Wednesday, May 14, 2008

What can you buy for $3000 and change?

“So I’m working in Frankfort this summer.”

Several places seem to pop into people’s heads when I casually mentioned this, Frankfort being a common name for a town. Here are the candidates:

a) Frankfort, Ind. – Home of the Frankfort High School Hot Dogs and former student teaching grounds of my mother.

b) Frankfort, Ky. – Capital of the Bluegrass State and in the top 10 in the category of “Most Obscure State Capitals in the United States.”

c) Frankfurt, Germany – A good Lutheran city. Great place to sample encased meat while sipping a beer, like, um, the rest of Germany.

Drawing a line from A to C to represent my personal excitement scale regarding each destination would look like this: /

So which city am I currently calling home? Place a dot right in the middle of that line. Frankfort, Ky. it is.

I’m working as an intern for The State Journal, the city’s newspaper. So far, I can tell you exactly how much of a fine you will pay if you break a traffic law, but that is about it. Maybe I will write a story soon.

I’ve only been in the city a couple days, but it already strikes me as one of the more odd places of government in the continental U.S. Frankfort sits right on the Kentucky River which snakes back and forth in the heart of the city.

Several bridges link the two halves of the city together, and train tracks run through the heart of downtown. Situated right between Louisville and Lexington, Frankfort must have been the peculiar compromise between Kentucky’s two largest cities.

According to one of the many historical plaques that decorate the downtown area, Frankfort won the honor of being named the capital of Kentucky “through perseverance and, according to early histories, the offer of Andrew Holmes’ log house as capitol for seven years, a number of town lots, 50 pounds worth of locks and hinges, 10 boxes of glass, 1500 pounds of nails, and $3000 in gold.”

You know what they say, “If you can’t beat’em, buy’em” (or at least set them up to start their own hardware store).

The State House is impressive with it domed roof and French architecture.

It’s nestled in a cozy nook near the river and not too far from my apartment. Walking around the premise, I couldn’t help but wonder if the house was the gift of extraterrestrial beings that dropped it off as they whizzed through the atmosphere. The giant Floral Clock gives it away.


It’s a clock, but it’s made of flowers? Out of this world.

Today, I went on a run on the River Walk. It wasn’t that long of a paved trail, but my max VO2 ain’t what it was a month ago when I completed a mini marathon, so the trail was long enough for me. I also caught the train as it whistled down Broadway Street.


Imagine a locomotive cutting through Circle Centre in Indy. I know, I couldn’t either.

On top of that, I discovered that the ghetto of Frankfort, which is really like one street, is just a block over from my apartment -- two blocks from the state capital building. How does that happen?

I don’t have too many answers at this point, but at least I’m accumulating questions.

No comments: