Dawson Springs and the Miss America Flap

Contrary to the FOX Network report that Miss America, Tara Conner, would by dethroned by The Donald, His Royal Highness told the world that instead Ms. would be entering rehab. The primary allegation seems to revolve around her frequenting New York City bars while being under the legal drinking age. Since Ms. Conner will be twenty-one next Monday—and thus of legal drinking age in the Big Apple—I wonder about the flap.

Actually, I have not paid any attention to anything dealing with beauty pageants for about thirty years. Had not this flap about Miss Conner not come up, I would not have even known—or cared—that she is from a small Kentucky town named Dawson Springs. It is the Dawson Springs connection—and only the Dawson Springs connection—that has motivated me to write these Bytes.

Main Street, Dawson Springs, Kentucky

It was about forty years ago that I visited Dawson Springs, Kentucky. As I remember, there wasn’t much to the town—and it appears that there still isn’t much to it. It, however, was the home of my roommate when I was a freshman at the University of Kentucky, Bill Paul. Bill invited me to spend a weekend home with him. I did and that accounts for my visit to Dawson Springs.

It also accounts for my interest in the 2006 Miss America flap. A town the size of Dawson Springs usually doesn’t receive a lot of attention. To have one of its own named Miss Kentucky and then Miss America is a really big deal. To have that same young woman dethroned from her title by a sleazy, egomaniac like The Donald would have been devastating for the community.

So I have been pulling for Dawson Springs. Miss America and Donald Trump and even Tara Conner are secondary to a small Kentucky town. (Someday I may write about my visit to Dawson Springs. As with much of my life, it was a comedy or tragedy, depending on how I tell the story).