Good Bye Forkland, I Am Moving On!

The flood was the beginning of the end of my years in the store. The experience caused me to
be so frightened every time the water started to rise in the creeks that I decided to sell the market and move on with my life. I moved to a little town called Junction City and went to work in Harrodsburg as a waitress for about three weeks, then as a deli manager for a Big Value Store in Danville, and finally bought a building in Mitchellsburg, Kentucky and opened a small restaurant. Eventually, I moved back to my hometown of Frankfort and went back to work for the State of Kentucky where I had worked for 11 years previously. I retired from state government in May 2005.

I wrote this blog for my children and grandchild. It covers the seven and a half years of my life I spent living in the Forkland area of Gravel Switch, Kentucky. During this time, I owned and operated a small country store known as Judy’s Market.

There was good times and bad times during these years but mostly good times. My twins, Anne and Leigh, look back fondly at their childhood days growing up on the Fork. It was an experience we will never forget nor will we ever forget all the wonderful people and friends we made. We learned so much about life during these years and what it means to be loving, loyal, honest, and giving like the people of the Forkland community and that family and friends are the important things in our lives.

I feel I have covered the most outstanding times in the store and am closing out this blog. If, in the future, something comes to mind that I have left out, I will come back and add to what I have already written.

If you should happen upon this blog and are interested in reading about this experience, please go all the way back to the oldest post and begin at the beginning when I first bought the property and began my life as the owner of a country store. It will make a lot more sense to you if you start at the beginning. Also, please leave me a comment and thanks for stopping by.

I am now in my senior years and have started another blog to cover my retirement and how I spend my days. You can go to it by clicking, “Living on the Other Side of the Hill” in my sidebar on the left. 

Thanks to all the people of the Forkland area for making my years so memorable that I could write these “Tales of the Rolling Fork”.

The "Green Goddess" Gets a New Home

Since the Cougar was totaled after the flood, the Green Goddess was the only thing I had to drive until I could get something to take the place of the Mercury. Anne and Leigh was not at all happy about this situation. The Goddess had been cleaned up and no longer was filled with mud but she creaked and the doors were kind of loose, she had dents all over her from being banged around on her trip down the road and into the creek bank. She also had a slight, musty odor about her. There was some rust in places, and the right rear view mirror was still missing. The electric windows no longer worked and she was generally just a mess but sometimes we have to just make do with what we have at the moment.

I distinctly remember one day when we had gone grocery shopping in Danville and the girls were so low in the seat you could barely see the tops of their heads. God forbid, we should see one of their friends while riding around in this rattletrap. We came out of the grocery, loaded the bags into the back seat and Leigh slammed the back door real hard. I quietly told her not to do that again because the door was liable to fall off right there in the parking lot. She jumped in the front seat and told me she would certainly not be riding home in this stupid thing without a door should it happen to fall off and that the situation was bad enough at that moment. They were still at that age where they were embarrassed at just about everything that happened in those days and this car totally took the cake when it came to embarrassment but she was running like a top despite all her other flaws!

A week or so later, the girls and I was in Harrodsburg and stopped at a car lot there to just look around and see what they had to offer in the way of used vehicles. I had the money from when Leonard Roller hit the Mercury before the flood and then the money from it being totaled out after the flood. I don’t think I was supposed to own that car.

The girls spotted a small, white chevy spectrum and wanted to try it out. It was not nearly the car the Mercury was but they thought it would be perfect for them to learn to drive. We tried it out and it seemed in pretty good shape and looked almost new. I am sure at this point anything better than the wagon would be just what they were looking to get. They talked me into buying this car and I wrote the salesman a check for it. I had to get someone to take me over to the lot the next day to pick it up. The thing was great on gas and had front wheel drive and was easy to handle.

A couple days after we became the new owners of the spectrum they wanted to drive it around the parking lot and fill it up with gas. I was busy in the store and told them to be very careful. The next thing I see is the little, white, spectrum going away from the store and up the winding road toward Frank Gorley’s house. I take off on foot after them telling myself to be calm and not to kill them when I catch up. I was lucky in that they pulled in Frank’s driveway and did not know how to turn it around. I am sure I had a few choice words to lay on them over this episode but we laugh about it today and keep it as one of our special moments.

Red Nielsen needed a car and wanted to buy the Goddess. I sold her to him for $500 and he drove that car for years. It has to be one of the best station wagons ever made or put on the market.

Years later, Leigh was living in Lexington and swears the “Goddess” was parked at a house next door because the right mirror was missing and it was a pale green. She says the car still haunts her to this day!

The Flood

Many people in the Forkland community will always remember the morning of June 18, 1992. Our beautiful little valley, framed by a ridge of scenic knobs swelled with roaring flood waters. Every creek and stream rising beyond capacity as approximately 4 inches of rain fell within an hour.

I had been running the store for a little over six years. I awoke that morning to fog hovering over the creek that twisted and turned behind the building. The radio was giving out flash flood watches for Kentucky and Boyle County. Several of my regulars had been in to get a cup of coffee and leave to start their work day. We all knew the local creeks and streams could be dangerous, but business was being conducted as usual at my place.

Hubert came into the store to get his morning coffee and we talked about the weather reports.

My phone rang and Hubert answered it for me. It was Peg calling to tell me to get out of the store because the creeks were rising near his place.

Hubert and I checked the creek behind the store and you could see the bottom. The curving, little creek was calm but I decided to leave because it was raining so hard and I knew it could get bad.

I walked out the front door and called to Ed Eisenbeis, a friend, that rented the building next door to do furniture refinishing. I told him we had better leave.

Before we could leave the premises, my pepsi delivery man arrived and we waited for him to unload my order. A total of about ten minutes. The water was starting to rise in back of the store as the pepsi truck left.

I took the money from the register and Ed and I started to my car. It was too late! A wall of water over our heads was coming down the road toward the front of the store. We ran back inside and was trapped in the building.

The doors on the three car shed next to the store began to creak and bang. They dislocated from the building and floated by us as we silently watched from the windows of the market.

Next, my Mercury Cougar backed out of the shed and headed down the road as if someone was driving it. The “green goddess” Chevy wagon floated by backwards, and Ed’s Suburu Brat truck was picked up and the back end set down on the store porch.

A very large tractor with a cab on it, belonging to a local farmer, parked on a goose-neck trailer, came down the road and lodged in my parking lot.

The three car shed exploded and the roof wrapped around a telephone pole on the right side of the store. My propane tank broke loose and began spewing five hundred gallons of gas into the air as it disappeared from sight. (The shed that washed away, the basketball goal the roof wrapped around and my car that washed away.)

We saw water coming in the store through the floor and thought the next thing it would be coming through the walls and the building would come down or explode like the shed. The water had surrounded us on all sides and was so high and swift there was no way out. We were terrified!

We thought surely we were going to drown. Ed and I could both swim but an olympic swimmer couldn’t make it through that roaring, rolling current. Plus, the debris would have killed anyone.

In addition to the vehicles, there was roll bales of hay, tractor tires, logs, mailboxes, blacktop, fences and huge rocks being washed down the road in front and back of the building.

Ed began calling Rescue 911 to ask for help. The only way out for us would have to be by helicopter. The dispatcher was no help. We called the National Guard and was told to call the Mayor of the City of Danville. The Mayor’s Office did not answer. We called the County Judge-Executive, Mary Pendygraft, and she tried to help us. Judge Pendygraft contacted Frankfort for a helicopter and kept in constant touch.

Suddenly, as quickly as it started, the rain stopped and the flooding started to recede. The water went down almost as fast as it came up. Tracy Mills, a neighbor, in a four-wheel-drive

truck was able to rescue us and get us to safety.

Residents in the area lost a lot of property. Tobacco and corn crops were ruined and we were knee deep in mud. I lost a building, two cars, a lot of small items and my property and store was a mess. These material things did not bother me. I was glad to just be alive!

The next day was a beautiful, gorgeous, day in Forkland. Clean up crews were at work and people in the community stopped to visit and help each other. You could almost step across the little creek behind the grocery without getting your feet wet. I swore when I got out alive that I would never stay in my home another night. Two days later, everything looked different. The Fork was calm and serene again. We were all so thankful no one was hurt or killed. I had always heard of flash floods but I had never seen or been through one.

The green wagon was pulled out of the creek and started right up with water running out of every crevice and covered with mud inside and out. The Cougar was in the top of a tree about a mile down the road. It was beyond repair and had to be totaled. My propane tank was found about fifteen miles away lodged near a bridge.

Every time it rained after this experience I was terrified it would happen again.

The only thing that saved the store building that day was the roof that wrapped around the telephone pole next to the store and parted the water making it run in the front and back instead of hitting it directly. Many times in my life there has been someone up there watching over me. The day I was trapped in that store I truly thought I would never be alive today to tell this story.

Mule Hill and Gravel Backroads!

Pass by Judy’s Market on Minor’s Branch Road and travel about a mile and there will be Mule Hill looming between the trees and bushes. During my time on the Fork, it was gravel and winding, and I am sure it got it’s name because a mule was all that could get up it in the olden days. It was so narrow you could not pass but in certain places. In winter months Mule Hill was often too slick or treacherous to attempt unless you wanted to end up in a ravine or some holler.

Red lived on the other side of Mule Hill from the store and so did Lewell and Jewell Mills. Lewell and Jewell had somewhere around eight or nine children, all of them girls except for one boy, Dean. They were all good people, a very close family and enjoyed their life. Most of the girls were grown but some of them lived with Mom and Dad and so did Dean. The others were pretty close by or home on weekends and holidays. I heard tales of Lewell tying a car hood to the back of his truck, loading the girls on the hood and pulling them thru the snow and down Mule Hill like a big sled. They were great neighbors and customers. Lewell was a real character. I think the only moonshine I ever had was a bottle Lewell got for me from one of his friends that still made the stuff. I kept it in freezer in my kitchen because Lewell told me it was better that way and would not freeze.

Lewell Mills

One Sunday morning Bruce Crain came by and when he found out I had some moonshine he wanted to taste it. He said he had never had it before. I got the bottle from the freezer and Bruce took a big “swig” right from the bottle. He went into some kind of fit!! He said it burned all the way down to his stomach. He was coughing and wheezing and carrying on like he was going to bite the dust right there in my kitchen. Bruce left and three days later he came into the store and said he could still feel the burning in his gut!

There was a lot of gravel backroads in and around the fork. It was nothing to be out for a ride on Sunday afternoon and come upon several vehicles pulled over on a gravel road with people standing around visiting, their radios turned up,with country music blaring, and a cooler of beer shared by all. This always amazed me growing up in the city. You never knew what adventures you might behold on a gravel backroad. Once while making the trip over Mule Hill on my descent I passed a burned out car on the side of the road and someone had painted a sign with white spray paint on the side in big white letters. The sign said “SEE ROCK CITY” with an arrow pointing straight ahead. I thought this was hilarious!

We traveled those backroads like they were super highways, with radios blaring. I never saw a law enforcement officer on one of those roads in all my time I lived on the Fork.

There was a song out by Ricky Van Shelton at this time that describes exactly what you feel when riding the backroads. Below is a verse from the song:

I’ve got the radio blastin

I’ve got the windows rolled down

And I’m cruisin’ these backroads

On the outskirts of town

I can feel the wind a-blowin

Hear the big engines whine

When I’m cruisin’ these backroads

All my troubles are behind.

I think that says it all!!

The Bookmobile Comes to the Fork

One of the highlights of the month while I was running the store was the day the bookmobile came and parked in my lot and the Forkland residents would come by and check out books. It usually came about one thirty in the afternoon so I had finished with my lunch crowd by that time. If someone was loafing by the old stove I would get them to yell at me if a customer needed help. If there was no one in the store, I had to try and keep an eye out for a car that might drive up and someone go into the market.

Anne and Leigh were always excited to get home from school on the day the bookmobile came because they knew I would have checked them out a whole new bunch of books to read. It was such fun to ramble through all the choices. I like to read biographies and the ladies that ran the rolling libary would always try and bring me new ones to read. Sometimes, Peg would be loafing by the stove and I would come back into the store with all the books I could carry and he would ask me, “what in the world are you going to do with all those books?” I usually read them all in my spare time. The shelf under the store counter was always home to a book I was reading and others lying in wait.

The minute the school bus stopped out front in the afternoons, the girls would come running into the store and look at all the books to see what new adventures they would go on while reading.

My children all love to read and I am so glad we impressed upon them the importance of books when they were young. To this day they are all avid readers.

It is amazing when you live a simple life in the country how exciting something like the bookmobile coming by is to your life. We had many great hours of reading time thanks to the Boyle County Library and that rolling library on wheels. Just goes to show that a lot of the best things in life are free and living simply is not so bad in this hurried world of today.

Another Piece of Art that Adorned the Wall in Judy’s Market

The Non Conforming Sparrow

Once upon a time, there was a nonconforming sparrow who decided

not to fly south for the winter.

However, soon the weather turned so cold that he

reluctantly started to fly south.

In a short time ice began to form on his wings and he fell to

earth in a barnyard, almost frozen.

A cow passed by and crapped on the little sparrow.

The sparrow thought it was the end.

But, the manure warmed him and defrosted his wings.

Warm and happy, able to breathe, he started to sing.

Just then a large cat came by and hearing the chirping,

Investigated the sounds.

The cat cleared away the manure, found the chirping bird

and promptly ate him.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY

1. Everyone who shits on you is not necessarily your enemy.

2. Everyone who gets you out of the shit is not necessarily your friend.

3. And, if you’re warm and happy in a pile of shit, keep your mouth shut.

What bird????

Deer Hunter Weekend

I used to keep several framed articles, poems, jokes, etc. on the walls in the market for all to enjoy. This one was from the newspaper but gave many a deer hunter something to think about!

SATURDAY

1:00 a.m. – Alarm clock rings

2:00 a.m. – Hunting partner arrives

2:30 a.m. – Throw everything except kitchen sink into truck

3:00 a.m. – Leave for deep woods

3:15 a.m. – Drive back home and get gun

3:30 a.m. – Rush to get back to woods before daylight

4:00 a.m. – Set up camp; forgot tent

4:30 a.m. – Head into the woods

5:00 a.m. – Skin hand and ankles climbing into deer stand

5:15 a.m. – See deer

5:16 a.m. – Shoot deer

5:17 a.m. – Bury dog I thought was deer

6:05 a.m. – See eight deer

6:06 a.m. – Take aim and squeeze trigger – click

6:07 a.m. – Load gun while watching deer go over the hill

8:00 a.m. – Head back to camp

9:00 a.m. – Still looking for camp

10:00 a.m. – Realize you don’t know where camp is

12:00 noon – Fire gun for help; eat wild berries

12:15 p.m. – Run out of bullets; eight deer come back

12:20 p.m. – Strange feeling in stomach

12:30 p.m. – Realize you ate poison berries

12:45 p.m. – RESCUED!

12:55 p.m. – Rushed to hospital to have stomach pumped

3:00 p.m. – Arrive back at camp

3:30 p.m. – Leave camp to kill deer

4:00 p.m. – Return to camp for bullets

4:30 p.m. – Load gun, leave camp again

5:00 p.m. – Empty gun on squirrel that is bugging me

6:00 p.m. – Arrive back at camp; the eight deer are grazing by camp

6:01 p.m. – Load gun

6:02 p.m. – Fire gun, shoot hole in truck radiator

6:05 p.m. – Hunting partner returns dragging deer

6:06 p.m. – Resist strong urge to shoot partner

6:07 p.m. – Fall into campfire

6:10 p.m. – Change clothes; throw burned ones in campfire

6:15 p.m. – Take pickup; leave partner and his deer in woods

6:25 p.m. – Pickup boils over; STOPS!

6:30 p.m. – Stumble and fall; drop gun in mud

6:35 p.m. – Meet bear

6:36 p.m. – Take aim; gun blows up, barrel full of mud

9:00 p.m. – Bear leaves; wrap “effin” gun around tree

Midnight – HOME AT LAST!

SUNDAY

Watch football on TV while slowly tearing up license; mail them to game warden with very clear instructions where he can put them.

The Roadside Rest Stop and Four Wheelin

Hubert and Marjorie Ellis owned and maintained a picnic area across from their farm on Forkland Road. It was right next to the rolling creek and had several tables and a gravel pull off place to park cars. It was so nice in the summer to just stop on your way back from Gravel Switch and visit with the people picnicking. Many times I sat there on one of the tables and listened to the bubbling water while the song birds chirped and watched the cars go by and waved to people I knew. There was something about that place that was so calm and serene.

Seldom did I ever pass the picnic area and it was deserted. I have seen Marjorie out there on the riding lawnmower late in the evening mowing and cleaning the place up so it would stay nice for all the visitors that stopped by from other places or local people that just stopped to enjoy and maybe eat their lunch from a brown paper bag.

A favorite thing to do on the Fork was go four wheeling or three wheeling. Everyone had one of these machines and riding up and down, in and out, of the creek was loads of fun in the summertime. Mostly the guys did the driving and the girls road on the back. In some places the banks could get pretty steep but that did not stop these little four and three wheeled monsters!

They would even keep going in the water as long as you did not get in deep enough to drown out the engine. The picnic area was a great place to stop and enjoy a soft drink or beer and listen to a little music and rest a spell before hitting the water again.

Certain areas on some farms in Forkland had been marked off with roads for four-wheelin and little bridges built with road signs just like regular highways.

I remember one time when a bunch of us were up near Mitchellsburg Knob and I let someone talk me into getting on the back of a four wheeler and ride up the right of way that had been cut out up the knob for electrical lines. It was straight up and we both had to stand up to keep the four wheeler from turning over backwards on us. By the time we reached the top I had totally realized that I was not at all in my right mind or I would never have been talked into this adventure. Thank God we did make it to the top without turning over or getting killed. The minute we got up there and stepped off that machine and I looked back down the hill I decided there was no way I was ever going to ride that thing back down. I told my friend that I would crawl on my hands and knees all the way to the bottom of the mountain! I have been scared to death of heights all my life and whatever possessed me to do this was certainly something that has never taken over my mind and body again. My friend said going down would be a lot easier than getting up there and after about thirty minutes of me trying to think of some other way and not being able to come up with a solution, I prayed to God if he would let me make it back down I would never pull anything so foolish again. The ride down was easier and to this day I have kept my word.

Crazy Bout A Mercury!

I had an old, green chevy wagon that was about a 1979 model when I moved to Forkland. This car was as long as a hurse but ran like a top. I used it for everything. It doubled as a family car, ice wagon, garbage truck, and moving van. Anne and Leigh hated it. They were just at that age where everything embarrassed them and “the green goddess” was enough to cause me to hear such statements as, “don’t park right in front of the school when you pick us up” or “we will be out late, so you don’t have to be there right on time”. It did not help any that the right, rider’s side mirror was broken off and in the glove compartment and used as a makeup mirror many times or that there was rust in several places around the bottom near the wheel wells.

Anyway, one day I was in Liberty, Kentucky and saw JC’s Used Car & Auto Mart right there on the main drag. It had several rows of used cars with one of those little buildings in the middle of the lot where the salesmen hang out so they can run outside the minute you drive into the place.

I pulled “the green goddess” onto the lot and sure enough here comes this tall, lanky salesman before I can even get out of my vehicle. I was lucky enough to get JC, the owner, and while showing me around I found out he knew Hubert Ellis, my friend, back on the Fork. They were good friends and had been for many years. I looked over all the possibilities and my eyes landed on this dark brown, Mercury Cougar. It was kind of sporty, not too big, looked to be in great shape on the outside, so I took her for a spin. I liked the car. I knew the girls would like it, too, but we could not agree on a price and I was not going to trade in the goddess and get nothing for her. She could be used for hauling and such for the store. I returned to the Fork and the next morning Hubert was in the store. I told him about the car I found in Liberty and about JC telling me he was a friend of Huberts. Hubert told me the next time he was in Liberty he would talk to JC and try to get me a better deal on the car.

True to his word, Hubert came by the store in a few days and said JC still had the Cougar and was ready to deal with me. I called the lot on the phone and made an offer again but told JC this was if the car was on the road with license and tags, etc. and I would write him a check for the vehicle. He agreed to the offer and even delivered the car to the store and Hubert took him back to Liberty.

The girls and I loved that car! We thought we had made it uptown! We would go for drives with the windows down, the radio turned up, the cool breeze blowing our hair, enjoying the winding roads and countryside. It was a sporty car and the girls loved the cougar emblems near the windows. It was not a new car but it was new to us.

I did not have this car but about three weeks and one day Leonard Roller was in my store eating lunch, paid for his food, went out to his truck and backed up at least a thousand feet and took the

right side out of my Cougar. Leonard was getting up in age and his eyesight was not the best but I thought he could surely see that car! It was like he made an effort to back up as far as he did to hit it smack in the side and smash the whole side in. I heard the crash and I am a slow person to get angry but that day, I just went off when I looked out at my little Cougar. I was cussing and calling him an old fool and the people in the store would not let me go outside. They said I would cause Leonard to have a heart attack if I ran out there ranting and raving at him. It was very hard to be civil but I did manage to calm down and get his insurance company’s information and give them a call. I got several estimates on fixing the car and the agent brought me a check to pay for it. We were back to the “green goddess” until I could get the Cougar fixed and I was glad I had kept her. Leigh and Anne was not nearly as happy as me about still owning the wagon.

Leonard continued to come to the store for lunch and we remained friends but I always cautioned him when he left to look out for vehicles in the parking lot and I kept my vehicles parked an even greater distance from the store lot.

The Gorleyrosa!

The Gorleys all lived on a farm up the road from the store. When I moved to the Fork, Billy and Judy lived in the rustic looking house about a mile from me. Frank and Clarice, the mother and father, lived up Minor’s Branch on the right in a little, white house. David and Cheryl lived on Gorley Road that ran up a hill right in the middle of the farm. I knew Billy and Judy before I moved to Minors Branch. I met the rest of the clan once I took over the store.

The girls used to ride their bikes to Judy’s house and she would let them watch movies and hang out with her. We all loved the Gorleys. Billy and Judy

Frank would make a trip down to my place every day. Most of the time he would ride his four wheeler down but about once or twice a week he came on his riding lawnmower. The lawnmower would backfire when he cut it off and no matter where I was I knew that Frank was outside. He would come in and visit with any loafers that might be hanging around the store and before he left he bought two packs of Pall Mall cigarettes. Once I said to him that it would be cheaper to buy a carton instead of two packs every day and he explained to me that if he should “kick the bucket” and Clarice got her a boyfriend, he did not want some strange guy getting his cigarettes. Frank was always making a joke about something.

David, Me, Frank

I went for a run after work one day and passed by Frank’s house on my way home. He was sitting outside and yelled to me that he thought a horse was coming down the road with the thumps. ( “Thumps” is a spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm synchronous, with the heart beat causing the flanks and sides of the horse to show flutter or a thumping motion”)

Every time the Gorley clan got together for a pot luck dinner, whether it be Christmas, Thanksgiving, or someones birthday, Frank always showed up at the store with three plates loaded down with food for me and the girls. All those Gorley women were great cooks, too.

Clarice came to the store every day just like Frank but she would walk down in the afternoons. She always had a smile on her face and would tell me she had been cleaning the house or she cooked breakfast for one of her boys. She liked to visit with other people in the store, too.

Clarice

I remember one year when we had the jam session outside in the parking lot and David had a little too much to drink. Frank and Clarice and Cheryl was all sitting around listening to the music and David danced all night right in front of the store steps on one foot. He did not miss a beat. We all thought it was totally hilarious but I don’t think Cheryl was too pleased with his interpretation of Mr. Bojangles.

Mike Gorley, Judy and Billy’s son, was the joker that ran in the store with the ski mask on after I nearly got robbed. Another time, Mike, had heard the song, “Let’s All Go Down to Dumas Walkers” on the radio for the first time and came in the store and told me he heard a song and he was sure it said, “Let’s All Go Down to Judy Walkups”. Well, this caught on and every time we had a jam session the band would play and sing this song for me and change it to Judy Walkups!

Peggy Yankey and Judy Gorley

Judy Gorley was one of my very best friends. She was a wonderful person and was loved by everyone that knew her. Judy died with cancer after I left the Fork. I still miss her and all the good times we had together. Frank and Clarice are both deceased also but fondly remembered by those of us that were fortunate enough to have known them.