Face to face
Old folks and young folks. Boys and girls. And cows. On a downtown sidewalk, on the practice field, at the gym, in the back yard, in mother’s arms, the people of Somerset are going about their lives. Playing, working, loving.
This year’s workshop shooters are beginning to discover their stories.
On Tuesday, Robert Elmo Vaught, 69, of Eubank, Ky., spends his afternoon the usual way he spends most afternoons -- sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes at the Wagon Wheel restaurant in Eubank. "I come here about every day," Elmo said with a laugh, "I'm a loaner." Elmo's wife died of colon cancer when she was in her forties. "It's been a long time," he said as he looked out the window.
William Elliott, Kenneth Brown, John Evans and Donald Mincey play rummy in downtown Somerset as the sun goes down and clouds threaten to rain on them. They've played cards here several times a week for about a year. "Well, there's not much else to do around here," Kenneth, 25, said.
MIddle school student Brynlee Bigelou, 13, works out in the Somerset High School weight room while her friends on the varsity basketball team, Jensen Pierce, 13, and Topanga Brown, 14, spot her. All of the girls attend Meece Middle School.
On the outskirts of Eubank, Ky., Charles Bishop and his son, Mark, work together to maintain their dairy farm. "We don't have so many cows anymore. We maybe milk 24 head now," Charles said. "There's always something to be done." Mark said after he and Charles finished feeding and milking the cows on Tuesday evening.
Chris Ramsey and his son Jonathan race against an oncoming s torm, working together to remove a new shipment of wood from the bed of a "Knucklebone" farm truck.
Ross Burton, 10, practices with Pulaski Elementary School's cross country team.
Allison Sobieck, 31, gives her 2-1/2-year-old daughter a warm hug instead of the piece of pie she wanted because "Mom wants daughter to maintain her appetite for dinner in a few minutes." Allison owns Doolin House Inn with her husband, Chuck Sobieck.
The Norfolk Southern Corp. railroad "Rathole" double-track mainline goes through Burnside, south of Somerset.The track runs along the former Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railroad right-of-way. The line handles dozens of coal and mixed-frieght trains per day. It got the name "Rathole" because it passes through multiple stone-cut tunnels between Burnside and Harriman Junction, Tenn.
Austin Barnett, a student at Southern Elementary School, waits to start a tackling drill during football practice. Head coach Kenny Dysinger is tough on his young players. "If kids are misbehaving, this is the closest thing to military school," he said.
Ron Wheeldon, of Jerry's Barber Shop, touches up 7-year-old Cody Nichols' mohawk. Nichols, of Somerset, got the haircut in preparation for the youth football season.
Owen and Evan Tipton put some spring into the fall with a friend outside their home in Nancy.