Hazard KY Area Ruminations 

by Phillip St. John

606 436-8785 301 Hemlock St (Lothair Bottom) Hazard KY 41701-2125

    Having lived in the area since the late 1990's, serving the community washing windows, doing janitorial work, selling sewing machine parts on the internet, repairing sewing machines, as a real estate agent and broker, and going door to door encouraging Bible reading (jw.org), I consider my wife, Debbie and I, having some experience in the area which I would like to share in this blog. Now I am 77 and retired. We have mets lots of wonderful people. 

     One thing, abject poverty, is what going door to door in the ministry brings  you in contact with. Let me tell you about a woman I met recently. 

     As I walked up on her porch built onto a very old trailer in the middle of Hazard, (this is a rental, my wife and I know the landlord) I noticed on the floor what I thought was drops of red paint on the threshold and door. I didn't think too much of it, remembering all the times I had spilt paint myself. Then the lady came to the door.

     She explained that her next door neighbor had gotten into a fight in the early morning with her boyfriend, hitting him in the head with a hammer. He staggered about 10 feet to the lady I was talking to's place, spilling his blood. 

     The police came, sorting things out. Why do I bring this up while talking about poverty? The lady's husband died last year, she has a son that is looking for a job but his appearance is not what employers are probably looking for. They have no income and need all kinds of rehabilitation to be able to fight the fight of survival.

    One person I met after moving to Harlan CO in the early 1980's was Glenn Baker, (deceased) of Hazard originally of Leslie CO KY. One of the richest men in Perry CO, no doubt. I met him while out in field service in 1980/1 at his place of trucking business in Leatherwood KY. He encouraged our group to go visit his daughter, Glenna, living across the road in a brick house, which we did and placed the Watchtower magazine with her. Going door to door certainly opens the way to meet thousands of people, which I have done in the area since moving to Harlan CO in 1980. 

    Glenn was good me and my wife, allowing us to clean for him at houses in Avawam KY and Lexington KY. I did a little real estate work for him while a broker, which means I was broker than him. One time, in the late 80's my wife and I were living in Tampa FL taking care of my mother Lillian Powers. (The reason my name is St. John is I was adopted at the age of 10 to my aunt Clara, and her husband, Leon St. John of Tampa FL. Clara was my mother's fleshly sister. ) We decided to come back up to KY to do some what Jehovah's Witnesses call "unassigned territory", that is territory that rarely gets worked. The territory we checked out was Buckhorn, Chavies, Saul and Smoot Creek. We worked "hollers" like Mud Creek in Saul that was featured on TV and hated by locals because of the terrible reputation that it fostered. We never felt anything but love for any folks we talked to, because we're convinced the Bible can help everyone. But we stayed in one of Glenn's pool house apartments in Woodland Park in Hazard for 5 weeks and he didn't charge us a nickel. He said at the time, "If you're willing to go try to help those folks, I'm willing to help you." 

    I can't say Glenn was a perfect man, far from it. But he had good points. We should all focus on each other's good points and not the bad, right? As an old real estate broker, knowing that Glenn owned lots of property in the area, I wonder what is going to happen to his estate. If anyone knows would you comment on this blog and let me know.  

    I married Debbie Woodford June 6 1981 at the Kingdom Hall in Baxter KY on Sukey Ridge. It was a rainy day. I never will forget the kindness of all the Witnesses that helped us to have a wonderful wedding and reception held at the National Guard Armory in Harlan. I remember one dear brother, "Red" Fugate, who stood in the rain directing traffic in a muddy parking lot, before it was paved. If you would like to see a video on our 40th anniversary, click here. You'll see I wasn't always bald and ugly.

    I would also like to open it up for others to comment on, to further refine our experience and add to it.

    Let me first state how wonderfully we've been treated since moving here in the late 90's. We first lived in Bonnyman, in the big store/apartment building behind the Post Office. We rented and apartment from Clemmie Jane Combs Feltner, who lived in Indianapolis IN. She was siblings with Wanda Baker who owned the furniture store with her husband Bill, now deceased. Clemmie's brother Ed Combs also lived in Indy, he owns the PO building in Bonnyman. Arnold Combs her brother owned a garage next to Wanda's store. Another brother who lived above the Post Office, ran an HVAC service out of his home. We lived there a couple of years while we got our feet wet in the area.

    We ended up buying a home in Lothair bottom in 2002 during the time when mortgages were being given away to anyone who signed up to do so. I don't know how we qualified with our meager subsistence income, but Jackie Griffie, a real estate broker hooked us up with a mortgage broker out of Louisville, who drove to Hazard to fill out papers for us, including adding the down payment in with loan, so that we could buy with no money down. All this lead to a mortgage bubble in the country that nearly tanked our economy, you may or may not remember that. So we bought our now 105 year old remodeled Algoma coal camp house, originally 4 rooms outside toilet, no hall, remodeled 3 times, now with roofing needs which we're waiting on the Housing Alliance to get around to fixing. We just had Patrick Goodin sent his plumbing crew out to install a new sewer cleanout, which they did a great job. Later the city of Hazard sewer crew came out and blew out our sewer which caused a blowout of our line, and they replaced a section of it and were done in gone in less than 30 minutes. All I can say is they were efficient, good natured, and very professional. People in the Hazard KY area are generally very friendly, that is so different from the big city of Tampa, FL where I am from and Columbus OH where my wife is from.

     One business I would like to promote is Windy Hills Coffee. Hazard is now having a surge in small business startups, and Emily Roberts Whitaker is one who is included. She also operates Yarn Oasis of SE KY and Yarn Oasis of SE VA.

    Another very helpful business has been what used to be Lothair Shell. Gary and Oscar (deceased) have been helpful to me and keeping my cars, and those of my friends, going for over 20 years. Just before Oscar died, Gary moved the business to the Christopher Rd area where he continues to be good for the neighborhood. 

    I spend a lot of time now in kidney dialysis. This has been keeping me alive for almost 8 years. Writing in the blog will help me pass time while having to be there, against my will. It is challenging to find things to do other than look at food videos, by Mark Wiens, Mike Chen, Anthony Bourdain, and Sonny from the Best Food Review videos on YouTube. I don't squander all of my time there, I also do a lot of Bible study and preparation for my meetings at the Kindom Hall.