it they just good stories.
00:59:17.840 --> 00:59:28.639
And uh yes, it's money about the books, but it's still I I I want to emphasize these kids in Ravik, where these old buildings were, stories about.
00:59:28.800 --> 00:59:30.159
Well, this is my family right here.
00:59:30.400 --> 00:59:32.239
You're looking at the front cover, yes, sir.
00:59:32.400 --> 00:59:32.559
Right.
00:59:32.719 --> 00:59:35.920
And and so so that that's why I'm trying to ignite in them.
00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:41.440
Uh uh you know, they go down there where Macaulay Road is instead of saying, This is where your Uncle Joe lives.
00:59:41.760 --> 00:59:43.039
Okay, Uncle Joe.
00:59:43.920 --> 00:59:44.960
That's Uncle Joe.
00:59:45.119 --> 00:59:49.519
I'm telling them who Uncle Joe was, what he done, how he lived, and all this and that.
00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:51.039
So I'm hoping I can do that.
00:59:51.280 --> 00:59:51.440
Yeah.
00:59:51.599 --> 00:59:52.480
I'd like to have you back.
00:59:52.559 --> 01:00:04.719
We'll talk about some some history, we'll talk about the it's my understanding from an old podcast I did a long time ago that uh Raywick was the first settlement in Marion County.
01:00:05.440 --> 01:00:09.280
Um, which I did not know that until uh Gerald Thompson told me that.
01:00:09.519 --> 01:00:11.360
Um he had a lot of good information about Ray Wick.
01:00:11.760 --> 01:00:12.639
They're good on genealogy.
01:00:12.960 --> 01:00:13.440
Oh my gosh.
01:00:13.519 --> 01:00:14.159
Yeah, he really is.
01:00:14.480 --> 01:00:15.679
Well we were called sheep's defeat.
01:00:15.760 --> 01:00:16.559
I'm sure he told you all about that.
01:00:18.320 --> 01:00:23.840
Because it was a big center of I think it was for several things.
01:00:23.920 --> 01:00:27.599
People just grew sheep, raised sheep for the reasons you raise sheep, for the wool and for the meat.
01:00:27.679 --> 01:00:27.760
Yes.
01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:29.599
But also for the hides, too, right?
01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:30.480
Okay, all right.
01:00:30.800 --> 01:00:39.280
Well, this one winter back in the 1700s before Ravik became Ravik, the settlers, in fact, before the settlers came, my people came, there was a bad winter.
01:00:39.679 --> 01:00:41.039
And it snowed and everything.
01:00:41.280 --> 01:00:49.760
Everybody back then, I got letters my grandmother written about who's going to share the sheep this year, just like they would say, who's gonna take the cattle off because my son's in the army.
01:00:50.079 --> 01:00:52.159
Well, anyway, everybody raised sheep.
01:00:52.320 --> 01:00:55.679
And uh Ravik, like Marion County, got rolling hills.
01:00:55.760 --> 01:00:57.360
Yeah and there wasn't no fancy.
01:00:57.599 --> 01:01:00.159
This bad winter came along and snowed everybody in.
01:01:00.559 --> 01:01:06.000
The foxes, the wolves, the cowdies, any other kind of went and killed the sheep.
01:01:06.159 --> 01:01:07.679
Let's say we had 50 sheep.
01:01:07.840 --> 01:01:14.960
They would kill them all, but my great-great-grandparents would go down there and they right in the winter, they would take that hide off that of the dead sheep.
01:01:15.199 --> 01:01:19.679
They would cut the meat off of it, and they get everything that could salvage because you know it's everything's freezing.
01:01:19.920 --> 01:01:22.079
And but that's why they call it sheep to feed.
01:01:22.159 --> 01:01:33.440
Those wild dogs, wild pack of whatever went around all over the county and killing these uh uh uh uh sheep and all that, and so but uh the whole circle turned now.
01:01:33.519 --> 01:01:35.199
My neighbor's raising sheep on our farm.
01:01:35.280 --> 01:01:37.920
I I told my brother Jimmy, I said, now that's that's the circle now.
01:01:38.079 --> 01:01:38.800
I hope you're not defeated.
01:01:38.960 --> 01:01:39.280
Yeah, yeah.
01:01:39.760 --> 01:01:44.880
I went down on the 4th of July this year and they had a mutton cooking right on Charlie's farm.
01:01:45.360 --> 01:01:45.679
Oh wow.
01:01:45.840 --> 01:01:46.719
It was it was neat to see.
01:01:47.119 --> 01:01:48.559
I love what's well be done.
01:01:48.800 --> 01:01:49.440
A lot of people don't.
01:01:49.920 --> 01:01:51.280
Oh, you gotta develop a taste for it.
01:01:51.440 --> 01:01:52.320
You do, but I love it.
01:01:52.480 --> 01:01:54.159
Oh, and I can eat hot R Cold.
01:01:54.239 --> 01:01:55.440
A lot of people say eat it hot.
01:01:55.599 --> 01:01:57.519
I mean eat it cold, pepper, and all that.
01:01:57.599 --> 01:01:57.760
Right.
01:01:57.920 --> 01:02:00.159
But you know, you got 40 people hungry as hell.
01:02:00.239 --> 01:02:01.840
They they eat it raw if you let them.
01:02:02.239 --> 01:02:04.159
Let me ask you one question and then we'll wrap up.
01:02:04.400 --> 01:02:13.440
Um, a couple three years ago in the paper, Raywick's city government decided we were gonna decertify as a as an incorporated city.
01:02:13.599 --> 01:02:14.960
And I never heard anymore about that.
01:02:15.039 --> 01:02:15.920
What's what's going on with that?
01:02:16.320 --> 01:02:18.400
Well, it's incorporated 1738.
01:02:19.039 --> 01:02:28.719
And then uh uh I've got like I got a video uh the church celebrating the 150th anniversary of the city of Raywick.
01:02:29.280 --> 01:02:30.480
I just found it yesterday.
01:02:30.639 --> 01:02:32.079
I'm gonna let them reprint it.
01:02:32.320 --> 01:02:44.800
But anyway, uh when uh Ravick was uh incorporated back in those days there, it just uh uh uh it it it was uh a lot of people was interested in it.
01:02:44.880 --> 01:02:48.400
You know, well it allowed the it as a city it allowed you to get grants.
01:02:48.800 --> 01:02:51.280
Yeah, grants, this and to and to tack levy taxes.
01:02:51.519 --> 01:02:52.719
No, no, they never levy taxes.
01:02:53.039 --> 01:02:54.000
The city never levyed taxes.
01:02:54.159 --> 01:02:59.280
No, no, uh Judge Randall Donahue and the Senator Ed O Daniel and Emmer George took care of that.
01:02:59.360 --> 01:03:01.920
I don't know how they talked to, but we never was taxed.
01:03:02.000 --> 01:03:02.559
That was a big issue.
01:03:02.719 --> 01:03:05.360
Then the other issue was we're gonna have police down here.
01:03:05.599 --> 01:03:07.519
Well, we got the police down here anyway, it doesn't matter.
01:03:07.599 --> 01:03:09.599
You know, so I damn every weekend.
01:03:09.840 --> 01:03:16.239
Yeah, but but anyway, it it just uh uh it's just uh the way things were back then.
01:03:16.320 --> 01:03:19.679
It just uh uh But is it has it been decertified?
01:03:20.559 --> 01:03:24.159
But yeah, they they've been dropped it, but uh there's two characters running.
01:03:24.239 --> 01:03:25.599
I I got to really admire them.
01:03:25.840 --> 01:03:26.559
That's what I'm saying.
01:03:26.719 --> 01:03:29.039
Back when running, everybody was involved in it.
01:03:29.119 --> 01:03:36.800
You know, people instead of buying cakes for the cake wheel, the family have a hundred cakes, people would make this and that.
01:03:36.880 --> 01:03:44.880
But a guy named Lance Abel and uh uh uh Nick Thomas, they sort of took over under the table in a way.
01:03:44.960 --> 01:03:46.400
You know, they still maintain it.
01:03:46.480 --> 01:03:47.760
I think the city took over what?
01:03:47.920 --> 01:03:51.039
Took over the city government kind of took over the park.
01:03:51.199 --> 01:03:51.440
Okay.
01:03:51.599 --> 01:03:52.960
And that that that's the main thing.
01:03:53.119 --> 01:03:58.000
The city of Laban is take, American County took over the security lights, the lights all around Raven.
01:03:58.159 --> 01:03:58.320
Uh huh.
01:03:58.480 --> 01:04:02.400
But we have to take care of our own bills, and that's why they have these functions every year.
01:04:02.559 --> 01:04:07.920
Well, this what impressed me, this last uh homecoming, uh, it rained like hell that day.
01:04:08.159 --> 01:04:10.800
And I drove down, I was gonna sell a few books, and I said, Well, I won't do that.
01:04:10.880 --> 01:04:13.920
I just sat on the bank with uh Craig Bitch was there.
01:04:14.159 --> 01:04:23.440
And uh, there was those boys working their and their wives and family working their butts off, and they sold close to uh, I think a thousand dinners.
01:04:23.920 --> 01:04:29.199
And uh uh it just it was very impressive, and so maybe that's what we should have done a long time ago.
01:04:29.440 --> 01:04:38.639
But because we did, we we was threatened with taxation, with law and all that, but uh uh uh i i it it was fun during that during that deal.
01:04:38.719 --> 01:04:40.800
It was fun developing the park.
01:04:40.880 --> 01:04:42.559
We had a lot of fun doing that.
01:04:42.880 --> 01:04:44.239
Well, listen, I've enjoyed it.
01:04:44.320 --> 01:04:45.760
I want to have you back, seriously.
01:04:46.000 --> 01:04:46.239
Thank you.
01:04:46.400 --> 01:04:47.599
Uh we'll do it soon.
01:04:47.760 --> 01:04:53.119
Um, and uh I just want to thank you for for coming and sharing some of this stuff, Kurt.
01:04:53.360 --> 01:04:57.599
Thank you, thank you to you, thank you to Kurt, and um this will wrap us up.
01:04:57.679 --> 01:04:58.880
Thank you all for listening.
01:04:58.960 --> 01:05:02.159
Uh this has been Mildly Amusing, and I'm James Spraggins.
01:05:04.239 --> 01:05:07.519
Not everyone needs a full-time or even part-time assistant.
01:05:07.679 --> 01:05:12.400
Sometimes you need help for a few hours, for a week, or once in a blue moon.
01:05:12.559 --> 01:05:13.679
That's where I come in.
01:05:13.760 --> 01:05:17.679
I'm your personal assistant for both creative and organizational support.
01:05:17.920 --> 01:05:20.480
Hi, I'm Amy Osborne of Maine Assist.
01:05:20.880 --> 01:05:23.760
Local, reliable, and here when you need me.
01:05:25.519 --> 01:05:26.800
We're back briefly.
01:05:26.960 --> 01:05:29.280
Uh we have a very special treat.
01:05:29.440 --> 01:05:30.239
Um, Mr.
01:05:30.400 --> 01:05:35.679
Bickett uh has offered to sing us a song, and I believe the name of the song is Home Out in Texas.
01:05:35.840 --> 01:05:36.239
Yes.
01:05:36.480 --> 01:05:37.039
Hit it.
01:05:37.280 --> 01:05:40.800
My mother sung that song to us when we were kids, and she always loved it.
01:05:41.119 --> 01:05:42.800
And it sort of goes like this.
01:05:43.199 --> 01:05:51.119
If I can do it tearing up, I had a home out in Texas, out where the blue bonnets grew.
01:05:51.519 --> 01:06:03.119
I had the kindest old mother, how happy we were just we two, till one night the angel called her a debt we all have to pay.
01:06:03.440 --> 01:06:12.719
She called me close to her bedside, these last few words she said Now Charlie don't start drinking and gambling.
01:06:13.199 --> 01:06:15.599
Promise you always go straight.
01:06:15.920 --> 01:06:34.000
Ten years have gone since that promise, the promise I broke by mistake, I started drinking and gambling till at last I was just like them all, betting my clothes and my money, not dreaming that I'd ever fall.
01:06:34.639 --> 01:06:40.480
Till one night the angels called her a debt we all had to pay.
01:06:40.800 --> 01:06:49.920
She called me close to her bedside, and Charlie, here's what she said Charlie don't start drinking and gambling.
01:06:50.559 --> 01:06:52.960
Promise you always go straight.
01:06:53.199 --> 01:06:58.960
Ten years have gone since the promise I promise I broke my mistake.
01:06:59.280 --> 01:07:04.960
I started betting my money, not dreaming that I'd ever fall.
01:07:05.760 --> 01:07:24.239
Betting my clothes till I then one day this is what I saw I saw my mother's picture and son she seemed to say son you have broken your promise, so toss your cards away.
01:07:24.719 --> 01:07:37.760
My winnings I gave to a news boy, for I knew I was wrong from the start, but I'll never forget the promise to the mother, the queen of my heart.
01:07:38.559 --> 01:07:39.360
That's great.
01:07:39.519 --> 01:07:39.920
That is great.
01:07:41.280 --> 01:07:41.920
About that.
01:07:42.079 --> 01:07:42.639
How about that?
01:07:42.800 --> 01:07:43.840
Well uh thank you, Charlie.
01:07:44.000 --> 01:07:47.039
Now you're gonna hook me up eight in Hollywood, maybe.
01:07:48.079 --> 01:07:49.920
Let's let's call Wolf Smalling.
01:07:50.079 --> 01:07:50.960
Let's get let's get you in.
01:07:51.199 --> 01:07:52.480
I haven't seen Wolf in years.
01:07:52.559 --> 01:07:52.719
Okay.
01:07:52.880 --> 01:07:53.760
Thank you very much, Charlie.
01:07:54.079 --> 01:07:54.559
Thank you.