Kentucky

Listening to: Consoler of the Lonely                      -The Raconteurs

It takes about five hours to get from Memphis to Corbin, Kentucky, so we will probably arrive mid-evening and check into the Baymont Inn. It's a chain, but it's cheap. What else can college-kid travelers do barring sleeping in cars or begging to sleep on couches? After we drop off our luggage and freshen up a bit we will head to our first dinner in Corbin at Harland Sander's Cafe, the original home of KFC. (Abbreviated because the word "fried" in the title makes people uncomfortable, as if they're eating food that's not good for them or something...)

The irony here is that I don't even generally eat chicken, (my vegetarianism will have to make some sacrifices for the trip, I really don't think I'll be able to eat anything but pastries and buttered vegetables otherwise) but the point I'm getting at is interesting. The KFC restaurant started out as a tiny establishment and grew to a gigantic fast-food chain. How did that effect the community? What does KFC's example say about southern culture and how it's marketed now?  

What little I know about Colonel Sanders  is that his father died when he was young, his stepfather beat him, he falsified his age to join the military at age 16, and he had a number of different careers until the age of 40, when he began frying chicken to serve to travelers in his home off of the convenient store he ran. Soon the convenient store became a bustling restaurant and he moved to a larger location across the street. The fried chicken became a legend, as did Sanders, but eventually he sold the franchise to a giant corporation intending to spread KFC all over the country. It worked, obviously, but judging by the reviews I've read, the chicken even at the original location isn't that good. I'm not expecting much, as I think we have all grown to understand that KFC fried chicken today is sub-par. I feel like this decline in quality is an example of what happens when the South tries to sell its appealing qualities to the rest of the country. Eventually it becomes fake, impersonal, only vaguely Southern. 

Music is a possibly example contrary to this assertion, as many of my favorite "folk" or "bluegrass" artists aren't southern at all. However, I feel like music is a little more fluid as far as its quality than, say, food. Granted, both are a matter of opinion, but I feel like the intention behind a non-southerner embracing southern-influenced music has better intentions than a giant corporation making money off of kitschy southern themes and food that looks just enough like southern food to make a profit.

So what is southern in Corbin? I had a hard time researching this place online, very few people seem to have much to say about the actual community, but there is a lot of talk about its natural surroundings. That's why, after our sure-to-disappoint meal at the original KFC, Anna and I are off to explore Cumberland Falls State Resort Park.  Much like Amelia retreated to the swamp or to nature in general, I think the South is inherently connected with nature and reverence for the land we live on. In any case, we need to get some exercise after all the trans-fats we consume anyway.