Colonel Harland Sanders Café & Museum
Kate and I still chuckle, thinking about a day my Uncle David and Aunt Roxanne had driven over, from the west coast of Florida, to see his sister’s, my Aunt Helen and my Mother, in South Florida; we invited them all to lunch, at the house. As three of the four had heart issues, I made them a very healthy, light on salt and fat, meal of roasted chicken, lots of vegetables and salad. They started talking, amongst themselves, and decided instead of roasted chicken they wanted Kentucky Fried Chicken – they were not going to be denied, thus as I finished setting the table, Kate went bought them a bucket of chicken with all of the fixings – they were thrilled, devouring that meal as if it were . . . oh, perhaps a nice reminder of their youth, when their Mother, Grandmother Hazel, would fry chicken on Sunday’s and serve it with mashed potatoes, gravy, and biscuits.
Thus when we found ourselves in Corbin, Kentucky, on our way to Columbus, Ohio, we could not resist, the opportunity to visit the original home of Kentucky Fried Chicken; and yes after walking around the museum, we ate fried chicken, which I must admit was pretty tasty that night.
Kate standing in front of the historical landmark sign, which says the following:
“Colonel Harland Sanders began the part of his life that brought him fame in a small gasoline service station on the opposite side of this highway. Born on September 9, 1890, near Henryville, Indian, he left school at twelve to support his family. He held a wide variety of jobs as farmhand, soldier, railroader, secretary, insurance salesman and ferryboat operator until 1930 when came to Corbin, moved his family into quarters behind the station and started pumping gasoline. This was then a main route to Florida from the north. Traffic slowed during the Great Depression so Sanders, who enjoyed cooking, augmented his meager income by selling meals to tourists. His food was liked. His reputation grew and career as restaurateur began.”
“In 1932 Colonel Harland Sanders bought the small restaurant near this site. Here he combined good cooking, hard work, and showmanship to build regional fame for his fine food. His restaurant and motel, now gone, flourished. To serve his patrons better Sanders constantly experimented with new recipes and cooking methods. Here he created, developed and perfected the world famous Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe. In 1956 plans were announced for a Federal highway to by-pass Corbin. Threatened with the traffic loss, Sanders, then 66, and undaunted, sold the restaurant and started travelling America selling seasoning and his recipe for fried chicken to other restaurants. His success in this effort began the world’s largest commercial food service system and made Kentucky a household word around the world.”
Prices have changed a bit
On a previous visit with Leona, one of my Mother’s oldest and dearest friends, Leona had given me a cobalt blue glass, telling me that it was my Mothers. Leona said that there were two glasses, the red one was hers and the blue one was my Mothers, though Leona had kept it, in her possession for years; she said she could not remember where they had gotten them, but it had been at least fifty years since they had been acquired.
I thanked her, and added it to my collection of cobalt blue glass, which includes, amongst other things, my first “antique” purchase, an old Milk of Magnesia bottle, and a small cobalt blue glass which my Aunt Helen gave me. That night, in Corbin, as I walked around the museum, I think I figured out where the glasses had come from!
