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About North Douglas herald. (Drain Or) 2023-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2024)
North Douglas Herald March 2024 Page 9 Photos and Story by Rusty Savage Shadows Along the Creek The Highest Hill Judson Ringo has not been dealt an easy hand in life. After loosing his father, and nine months later his mother, he is left on his own at seventeen in rural 1890s Kentucky. He goes to Tennessee to live with his uncle, but instead of being treated like family, he is a slave. Judson faces each challenge as it comes, think- ing only to survive. After four years in bondage, John Harrington dies and Judson is set free. He returns to his father’s farm on a cold winter night, finds it in ruins, is suspected of murder, and begins life all over, finding strength in the midst of struggle and love in remnants of buried dreams. Martha Jane gets her buggy stuck in the mud on a cold winter night. She tries everything, but cannot get the buggy back on the road. She is all but ready to leave the buggy, when a horse and rider ap- proaches. The hopes and dreams Martha Jane believed long dead come to life once more. This is the story of two young brothers, Bobby and Jackie Ringo, who struggle to overcome the hardships of an unpropi- tious home environment in rural western Ken- tucky in the 1940s and 1950s. Their lives and fu- tures are fraught with pitfalls and roadblocks, both de- bilitating and deadly. The reader will feel the dreams, aspirations and wonder of the youngest whilst living and growing up in very different time than our own. The boys, left on their own much of the time cope with a drinking and abusive father, barely escape being sent to reform school, struggle to stay in school, graduate and overcome their circumstance and to reach higher and higher to achieve a better life as kids and for their futures. Follow Bobby and Jackie through the early 1950s, starting at ages’ nine and twelve, through their high school years to a dramatic climax of personal and physical struggle with the “Ringo Streak” and its re- percussions. If they survive, it’ll be to eventually real- ize the true lessons of the Highest Hill which continues to reveal its real measure and meaning. (Paperback) by Rusty L Savage 2.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon $14.84 NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON https://a.co/d/9NlFOYc (Paperback ) by Rusty L Savage $13.66 NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON https://a.co/d/jivKij6 A Place to Die (Paperback) by Rusty L Savage 4.1 out of 5 stars on Amazon $15.66 Johnny Ringo’s brother was dead. “I’ll get ‘em Frank, I swear to you I’ll get them”. What a place to die, there on the frozen banks of the Rough Creek. The Law wasn’t doing anything about it and Johnny had decided he would. It was 1938 and the county was full of Bootleggers. One of them ‘Shiners” did it. Johnny was gonna find out who and he knew how to do it. Trouble is there are a lot of prime suspects and a good deal of danger from any one of them. Johnny has a plan, if he can keep out of sight of the Sheriff long enough and keep from getting killed himself. He knows the woods and hills and he will find out what he needs to know. NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON https://a.co/d/2cOZfG2 Drain City Hall Continued from Page 1 Drain started construction of the City Hall in 1953 andit was completed in 1954.The City Hall was dedicated in a ceremony on September 18th 1954. Standing for nearly 70 years, the building has outlasted it’s use to the community for which it served as a stalwart of City government. Over the years it has housed, not only city government, but variously, Police, Fire, Library, and many Community programs and events. About 5 years ago it was discovered that black mold had infested the interior walls and it had progressed over some time until it advanced to the point it made some city employees ill and had to be shut down for public safety and the interests of the community. As it has sat empty these last few years, the impact on the city of Drain has not been insignificant. City Council and various committees have used the Drain Civic Center for meetings and various gather- ings during this time. The city has made practical use of one of the modular buildings on the North Douglas Fire prop- erty on Cedar St. during this time that the determina- tions and considerations for establishing a permenent building have been underway. Finally there is a historical parcel that has po- tential for a new City Hall and it should give the city administration some renewed vigor to step up to the task. It is a great opportunity to envision a new and modern building to house a future and potentially innovative structure and base for the community. According to Mayor Sparhawk there are no plans set for any building project yet to announce. Although there is no existing plan or concept for a new city hall, there is quite a local interest in what is unfolding for the future, as the city adminis- tration has not revealed anything yet. It is certain that the burdon is on the City to step up and provide some leadership and direction on this regard.
