LIVINGLIVINGLIVINGSaturday-Sunday, March 3-4, 2012 | Editor: Eli Pace | 270-887-3235 | [email protected]
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GARDEN CORNER n LIVING C3
To lose weight, rethink your plate
EXTENSION NOTES n LIVING C2
How to properly tendto your daffodils
She was 18 when a friend sug-gested going to a hamburgerstand in Owensboro for a
Coke.There she met a young man
who later in the day asked her fora date which sherefused. She al-ready had a date.
Not to be de-terred, he askedfor a date the nextnight and she ac-cepted.
From that meet-ing we had the be-ginning of theHopkinsville’srenowned Fer-rell’s SnappyService.
The young girlwas Cecil Ferrell,and the boy shedated was DavidFerrell.
When the young couple mar-ried, they settled in Hopkinsvillewhere in 1936 they opened Fer-rell’s on South Main.
It remains today as the heart ofMain Street businesses. Otherbusinesses have come and gone,but Ferrell’s sits right there, stilllooking the same and still sellingthe same internationally knownhamburgers.
There’s just one big difference.When the two met and the Fer-rell brothers were openingrestaurants across western Ken-tucky, a hamburger was a nickel.
It was the depression, and Mrs.Ferrell says, “We handled a lot ofnickels and dimes in those daysand it took a lot of them to getby.”
David Ferrell died in 2000, butthe business never missed a stepas Mrs. Ferrell took the helm andremains there to this day.
On Feb. 12, she celebrated her93rd birthday.
Her son, Phillip, and his wife,
Carolyn, also have Februarybirthdays, and Carolyn’s sister,Nancy Wolff, Clarksville, Tenn.,was wondering just what shecould give as birthday presents topeople who already had every-thing,
She came up with the idea of apublic commendation for Mrs.Ferrell and her son and his wife.
Christian County Judge Execu-tive Steve Tribble and Hop-kinsville Mayor Dan Kemp gotinto the act and issued a jointproclamation honoring the Fer-rells, referring to the restaurantas an “icon of the city.”
The commendations weregiven to them this week byNancy when we joined Mrs. Fer-rell, David and Carolyn at theSunset Drive Ferrell home.
The commendation was a sur-prise and appreciated by Mrs.Ferrell, who is just now begin-ning to work for a time each dayas she continues to recover frominjuries suffered in a fall earlierthis year.
While leaving the business shefell and broke her knee. It re-sulted in a lengthy hospitaliza-tion at Vanderbilt University
Medical Center in Nashville,Tenn., but for the past few weeksshe has been home and now ismanaging to go to work in themornings.
She’s itching to get back in thefull swing of things she says.
In the early days, there was aFerrell restaurant chain withrestaurants in Owensboro, Bowl-ing Green, Henderson, Madis-onville, Clarksville, Tenn.,Hopkinsville and Cadiz. Nowonly Hopkinsville, Cadiz andMadisonville remain in opera-tion.
While always working at therestaurant, the Ferrells managedto rear two children, Phillip andhis sister, Nancy, who died in2001, the victim of multiple scle-rosis, and during the time of herillness and following her death,the Ferrells also reared her son,Shelley, one of their five grand-sons.
Ferrell’s burgers have beensent around the world. Somehave been sent to BuckinghamPalace, and often they are sent to
soldiers overseas who have beenat Fort Campbell and had a crav-ing for the Hopkinsville treat.
Memories and stories of thingsthat have gone on at Ferrell’s arecountless.
Back in the days when BethelCollege had started acceptingboys, the girls remained on cur-few at night, but not the boys, sothe girls would take an empty tis-sue box, put their money in it,lower it out the window to theboys. The boys would go to Fer-rell’s, buy their hamburgers andhaul them back in the tissue boxto the girls.
The story goes that one girl hadan assignment to collect bugs fora biology class. It seems she was-n’t having much luck, so herboyfriend climbed up on the signat the top of Ferrell’s where hesat and caught bugs gatheringaround the light.
Many dignitaries have eatenthere, including country musicperformers.
“One time we had some parktheir bus outside, and they stayed
so long, we just closed and letthem have the place,” Mrs. Fer-rell said. As it turned out, theymade a music video at the restau-rant.
The business has often beenfeatured in such prestigious mag-azines as Southern Living.
It’s also a place where thehunters and fishermen come forbreakfast before leaving on anouting. It’s also a place wheregroups of regulars get togetherfor breakfast each morning.
In one of the breakfast groupsis Tommy Schmidt, who told ushe’d been eating at Ferrell’s fordecades.
“I started when I had a paperroute. I was about 13 or 14 and de-livering the Tennessean, and Iwould stop at Ferrell’s everymorning and get a sausage sand-wich. Then as a businessman, I’dmeet with others for coffee, andafter I moved to Florida, everytime I’d come home I’d go to Fer-rell’s at least once. Now that I’mretired, I go and meet withfriends every morning for break-fast and we have a great time,” hesaid.
Working at Ferrell’s hasn’tbeen Mrs. Ferrell’s only enthusi-asm. In her younger years, sheloved to golf, bowl and fish. “Ilove sports,” she said, and voicedher undying love of Universityof Kentucky sports.
Among her special memoriesis the time when PresidentGeorge W. Bush came to Hop-kinsville, and she shared thestage with him at a rally.
“He’s my friend, I love him,”she said, “I hit him with the mi-crophone, and he said I remindedhim of his mother.”
“He even sent me a box ofcandy for my birthday that year,”she said.
For that occasion, she wore a
MARY D. FERGUSON | KENTUCKY NEW ERA
Cecil Ferrell (right) was surprised whenshe was recently recognized for the longyears her business has operated on MainStreet. Inky (above), the aging dog thatbelongs to Cecil Ferrell is her special com-panion. At age 93, Mrs. Ferrell said Inky isas old as she is.
A burger paradise: Ferrell’s owner recalls business’ history
INQUIRINGREPORTER
MARY D. FERGUSON n
PHOTOS AND STORY BY DENNIS O’NEIL NEW ERA FEATURE WRITER
For Billy Palmer, archery haslong been in the blood.
Originally from California,Palmer’s family moved to Chris-tian County in 1976. He grew upbow-hunting in the area and laterworked for a sporting goods storein Bowling Green while attend-ing Western Kentucky Univer-sity.
“They found out I knew aboutworking on bows and they putme in the archery department,”said Palmer, 43. “I always wantedto do (archery) a little bit.”
Palmer opened up his own boatrepair shop, Hopkinsville Ma-rine, in 1990. He also worked forthe Hopkinsville Fire Depart-ment. While he had long been in-terested in starting an archeryshop, he said he didn’t havemuch time to pursue the idea.
That all changed this past Oc-tober when Palmer retired fromthe fire department. In July, hestarted an archery shop, BullseyeArchery, in the same building asHopkinsville Marine. The shopsells bows, arrows and otherarchery supplies.
If a customer comes in lookingfor a bow, Palmer will have themtry out a few to see which fitsthem best.
“We spend the time with themto get them familiar and com-fortable with the product,” he
said. “It’s not like walking into aBass Pro Shop or Wal-Mart andpulling (a bow) off the shelf.They go home and do it allwrong. There is some form now.”
Palmer also has a video pro-gram at the store called Techno-Hunt which simulates huntingsituations for archers. He isn’t of-fering archery clinics or instruc-tion currently, but hopes to in thenext year or so.
“We’re hoping they will get thearchery going in the schools,” hesaid. “All the surrounding coun-ties are doing it but not ChristianCounty. I think eventually theywill. It is popular enough.”
Many customers who come tohim for boat repair, Palmer said,have trickled into the archeryshop.
He hopes the two businesseswill compliment each other overtime, with boat repair picking upthe slack during off seasons forhunting.
He’s found archery appeals tomore than just men, with manywomen and children purchasingbows from the shop. Palmer rel-ishes helping kids learn archery.
“I like to see kids get into some-thing,” he said. “So many ofthem today want to just play ontheir phones. This gets them out-side.”
The store is at 442 North Drive.
REACH DENNIS O’NEIL at 270-887-3237 or [email protected].
Archery store promotes hobby for community
SEE REPORTER, PAGE C2
Products are shown inside Bullseye Archery on North Drive. The shop has been open since July. Shop owner Billy Palmer (above) alsoruns a boat repair shop in the building. Arrows (below) are shown in display at the shop. Bows (bottom left) hang on the shop’s wall. Ifa customer comes in looking for a bow, Palmer will have them try a few out and see which fits them the best.
