And There You Have Another Hoosier Moment

Col. Sanders and KFC

I remember the first time I ever ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. That was all it took. I have eaten tons of it since. It is the best. Others may be close but when the flag is run up the pole honoring the best fried chicken in America it will read KFC.

We lived in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in the early 1960s. There was a very popular restaurant out on Caraway Road that had an excellent reputation. Sadly, one night it burned. In short order a new smaller building was erected and the owners began selling a new-fangled chicken. They used pressure cookers to quickly cook the chicken with the eleven secret herbs and spices in the batter. They could not keep up with the demand. I remember purchasing chicken there and there were lines of pressure cookers and the workers faces were red. People waited in line for chicken. The owners struck gold while mining for greenbacks.

Harlan Sanders was famous for fried chicken. Many vote his chicken #1. He was a sixth grade dropout, a farm hand, army mule tender, locomotive fireman, railroad worker, aspiring lawyer, sold insurance, ferry boat entrepreneur, tire salesman, amateur obstetrician, unsuccessful political candidate, gas station operator, motel operator and finally a restauranteur. And I thought I have worked in a lot of jobs.

Harlan was living in Corbin, Kentucky, at the age of 65 when the Interstate highway bypassed Corbin and snatched traffic away from him. His business depended on thru traffic.

Sanders was left with a social security check and a secret recipe for fried chicken. He had the world by the tail on a downhill pull and didn’t quite realize it.

When he was six, his father died which caused his mother to find work to support the family. Harlan had to assume many tasks for the family including cooking. At age seven it is said that he was a master of several regional dishes. For the next 30 years, however, he worked at the jobs listed above.

When he was 40 in 1930, he was operating a service station in Corbin, Kentucky. He began cooking for hungry travelers who stopped for gas. He served them at his own kitchen table.

Harlan invented “home meal replacement” or as his customers called it, “Sunday Dinner Seven Days a Week.”

His fame grew and Governor Laffon made him a Kentucky Colonel in 1935 to recognize his contributions to Kentucky cuisine. By 1940 he and his establishment were listed in Duncan Hines “Adventures in Good Eating.” That is great company.

People began to come just to eat. He moved his restaurant across the street to increase capacity. For the next decade he perfected his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices as well as his method of cooking. Most people can’t even name that many spices.

In 1955 he devoted himself to developing his chicken franchising business and by 1965 this former farm hand had more than 600 KFC franchisees in the U.S. and Canada. He would go down the road with his car full of the batter mix and a pressure cooker. He would talk and demonstrate to restauranteurs and when he sold them they agreed to purchase his batter mix and the client was to send him a nickel for every chicken sold. All of this was sealed on a handshake.

About that time he sold his interest in KFC for $2 million to a group of investors who grew the business to a worldwide mega-company; a phenomenon of the world food industry.

Not bad for a man who started from scratch at retirement age. The truth now must come out. The chicken Col. Harlan Sanders became famous for should be called “Indiana Fried Chicken” because Harlan David Sanders was born in Henryville, Indiana, 1890. And there you have ANOTHER HOOSIER MOMENT.