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.
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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.
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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.