Kentucky, the primary road from Jackson
to Ohio was U.S. Route 23. So important
was this road in the massive hillbilly
migration that Dwight Yoakam penned a
song about northerners who castigated
Appalachian children for learning the
wrong three R’s: “Reading, Rightin’, Rt.
23.” Yoakam’s song about his own move
from southeastern Kentucky could have
come from Mamaw’s diary:
They thought readin’, writin’,
Route 23 would take them to
the good life that they had
never seen;
They didn’t know that old
highway would lead them to
a world of misery