James Merle Wilson

 

My father passed away several years ago now.  He was a Vietnam veteran and made it out alive. We enjoyed a lot of time together, and I am grateful for that.   

When I go back to the area where I grew up, I always visit the grave of his friend, James Merle Wilson who was killed in action in 1967.  His lifetime and mine did not intersect directly.

I did know his mom who passed away many years ago.

He is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Owensboro Kentucky (the Windy Hollow area).

I would love to hear from anyone with a connection to him.

Owensboro Christmas Parade 2025

We took in the Owensboro Christmas Parade from the Downtown Hilton!

Windy Hollow Biscuit House Owensboro Kentucky

Its at the old Pondarosa....  but its now the Windy Hollow Biscuit House in Owensboro!  Check out the Windy Hollow Biscuit House!

The old "Tropical Breeze Aquarium and Pets" in Owensboro Kentucky

 Man, when I was a kid, I had several aquariums full of fish.  Seriously, it was crazy.  I had a 55 gallon, a couple of 30 gallon tanks (one was salt water) and several 10 gallon tanks.  I might talk more about this some time...  but I really enjoyed them.

Sometimes on weekends, my dad and I would go out and visit just about every pet store around in Owensboro.  Danny's was probably my favorite.  I was there all the time.  A knowledgeable family ran the place and I always loved talking to them.  Their prices were good too.

Annette's was always a winner too.  She was a very nice lady and always had interesting fish and aquarium critters.  

Other shops would come and go.  I remember E & L Pets by the old Lincoln Mall, then they would move later on.  They still have a Madisonville location.  There was a pet shop in the Rockport area I remember visiting a time or two.

Tropical Breeze was over by Gabe's Tower.  At some point, I got this coupon for 10 percent off of everything.  I don't remember how I got it, but it was reusable.  I carried it in my wallet for some time.

I found this one while flipping through a very old scrap book recently.

The Executive Inn Owensboro Kentucky

A pal recently gave me a couple of things he found in storage.

The top photo is of an old postcard I have, showing the cool, and massively huge Executive Inn which used to be an icon in Owensboro.  They knocked it over in 2008.

The next few photos are of a flyer advertising the old hotel.

The bottom picture is of a luggage tag.  I was so thrilled that he found the brochure and tag and gave them to me.

As a fan of the old spot, any little collectibles like this are treasured.

 

Towne Square Mall Owensboro looking back 2023

Earlier this year I stopped by the Owensboro Towne Square Mall as it looked like the end was near for the place.  I got a some video and hoped to get back again, but it simply did not happen.  It looks like the mall as we knew it from 1978-2023 is no more.  They are going to redo it and make it something different as far as I can tell....  So, here is a little video with some pictures I have taken over the last decade of the place.

"From Heroes to Homicide" by Joe Ford

 I totally lucked out and found a copy of the late Joe Ford's book, "From Heroes to Homicide" at a used book store!

Honestly, this book is VERY DIY...  It could have been made on a home printer for the most part.  It clocks in at 74 pages and you could indeed call it skimpy.  Still, this is easily one of my favorite finds while scavenging the book shelves at used shops.

If you don't know, Joe Ford started up the Owensboro Museum.  I remember him coming to my school to tell ghost stories around Halloween (and incredible treat at the time).  If you cared about Owensboro, and legendary locals...  well, Joe Ford was THE GUY.

The museum was great too.  I haven't been to it in some time (it is now right downtown on 2nd Street) but when I was a kid, I always loved going to the old location.  It was mind blowing.  I loved the gift shop too.  I remember 10 cent plastic dinosaurs.  There was a wooden barrel full of various used stamps for a penny each.

And I recently found out that Joe put out a couple of these little self published books.  This one is a fun, and quick read, and he talks about how the museum evolved from a childhood mini-museum to what it is now.

Reprinting these books might be a good and fun idea....  Now I just need to find a copy of his other book, "Haunts to Hookers".

Noble Romans Columbus Indiana November 2022

 I recently discovered that the town of Columbus Indiana has a very retro Noble Romans Pizza!  This IS one of my all time favorite pizza chains.

I used to hang out at the one in Owensboro all the time when I was growing up.  All of my pals loved Noble Romans and I had friends that worked there at times too.  Well, the one near where I grew up closed down some time ago....  You still see them, occasionally here and there....  but they are usually in an altered form.  An edited down pizza place in a gas station or something like that.

This one was great though, and it was very similar to the one in Owensboro.

The pizza and breadsticks were great...  just like I remembered them.

Panther Creek Park and Owensboro Christmas Lights 2020

 I was so happy to be able to do the Christmas lights drive through event at Panther Creek Park near Owensboro this year!  For $5 a car, we thought this was a great value, and it was great fun!  Here is a video I put together of us going through....  I have included some nice houses we saw all in Owensboro too!

Owensboro Kentucky March 2020

You know I love my old stompin ground of Owensboro!  here is a brief video I made driving around town and remembering!

Lincoln Mall Owensboro Kentucky 2012

Here is a video I have posted on youtube showing the old Lincoln Mall in Owensboro Kentucky!  This was a favorite hangout of mine when I was a kid.

Owensboro Towne Square Mall at Christmas

 I stopped by the Owensboro Towne Square Mall right after Christmas this year.  It's no secret that the old mall is not the thriving place I remember from growing up in the 80 and 90s.....

Still, there are some shops there with some life.  They still have some impressive anchor stores that other malls have lost.  For what its worth, I thought the stores that are still there were giving great services and all of the shops had friendly staff.

I hated to see that "The Spots" second location that was opened here some time ago was gone.  The cool little record shop had closed its doors too.

Some local friends told me that the mall has been sold again....  and the new buyers are gong to try to get the mall going again.  I have heard that story before, but hopefully they can pull it off.

It was nice just walking around and seeing the Christmas decorations.  Christmas songs were played over the speakers.  The center of the mall looked very cute.  I do miss the old fountain though.

When I was in high school, we did a production of Charlotte's Web, and I remember the drama crew going out to the mall, and doing a short segment of the play by the fountain, hoping to drum up interest in our upcoming performance.

When I attended the nearby Burns Middle School, some Fridays after school my late cousin Matt and I would walk from school to the mall.

It was a nice walk, and a lot of fun.  We would get to the mall and play a few games in the arcade.  I remember that we would often get pizza at a pizza place that only lasted a year or so.  I want to say the place was called Luigi's.  There was a really nice guy who ran the place and I think it was the first pizza place I remember where a wood fire oven was used.  My memory could be fuzzy on that one though.

When I find myself in Owensboro, I really like going here for nostalgia's sake.  Hopefully the new owners can get locals to come back for more than just nostalgia.

Random Thoughts on Friday

I have always enjoyed painting toy soldiers.  Civil War, WWII, and the Alamo are my favorites.  I have been painting figures for decades.  I love a good hobby shop with a nice selection of figures for hobbyists.  I like 30th scale and smaller.

Back in.....  maybe the late 80s, early 90s, I remember going to Willy's Hobby Shop in Evansville Indiana.  Actually, I think the shop had a different name, but everyone called it Willy's.  It was a short drive from Owensboro, and I went there frequently.  I had also joined a plastic modelers club that involved groups from Evansville and Owensboro (it was named EH Miller) and the club would meet weekly in Evansville.  Stopping by Willy's before the meeting was a must.

Did you ever go to Willy's?  Trust me, you would remember if you ever did.

Willys was simply the perfect little hobby shop.  It was jam packed with model kits, and behind the counter, he had a great selection of resin and metal soldiers...  Many priced WAY out of my price range.....but many that were fun to look at.  He had plenty of the more affordable plastic kits too.  That's mostly what I would buy from Willy.

Willy, the shop's owner and operator, was a character himself.  Physically, Willy WAS Santa Claus.  His personality was....  well, that of an old drunken sailor.  He used four letter words in every sentence.  Sometimes, he could get multiple four letter words in each sentence.  He drank on the job.  He was generally very grumpy.  I could go on.

AND I miss the man.  He had character.  He was anti-PC (I can't even remember if PC was a thing back then).  He didn't care what you thought of him.  He didn't care if you bought anything at his shop or not.

I remember one time, he had acquired a collection of metal soldiers.  Some half painted, some unassembled.  They were in a box on his counter.  I asked Willy what he wanted for them.  He said he wasn't sure what he was going to do with them yet, but if I stuffed a few in my pockets while he wasn't looking he wouldn't care.

Sadly, Willy passed away, jeez, maybe around 1992.  I remember there was a huge 50% off sale at his shop as his family closed things down.  I HATED the whole situation, but I did buy some of my first resin figures at that time.  I could finally afford them.

I still have friends to this day that bring up Willy.  I would love to hear from anyone else that also remembers Willy, or that knows of a similar hobby shop still around.

Godfather's Pizza- Madisonville, KY

I know....  what's so special about a chain pizza place in a mall?

Well, years ago, when me and my buddies first got our driver's licenses, we were itching to go to new places.  ANY place new.  Madisonville was less than an hour drive from us.  We had always heard of it, but never been there, so we went to Madisonville.

Madisonville was smaller than Owensboro, but it was still a city big enough to have stuff going on- including a nice mall.

Going to Madisonville...  and the Madisonville Mall was something fun and new to us.  It was different.

This little Godfather's Pizza has been a constant at the mall.... at least as long as I have been going there.  I like their pizza and breadsticks.  And there is something very cozy about the dine-in area here.

Its dim with glassless windows looking into the mall.  For some reason, I think all great pizza shops should be dim.  Especially a "Godfather's" pizza.  Dim is good for...  you know, secretive conversations.  Private business.  Dark pizza places make me think of pizza places in the 80s too. 

Even now, whenever I drive through or to Madisonville, I like going to Godfather's.

I like going here for nostalgia's sake... and because I like the food.

I stopped by the other day and I thought it was cool that they had the place all decorated up for Halloween.  Check out the photos.  They did a good job.

I've Been Seen by the Great White... in Owensboro.... A long time ago.

Here's a weird one......  I am hoping someone else might remember more details about this....

I have this memory from my childhood.  When I was very young- I am thinking this was in the very early 80s.

I remember going to the K-Mart in Owensboro with my family.  It was the K-Mart on Frederica, I don't think that the other K-Mart, the one on Parrish, was open yet.  Oddly, we have always referred to the one on Parrish as the "NEW" K-Mart.  That one just very recently closed, so Owensboro is back down to just one K-Mart...  the original one in town.

Anyway- on this particular morning, we went to K-mart and there was a truck there with a shark in it!  I forget a lot of the specifics.  I think it was a buck or two a person for admission to see the shark.  The shark was not alive, and it was behind glass in a large case if I remember correctly.  I THINK it was some sort of refrigerated case, but again....  I was a little kid, and my memory is hazy on this one.

I do remember feeling a bit terrified by seeing it.  For a small child in the sheltered town of Owensboro, this was quit a thing to see.

I am thinking that the story on this one is that it was one of the biggest sharks caught at one time.  It seems that there was something special about the shark- something that made it special enough to exhibit in K-Mart's parking lots.

I did get the sticker that I have scanned in at that time.  I don't recall if I got the sticker as part of my admission, or if my mom had to pay a little extra for it.  I think I put this sticker on my shirt that day though, and then it went with the rest of my sticker collection- on my bedroom door.

Again- I would love to hear from anyone else who remembers seeing this shark in Owensboro... or anywhere else!