Lightning strikes a memorable chord with Salt Lick citizens

In the neighborhood of Salt Lick, lived a soft-spoken kind and gentle soul, known for his unusual character traits.

His given name was Thomas Booth, born May 19, 1919, the son of William Henry and Sallie Razor Booth, but the citizens who knew and loved him called him Lightning.

To the towns people, Lightning was one-of-a-kind, and left a lasting memory for everyone who knew him.

Glenda Jewell Lansdale said, “Regardless of the season, his outfit never changed, he always wore a long coat, hat and rubber boots. If he stopped in to see you, he would linger most of the day until dark. He was a man of very few words, but managed to always get a trade in whether it was a radio, record player or women’s clothing. Lighting was a figure of Salt Lick for sure. Everyone knew and trusted him.”

To Steve Hunt, Lightning was an iconic figure of the community and remembers him well.

“About all he did was trade and sell things that he had picked up and repaired. Lightning was a savvy guy. He lived with his mother on Fraley Road. He did what he could so he and his mom could survive. I knew him all my life till he moved to Louisville. He was a very respectful, quiet talking fellow. I used to hear people tell about where they had seen him pushing his wheelbarrow. My dad was coming back from the livestock auction in Flemingsburg one Saturday and caught up with Lightning going down the road with a refrigerator in his wheel borrow. He and Lightning loaded everything into dad’s pickup truck and dad brought him home to Salt Lick. Probably everyone here can tell you that there was no telling where you would see him,” Steve said.

Connie Daniels Carlson said, “I got my first record player from Lightning” and Sharon Purvis remembers, “Lightning always fixed and traded radios and various other things. Dad sometimes gave him stuff to fix. I remember him well. He had a relative around Salt Lick that was called Jar Fly. When lightning got older he moved to Louisville to be with his family. My parents and grandparents had second hand stores. He used to get things there, repair them and trade or sell them. Every one back then knew him. Most of the people that knew him well have probably passed away. I remember him from the 50s, 60s, early 70s.”

Most everyone that lived in Salt Lick has a mental picture of Lightning and those enduring traits that made him such an unforgettable figure.

“He was older when we used to see him pushing a wheelbarrow with items in it that he traded,” Connie Bailey Reeves said.

Brenda Lawson, “I can remember seeing him walk down the road, seems like every time I saw him he had boots on”.

“I’ve heard many stories of lightning and his wheel barrow. Dad said he always wore rubber boots and cut holes in them in the summer for ventilation,” Neil Triplett said.

Tony Hatton stated, “I remember him coming to our house on Moore’s Ferry. He and dad would trade radios and TVs. I remember going to his house once and going to the storage building out back, which was full of stuff. It was in the morning and I remember there was a pot of pinto beans cooking.”

“Back in 50s and 60s dad used to trade with him. He collected dolls and fancies, (gowns and slips). If you had these items you could trade with him,” Charlotte Cox-Wages remembered.

Arvie Staton said, “I remember Lightning in the late 60s and in the 70s, he would stop in at Virgil Caudill’s Ashland station when I worked there. he was always carrying a radio or a TV, he was a really pleasant man.”

Janice Greene, “I remember Lightning stopping by to visit my papaw Henry Green. It seems like he came from the holler road, the same area that my great-uncle Turner Green lived. I always remember him in that hat and suit coat.”

Tonya Green-Bolander said, “I talked to my dad, John Green, about him. He remembered him. Dad said he also remembered his brother Thunder, and the relative they called Jar Fly.”

It appears that the Booth family have lived in Salt Lick since at least the 1930s as they are shown on the 1930 and 1940s Federal Census as living on Midland Trail Street.

Thomas had a sister named Virginia Mae, who was born is Salt Lick, and died at birth Oct. 11, 1924, he also had a younger brother and sister, Henry and Lina.

Other Razor families living in the same area were Pork, Meny, Gennie and Marrie Razor and could have been relatives of Lightnings mother.

His death certificate states he died at the Willowbrook Health Care Center in Clarksville, Ind., of a heart attack at the age of 79, on Aug. 26, 1998.

The record also shows he was single and living with his sister, Lina Booth Glenn in Louisville at the time of his death.

As Steve Hunt stated, “I guess you could say he was an icon of the community—the only one like him,” that same sentiment is echoed among those who remember Lightning Booth.