***UPDATED***
First of all, thanks for reading! A reader named Ryan politely pointed out an incorrect statistic for the UCLA Bruins Men's Basketball Team, so I have corrected that! Thanks for the comments, keep checking back!
***UPDATED***
Thanks to Lex for pointing out Kentucky Lake! Kentucky Lake is the largest man-made lake east of the Mississippi (still Kentucky!) The correction is reflected below as well.
First of all, thanks for reading! A reader named Ryan politely pointed out an incorrect statistic for the UCLA Bruins Men's Basketball Team, so I have corrected that! Thanks for the comments, keep checking back!
***UPDATED***
Thanks to Lex for pointing out Kentucky Lake! Kentucky Lake is the largest man-made lake east of the Mississippi (still Kentucky!) The correction is reflected below as well.
I've been writing on this blog for over a year, and it's been a lot of fun. I'm grateful and ecstatic for people who are returning readers. If you can read between the lines, I'm from Kentucky. I'm fairly well-traveled for a 25-yo and would like to speak of my experiences. Louisville, the largest city in Kentucky, is known as the Northernmost Southern City and the Southernmost Northern City. I like the former, but feel free to disagree. We have a unique heritage, with bloody fights in the civil war and long traditions of distilling bourbon and breeding horses. I hope this post brings non-Kentuckians closer to our state, and opens locals' eyes to the different world beyond the Bluegrass State.
#5: People don't understand your pronunciation of "Louisville"
You've seen the T-shirts. Printed "Luis-ville" "Luey-ville" "Loo-i-vuhl" "Loo-uh-vuhl" and "Louisville"; we have our own pronunciations and accents, but generally, if you're from Kentucky, you lean towards the "Loo-i-vuhl" and "Loo-uh-vuhl" pronunciations. I've lived in Kentucky, Louisiana, and California, and I've visited countless other states, including Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, New York and Rhode Island. When I say I'm from "Louisville" the first response is usually "What?" or "Where?". It's not that they haven't heard of Louisville, Kentucky. We are the 16th largest metro area in the country, with around 1.3 million people, but most recognize it as "Luey-ville". I've found that our pronunciation of "Louisville" is comparable to the way Baltimore residents say "Baldimor". It's a lazy and blended word that only residents can recognize and appreciate.
#4: The First Saturday in May isn't a Holiday
Remember when every Kentucky Oaks Friday gave us a day off of school? Did you go to "Derby Parties" and talk about what you were doing for "Derby"? "Derby" is just a generic word outside of Kentucky. It's not a special day, kids don't get out of school, and few people even care about it outside of "Horse People" circles. Sure, people have heard of the "Kentucky Derby"; it's a national icon, the first and most important of races in the coveted Triple Crown. Celebrities from Hollywood and around the world visit for the sites, smells, and fun hats (remember when the Queen of England and George W. Bush sat side by side at Churchill Downs?). It's a unique race fought through mud and dust and sweat and blood and the sound of thundering hooves and screams and yells and the smell of horse and Mint Juleps, but in order to reference it outside the Bluegrass State you must put "Kentucky" in front of "Derby". Don't even think about trying to explain the Steamboat Race, the Hot Air Balloon Race, or Thunder over Louisville.
#3: "Bourbon" and "Whiskey" are Interchangeable.
This is one of the inspirations for my blog in general. When I waited tables in New Orleans I would input orders of alcohol and all of the whiskeys were under the category "Bourbon". Jack Daniels, Crown Royal and SoCo are NOT bourbon, and there are even some Kentuckians that don't quite get it, but most of us do. Bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon. Kentucky has a "Bourbon Trail", a stretch of two major interstate highways that touch all of the major bourbon distilleries including Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, Buffalo Trace, Maker's Mark and Jim Beam, but some folks don't know that 95% of bourbon is distilled in Kentucky, nor what makes the difference. If it were up to me, I'd add that it must be distilled in Kentucky to the list of legal requirements for labeling your product as "bourbon". The name comes from Bourbon County, when products were labeled by county ("bourbon whiskey") and shipped, largely by river, to be sold. "Bourbon Whiskey" from Bourbon County, Kentucky, was shipped down the Mississippi and sold in a major port in the south, New Orleans, where a large French population had settled and they took quickly to the product with the French name. Remember, all squares are rectangles.
#2: Kentucky is Beautiful
When you tell people you're from Kentucky, they usually are a bit surprised. Whether it's actual concerns over lack of footwear and incest or just that Kentuckians don't travel much (except for basketball, see below) and it's a relatively low-populous state, they don't know a whole lot about us. The biggest thing they usually will remember is that it's absolutely gorgeous. Even people who only briefly drove through the state or visited for short periods of time will compliment me on my home state's beauty. We are truly the "heartland" of the U.S. Fort Knox is famous for its gold reserves, but was chosen because of its central location to the rest of the country. We have a mix of all the best the nation has to offer. We have tall southern pines, eastern mountains, vast grasslands and crop fields, a large metropolitan area, long and winding waterways and all of these are complimented by a full four seasons. We have bits of the north, south, east and midwest, but the seasons give life and color to each. The south is just as green, but is far flatter and can't boast the rolling hills and horse-fields we do. The north has more trees and valleys, but is far colder. The midwest is just as flat as the south, but starts to dry out. Lake Cumberland is the largest man-made lake on our side of the Mississippi by volume (that baby is deep!) and boasts some serious shoreline: "The shoreline of Lake Cumberland — at the theoretically maximum possible elevation of water — is 1,255 miles. The coastline of Florida, not including islands, is 770 miles in length. The total Atlantic coastline of the United States from Maine to the tip of Florida is 2,069 miles. The total Pacific coastline of the continental U.S. (California, Oregon and Washington) is 1,293 miles." - http://heartoflakecumberland.com/lake-cumberland/history/. The only outdoorsy thing that we can't really compete with is skiing and snowboarding. We get snow, but not nearly as much as this anomaly-winter is giving the east coast. Go northeast, or far west. To Colorado. To Steamboat Springs.
#1: Nobody Understands Our College Rivalry
You are Blue. You are Red. There is no in-between. There are no others. You have no Superbowl to yearn for, no Stanley Cup to defend, no World Series curse to overcome, you know two teams, and they are Kentucky and Louisville. You must pick a side. Children in the middle ages were chosen at birth to be high-born lords and ladies, knights, or blacksmiths, and Kentucky children are born to cheer for the Red or the Blue. We are bordered by Tennessee, who has the Titans; Missouri, who has the Rams; Illinois, who has the Bears; Indiana, who has the Colts; Ohio, who has the Bengals and Browns; West Virginia, who has the Hatfields; and Virginia, who has nobody. We don't have legitimate professional teams (I was at a San Diego Padres game once, and a friend used the "Riverbats" as trash-talk to another Kentucky native hating on the Padres), so we grew to appreciate our sports for what they were, and we excel at basketball.
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Our football teams are in their own situations right now; Louisville with a seemingly waning supremacy after the loss of Charlie Strong and Kentucky's dawn on the horizon with Mark Stoops' reign, but our basketball teams have always been elite. Louisville itself holds three NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championships, and Kentucky has 8. UCAA has 11, winning 10 in a span of 12 years (1964-1975) with the same coach and one more in 1995; Indiana winning 5, 3 with Bobby Knight. Those are the only teams that come close to the dominance of college basketball in Kentucky. UK holds records in all-time winning percentage and games, NCAA tournament appearances and wins, Sweet Sixteen appearances, Elite Eight appearances, and is second in championship appearances and wins (UCLA holds the most for both). Come March every year, we are well-known and feared, and when we stumble, people are shocked and startled. The south (SEC schools), get the southern sports rivalries, but no one has a rivalry as deep and strong as Louisville vs Kentucky. The SEC has strong football roots but also has professional teams, so the contrast isn't as solid, as bold, as deep. To live in Kentucky is to Bleed Blue or Red, and that is no small claim. Choose a side.
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