Summary:
Richard N. (Buddy) Kern was ten years old at the time of the 1937 flood. He lived with his parents and three brothers upstairs over the tavern his father owned at Thirty-fourth Street and Michigan Avenue (now called Muhammad Ali Boulevard) in Louisville's West End. When the floodwaters arived at their front doorsteps Buddy, his mother and his brothers moved in with his grandfather at Preston and Eastern Parkway. Buddy recalls watching the water rise from several directions to converge at his home and then having to walk across a railroad overpass spanning floodwaters to reach his grandfather's car in order to be evacuated from the flood. Buddy also recalls the living conditions at his temporary home and what he and his brothers did to pass the time during the flood. After the floodwaters receded, Buddy and his family moved back home even though utilities had not yet been restored. Buddy talks about helping his father serve food from the upstairs portion of their home to the workers cleaning up after the flood. Index available.
