What was your first job?
John_Irvin14w
John Irvin, Jr.
Measuring tobacco in Jessamine County for the ASCS under the old acreage allotment system was my first real summer job. Paid by the acres measured and the new kid on the job, my plate was filled with the smallest and most remote tracts in the county. Crop overages had to be destroyed. No farmer relished that news from a 17 year old kid who didn’t know first hand how much labor is involved in raising tobacco. Later I moved on to social work – teaching tennis at country clubs in New England during my college summers in the early ‘70s, but I learned a lot from those hard working Jessamine county farmers, one of whom told me that if there was anything wrong with his tobacco, it happened to the leaf after it left his farm.
What do you consider to be one of the prettiest spots in Lexington?
We’re lucky that so many spots in town can be considered the prettiest, but our dog Phil and I enjoy the Northside Neighborhood. We live on West Second near Jefferson and regularly walk in Gratz Park, Fayette Court, Elsmere Park, Hampton Court, and on Second, Third, Sixth, and North Broadway. We always seem to see and smell something that we hadn’t noticed before. I’ve enjoyed watching Jefferson come to life and become a dining destination, and Phil and I see evidence of more to come, so stay tuned.
When you were a child, what did you think you wanted to be when you grew up?
My plan was to grow to be 6’3” and play guard for UK just like Vernon Hatton, my junior high basketball coach. Though he never mentioned it (or thought of it I now realize), I was delusional enough to feel sure he was grooming me for that role. My career ended a couple of years later on the unused end of a bench, just short of Vernon Hatton by 5 or 6 inches and a few thousand points. During that uncomfortable age when adults regularly asked about my career plans, I so often answered that I was heading to law school that I had to give it a try. After thirty years, my work remains interesting and challenging. I’ve been fortunate to have been with Kinkead and Stilz for the last 15 years.
What book have you recommended lately?
I gave “Blood Horses” by John Jeremiah Sullivan to a friend for Christmas, knowing only that the blurbs on its cover were generally favorable. He then recommended that I read it, which was good advice. The book is in part a tribute to the author’s late father, the sportswriter Mike Sullivan, in part a journey through the thoroughbred industry, and in part an outsider’s inside look at Lexingtonwhere the author often visited his grandparents. I’ll loan you the copy that I never returned to my friend, and you can a take the gift back to him when you finish it.
What’s the best concert you ever saw?
Here Come the Mummies was a lot of fun at Buster’s recently, but my brush with fame came with the Isley Brothers in the late 70s. My date worked at WKQQ, and had back stage passes along with an invitation to the after party which was at the Campbell House. Just as trays of food were being delivered, we were asked to leave which I guess was o.k., because I didn’t know the Isleys first names anyway, and they didn’t seem too worried about mine.
Where would you go on your dream vacation?
Dream sharing makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I recently had a good dream about being at a supper club having a fried perch dinner in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. My wife Diane and I visited our daughter and son in law a few weeks ago in New York. It seemed like a good idea to me to drag the family to Coney Island and ride the Cyclone, an old wooden rollercoaster. And it was a good idea, until the thing began its descent, which was more like a bad dream.