I can remember being at Fancy Farm in 1975 when George Wallace addressed the crowd, but I did not remember his speech. I was probably eating. Yesterday, Jim Moore who is the owner of WYMC in Mayfield was kind enough to provide me a CD of Wallace's speech. Jim was a reporter in those days at the station and he spoke yesterday regarding how many of the same issues in 1975 are pertinent to today.
I listened to George Wallace's remarks as I drove home and I found it all very interesting. Like going back in time. Carroll Hubbard a newly elected Congressman introduced Gov. Wallace. Wallace acknowledged Gov. Julian Carroll and folks like Bob Gable. I think the most interesting comments beside the Vietnam war, a bad economy and the Washington bureaucracy were the hopeful beliefs Wallace shared about the resiliency of America. How, regardless of what we face, our Nation always come through and prevails.
One the mini-stories from Wallace's appearance were the incidents of light bulbs exploding. Photographers were still using the old fashion light bulbs on their flash units and because of the rain that day it was causing them to explode. Twice, Wallace was distracted and stopped his speech because of the startling noise. Commenting to the crowd Wallace said," Ya know I'm a little bit gun shy". After the second distraction, Jim told me that people in the audience went over and asked folks to stop using the bulbs.
My thanks to Jim for sharing this little jewel of history. I enjoyed our visit and our walk through the past. I will note that Jim's daughter, Valerie, serves on Jack Conway's staff and at one time worked for the House Caucus.
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