The Facts of Life: Part 3

I was talking to a couple at the church who have lived in Owensboro for over 40 years. I assumed they were both from Owensboro or at least Kentucky as many around here are, but when I asked if they have lived here their whole life, the wife immediately jumped in: "Oh, no! I'm a Yankee."

Yankee. It's not too often you find people referring back to the 1860's and the Civil War when defining themselves, but around Owensboro it's not that uncommon. Remember that much of Kentucky's economy was dependent upon slaves before and during the Civil War. Remember that it is closer to Nashville, Tenessee as it is to Indianapolis, IN (even though Owensboro is on the northern border of Kentucky). Also remember that it is also closer to Atlanta, GA from Owensboro than it is to Chicago, IL. Owensboro - by its very geography - leans towards the South.

And, if you drive out into the county of Owensboro - as we did while looking for houses during our early days here - you will come across another interesting testament to this area of the country; there are houses with huge white boards staked into the ground with a Confederate flag in the middle and "Sons of the Confederate Army" inscribed around the flag.

It needs to be said that Kentucky never seceded from the Union. In fact, it eventually sided with the Union after Confederate armies invaded its borders. But, as a key central state - stuck in the middle of the painful tearing our nation experienced during the Civil War - it was not uncommon for brothers to find themselves one in blue and one in gray. Ulysses Grant and Abraham Lincoln were from Kentucky. But so was Jefferson Davis who played a critical role for the Confederates.

Thus, the woman's quick desire to label herself a Yankee over and against a Southerner. As if the matter had not been settled.

The reality of Owensboro's southern culture is something I felt the first time I set foot in this city, but continues to strike me new almost weekly. I grew up in Indianapolis - a northern city where the Civil War was certainly discussed in 8th grade history class, but other events eventually pushed this war to the background: industrialization, world wars, America becoming the world's economic, political and militaristic power. But, for border or southern states, the Civil War is a wound that never went away, as all Americans learned again during the Civil Rights movement.

Perhaps people who come from Mobile, AL find it hard to believe how "Northern" Owensboro seems.

For what it's worth, I enjoyed it more when I could answer people's inquiries about my place of origin by saying, "Oh, I'm a Californian." Somedays, it still seems better to be a part of a state destined to fall into the Pacific Ocean than it does being a part of a state still hoping the sutures of time will heal a wound suffered 150 years ago.

Wes