CADIZ, Ky. (WTVF) — There's a new addition in one Kentucky city — it runs for more than a mile and is one ambitious undertaking. It's also important for a community proud of its hometown heroes.
If you've been to Cadiz, Kentucky you know exactly what you'll see all over the city.
"Pigs!" smiled Jeannie Bodine of the Purple Pig store, talking about the many concrete pigs in downtown Cadiz. "There's pigs on every corner. If you get a business, you get a pig. You get it painted. You want to make sure your pig outdoes everybody else's pig."
"Everybody wants to know why we have pigs," said Morgan Jones of the Cadiz Antique Mall.
"Country Ham Festival!" said Bodine.
"In the early 1900s, in Trigg County, hams were a way of life for most of the farmers," added Robert Brame of the Trigg County Historical and Transportation Museum.
Today, Bodine, Jones, Brame, and county magistrate Mike Wright will all tell you, besides the pigs, there's something else now drawing a lot of attention in Cadiz.
"Hometown heroes," said Jones.
"We have pictures of people who have lived in Trigg County who have served in our military, and we proudly display those on the street posts within the city," added Wright, referring to the many Cadiz Hometown Hero banners going through the city.
"There's flags from all the way back to World War I until present day," said Brame.
"It's gorgeous!" added Bodine.
"A couple years ago I was passing through this small town in upstate New York," said Wright. "They had these posts displayed on every post in town. I loved the idea so much. I took a picture, came home, brought it back to our city. It's called the Hometown Heroes Project."
"This is Burton Aldridge Jr.," said Brame, pointing up to one of the banners. "He and I were friends from the 3rd grade. I called him right away and said, 'you gotta come look at your picture!' He said he looked a whole lot younger!"
"My daddy is James Stagner," said Bodine. "He went into the Navy in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor."
She turned her attention to the picture of her dad on a banner downtown.
"It means the world," she said. "It makes me want to cry. He was my world. To see him so honored and in such a beautiful place, this would just tickle him to no end."
Wright said there are about 115 of these hometown heroes up now, and the city is constantly hearing from more people who want their loved one to have one too.
"I would like to see every post on every side street, every telephone pole; I'd like to see flags from everywhere we can display them," said Wright. "In a small town, when you know the veterans, and you know those who paid such a sacrifice, it makes it even more meaningful."
