Kentucky River
Vol V, No. 4
.. THE BIG BLUE THING
Every momin ’ at eight leaning close b y the van, Its face etched so young on a dark blue tan, See the strong silent presence, hardly marked b y a ding, We first m et the stranger, the Big Blue Thing. Had a head like a thumbtack, ju st one fo o t like a knife, Which explains why he “leaned” in the dawn's early light. We didn ’t know then, but we sure know now, That this hombre would shake us from toe to brow. The ground at the fence site was made b y the devil, It was ignious, sedementary, sure as heck wasn’t level. First hole, ju st seven inches, then the sound o f perdition, Would this hill be a battle o f costly attrition? It rose to the task, which is hard with one leg, With gunpowder’s fury exploding from a keg. I t ’s aim was true, as it struck it did sing, I ’m gonna get you, rock, I ’m the Big Blue Thing. There’s four holes left, but two seem to have locks, But tomorrow AM, w e ’re gonna make the hill rock. With the sledgehammer helping, and Big Blue b y our side, We’ll make the holes deeper, and perfectly wide. As each o f yo u travel, down life’s testy road, Hold this thought with yo u to lighten you r load; Say I dug with the best in 79’s Spring, There was me and there was Jesus and the Big Blue Thing. Mike Morrissey March, 1979 This was written by Mike, our Stanford Child Development Center director, and read to a weary group of volunteers who had spent much £>f a week helping Mike dig post Iroles and erect a fence. The posthole digger was blue in color, and apparently one of the volunteers asked, when they first came on the
scene, “What is that big blue thing?" For those of you unfamiliar with a post-hole digger, it is a strange looking contraption and, especially when you hit rock, it does indeed shake you “from toe to brow." In Kentucky, you hit a lot of rock digging postholes.
May 1979
REMEDIAL READING Last summer we were privileged by the visit of a group of brothers, The Brothers of Christian Instruc tion. They came to us from Platts burgh, New York. They assisted us in Bible Schools, street preaching, manual labor, home visitation and many other programs that we had. After a summer of intense activity they came up with a suggestion that they would like to come back the following year and set up a remedial reading program for the children of our area. One o f the great problems in Appalachia as well as in the country as a whole is the lack o f reading skills among many o f our young people. This handicaps them in all their other school work as well as their jo b opportunities. We have recognized such a problem, but frequently have been unable to do much about it because of our many activities in other fields. This summer, however, the Brothers will be able to establish two remedial reading centers in our area. One will be located in Lan caster and the other one will be in Mt. Vernon. Anywhere from a dozen to twenty-five children a day will be brought to each of these centers. The children will be worked with on an individual basis and it is hoped that their accomplishments in reading will be significant as a result of the summer program, We are presently working with the school systems in the two counties and they seem to be quite excited about this added program that would assist the young people o f our area. We, too, look forward to this first year of a concentrated program in remedial reading.