LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- "The news is so negative" is a complaint that comes into the newsroom often. We want you to know we hear you.
This year, WDRB's Chris Sutter hit the road. From Seymour to the Metro to Bowling Green, and all the places in between to find the people, who make our lives better, who make our towns home.
The WDRB Positive special gives them the spotlight they've always deserved.
Teen golfer, Happy Gilmore prepares to a swing at college golf
Ever since he was old enough to pick up a club, he loved golf. If that line sort of sounds familiar to you, it's probably because you've heard the beginning of a story like it before.
"(My name is) Happy Gilmore," said a soon-to-be high school senior.
He's an expert in the long ball and an enemy of the alligator, sort of ...
"When I'm in Florida," Gilmore said.
On a Bloomington golf course, with plenty of names mounted near the clubhouse, Happy Gilmore is the one being talked about the most in southern Indiana for the first time since 1996.
He will be playing for Ball State in the fall.
We often walk out of Walmart carrying a lot, and it’s not just the stuff we put in a cart and then a plastic bag.
In a blue hat with a sparkly pocket and colorful clogs, 86-year-old Mary Ruth Robinson hopes to be the reason you forget about what Carrollton shoppers are carrying.
"You can catch her going in, and then you can catch her going out," said shopper Patsy Smith.
“You don’t find somebody like her every day anymore,” shopper Ted Holcomb said.
She may check receipts and return baskets, but her real job is to make people happy.
He's lovin' it | South Louisville fast food fan's yard transformed into 'McDonaldland'
Katie Farley and her dad, Joe Fleig, have always gone together like a burger and fries.
Over the years, they've certainly contributed to the 99 billion served here.
"My parents never cooked, so fast food was the place to be," Farley said. "We would go probably four to five times a week to McDonald's."
Later in life, Fleig sort of brought McDonald's to them.
"This is known as McDonaldland," Farley told WDRB.
The nostalgia soaked in, like the tartar sauce on a Filet O' Fish.
Children of the 70s and 80s — and some 90s kids — had the time of their lives on everything that now sits in Fleig's front yard, off Greyling Drive in south Louisville.
He's lovin' it.
Designing a future behind the wheel
It was hard for Amanda Morris to imagine walking into a tattoo shop with her 16-year-old daughter, Lexie.
"I did say they had to be 18 or older to get one," Amanda said.
"She was very firm on that," Lexie added.
The Kentucky mom loosened her stance, not because she has a persistent teenager, but because of what her daughter has struggled with since early in her life.
A little ink went a long way for the teen whose life has been miles from easy.
The parking lots are empty. The classrooms are dark. The halls are silent, but Dr. Stephen Hatton is up early, listening to the forecast, and driving around in his truck to see the conditions for himself.
He's the Assistant Superintendent at North Harrison Community Schools, and the guy who decides if its okay for iced up buses to hit the streets.
"We just want to be safe," Hatton said.
When it's not, he gets to his desk, picks up the phone, and lets parents know if they will need to make other plans for their children for the day.
He doesn't just say it though.
No need to write down the lyrics, he just goes with it.
'We sell fresh chicken poop' | Funny hardware store sign turns heads in Jeffersontown
Life moves fast, little stays the same, but a Louisville area hardware sort of has.
"It's not a big box store, that you have to run down 15 aisles to find things," customer, Mark Vogedes said.
"Rhinestone Cowboy" plays over the speaker, there's still a phone on the wall, the popcorn's free, and just like when he was a teen, Brad Carson is helping customers at J-town Hardware & Rental in Jeffersontown.
Since his early days at the store, Brad Carson has always enjoyed coming up with something to put on the sign out front.
From the time parents roll the stroller in, until they push it out, the pointing and picture taking can leave little time to notice something sort of hiding in plain sight at the Louisville Zoo.
"I've been here many many times, never have seen it," zoo visitor David Carter said.
Shrouded in shade and guarded by geese is a final resting place for humans. It's called the Phillips Durrett Clark Cemetery.
Shrouded in shade and guarded by geese is a final resting place for humans. It's called the Phillips Durrett Clark Cemetery.
At an East End home in Louisville, not far from the busy Gene Snyder Freeway, a sleep deprived couple basks in the glow of having a newborn.
Cute as a button, Benjamin, isn't the first baby for Tommy and Abby Carroll. He's the third, but everything they thought they knew about bringing a baby into the world was about to take a dramatic turn.
The baby was named Benjamin Gene, after the Gene Snyder Freeway.
When you live in Seymour, and have some skill on the guitar, there are a few songs you pick up first.
"'Pink Houses,' 'Jack and Diane,' and 'Hurts So Good,'" Jordan Richart from the Jackson County Visitor's Center explained.
Songs from a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer that still casts a shadow in the small town he sings about.
"People are very proud of him on one hand, and some people are a little jealous of him," Mellencamp family friend, Marc Gebhart said.
"They want to eat where John Mellencamp ate. They want walk where John Mellencamp walked," Richart added.
Soon, they'll be able to sleep where the rock star slept.
The owners of the home expect the Airbnb to be open by the end of this year.
Lunchtime at Arcadia Senior Living in Bowling Green brings decisions.
"BBQ ribs or a beef burrito?" one resident contemplated.
A glass of cold water was a must for a few of the seniors there, to cool down from the hot heat of the spotlight.
Bingo and daily devotions are on the to-do list on certain days of the week, and so is making internet magic.
"I've always had a little swing to my hips," said Dora Martin with a smile.
"You never know what's going to come out of their mouth," Arcadia employee, Maitlin Nuckols, said.
The video you may have seen online is a re-creation of Rihanna's Super Bowl halftime show.
They star in a re-creation of Rihanna's Super Bowl half time show.
During the rush of a trip to one of the many stores along Veterans Parkway in Clarksville, nothing unusual would stick out about Brooklynn Riley.
"I feel like a lot of teen girls go out and just shop," she said.
On a recent Friday evening, she looked like a teen heading into an Old Navy.
"When I go out and shop, we do different things," Brooklynn explained.
She hits the parking lots of Kentuckiana shopping centers with a handful of Post-its.
A room with a view is what any good paying customer wants out of a hotel.
"We're a place for locals and tourists alike," Hunter Kissel with 21C Hotel said.
Louisville's eclectic option for an overnight stay has no shortage of things to look at, but there's one view you might not realize you have until the crack of dawn.
Some hotel guests have quite the view.
Take a walk around the solar farm at the E.W. Brown Generating Station in Mercer County, and you will probably notice it could use a cut.
"It's really hard to mow, and it's really time consuming," said Aron Patrick, Manager of Research and Technology at Kentucky Utilities.
Maybe for the crew Kentucky Utilities was paying, but not for the new hires. Instead of a blade, they use their teeth.
The sheep were borrowed from Shaker Village.
There are stories and even videos of the unexplained darting through the night sky.
"I know we're not alone," said Kim Chase.
On a Kentucky hillside, there are undeniable sightings that have people talking like aliens.
"Nano, nano," visitor, Angela Jackson said with a smile.
A U.F.O. landed decades ago in Covington.
Rob Detzel is the owner of the often visited 'Futuro home'
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