After a too-short year (actually, it’ll be a year in two days) in beautiful NC, I’m already packing up and preparing for another move to another state to take a new position at a new University.
In Kentucky!
Everything I know about KY is based on the two days I spent there interviewing, plus a few basic facts I’ve picked up whilst reading the World Almanac and Book of Facts during my morning ritual. Although I’ll miss the coast terribly, I’m really, really looking forward to it–but I’m not quite sure what “it” is. So I ask: What can you tell me about Kentucky?
Speaking as someone living on the fringe of Northern Kentucky, its not a bad state. Really, from my experience, its three states in one. You have Appalachia, in eastern Kentucky, which is economically downwardly-mobile, and where a lot of the stereotypes about Kentuckians originated.
Then you’ve got the Golden Triangle which has developed in recent years. It stretches from Lexington to Louisville to N. KY. Its becoming a fairly high-scale technology corridor, and growing pretty rapidly in comparison to national averages.
Then you’ve got western Kentucky, which I’ve not experienced much of and can’t speak about.
So the best question I can ask you is: where in Kentucky you headed? EKU? NKU? WKU? rattles his brains for other universities uhhh… Duke is in Kentucky, yeah? Paducah?
DUKE IS NOT IN KENTUCKY!!! If anyone here heard you say that you’d be a dead, dead person. Duke is the enemy!
That being said…
I’m a Kentucky native and an alumnus of two Kentucky universities. I would be more than happy to welcome you to the Bluegrass. Please provide more information on exactly where you’ll be located.
Would you like it to be in KY? I know several folks at NC State that would gladly dismantle the Duke campus and cart it across the border. Hell, I’ll even throw in UNC. No need to thank me, just doing my bit to keep NC beautiful.
Duke…? Enemy…? Oh wait. Basketball, no?
Statements like that from a Kentuckian about another University usually boil down to them being competition for the Wildcats.
And I’m on my way to becoming an alumnus of NKU, having resided in Kentucky for all my life, so I think I can speak about it just as well as the next person.
If you’re now in North Carolina, the climate is pretty much the same in the summer. The winters, however, are much colder and potentially much snowier. (Being landlocked, Kentucky doesn’t get those moderating influences from the coast.) The allergens are all different, though, a fact which I learned the hard way last summer. That’s okay, breathing through one’ s nose is overrated anyway.
Will you be at UK, Eastern, Western, Northern, Murray, Centre, Transylvania, Louisville, Berea, Wesleyan, Brescia, or one of the smaller places? What you can expect varies greatly depending on location.
For example, if you’re going to be in the western half of the state, you can look forward to some real barbecue, not this vastly inferior pig garbage they serve around here. Mmmmm, mutton. ::drool:: Sadly enough, you can’t find any mutton further east than Lexington.
Incidentally, Brian, where exactly are you from? I’m an Owensboro girl, myself.
Oh, and Carcosa, we certainly wouldn’t like Duke in Kentucky. We’d like it at the bottom of the ocean, but we’re afraid it would poison the fish, so I’m afraid you’ll just have to keep it and your vile UNC.
That’s one more thing you can look forward to in any part of Kentucky. People at home tend to take their basketball very seriously, and there is no team but UK. (Well, maybe U of L, but only if you’re stupid.) Exceptions are made only for alma maters, places of employment, and hometown teams.
My year (well, 364 days) in NC has prepared me for people who take their basketball very seriously! I’d prepared myself for NASCAR–Ha! As popular as NASCAR is, it doesn’t hold a candle to college b-ball.
My ex was from Western Kentucky. He and his wife lived there for about 10 years, so my son and I occasionally went down for a visit. There’s definitely a certain “Deliverance” factor down there. My ex’s wife took her boyfriend’s eye out with an axe, for instance. I realize the whole state isn’t like that, but the corner I was introduced to was a bunch of kids with mullets driving hemis and dropping out of high school to work at dad’s lawn mower repair shop. And this was a college town! (Murray). I wasn’t impressed with anything but the scenery. Very beautiful area.
Welcome to Madison County!! I live in Berea, which is about 12 mi south of Richmond and EKU. We are a nice commute to Lexington, about another 14 mi north or Richmond on I-75. Being on I-75 makes for easy travel.
Madison County is one of KY’s larger counties, and has two main cities, Richmond and Berea. Richmond is larger and is “wet”, which means the serve/sell liquor. Berea is smaller, around 12-13,000 with the small, very renowned Berea College. We are “dry”, don’t serve liquor. Both are very nice communities, but being a native Berean, that is my preference.
Property is much less expensive in Richmond/Berea area than Lexington, where the total cost of living is higher, actually the highest in the state.
Let me know if you have any more question and you can also email me personally.
Oh, let me welcome you to Kentucky too Pantellerite!! I live in Lexington, the We Hate Duke Nexus.
I cannot comment firsthand on the schools in Richmond, but EKU operates the Model School, which I believe has an excellent reputation.
I can report there is plenty of wonderful fishing in Kentucky, as close as the Kentucky River, which borders Madison County. Let me recommend a program aired by KET (where I work) called Kentucky Afield, Saturday nights at 8, to get you up to speed on the fishin’ and huntin’ in the state.
You’re moving to one of the most beautiful areas in the world. I’m a native Kentuckian and of course I’m not biased. Every part of the state has its beauty (and mulletheads) but on the whole there are no friendlier people on earth. We’re right pleased to have you!
I happen to work at the community school in Berea so I do know about them. We have a wonderful elementary school here, we do lean toward the liberal side of education. I guess that is the biggest difference that I have seen between the two districts. Richmond has several elem schools, you can visit both district web sites at www.madision.k12.ky.us and www.berea.k12.ky.us.
Richmond also has one Catholic school, a Christian academy and Model, run by EKU. It has more of a private school attitude and not as much parent involvement and public schools.
There are several lakes in Central KY, Richmond has a nice park facility with golf on Lake Reba. We are just about 1 hr 45 mins from Lake Cumberland and Cumberland Falls. Madison County also borders the Kentucky River. Less than an hour south are two more lakes, Lake Linville and Laurel Lake. I know a lot of people also drive to Tennessee, which is less than two hours from Madison Co. to fish.
Kentucky also has two man-made lakes called Land Between the Lakes in Western KY, about a 3-4 hour drive. They have a really nice lodge and lots of fishing!!
Actually, it’s the area between the lakes that’s called Land Between the Lakes. You know, the land part ;). The lakes themselves are Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. When I was a kid, the fishing was pretty good there, but we haven’t been out there in years.
The cool thing about Richmond is that you get the lower cost of living while the amenities of Lexington are still easily accessible. Better shopping, wider variety of restaurants, more concert venues, the horse farms, all that sort of thing. Rupp Arena has a lot of concerts, and you have the drama departments and concert series of both UK and Transy in addition to Eastern.
If you drink, don’t go to any of the 18 and over bars in Richmond on Thursdays. They’re inundated with under-21 students from UK (all the bars in Lexington are 21 and over) getting plastered and stupid before someone in the group leaves Friday to go home for the weekend.
I’m from the Construction Zone north of the Ohio River. I’ve known several emigres from Kentucky, and they were all very nice folks. If you don’t want to look like a tourist there, don’t eat the jelly.
CrazyCatLady, I’m an Owensboro native too. I was recently back there for a visit and one of the first things we did was to go and get some barbecued mutton. Second only to seeing my family, the mutton was the best thing about going back to O’boro.
Welcome to Kentucky–where Education Pays! (Subtext: Education in Indiana is a sure road to nowhere.)
I grew up in Beattyville, about an hour’s drive from Richmond. Both my parents are EKU grads, and my sister will be starting there in the fall.
EKU is the classic suitcase college, so most of the campus clears out on Friday afternoons. The under-21 crowd from all over descends on Richmond on Thursday nights, as it is one of the few places where you can get into bars at 18.
Don’t expect a lot of culture shock moving from NC to KY. Just think horses instead of NASCAR and Maker’s Mark instead of Krispy Kreme.
Clear out your weekends in October, because the only place to be is Keeneland, up the road in Lexington. Don’t buy tickets or anything; the optimal place to stand is in the aisle in front of the grandstand seats, behind the luxury boxes, right around the finish line. Get someone to give you the basics on horse betting, and you’ll never spend a finer afternoon losing money!
There’s a heavenly beverage known as Ale-8 that is found only in Kentucky. It’s like a sweet ginger ale. The only way to consume it is from the big thick green returnable bottles (20 cent deposit). The non-returnable glass bottles will do in a pinch; cans and plastic bottles are right out. (I’m told that since we moved down here they now have Diet Ale-8. What’s next–alcohol-free Maker’s Mark?) The height of eastern KY cuisine is to buy a bag of peanuts and pour them straight into the bottle of Ale-8. I can’t imagine a less healthy snack, or a much tastier one.
Good fishing abounds. You aren’t far from Cave Run Lake, though there isn’t a good road to get you there. A couple of hours straight down I-75 gets you to the magnificent Lake Cumberland.
Re: Model–I guess I’m biased about the place, but everyone I ever met who went there (quite a few people, actually, including a cousin of mine) was a complete jerk. I’m not sure if they make that sort of person or just attract that sort of person.
