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Didn’t Make the List

Ken Begley

I’M A SUCKER FOR those “10 best” lists. But are they accurate?

What if you had the best job in a poorly rated company? Would that be better than the worst job in a well-rated company? What if you move to a bad neighborhood in a well-rated city? Would that be better than an excellent neighborhood in a poorly rated community?

You get my point. Even among the worst, you can find some real gems.

Let’s say you’re pondering where to spend your golden years. You might have few connections in the community where you work. Maybe your children have moved far away. Perhaps you simply want to try something different—and maybe warmer. You might start looking at articles and YouTube videos for relocation recommendations, which will be based mainly on facts and figures.

My home state, Kentucky, never appears at the top of anyone’s list of recommended places. It seems to make the top 10 for all the wrong reasons. It shows us ahead on poverty, obesity, cancer and so on. Shoot, if I were looking from the outside, I wouldn’t want to live here, either.

My home is in Springfield, part of Washington County and in the center of the state. Springfield has a population of 2,846, according to the 2020 Census, while the county boasts 12,027 residents. Sounds a little Podunky, doesn’t it? Yet it’s one of those pearls that gets overlooked.

Springfield is 25 miles from Danville and 16 miles from Bardstown, both of which have won numerous national awards for best small towns in America. We’re not too far behind.

Within two miles or so of my house, there are numerous churches, two grocery stores, three dollar stores, several restaurants, a brand-new fire station, a new library, a city park and a new courthouse. A new facility to house our emergency medical technicians (EMTs) is going up as well. As you can tell, government services are good.

My mother is a healthy 96, who chooses to live in the same house that she’s lived in since 1962. She fell recently and couldn’t reach a phone, so she pressed the Life Alert button around her neck. Life Alert contacted the EMTs with information on how to get into the locked house, and then called me.

I was at her house in 10 minutes. The EMTs were there in five, and very gently and sweetly took care of her. She wasn’t hurt, but it felt like they were family, although this was the first time they’d met her.

There are never any traffic jams. It has that small-town vibe and is easily drivable for older folks like me.

My family physician is less than a mile away, and she’s extremely sharp. My eye doctor is less than two miles away. There’s one hospital nine miles from my house and an extremely large regional health center 25 miles away. Lexington and Louisville are within 50 miles. The main roads are excellent and seem to be constantly improving.

I don’t golf. But there’s a course less than four miles from my house. Another is nine miles away and a third is 16 miles away.

We have several factories, but no real pollution that I’m aware of. Jobs are plentiful. Folks are so nice that I know the store cashiers and my barber on a first-name basis.

We have a state-supported community college that was built just a little over a decade ago and is state-of-the-art. Our local Catholic grade school, St. Dominic Elementary, was recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School by the Department of Education in 2019.

Centre College, which is rated one of the best liberal arts colleges in the country, is financially well-endowed and has won numerous awards. It’s within 25 miles of Springfield as well. Two nationally televised vice-presidential debates were held at the college, in 2000 and 2012.

We have a local theater group that puts on plays. You have all the horse events that Kentucky is famous for, plus the popular Bourbon Trail that winds its way around Springfield. We love to buy season tickets to Louisville’s Derby Dinner Theater each year. We see nine plays for a little over $500 for both my wife and me. It’s a great bargain.

Housing is cheap compared to the rest of the country. I live in a 2,300-square-foot home on one-and-a-half acres in one of the county’s nicest neighborhoods. We have four bedrooms and two baths, with a view from the front porch to die for. Yet I’d probably be lucky to get $350,000 for the place. All this and fiber optic internet as well.

Insurance tends to be higher than normal. But with a good credit score, it’s not as bad as it could be—and nothing like Florida. Property taxes are low and there’s a discount for the over-65 crowd.

But don’t take my word for it. A fellow named Leonard M. Spalding Jr. and his wife Susan built a house across the street from me. Leonard Spalding is the former president and CEO of Chase Global Mutual Funds—now J.P. Morgan Chase Mutual Funds. He returned to Springfield, which was his childhood home. His home is a lot bigger and nicer than mine, but it still cost a fraction of what it would cost elsewhere. Heck, even Senator Mitch McConnell comes out to visit Spalding when fundraising.

Another family that moved into the area is big-time movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer and his wife Linda. They have a farm about 19 miles away, in Bloomfield. They bought a lot of the little town of Bloomfield as well.

Linda Bruckheimer restored local buildings to their historical glory and opened some restaurants, as well as other businesses. Sometimes, the couple even bring well-known actors to eat at local rustic restaurants. I know they have more houses than just their Bloomfield residence. But amazingly, a rich couple like that could live anywhere and yet they chose Kentucky.

I think those are two votes you can count on for my area, which is surrounded by working farms, wildlife, beautiful nature, friendly people, low crime and no homeless that I know of, and just enough factories for some economic opportunity in the middle of the Bluegrass region. Finally, and drumroll please, our climate—with global warming—tends to have milder winters and warmer summers.

I’m not doing this to sell you on my area of the state. There are many other Springfields around the country that are also little treasures. If you go by the “10 best” lists and statewide statistics, you’d probably never find them. Every city and state has its own gems where you can live the good life, even if nobody has ranked them among the top 10.

Ken Begley has worked for the IRS and as an accountant, a college director of student financial aid and a newspaper columnist, and he also spent 42 years on active and reserve service with the U.S. Navy and Army. Now retired, Ken likes to spend his time with his family, especially his grandchildren, and as a volunteer with Kentucky’s Marion County Veterans Honor Guard performing last rites at military funerals. Check out Ken’s earlier articles.

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Casey Campbell
6 months ago

Thanks Ken, this was such a peaceful read. I want to move to a place like this when I and my family (wife and 5 kids) retire from the Air Force. The question is: can someone in his early 50s move to a place like this where he didn’t grow up, and achieve the same small-town connections with people who, unlike him, have lived there for years? Or would I and my family always feel like outsiders? I’m hopeful whatever community we settle on will welcome us as friends and neighbors, with open arms. Yours sounds very nice.

SCao
6 months ago

Well said, Ken. I live just outside of Wilmington, Delaware. It will be hard pressed to see it in any Top 10 list to live or retirement. However, love it here and raising family here.

Jerry Granderson
6 months ago

Ken, thanks for the article. Springfield is a lovely town. I think its courthouse is where Abe Lincoln’s parents were married. Danville is also a great small town. We’ve lived in KY for over 40 years, currently in Goshen a suburb of Louisville, and love KY. Have also lived in IN, FL, and England but KY is perfect for us. Thanks again for the article.

David Lancaster
6 months ago

Does Springfield have any traffic lights? If so in my book it’s ruled out for me. Our town in NH has just under 5K residents, and no traffic lights. Why? Cause there’s no traffic. It’s in the adjoining towns, and I am happy to let them have it!

Last edited 6 months ago by David Lancaster
Dennis Vroegindewey
6 months ago

Neat article, but you failed to mention that Springfield is the home town of the Simpsons 😉

jerry pinkard
6 months ago

Ken, Springfield sounds like a great place to live. I grew up in a small town and would not trade that experience for anything.

Ben Rodriguez
6 months ago

I’ve been to Springfield, Bloomfield, and Bardstown. All great. Bourbon country, and an impressive wine region.

I love the Commonwealth! So much fun stuff to do and great natural beauty. It’s so important to love where you live.

OldITGuy
6 months ago

Thanks for the stroll through your town. That was interesting, a very pleasant read and a nice way to start the day. Sounds like a great place to live. Enjoy!

William Perry
6 months ago

You clearly love your community and your neighbors. Those feelings and actions of genuine caring about about where you live and your neighbors are at the heart of what makes a community, state and a nation, a great place to live.

Thanks for telling us about your neck of the woods.

Dan Smith
6 months ago

Ken this is an article I could have penned about my home town as well. We love where we live for the same reasons you cite about Springfield. Cost of living, the lack of weather drama, all sorts great entertainment and not to mention close proximity to family. We don’t have major league sports in Toledo but we do have the Mud Hen baseball and Walleye hockey. And Detroit, Cleveland and even Chicago are short rides away.

Kristine Hayes
6 months ago

I love “Top 10” lists too–especially when they deal with where to live. I spend far too much time searching Zillow for the ‘perfect’ place to live. Your town sounds lovely. I think I’ll go look at it on Zillow…

Michael1
6 months ago

Agree there are plenty of gems out there that never make those lists. Sounds like you have a place that is one for you.

Right now we’re in New Hampshire. First time we’ve ever spent any time here and we like it a lot, at least in this season. Being from SC and SoCal, winter may be a different story, but we may give that a try sometime too.

R Quinn
6 months ago

There is a lot to be said for small towns and areas other than the Northeast and West coast. I have been in every state at least once. Lived off base in Alabama for 18 months.

I am always struck by the differences among people in different areas. Frankly, to me the people in the South and mid west seem kinder, more helpful, calmer and friendly.

I have lived in NJ all my life and my family here goes back to at least 1840, NJ has a lot to offer and it is far more than the Turnpike exits, but it’s a lot different and a lot more expensive than 90% of the Country.

The town I live in is listed among the fifty wealthiest in the US which may explain why my 2,000 sf condo would easily sell for $750,000 or more and why it costs $24,000 a year just in property taxes and HOA to live here. That may beg the question why stay in NJ? – children and grandchildren are here.

That old Kentucky home is looking pretty good.

However, in our defense, the best rated school systems are not in the South or lowest property tax states.

Last edited 6 months ago by R Quinn
Kevin Bradford
6 months ago

A wonderful article – it is often about perspective. Never ceases to amaze me how a person’s outlook on life can twist joy from sorrow, or vice versa!

For me – It’s always sunny here in Youngstown, Ohio – even when it’s not! 😎

Guest
6 months ago

We recently drove thru KY on our way home after visiting Nashville. My expectations for a drive thru KY were pretty low. But after visiting Bardstown and Lexington and driving many back roads thru the state I found it beautiful and from that perspective I can certainly see the draw. For me, however, I’ve always been a small coastal town New Englander and always will be.

And, yeah, I’m also a sucker for those top 10 lists as silly as they are.

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