"My Old Kentucky Home" is a famous song by Stephen Foster which is played every year before the start of the Kentucky Derby in Louisville.
The last reunion of my old band was in 2008, in Trumansburg, NY on Derby day. We went out for supper at a local barbecue joint where the race was on TV. We were the only patrons who stood up when they played the song. It seemed a little strange at the time, but as they say today "If you know, you know."
Sadly, the second place horse, a filly named "Eight Belles," broke both her front legs during cooldown, and had to be euthanized immediately on the track. Not a good start for the evening, but our show was difficult too, with the worst sound we'd ever had to endure.

Thanks Doug! "If you know,you know"

I live 10 miles north of My Old Kentucky Home and 10 miles south of Churchill Downs and........I Know!!

I am hiding in the woods until this blows over! A great time for Louisville to shine today, even if it is 60f and rainy and windy.

Nice version! I know it's Derby Day, but I've heard this tune at so many occasions my whole life, having spent over 60 of my 71 years in the state I was born in. The song always strikes a very nostalgic sentiment for me.

That tune always brings back good memories. Lee Sexton’s banjo playing is something else-so full of soul

Maybe cuz I watched the Netflix documentary on it prior to the Derby, or who knows, but I won the Kentucky Derby or at least picked the winning horse! I never do horse betting, but this year it just piqued my interest. Yay for Sovereignty, won me a couple hundred bucks! Gotta love that this tune is like the National anthem at the Derby.

My friend from Kentucky recently talked about the Derby as well and the traditional dishes they made to celebrate the event

Gotta love Kentucky country style!! The Kentucky country
kitchen sounds delicious so many ingredients are used and then they give their very rich soup a name like Poor Man's Soup hehe. Told him I think he would be extremely succesful if he opened a country kitchen food restaurant here ... We get McDonalds and KFC and Starbucks but the good stuff we don't easily have access to see also old time fiddle music. It's good that we
at least have internet now !!

Kentucky country accent is like completely ununderstandable to me , the day I succeed to recognize the words and phrases of Kentucky people I think I can handle no matter which accent in English if I put in some extra effort:-D

I like the phrase....whatchamacallit...and I loves me some burgoo(popular at the horse track with your mint julip).

There are regional accents in Kentucky,for sure( city-country-and you can't git there from here)

I live out of town but not in the sticks.


Thanks for remembering Kentucky.......friends and neighbors.

I wish I had a KY accent...lol...heard it all my life, but we moved to Ohio when I was almost 10 and stayed there until high school...I think my accent grew up with me in Ohio. I could fake the various KY accents of the places where we lived or other family lived, but I can't fake something and feel authentic about it. I believe my inner Ky accent comes through with my fiddling...at least it seems it does to me, on the fiddle. I never felt like I was at home in Ohio. I love Kentucky. Gonna hate to leave it because I have lived 62 of my 72 years in Kentucky, 3 of my years in Tennessee...Tennessee's ok too...but Kentucky just feels like home to me. Daughter wants to take us all up to Vermont to relocate after her hubby retires...I'm like...oh, I don't know about how it would be...she went up there on vacation and said every small town is exactly like how she grew up in our old Kentucky towns we lived in or visited in. She says Vermont is like Old Kentucky...I guess one day we will go.

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Originally posted by groundhogpeggy

 I believe my inner Ky accent comes through with my fiddling...at least it seems it does to me, on the fiddle. 

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<3 I bet it's not just a feeling or idea, bet that is just the plain truth <3

My aunt , who moved from Italy to our country when she was 16, talked to me a couple of days ago about migration and how she thinks you can only feel completely home when you don't move to another country but stay where you were born, she said she always felt like just half a Belgian in Belgium and just half an Italian to her family that is still living in Italy.  Difference ofcourse is in Europe all countries are completely different from eachother, but I heard that goes for the different USA states as well when it comes to law, the glue you have is perhaps (besides the constitution) that you all share English as a language. They want us euros to all great the Euro flag now though LOL - not going to say how I feel about that hahaha. But the way your daughter describes Vermont as the Old Kentucky ... I mean that's a major argument I'd say, very smart of her.  I loved the old Europe, Europe  before the wall came down , honestly, I miss it a lot!! We visited Yugoslavia when we were kids, I think that was in 1987,  and it rocked to go camping there for almost a month, the people were so friendlly and everything was sooooo cheap and the food was really good , life was so relaxed up there, basic but the most beautiful vacation we ever had.  If I could find the Old Europe back , I'd ran to it. It hurts.

Peggy, Vermont is pretty famous for it's winters 

Yeah I'm sure...lol. That part sounds pretty scary. Of course we survived winter here where it got to below zero temps and the ice was so packed we had to break it up with sledge hammers to dig the car out...and we don't have central heat or a woodstove...lol. So...maybe we could make it. Probably not in a happy way...lol. Of course the summers here have gotten pretty miserable with climate change. I'd love to have summers where the temperatures don't go past 90...lol. Not sure if that would be Vermont...plus they probably like polkas and Canadian fiddle tunes up there...so...that would be different. Daughter says small towns, farms, creeks and mountains with friendly people was what she found. All the places I loved in Ky have since been destroyed, by one way or another...so...there's that. Can't really go back.

Anja, I'm sure it's tough when the whole culture is changing politically to the point where countries are different from what they once were. I feel for immigrants around the world who had to leave home, culture, family, for one reason or another. I'm wondering how many people in the world really feel at home in this day and age now.