Memories can nourish us or haunt us, depending on their makeup, and my family knew how to create and cherish memories that would grow in value over the years. It was a time when relatives, friends, and neighbors alike all shared in the responsibilities of a single small child’s well-being, and no one expected any special thanks for it.

Back when candy bars and popsicles were a nickel, chili dogs were fifteen cents, and you could get a cold bottle of Pepsi for a dime, the Coal Run area of Pike County Kentucky was an unassuming place of folksy charm. A small community of homes connected by dirt and gravel streets, it had a couple of very modest country stores and a drive-in movie theatre less than three miles up the road. Combine all of that with the Levisa fork of the Big Sandy River that ran alongside, and you had the perfect area to spend one’s youth. Today the area is known as Coal Run Village and is a township that has its own mayor and four city commissioners, with a population of about 640. It is still a nice place to live along with lots of nice people, but the smell of country fresh air has been largely replaced with exhaust fumes, and singing birds are shouted down by the noise of constant traffic flowing from a four lane highway. The drive-in theatre is long gone, and the mom & pop stores have been replaced by food mart gas stations. All of this has occurred in the name of progress and I certainly don’t have any objections to growth and prosperity, considering that my generation had a major hand in it. Yet, the sounds, sights, and smells of the old neighborhood linger in my memories, and I occasionally think back to those times when my toughest challenge of the day was learning how to whistle or ride a two wheeler.

Paul “P.K.” Compton is a Physician Assistant with the Veterans Administration, and has worked in the health care field for over thirty years. He has written articles for the Journal of the American Association of Physician Assistants, and Advanced for Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky with his wife of thirty one years, Patricia Simmons Compton.