Small towns disappearing by Earl Randolph Once upon a time in the not too distant past America was blessed with thousands of small towns,all busting at the seams trying to make a dollar. Most were farm towns where Farmer Joe could buy fertilizer, horse collars,cow feed,over-alls,shoes and ten- penny nails.Aunt Nellie could trade her eggs and skimmed cream for needed groceries,or a few yards of gingham to outfit her girls in Sunday go-to- meetin' clothes. Some stores even took in chickens to trade. Not any more. The small towns have mostly gone the way of the ice cream separator and the blacksmith shop,giving way to asphalt ribbons lined with gas stations and fast food joints, and state-run lottery ticket outlets.No more preachers pontificating on the court-house lawns on lazy Saturday afternoons, no more whittlin' and spittin' and argurin' by the old men,too old to work,too young to die. Even old Rabbit-foot has gone to the Happy Huntin'Grounds. The old Indian performed medicine shows in this area. Automobiles - that's what done it. That and highway by-passes. We can remember when once Kentucky small town councils clamored for I-75 to run close by their town when they were building it the first time.[They're still building it a mile at a time-again-and -again- and -again.] Now the towns bordered by I-75 are all deader than a doornail except for three gas stations and two hotel at every exit. They killed the small towns. Now the old general store where once Joe traded is an empty shell,tin flapping on the roof,windows all gone, one side drooping over a rotted sill. Or maybe now there's just a plot of weeds where it used to sit. Joe's son now drives in to the big city to do his trading- it's just a few minutes down the highway in his fast new four wheel truck. Let's look close to home. You don't think downtown's changed all that much? Ask someone who's pushing 40 or older how downtown Liberty used to be. No,it never was a Campbellsville,Somerset or Danville with their large and fancy stores. Not when Liberty's city forefathers rolled up the sidewalks at nine o'clock every night. But it was a good place to live and there was much to do in walking distance of the stoplight. That's what everybody called it- the only stoplight in the county. In the 1950's, Liberty had six,sometimes seven,eating establishments right downtown,all open at the same time.They were Brown's,Land's, Cee Bee's, the Lobby Shop, Liberty Grill,Tom True's, [sometimes run by Taylor Sullivan], and Rich's [ which was in the building once used as a bakery by Hale and Smith]. After Cee Bee closed,a restaurant was opened across the alleyway by Bert Sallee,later operated by Ray Overstreet and Arlin Gilpin. There were five or six auto-mobile dealerships- Griffin-Wesley,Fred Porter, Brown Chevrolet[later Stafford & Cannon,later Weddle - LaFavers], Johnnie Beard's Buick & IH place,Rodgers' Studebaker, and maybe another or two. Furniture and appliance stores? Phillips' [it was Doc, then],Cravens',Dowell's, Home Supply, Denny Hendrickson's,Sherman Allen, Jargo Kennedy and Garland Creech. The latter two sold appliances only. A little later came Wolford Bros., along with the new- fangled TV. Remember the little wooden building on the northeastern corner of Beldon and Middleburg Streets and the Yaden home beside it ? Squire Smith sold used furniture out of it,and at an earlier time it was home to The Casey County News. George Garner ran the well-known and patronized Garner's Underselling Store where Herlin King learned the ropes and later went into buisness for himself. George started the first Festival-like atmosphere in Liberty when he gave away calves each year by raffle. You bought something in Garner's, you got a raffle ticket good for a chance on the calf. Now there's not even a gas station downtown[by the by-pass doesn't count]. Just a few years ago there were five. We once had a laundry,and a Western Auto Store, and of course,you remember Herb Rollins' Tire and Recap- on th aquare about where H&R Block tax office is in1998. Some of you older ladies will remember The Golden Thimble, a fabric/sewing outlet. Grover Brown hatched baby chicks by the hundreds in the Allen Building, once used as a car agency. Ed Foster ran a good hardware store,on Hardware Corner, just across the street from Alton McAnelly's Drugstore. All these on the square. Two doors down Middleburg Street was Sundry Drugs, Paul Wesley's place. On Hustonville Street was Dr. Adam's drugstore. Donald Scanlon's A&D stsrted in the building next to the alley by Floyd's Radio Shop, later The Towne House.Nettie Brown and her husband later started a restaurant in half of the Towne House downstairs.[I may have a name or two wrong here. If so, get the correct one out of your own memory.] There was not onky A7D downtown, but around the corner on Hustonville Street the Hatters had a grocery,and down Middleburg Street Austins ran one in the old wooden 2-story Liberty Hotel Building which stood where the Liberty Clinic is now.Up Hustonville Street the likeable J.T.Brown had a grocery and Abe Luttrell Sr. ran one across the street from him.Patnie Allen also sold a few groceries out of the old Atnea Sevice Station where Goode's Marathon is at this time.Wallace Wilkinson's parents also rana grocery on Middleburg Street about this time. Marvin Brown and his brothers sold used cars out of a garage behind Patnie Allen's. There was also a used car lot beside the Kentuckian theater building in the post office location. Sometimes carnivals used to set up in this lot. Clete McAninch and partners once set up a tent for roller-skating at this location. The post office was in the northern part of what was then Cornett's Liberty 5&10 Store. Speaking of variety stores, once Liberty ahd three,all downtown. Besides Cornett's,L.D. Race ran the Jewel in the Sharp building where the flower shop is now[ which earlier used to be the post office] and Race's Dime Store was just down Middleburg Street. People came from everywhere in adjoining states to buy L.D.'s wallpaper, at 2 cents a double roll. No one else sold wallpaper so cheaply. At Christmas time L.D. sold orange slice candy by the bucketful. Dowell's and Rigney's had a meat market in Factory Alley. And just off the square was Liberty's only factory, Fry Products Company,which made seat covers for cars.Liberty had a nice but small library across the alleyway from the Liberty Hardware Store. For a time the late 1940's to the mid 1950's, Short Way Bus Lines ran buses from Somerset to Louisville daily through Liberty. I used to ride this bus from Yosemite to Liberty. Th fare-25 cents. Many of the young men rode these buses to Louisville to be examined for, and to be inducted into, the service. And would you believe it - Liberty had a city cab company. Yeah. And two picture shows- the Kentuckian and the Green River Drive-In. And Tom True's small bowling alley,pool hall,pinball machine combo. Yep - it used to be a right lively town.