Today's Features

Shelbyville resident and author Byron Crawford says he considers himself a good listener.

He says he learned the art of listening while at his mother’s knee, in the tobacco barns, at the feedlots and fishing ponds of Lincoln County. He says he loved to listen to his parents’ friends tell stories.

“I had great upbringing, and storytelling was a part of it,” Crawford says. “Some of the best storytellers I have ever met were the men and women I grew up listening to.

Many of us will be heading over the river and through the woods to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. After eating the last bite of sweet potato pie, the top button and belt are undone while we settle in to watch a football game or the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. But many residents of Shelby County are not so fortunate.

For those, turkey and dressing may not dot the table with cranberries and mashed potatoes.

However, several groups throughout the county want to make sure everyone has a traditional big meal that ends with pumpkin pie.

John Kalmey has been farming all his life, and as it turns out, a life in agriculture runs in his family - well, for at least the past 360 years or so.

Kalmeys have owned farms all over Jefferson and Shelby counties, including part of what is now Louisville International Airport. John Kalmey lives on a dairy farm on Zaring Mill Road, as he has for 61 years and where he raised his family.

He's 86 now, and Kalmey's friends Clarence Miller and Brig. Gen. Ron Van Stockum had been telling him he needed to get moving if he wanted to see his family's heritage.