Daily Archives: November 9, 2011
Harland and Sonny . . .
I know a famous author, actually two, now.
Some of our blog readers may remember that when I was growing up in Gulf Shores, AL, my babysitter was Patsy Neal.
She was about 4 years older than me and her family and mine were good friends. They owned a small amusement park while my parents owned a motel on the beach.
I had not seen Patsy since I was about 8 years old until Jan and I, and Jan’s mother went to see her at a book signing in Houston in 2005. Although we hadn’t seen each other for about 50 years, our parents had kept in touch until they died in the 1980’s and 1990’s, so Patsy and I were able to pick right up seemingly where we left off. I think we held up the book-signing line for about 15 minutes.
Oh, you probably know Patsy by her stage name – Fanny Flagg, author of “Fried Green Tomatoes” and a number of other best-selling novels, plus being an actress, screenwriter, and Academy Award Nominee.
But the other famous author I know is a little bit closer to home. You know him as Nick Russell.
This morning his murder mystery, ‘Big Lake’ was listed at #331 in Amazon under Mysteries, and #1,114 in overall paid Kindle books.
This evening it’s at #97 under Mysteries, and #802 overall in paid Kindle books. Wow, that’s a big jump in one day.
Hopefully, he’s hard at work on his second novel, which I think he should call ‘Bigger Lake’. But apparently, he doesn’t.
Great job, Nick!
About noon, Jan and I headed out for the real reason we came this way on our trip back to Texas. We wanted to visit Visone Auto Mart, an RV Surplus / Junkyard.
I thought I might check and see if they had any Source Manager / Source Manager II inverters for a good price that would fit in my American Eagle.
I had called about a week ago and was told they had several of both units in stock. However when we got there I was told that they didn’t have any.
Well, they had one, but it was burnt and half-melted. And since it was pouring down rain when we got there, we didn’t take time to walk around through the many crashed and burnt-out rigs.
By then it was getting close to 1:30 so we make the drive further south into Corbin, KY, the birth place of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
But our destination for lunch wasn’t KFC, but probably our favorite BBQ chain, Sonny’s BBQ. It was as delicious as always, and with each of us getting one of their big plates, we had enough to take home for supper.
Hmmmmm! Good!
Leaving Sonny’s we drove on into Corbin to visit the first Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Harland Sanders opened his first restaurant here as part of a gas station in 1930. By 1937 the restaurant had expanded to 142 seats and was listed in Duncan Hines “Adventures in Good Eating” guide book.
Today the building is still a KFC, and also a museum.
Although Colonel Sanders sold the company in 1964, he stayed on as company spokesman until his death from leukemia in 1980.
In the summer of 1967, I worked at the first Kentucky Fried Chicken that was opening in Athens, AL. At that time, the Colonel still visited every new store that opened and I got to meet him, and have my picture taken with him.
On our way home we made a quick Wal-Mart stop before heading home.
Tomorrow we have a 300 mile run to Athens, AL where we’ll stay for 3 days to visit relatives before we head down to Gulf Shores, AL for a few days.
And it sounds like we’re staying right ahead of the snow. The Louisville, KY radio stations are talking about snow in the next couple of days.
So we’re headin’ south.
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Thought for the Day:
“Remember, if you’re in a fair fight, your tactics suck.”
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