Here is a fact not many people know: for 20 years, America's most instantly recognizable gentleman lived 4 km southeast of me on 1337 Melton Drive and I met him in church, of all places. Harland Sanders became famous for his fried chicken and the original recipe of eleven herbs and spices that was KFC. He had been invited to our church to fund a chaplaincy at Mississauga General Hospital. (Long story short - they wanted $500,000 even though they had no building expenses - the space was already there, so the ministers would be skimming these funds, so he declined.)
He appeared in church just as you see him in the ads with the white suit and bolo tie. He had a white Cadillac with his image as a logo on the trunk/boot lid. When the hymns started, he did not stand up (this was 1978 and he died in 1980 at age 90), so he was even more noticeable. He handed out autographed pictures to children. He was there with his second wife, Claudia and they signed the visitor's register as being from Shelbyville, Kentucky.
He had a magnificent cane with three cage openings cut into it and floating wood balls inside these openings. Harland said that an unemployed Appalachian coal miner had carved it for him over one winter. He gave the impression that when you were talking to him, you were the only person he was paying attention to. KFC was operated by Scott's Chicken Villa in Canada and Harland sued them for not using his eleven herbs and spices. He never got a judgement and for those of us who remember the original recipe, the original KFC is now just a hollow memory.
