Garry Barker
Sitting on my desk, a gift from a longtime friend, is a little blue ceramic elephant with “COOPER” written on the side. It’s an old political campaign giveaway, probably valuable but not for sale, distributed during one of Sen. John Sherman Cooper’s campaigns of the 1950s.
Sen. Cooper holds a special place in my memory.
Back in the mid-950s, every sixth, seventh and eighth grader in Kentucky was required to write an essay on the new Minimum Foundation Educational Funding program Kentucky was implementing, and the papers were judged from the local classroom all the way to a statewide winner.
My essay won the Hillsboro School sixth grade level, then the county, and then, to everybody’s surprise, the state. “Miss Belle,” Eliza Belle Cook, my sixth grade teacher, drove to the house at Bald Hill to tell us I had won and to say that we’d be going to Cincinnati to receive the award.
There’s a short story in my book, “Mountain Passage & Other Stories,” about the trip. It’s titled “Big Deal,” and it’s a favorite of lots of readers.
Getting me ready for the trip was a trip in itself: Mommy cut my hair with the hand-powered clippers, the ones that draw blood with almost each snip, and we bought low-cut work shoes at Denton’s Store in Hillsboro. A borrowed yellow nylon shirt, maroon corduroy jacket, and red clip-on bow tie rounded out my dress outfit, and when Miss Belle picked us up, she wasn’t real sure whether she should laugh or cry.
Kelly and Wanda Vice met us in Flemingsburg and drove us to Cincinnati, where the Deposit Bank of Pearce, Fant & Company group was hosting a huge gathering. Just before it was time to eat, they told me I had to read my essay to the crowd.
Then, I was dragged away and seated at the speakers table beside a friendly looking old fellow whose name I didn’t catch, who pretended to not know which forks and spoons to use and said he’d watch the woman next to him and I could watch him. When it was time for me to read the paper, he leaned over and whispered, “Pretend they’re all sitting out there in their underwear.”
When we were leaving, later, Miss Belle said, “You and the senator sure seemed to be getting along great.”
“What senator?” I asked.
That’s when I found out I’d been sitting beside Kentucky’s legendary Sen. John Sherman Cooper for about three hours.
I promptly went to sleep and woke up in Fleming County.
Lots more details are in the story in the book. I received a $100 savings bond for winning, and the original handwritten manuscript of the essay is at home in an old briefcase. Miss Belle gave it to my mother, who saved it for years and years. There’s also a tarnished money clip and the program from the meeting.
And, now, the elephant. It won’t go into hiding with the other stuff. It’ll stay out where I can see it and remember.
Sen. Cooper remembered, too, and when I was a high school senior offered to nominate me for the military academies at West Point and Annapolis.
Now I can look at the elephant and remember my all-time favorite Republican.
And the friend from childhood who cared enough to bring it to me.
Garry Barker is the author of Head of the Holler: Volume 1, from Wind Publications. Order at windpub.com/books/HeadOfThe
Holler.htm or from Amazon.com.
