Tony Hurt

Back in December of 83 I brought home a black Labrador retriever from my brother-in-law, and from the moment his paws touched the ground I knew he wasn’t just another dog. I named him Hank. He had those big curious eyes and that eager bounce puppies get when they want to understand everything about the

I was listening to Alan Jackson’s “Remember When.” I had heard that song a hundred times, but this time that one line reached out and grabbed my heart: “Old ones died and new were born.” I thought, “That is us, caught between the ones we lost and the little ones coming along.” At that moment, my

Every year of my life, Thanksgiving meant one thing. Going to Mama’s house. It did not matter what was going on or how busy everybody was. You could count on that house being full. Kids running through the halls, people trying to squeeze past each other in the kitchen, football on the TV, somebody laughing

Sometimes I think about how much the world has changed — and how much we’ve lost along the way. Growing up in Todd County in the ’60s and ’70s, life was simple, but it was rich in all the ways that count. We had cars with bench seats, metal dashboards, and radios that took a

\ The other day I was listening to Jamey Johnson’s song “In Color.”If you’ve ever really listened to it, you know it hits you deep.There’s something powerful about the way he sings about old black and white photographs, the kind where the smiles look faint but you can tell there’s a whole story behind those faces.

I remember that night clear as day in the early ’80s, cool air settling over the freshly turned dirt as I sat behind the wheel of a 9600 Ford tractor, working a field for David Stokes. The steady hum of that big diesel mixed with the sound of Solid Country Gold coming through the tractor’s

Today I was riding my four wheeler slowly across the rolling fields of my farm to check on the cattle. The air was crisp, and there was just a hint of fall colors beginning to show in the woods, a few orange leaves clinging to the maples and the faintest touch of gold spreading through

There is a song by Jennifer Nettles and Bon Jovi that always hits me square in the heart called “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.” Every time I hear it, I think about Todd County, Kentucky. That little patch of ground, those backroads, and the people who made me who I am. I was not born there.

Tonight I was watching a YouTube video of Johnny Paycheck singing, and my mind took me back to the mid-90s, I was working at the TV station when Johnny Paycheck came through Hopkinsville to play at the fair. He wasn’t the main attraction that year—he was tucked away in the big tent with the free

I read something the other day that’s been on my mind ever since. It said that in just a few generations, our names won’t even come up in family conversations. That’s a hard truth to accept. I think about it sometimes when I walk through Cedar Grove Cemetery. There are rows and rows of stones