Lexington, KY - by linda hinchcliffe | fine lines Columnist
High School Basketball in Fayette County
Dave Redden offers a look back at some of Fayette County's most notable high school basketball programs, beginning with a few teams from as far back as the 1920s. Many of the school names are just memories now - Lexington High School among them, later becoming Henry Clay. In earlier years the schools not only played each other but played clubs, the YMCA as an example, and for a number of years black players had a league of their own.
The creation of Tates Creek High School in 1965 and Paul Laurence Dunbar in 1990 have added over time to the competition that has fueled Fayette County's fervor for the sport. In a photographic pictorial that recalls many of the highlights of the games over the years, and names the names of coaches and players alike, Radden carries us through to the 2008 season with the results of his extensive search of all that is Fayette County basketball.
This is perfect reading material for March as Lexington plays host to the annual Kentucky High School Athletic Associations Sweet 16 tournament at Rupp Arena beginning March 18.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
The early 1940s in Seattle, Wash., saw factions of Chinese and Japanese living in separate areas within the city from the general population, and when 12-year-old Henry Lee is sent to private school he is the only face reflecting his ethnic background. That is until a young Japanese girl, Keiko, is admitted.
Both bullied and ridiculed, they find they share much more than their mistreatment by the other students and form a bond that is the basis for Jamie Ford's first novel. It is a bond that carries the reader into the present as Ford relays the story of Henry 40 years later, his relationship with his son and the mysterious force of a love that he has never forgotten.
One of young Henry's only friends is a black sax player who befriends both the young students and kindles their love of the jazz. A particular song they hear him perform at a local club becomes the symbol for their deep tie. Henry's traditional father's hatred for the Japanese because of the escalating war causes tension within his family that silences any communication between the two young students. Despite their demand that he not associate with Keiko their bond transcends the prejudice that is growing within the nation, and when her family is sent off to an internment camp, Henry secretly finds ways to keep in touch.
With only the hope that the war will end soon, they vow to wait for each other. But forces intervene. Forty years later, still in Seattle, Henry finds that the belongings of many of the Japanese families that were sent away are stored in the basement of a large old hotel in the once-Japanese section that is being renovated after many years of being shuttered. His search within the dark crowded basement finds Keiko's sketch books and a broken record, while opening the doors to a rush of memories and the beginning of an unforgettable tale of an extraordinary time in America's history and of the power of love, sacrifice and forgiveness.
Author Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of a mining pioneer, Min Chung, who immigrated to California in 1865 where he adopted the name "Ford." An award winning short story writer, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" is his first novel and an impressive and addictive read.