[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest]
I have no firm opinion of Tennessee except that Dolly Parton was born in Butcher Hollow, so that’s ok by me.
QUOTE]
Loretta Lynne was born in Butcher Hollow, not Dolly Parton.
Twice the voice, but only half the boobs.
Dolly Parton was born in the Pigeon Forge/Sevierville area of Tennessee. Butcher Holler, where Loretta Lynn was born, is in…Johnson County, I believe.
I don’t know where people get the idea that Kentucky is a good place to avoid the sweltering summers. When we moved to North Carolina, people kept asking me how I was handling the heat, to which I generally replied, “It was 5 degrees hotter at home the day we moved, and it was way more humid.” The summertime highs in Kentucky are generally in the 90’s (though we sometimes have days that are only in the high 80’s and others where it breaks 100), and the word “muggy” gets used a lot. It’s so hot and wet there, we sometimes refer to it as The Armpit of America.
The winters are quite a bit milder than what you would get in mid-Ohio or similar, though. We tend to not get a whole lot of snow, but a couple of inches can close the schools, especially up in the mountains. In the more rural districts, there are a lot of narrow, twisty roads (a few gravel ones, even) that are so shaded the snow just doesn’t melt, so it becomes dangerous to try and send school buses up and down them. Nobody wants to risk getting the kids hurt in a wreck, or stranded in a snowbank, so they just close the schools rather than take the chance. There’s more snow in and around the mountains in the eastern part of the state than in the flatter areas in the western part. There tends to be more flooding in the western part, though.
It’s a beautiful state. Absolutely gorgeous, really. It’s so beautiful that this time of year thousands of unfortunates from Ohio come down to look at our trees. (Judging by the way they creep along the roads craning their necks, I’m forced to conclude that they have never seen a tree before.) Sad cases, those poor treeless Ohioans. 
I think there are two reasons you tend not to hear a lot about Kentucky. It’s got its own pace and culture. It’s a homebody sort of place, not suited for those who want bright lights and excitement and glamour 24/7. The people who like that sort of life tend not to leave. The ones who don’t like it leave, but tend not to talk about it much, which leads us to the second reason.
There’s a perception of Kentucky as being full of stupid, backward, uneducated people. My mom had the mother of a transfer student actually ask her if they taught kids to read in the sixth grade. The woman was completely serious, too. Nobody wants the stigma of being from a stupid, backward, ignorant background, so stars like George Clooney and Johnny Depp simply don’t talk much about being from Kentucky. The only mainstream celebrity (I don’t know how mainstream country music and Nascar is considered, really) who talks up being from Kentucky is Ashley Judd, and we all know how seriously people tend to take her.
Oy, the summers. Can’t believe I left that part out.
HUMID. OH, so, humid. And hot. Sticky.
Steam coming off of not only the Ohio, but the Mississippi as well.
Good times.
You forgot to mention that everytime it rains in Lexington approximately half the traffic lights quit working. And nobody knows what to do when that happens. Not that it matters too much since a bunch of people ignore red lights anyway. That’s how I lost my last vehicle. I’ve lived here for close to 20 years now and have to say that Lexington drivers are the worst I’ve ever seen. Other than that it’s a nice place and I like it well enough. Of course I’m one of the handful of mutants who doesn’t like basketball at all. (Don’t tell anyone-they’ll run me out on a rail.)
I grew up in a moderate-sized town in Hardin county, soon to be a major motion picture! It’s south and a little west of Louisville, where I was born. In that area most people don’t seem to think of themselves as typical southerners they way they do around Lexington. Just nice semi-rural folk. It was a good place to grow up.
It’s not all sunshine and roses I guess. Just see the pit re: election day just past. But I’m not sorry I’m from there.
Some other people now… 
Great minds think alike, Ravenman… We have one of those silly plates, so we mounted it into a license plate holder which says “LAND OF THE RAISIN BRAN SUNRISE” on it. This is, of course, my own desperate plea for attention.
I’ve lived a lot of places, and I think the OP is riight. In a place like Colorado, you simply never see Kentucky plates. I went to high school here in Kentucky, then left (as fast as I could) only to return 21 years later.
The area has a lot going for it, but the people tend to be, as noted, a little more homebody-ish than I’m used to elsewhere. This creates pretty small perspectives… when my high school reunion was scheduled to take place in the next town over (all of 8 miles away), many people boycotted in protest because it was in the next county. As someone who was flying in from Denver to attend, I didn’t give a flying fuck what town it was in.
Lexington’s not bad, but I would never consider living in the surrounding rural counties (including the one in which I went to high school). Too fundamentalist and too anti-intellectual for my tastes.
My office window overlooks Rupp Arena, which as UK’s home floor is the center of the Big Blue Universe for the Wildcat faithful. I went to Indiana, so I take a lot of shit around here. So the view is wasted on me…
Wasted indeed!
You TOLD people you were a Hoosier? What? Did you have a death wish?
I was born right next to the UK football field …
My Morning Jacket is from Kentucky. They’re a great band.
My mom’s from Southeast Kentucky, raised in a holler not unlike Ms. Lynn’s. Mom’s told me she’s never had a problem being called a hillbilly - shrug it’s where she’s from. I think she’d agree w/ the flatlander analogy. 'Course, if you say anything snidely enough…
When my folks retired (from Michigan) they chose NC because it reminded my mom of KY in good ways. But I don’t think she misses the abject and all-pervasive poverty she saw as a child and I saw on our family visits even up to a few years back.
For those in the know - my mom’s from Knox county (dry), grew up in Barbourville/Artemus area, her daddy was a coal miner and moonshiner (sometimes) and her people are Alreds and Singletons. We can trace her daddy’s people back to 1793 in TN.
I can tell you that honeysuckle is the smell of a Kentucky morning.
Central Baptist Hospital, or Lexington Community College? 
I haven’t noticed problems with traffic lights in the rain, but then again I tend to stay on the Harrodsburg-Nicholasville side of town.
I have a love/hate relationship with Rupp Arena. I love it because it’s the home of the Cats, and is bigger than some NBA arenas. I hate that the students get about 14 seats in it for games.
“2010” is a movie that I really like, one reason being the mention of Kentucky. My favorite part is when Dr. Floyd mentions our basketball.
Dr. Heywood Floyd: Buy you a drink. Great stuff this bourbon. Comes from a land called Kentucky.
Tanya Kirbuk: I didn’t know you brought liquor on board. It is forbidden.
Dr. Heywood Floyd: Think I’d set foot on this tub sober? C’mon try it. You can’t beat the taste of alcohol and plastic.
Tanya Kirbuk: You think I was wrong to send Max?
Dr. Heywood Floyd: Doesn’t matter what I think.
Tanya Kirbuk: You think I was wrong.
Dr. Heywood Floyd: Yep.
Tanya Kirbuk: So what else do they do in Kentucky?
Dr. Heywood Floyd: They have a big, big horse race, they play very good basketball, they have babies like everyone else.
Tanya Kirbuk: That sounds like a nice place.
It’s funny that you bolded Wyoming. I used to have a friend who swore Wyoming doesn’t even exist: “Think about,” he’d say. “You never here about it. Nothing newsworthy ever happens there? Pfft, whatever. And you’ve never seen any Wyoming plates, do you? NO! It’s not even there.”
I can’t imagine why anyone would lie about Wyoming. I’ve been (through) there since then, and I wish I could see him again to tell him that, yeah, it’s there. 
Oh yeah - I’ve lived in Wyoming too. A few years after leaving there, I would periodically tell my Denver friends, “You guys are great, but I’m going to Laramie this weekend to drink with professionals.”
Much of Wyoming looks like the moon. But there are a few places which are breathtaking, such as the Tetons.
The best kept secret is the Snowy Range Road, which is undoubtedly closed for the season already. This was the second designated national scenic byway in the country. I lived in a log cabin just off it for a few years, which is as rustic as I’ll ever get. (I appreciate my automatic furnace a lot more now.)
My Morning Jacket in case you missed it. In 1960. For about 20 minutes. With Pie.
What?
I was born and raised in Kentucky, just in Tennessee for the jobs. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t get hot. I grew up in Lexington, and it can be miserable. I agree on the drivers in Lexington, except Nashville seems much worse. Probably cause of the volume.
Northern Kentucky (Kenton, Boone, Campbell counties; right around Cincy) is very different than the rest of the state. Extremely Catholic areas, more German/Irish background than downstate. Pretty much ignored downstate as well. Most people living there do NOT like people saying they’re a suburb of Cincinnati. In fact, I know quite of few people with the opinion that they should burn the bridges to Ohio.
To get an idea of how much we care about basketball:
Bear Bryant was UK’s football coach in the 50’s. Same time that Rupp was the basketball coach. Bear won a national championship the same year Rupp did, and soon left UK. When asked why, Bear stated that after the championship, Rupp received a new Cadillac, and Bear got a cigarette lighter.
No idea if it’s true, but I’ve heard it for years.
I’ve only lived in Tennessee, so I can’t speak for other places, but yes, we have our regular sales tax on groceries. Our regular sales tax is 9.75%.
That sound you hear is my purse squealing in agony.
One of my best friends was raised in eastern Kentucky, and now lives in Louisville, which is the only part of Kentucky I’ve ever visited (aside from a bus-trip rest-stop at the Paducah McDonald’s, but let’s not talk about that). Louisville, at least, is a fantastic city. Old Louisville is beautiful in the spring, when the people who care about their stately brownstones plant their gardens, and I heartily endorse getting down there for Thunder Over Louisville, the biggest yearly fireworks extravaganza in (I think) the world.
The OP also asked about Maine, so I’ll toss in some opinions on that, too. I lived in Lewiston for a while, and still visit there regularly. That’s just north of Portland, and it’s really more city-fied than most people think when they hear “Maine.” I’ve also spent a great deal of time up in Penobscot County, north of Bangor, which is really way up there, in the middle of nowhere, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. The only problem I have with Maine (and one of the primary reasons I no longer live there) is that I was born and raised in New Jersey, and I can’t fathom a town where everything is closed by midnight. If I want pancakes at three in the morning, there’s not always someplace available in Maine to get them. It’s a beautiful state, if you manage to avoid the height of summer and the depths of winter. My car door froze shut when I lived there, and I spent all of January climbing in from the passenger side.
Central Baptist Hospital isn’t next to the stadium, silly. There’s a church in between. Obviously, she was either born in K Lot or Greg Page. 
I don’t recall any problems with the traffic lights when it rained, but I do recall everyone suddenly forgetting how to drive when it started raining. The slightest sprinkle, and people would start doing stupid, dangerous shit they’d never do on a dry road.
Yes, it was Central Baptist, and Dr. Glenn Moore saved my life.
Eww, Greg Page. Wouldn’t live there if you paid me to.
And it looks like I’m gonna be headed back to K Lot for parking once I move, since I won’t be able to walk to class. Guess I need to get the bike back to riding condition so I can bike from K Lot to Central Campuis.
I don’t need you to go into the graphic, gory details about the depths of winter; it’s scarier if I use my imagination. What’s wrong with the height of summer, though? I’ve only been there in the fall so I can’t speak authoritatively, but I would imagine the summer to be very mild and welcoming.