The State Flag

The point of this web magazine is to document the good and bad of Tennessee. But national attention recently has focused on the negative. Tennessee has been the epicenter in the “culture war” as to issues like same sex marriage. The state was also covered extensively over the murder and kidnapping of the Bain family of Hardeman County where two were killed and two were rescued. So here are some of the good things which are not necessarily exclusive to Tennessee but still some positives. In no special order:

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We get them in our in boxes, from Facebook Friends and Twitter- well not sure what you call people you follow on Twitter- but you have them to thank or blame. They are the flash mobs dancing to The Sound of Music, laughing babies,  funny pets and almost all other subjects imaginable.

They are the viral videos and what the hulu hoop was to the 1950′s, disco to the 1970′s, these are the fad of this generation.  It is hard to remember a time before You Tube and Vimeo.. you know, like ten years ago. But today they are home to some creativity often done solely for the desire to get one’s creativity out there. It is not without controversy as Edward Greenberg, a New York, New York intellectual property lawyer,  called “possessing the fatal flaw many artists have which is the overriding desire to be liked.”  Creativity becomes harder and harder to be a career as so many people do it for free. Steven Spielberg and James Cameron may not be nervous, but just ask that communications major who wants to create WITH OUT needing two other jobs.

Controversy or not, video sharing is not going away. So here are a few vistas of Tennessee through the eyes of YouTube and others.

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No, it is not a mastodon. Kudzu covers trees off Airport Road in Rockwood

Harold (not his real name ) was intoxicated and in the Shelby County jail – “the 201” locals call it – at 201 Poplar in Downtown Memphis on January 17, 2002. It was not his first time in lockup, nor was it his first time being intoxicated. He started drinking roughly five times a week in high school and now was in his mid-thirties.  “I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I tried quitting a ton of times but I didn’t know how.” He knew that it was time for a change and this time was different. It was to be his last drink.

But could one of the area’s most annoying plants become a weapon in the arsenal of people like Harold, fighting that feeling of what he describes as “ you don’t want ever to take another drink but you don’t know how you are not going to?” According to traditional Chinesse medicine, the ubiquitous kudzu plant can be used to fight alcoholism.

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Hitting Coach Cory Snyder of the Jackson Generals greets members of Jackson's little leauge team, The Kings

Here in Tennessee if you want college sports, few states have better bragging rights. Looking for major league football and hockey?  Go to Nashville. Want NBA pro basketball, there is Memphis. As for baseball, the state is conveniently located between the Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves and Saint Louis Cardinals. But there is more to the state and our national past time don’t write off Tennessee and the national past time TOO quickly.  Ten minor league teams – some in places many Tennesseans, have never heard of – play ball in Tennessee and though Hunter-Wright Stadium ( home of the Kingsport Mets) 2,500 seats will never be confused with Turner Field ( home of the Atlanta Braves with just over 50,000 seats). The feel is still there – ice cream out of a plastic helmet, free fly balls to the lucky fans and John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” over the loudspeaker.

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EVERYONE knows the tulip poplar is the state tree. Can you answer some tougher questions?

Do not get excited. No prizes will be awarded. Feel free to use Google ( how would anyone know? ) And when in doubt answering “C” will not help you as the answers are in alphabetical order. This, like the title says, is just for fun!

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The pillow in the corner shows Jackson was sick and in bed when Mathew Brady took this photo in 1845.

They are split-seconds frozen in time that tell the story of a place called Tennessee. The photos can be beautiful or ugly. They illustrate a split-second like Kevin Dyson’s near-win in the 2000 Superbowl. A fraction of a second earlier or later the photo would not have been nearly as dramatic. Or perhaps the scene has changed little. The natural beauty of Ansel Adam’s photos of the Smokey’s was enjoyed by him when he visited in the 1940s as it is today. And some notes on the photos – all of these can be found in various places throughout the internet. However where I could not find the owner of to the rights of the photo or royalties were cost-prohibitive, included only a link to the owner and or photographer’s website. There is a lot of use of copyrighted material without the owner’s permission but Across Tennessee will not participate in this practice.

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Jackson is in the middle of the towns hit by tornados, but Jackson and Madison County was not hit

Part 2 of a 2 part series remembering the 60th anniversary of  Tennessee’s Deadliest Tornado Outbreak. Part 1 can be read here.

As midnight hit, residents of  Tennessee towns, including Bolivar, Dyersberg and Moscow were searching for people, treating injured and trying to come to understand how their world of six hours earlier was so different from that moment. But the heavy weather had no signs of getting any lighter.

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Skies were threatening, the factors were there, but no tornadoes hit in this system last May in Memphis.. March, 21-22, 1952 the story ended differently

Part one of a two part series remembering the 60th anniversary of Tennessee’s deadliest tornado outbreak.

As spring began in 1952, Harry Truman was President and Gordon Browning was governor. US troops were involved in the Korean War. “Dragnet” and “I Love Lucy” had just been introduced that TV season.  “The Greatest Show on Earth” was in the theaters and Elvis Presley was still a high school student.  In West Tennessee weather felt more like an early May. Temperatures on March 21 hit 79 at Bolivar and Union City, 77 in Jackson and Brownsville and 75 in Moscow. But a cold front was poised to bring winter back for a while and drop the temperatures another 25 to 30 degrees. The official forecast in the afternoon paper was “Mostly cloudy this afternoon, tonight. Saturday; scattered thundershowers, windy and warm this afternoon and early tonight. Afternoon temperatures near 80. Cooler late tonight, low near 45.”

In eighteen hours sixty seven Tennesseans would die and another two hundred eighty three injured by tornados. Three hundred homes would be destroyed and more than six hundred others were damaged. Five more were killed in Middle Tennessee flash floods. Six million in property damage was the estimated loss- that is about $51.3 million in today’s dollars.  It became – and still is- Tennessee’s deadliest tornado day. Sixty years later memories remain.

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Ann and Geoff Slater of England visit while Patsy Montana sings ( and yodels ) in 1939's "Colorado Sunset."

The country music hall of fame honors the legacy of country while shattering stereotypes. It is worth a visit even for those who associate the Ryman Auditorium with The Pixies concert  or whose idea of Tennessee music is Three Six Mafia.

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Laura Bownes, Student Director Sewanne EMS

The Tennessee heat and humidity was getting the best of the University of the South-Sewanee track team. The runners were collapsing after a run in the 90 degree heat. Runner Willow Smith broke from her team, ran to the ambulance and exited almost as quickly wearing her jumpsuit. “Like Superman,” said a friend. She started administering IV’s with the rest of the student Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) as part of the Sewanee Student Emergency Medical Service (EMS).  Here student’s passion for helping others is brought together with the university’s and community’s need for quick and efficient emergency medicine.

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Some of the eleven million paperclips in Whitwell's box car

Right now there is a good chance you have a paperclip in a pocket and probably don’t know it. Three hundred paperclips can fit in a box about the size of a big bar of soap. Take three thousand and you still have not filled a shoebox. That would take roughly five thousand to do that. But reach eleven million paperclips and that fills a nine foot by twenty five foot boxcar roughly twelve inches deep, with about a six foot area in the middle open for walking space.

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Larry Brown plays The Bluebird

Nashville’s Bluebird Café is small, but on Monday nights between 6 and 9 PM there is enough musical passion to fill the Tennessee Titan’s LP Field. On weekly open mike night, singer-song writers gather to perform and hear each other and visitors gather to hear original music. Just a few rules apply – no vulgarity, original songs only and performers provide their own musician accompaniment. It is one after the other and all are asked to keep performances tight enough to give everyone a chance. Long-time Bluebird personality Barbara Cloyd was the emcee for the night and called tonight “a laboratory of talent.”

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Almost everyone remembers at least some of the story of the Trail of Tears from history class. It has been said the US shines a bright light yet can leave a dark shadow and this episode in history is listed with slavery and the internment of Japanese-Americans as one of those periods that make Americans uncomfortable. In 1838-39 About 14,000 Cherokee were forcibly removed from their land and sent to Eastern Oklahoma. And what many Tennesseans may not know is the trails ( there were several ) went through Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville.

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Antoine Swift, Coleman Garrett II and Charles Ross show why Wild Bill's draws blues fans from around the world.

You can just imagine a young Elvis Presley walking through the door in the early 1950’s sitting in the corner of Wild Bill’s at 1530 Vollintine in Memphis. You could see him sitting at the long rows of tables in the dark smoky club as blues flowed out melodically or were pounded out with a frenzy by the musicians in front. The white high school student would have looked out of place in here in the segregated South, but he had been there enough that the regulars were used to seeing him.

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In the spirit of full disclosure, the writer of this article was an AT&T employee until a little over four years ago and left on good terms. The interview was done on an AT&T Mobility phone with no dropped calls/ This writer has also known Kevin Slimp for about two years. He was featured in Across Tennessee in a May, 2010 article here.

The first time you meet Kevin Slimp he acts like he has known you for years. The Knoxville newspaper consultant, who also gives seminars on technology and taking care of the customer, seems to have never met a stranger. Due to his cheerful persona when he goes after a company he does it with a disarming smile. Despite the smile, or maybe because of it,  his words burn like uncut sulphuric acid. Could Slimp’s approach to business become the future of customer service?

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