Don Estep

The excellent treatment I received when I had minor surgery recently at Baptist Health in Corbin prompted me to write about it in my column. I appreciate how nice everybody was that assisted in getting me prepared for the surgery and the doctor who performed it. I complimented one of the nurses and she jokingly said, “Yes we are the Dream Team.” That they were... they put me to sleep! I am not new to having surgery. My number of times for surgery over the years are double digit with most of it being done at Baptist Health. I have had major surgery at the University of Cincinnati and in...

As I was turning out the lights preparing to go to bed last Tuesday night the word “east” entered my mind. In my column last week I wrote “east” rather than “west” of the underpass in giving the location of what used to be the Hall-Watson Furniture Co. building. The paper had gone to print and nothing could be done about my error. The Mershon Building, which Hall-Watson’s was part of, was built in 1913 and knowing a lot of people new to the area would not know anything about these buildings I gave the location. That was not the first time something like that has occurred in my 35-plus years...

Continuing with the historical theme from Trevor’s column, Monday I met with Diane Mitchell, her brother Rob Miller and Paul Jones at the Corbin Public Library. Diane set up the meeting in order to get information Paul and I could recall about Corbin’s history. I’ll admit that I did more listening than talking because Paul, Diane and Rob are a treasure chest of knowledge about the town. Diane and Rob amazed me with the information they had already collected. The purpose of this collection is for a history room that is being developed at the library about Corbin’s past. Then of course Paul Jones, at 100 years of age, amazed us with...

Winning a state championship... It’s something dreams are made of! The Whitley County Colonels baseball team made history Saturday evening in Lexington by winning the State Baseball Championship. The accomplishment is huge! This is a feat that no other team from the 13th Region, and most of southeastern Kentucky, had ever done. A big congratulations to all who made it possible. The Colonels are a group of young men who would not be denied. They made clutch hits, had great pitching, excellent fielding and won in a storybook fashion. Give credit to great coaching that sent the runner on third base home with what turned out was the winning run. Only in your...

Slow down! I’m talking to Father Time as this week I start my 36th year at this newspaper. It has gone so fast. It seems like yesterday that I was talking to Terry Forcht about taking the job as publisher of the Whitley Republican. In order to take the position I suggested that we start a sister paper in Corbin. He offered full support of the idea and even gave me a book to read written by Al Neuhart who started USA Today, which at that time was just two years old. That is how we came up with the name of our new product, Corbin! This Week. It was 1987 and...

Bill Crook, my best friend, passed away Monday. I have known Bill since we were kids, but over the years we became close friends. When I first started dating my wife Judy, we would go out with Bill and his wife, Sharon. That continued for many years after our marriage. Recently I wrote about being on Bill’s softball team and how he recruited a UK basketball player to play for us. Bill was an avid softball player and players throughout the state knew him. In 2001 he was installed in the American Association Softball Hall of Fame. About 40 years ago he and I became very close friends when he asked me...

My guess is that most of us living today will never witness a settlement to battle between Corbin and London on the attempts by the City of London to annex property along I-75 adjacent to Exit 29. As you are aware, last week the Court of Appeals ruled that a Laurel judge was in error in this case. The court ruled that a summary judgment in London’s favor and that London’s cross-appeal was without merit. This case goes back to Aug. 12, 2020, when the London City Council held its first reading of an ordinance to annex the property. Then on Sept. 10, 2020, Corbin’s attorney sent correspondence to London’s attorney advising...

I have just returned, along with my wife and sister-in-law, from a trip to Ireland. Nice trip. Beautiful country. Lots of pubs. Many old castles. Huge tombstones. Sheep everywhere, also cattle. Crowded with tourists. Glad to be back home. That about sums up our vacation to a beautiful country that sings sad songs but everybody seems to be happy. At some of our evening meals we were entertained by vocalists singing Irish songs. Yes, they are beautiful, but mostly sad. I had wanted to visit Ireland ever since my late sister, Bena Mae, years ago said it was her favorite place to visit. We started in Dublin, the capital, and ended in...

I thought of one of Yogi Berra’s funny sayings when I went to the Root Beer Stand in Corbin the other night. Yogi, referring to a restaurant, said, “Nobody goes there any more. It is always too crowded.” The Root Beer Stand is always crowded, and there are several reasons for it. For one, you don’t have to spend a lot to get a good meal. You name it, I like their hotdogs, hamburgers, French fries, onion rings, to name a few. One of the things you’ll hear from people who have moved away and are coming back here for a visit is, “Let’s go to the Root Beer Stand.” It...

The border war continues between London and Corbin. Maybe war is a little too strong of a word but both towns are moving their boundaries that will collide near “Malfunction Junction.” Malfunction is such an appropriate word to use with borders of London and Corbin about to meet there. It became an issue again a few years ago when London announced that they wanted to annex along I-75 for 13 miles to claim the north Corbin portion of Laurel County as part of the City of London. Corbin said, “not so quick” and it is all now in court without a resolution in sight. Then last week the City of London approved...