Am I wrong about Owensboro

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by thejerk

There is a pretty big time gap between the last post and this one but I just stumbled on the site and forum. Having been born in Owensboro in the 50's, grew up there, graduated from Owensboro Sr. High, I can relate to a LOT of what has been posted here. I am a perfect example of a person who grew up there, left to go to school and never moved back. My wife and I still had a lot of family there, (parents mainly and my wife has a couple of sisters there still), so we often would go back for visits. I still am there at least once a month and sometimes more.

My Dad grew up just east of Owensboro in Hancock County. He was born in 1918 and during his youth, Owensboro was certainly the BIG city. Others have mentioned other places. I have lived in Tulsa Oklahoma and Wichita Kansas, both comperable in size to Louisville. I now live in Memphis Tennessee, the 17th largest city in the US with Shelby County the 44 largest county having close to 900,000. The metro area which encompasses West Memphis Arkansas and Southaven Mississippi and neighboring Tennessee counties is well over a million. I said all that to put the following into perspective.

Like I said, I grew up in Owensboro. As a kid and teenager, I couldn't WAIT to get out of the back woods, nothing to do, no excitement hick town. NOW? Well Owensboro doesn't really look too bad. You want crime? Come to Memphis. Depending on which national survey you read, we are always in the top 5 for murder, rape car jacking and other violent crimes as well as property crimes such as burglary, home invasion and auto theft. It is so bad that often murders and other similiar crimes are not front page or the lead story on the evening news. I often think it would be nice to go back somewhere you aren't always on the watch to make sure you don't become the next gang initiation victim.

On the other hand, Owensboro does need to be more forward thinking. When I grew up there, there were several large employers, GE had two plants, Texas Gas, (before CSX bought them and essentially destroyed them), Jessup Steel had Green River Steel, (now just a rusting hulk on East US 60). But the leaders of Owensboro didn't want Owensboro to loose that "small town charm" and did little to encourage outside investment and involvement. They never actively encouraged airport growth or promoted air travel.

Depending on your personal beliefs, and I am NOT trying to get into that debate, but growth that involved things that could be seen as contrary to religious beliefs always met HEAVY opposition. I can remember for MANY years, nothing was open on Sunday in Owensboro except drug stores, a few small grocery stores and restaurants. Blue laws prevented any other retail outles from being open. If you wanted to shop on Sundays, you had to go to Evansville. The leaders finally realized how much revenue they were loosing to Evansville because regardless of the blue laws, people were going to shop, if not in Owensboro, then somewhere else.

The same was true when it came to issues for liquor by the drink on Sundays. People who saw a very viable source of revenue in the visitor and convention industry knew that if restaurants and places like the Executive Inn convention center were to attract large conventions, they were going to have to get passed that.

But, like others, the area of interest for me had no future in Owensboro. I personally am in aviation. Again, the airport at Owensboro was never a priority for the leaders of that town. When I left to go to school, I knew I would never be able to have a real future in my chosen field in my home town.

Owensboro has been and always will be IMHO, a town with a small town mentality, not interested in growth. The latest numbers I can find actually show that the population now is less than it was when I graduated from high school. Owensboro is not interested in growing and never will be.

Where are you getting your stats? Louisville is exactly the same size as Memphis. It is SUBSTANTIALLY larger than Wichita and a decent clip larger than Tulsa. In Oklahoma, Louisville is more like OKC, which it is still larger than.

As for owensboro, it is what it is. In many ways its industrial river catholic heritage shadows that of Louisville but of course on a smaller scale. There just wasnt enough to to around as you head down river from Pittsburgh to Evansville, as the cities get progressively smaller on this route.

Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[undaunted]

Owensboro sukxx..........bottom line.

[Pressed]

Please do not expect Owensboro to be like The Atl or any other major city.
It's a wholesome place to grow up but as far as an elaborate spread to party, no. It's not a party city. It's designed that way. There is one mall, Towne Square Mall and it has more than two stores - seriously? It a nice size mall; will you find cheap stuff in an abundance like Atl or New York - NO!
Now if you want to speak of the downfalls of Owensboro speak of the racism, segregation and lack of respect for people's business!

[ms12345]

This thread caught my eye. I was born and raised in Owensboro. I agree with pretty much everything that has been said. Outside of the legal and medical professions, government, or self employment, there is little career opportunity left there. I always thought not having a large public university really hurt the area. Bowling Green has now surpassed it in size.

I do miss the Barbecue. When I was a kid there were many more Barbecue restaurants in Owensboro than exist today. Also, the barbecue at those Catholic church picnics couldn't be beat.

[clc425]

Yep, St. Augustine BBQ mutton was the best!!

[Serious Conversation]

I'm a big BBQ person, and have heard of the Owensboro mutton style. Any good restaurants for it?

[censusdata]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

I'm a big BBQ person, and have heard of the Owensboro mutton style. Any good restaurants for it?

The most popular restaurants are Moonlite BBQ and Old Hickory BBQ.