Don Estep

I’ve known about a particular stray cat situation for some time. But this weekend I heard more about it from people in a neighborhood on Whitley Avenue in Corbin. It is where my 89-year-old sister lives. She has been tormented by cat droppings in her yard along with cats ruining her porch furniture with urine, plus attacking birds around her bird feeder. In talking with Animal Control I believe you can find this situation repeated in various locations throughout the area. But Animal Control has their hands tied trying to control the nuisance. They could catch them, but they have nowhere to put them since the animal shelter doesn’t take them...

I was wrong and I’m glad of it. Back in May I wrote that most of us living today would never witness a settlement between Corbin and London on the annexation of the property along Interstate 75, adjacent to Exit 29. Surprise! Last week the London City Council dropped its attempt to annex properties in southern Laurel County near Exit 29. I really like what the two mayors of Corbin and London had to say about the decision. London Mayor Randall Weddle said,”This is a great thing. It’s finally London and Corbin partnering after years and years... we’re getting rid of the high school rivalry (mentality) and the two cities are becoming...

It is National Newspaper Week. Yes, this one belongs to us. Please read the column to my left written by Dean Ridings. It is excellent and it explains the value of newspapers. I am a veteran newspaper person. I’ve been told that I started at the age of four so I’ve been at it for 80 years. It was during World War II and my dad found work helping to build Oak Ridge, Tn. That was in 1943. Living quarters were scarce and my family found an abandoned restaurant across from Magnet Mills in Clinton, Tn. and we made it our home. The shifts would change each day at 3 p.m. for...

In 70 years of watching high school football and viewing it from every corner of the state, plus attending several state championship games, I have never been in an atmosphere like the one Friday night for the game between Corbin and Frederick Douglass. It was electric! And the many thousands of fans that attended the game got their money’s worth. Most of the time a defensive game is dull. Not this one. Every play had you on the edge of your seat. Speaking of fans, that was the biggest crowd ever at Campbell Field. I don’t have an exact count, but the best guess is over 7,500. The stands were filled...

As we get ready to celebrate a new Redhound Complex and the 100-year history of Corbin football our spirits are saddened by the death of former Redhound great and collegiate Hall of Fame Coach Roy Kidd. I was just a young boy, but I remember Roy Kidd playing football and basketball at Corbin High School. He also was a star baseball player, but I didn’t realize it at my young age. He brought two national championships and two runners-up trophies to Eastern Kentucky University. Kidd was one of the greatest coaches ever. I owe it to Bob Terrell for getting to know athletes in that era better. When Bob came back...

On Friday (Sept. 15), Corbin High School will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of football which will coincide with a nine million dollar plus upgrade of new facilities and a new field in a game against Frederick-Douglass of Lexington. This is a big occasion and lots of activities are being planned. Since it is all about history, then I get to be part of the event. I have been around watching and broadcasting Redhound football for 70 years. I go back to the early 1950s when I saw my first game at Campbell Field. Then in 1961 I did a 30 year span of broadcasting the games on WCTT radio. As part...

A few years ago many of us were elated when it was announced that Corbin would be getting a facility for horse racing. It was going to be quarter horse racing, but that was okay because with it was coming a grandstand, restaurant and possibly a hotel. A little Keeneland facility if your dreams were big enough. We waited and waited while the state legislature did its thing on passing legislation that would allow historic wagering machines at the facility and a race track. When all was said and done it was announced that a facility would be built at Williamsburg also. What caught many by surprise was the Williamsburg facility was...

Splendid! The most impressive thing I’ve seen lately is how quickly every sign, booth, stage, everything, was gone Sunday morning at church time after the Nibroc Festival was over in Corbin. Hats off to all those responsible for the cleanup. Those corporate signs were everywhere, and they had disappeared. There had to be volumes of trash and it was gone. The people with booths had packed up and left. All I can say is, Bruce Carpenter, you had some mighty good helpers. Of course, I should mention that it has been this way ever year. Great job! Almost as impressive was Corbin’s Mayor Suzie Razmus playing the cow bell to the...

Last Saturday evening just after 9 p.m. I drove past the Root Beer Stand and it was dark and there were no cars there. As I proceeded down Main Street in Corbin there was hardly any sign of life. There were people out in restaurants and at the theater, but the lack of seeing people left an empty feeling in me. I thought to myself, “How different it was when I was in my teens...” On a hot summer evening in August the town was alive with activity. We had fun driving from one drive-in to another and meeting friends. We would go from the Wing Drive-In to Gerry’s, to the Hungry...

I think the “rash” started on me at a very early age. At the age of ten I started watching my heroes like Roy Kidd, Jerry Bird, C.D. Vermillion, Frank Selvy, and the many others play ball for the Corbin Redhounds. It was my late friend Bill Crook who gave it the name “Redhound Rash” in the first column he wrote for this newspaper over 30 years ago. He described the “rash” to me as something that has bonded many of us, and we live with it in our hearts. My “rash” took its full measure when I was a junior at Corbin High School watching the 1955 state champion Redhound...