As the rain steadily drizzled down, Gerdie and John Elmore sat comfortably dry on their porch in Albany and watched cars whiz by on the slick road. John, 75, playfully swatted his cat with a fly swatter, while his wife, 68, laughed as she recalled stories of John’s spunky “meanness” from back in his school days.
The Elmores and their four children have lived in Albany, located in Clinton County, for six years, but lived out in the county for many years.
After years of farming at their previous home, life for the Elmores is now simple. “We hang around home all the time. It’s all we ever do,” she said, smiling and slightly rocking her porch swing.
Hanging around home is something many folks do in the Albany area, where family ties and bongs to their hometown are strong. Many residents have lived here all their lives and wouldn’t go anywhere else.
“It’s the place to live all right,” John said. “I don’t want to stay anywhere else.”
Albany, population about 2,170, is tucked among lush green-topped hills between the picturesque beauty of Lake Cumberland and Dale Hollow Lake. As in other small country towns, Albany has a town square that serves as a social gathering place on the weekends. The courthouse sits in the center with stores shooting out along streets that radiate from the courthouse like rays from the sun. Outside the business section of town is the country. Between gently rolling knobs sit small modern houses, large homes with gingerbread-like décor and barns in huge fields dotted with cows or other animals and crops.
In one of those barns, Jeff Brown, 29, begins a day on his farm in Albany, where he has lived all his life.
“Grade A milk,” Brown said proudly, while milking his cows with milking machines one afternoon. The snow-white, warm, bubbly liquid poured into huge glass tanks called weigh jars. The milk comes through milk claws that have rubber tips which are attached to the cows’ utters. From the claws the milk goes through vacuum line into the jar.
“Pure white milk, ready to drink-almost,” Brown said, gazing at his cow affectionately.
Dairy farming is a common trade in Clinton County. Although Brown deals mostly in raising and selling his 200 head of beef cattle, he said dairy is becoming big.
“Tobacco has always been a big cash crop and we’re seeing a decline,” Brown said. “People are thinking of alternatives. I think dairy farming is an alternative, in this area at least.” Brown rises at 5 a.m. to milk his 40 head of dairy cattle and to work through the day – not stopping until bedtime.
Farming is a way of life for many in Albany. It is also a part of 14-year-old Rachael Connor’s life.
The active Clinton County High School sophomore has been raising sheep for five years after first trying her hand at beef cattle. The cows proved to be too difficult to handle for a 5-year-old girl. Then Rachael visited an animal show and saw people selling sheep.
A town where everyone knows everyone else
“I fell in love with them,” she said. They were so cute.
At 9, Rachael, with a bright smile and curly blond hair, got her first sheep. Now, she has about 60 head. She learned to care for them by watching her father. Sometimes they can be a handful, but no matter if it rains, snows or shines, Rachael is with her sheep.
During one rainy Saturday morning, donning her rubber boots, she tramped through the gooey mud feeding her sheep, slipping and sliding. Her grandmother had driven her to the field, where Rachael poured feed into a huge trough. The sheep’s hungry bleats cut through the patterning rainfall as they ambled in for breakfast.
Later that same day, Bart Daily held a squealing squirming young pig. His father Charles “Doc” Daily, one of Clinton County’s two veterinarians, put a gun-like instrument on the pig’s pink underside. He was giving it, and the others crouched behind Bart, shots for worms. It was all in a day’s work for Bart, who helps his father after school and on Saturdays. He has to clean the animal cages in his father’s office on Saturdays.
Like many people in Albany, Bart is actively involved in his community. At Clinton County High School, where he graduated this year, he was president of the senior Beta Club, treasurer of the Future Business Leaders of America and a member in all of the departmental clubs such as history, science, and German. He also plays the trumpet in the school’s band.
Bart is also the local young farmer chairman for the Kentucky Farm Bureau and was named outstanding Farm Bureau youth representative. But no matter how busy he os, Bart always has a smile and a minute to chat—a common trait among the people in Albany. Bart’s community volunteerism included helping to build and manage a food booth for Albany’s Foothills Festivals, a fanfare of arts and crafts held in the fall.
Bart plans to follow his father into medicine, but will focus on the human side, particularly pediatrics. “I like being around kids,” he said.
Albany is a town where everyone knows everyone else. Just ask Rachael and Bart.
Albany also is a town where many marriages last because of strong family ties and love. Marriages are forever, such as the one between Millard and Mary Lee.
Married for 60 years, the Lees live a few miles away from the heart of Albany on a farm they still work every-day beginning at 5:30 a.m. Millard, 79, raises cattle, pigs, tobacco, and hay for feed, while Mary manages a huge garden that provides all they need.
Millard does much of the outside labor from cutting tobacco to mending fences but gets help from neighbors and friends, who are glad to lend a hand – especially when promised one of Mary’s delicious lunches.
During the evening the Lees watch television or sit on their porch. As if to sum up their feelings for each other, Mary recalled an evening this year when she was writing a thank you note for the gifts they received for their anniversary that day. She said Millard sighed and said, “Sixty years ago today was the most beautiful day I’d ever seen.”
That contentment in each other and in life in Clinton County seems to run through the souls of many residents. It’s the friendly atmosphere that keeps Joseph Campisano, known as Tony, in Albany.
Campisano is a fishing guide for Fishing Tales guide service at Frider Hill Dock, located a few miles outside Albany on the lake.
Besides the retail stores, large businesses – such as the Sutton Shirt factory – and farming, Albany has another industry: tourism and fishing. Lake Cumberland and Dale Hollow Lake draw many to their sparkling waters and majestic scenery and, of course, fishing and boating.
Campisano started fishing with his grandfather more than 20 years ago and opened his business in 1983. He charges $75 per person for a four-hour trip. Clients have included Denny Crum, the University of Louisville’s men’s basketball coach, and Boston Celtics superstar Larry Bird.
Whether it’s snowing, freezing or raining, Campisano goes out in all seasons. Be ready for an earful of fishing tales when going out with him too.
For Campisano, who lives in a log cabin five minutes from Lake Cumberland, Albany is the only place for him.
“This is my lake,” he said. “This is my home.”