Vine Meets the Wine: Can Kudzu Help the Recovering Alchoholic?
April 16, 2012 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
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.
Morning of the Twisters: A New Day and More Deaths.
March 19, 2012 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
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.
Night of the Twisters: 60 Years Ago this Month was Tennessee’s Deadliest Tornado Day
March 12, 2012 by Devin Greaney · 2 Comments
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.
The Great Indoors: Tennessee caves adventures
January 1, 2012 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
Cumberland Caverns, McMinville
“Without hesitation, Professor Littlebrook chose the eastern tunnel and the journey continued through a succession of arches appearing before them as if they were the aisles of a gothic cathedral.” – Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth.
In Tennessee, most of us are not big fans of the cold. Where to go? A movie theater is always the easy answer and a lot of fun, but more than likely you will be seeing what every other movie goer will be seeing this week. A mall? Most of us have seen enough of the mall last month. But what about adventure? What about the places that make Tennessee different from the rest of the country and world?
Call of the Wolf: An outdoors gem in Fayette County
November 8, 2010 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
One of Tennessee’s more diverse ecological treasures is about an hour and fifteen minutes from downtown Memphis and Jackson, yet a vast majority of residents of those cities have probably never visited.
Hidden bits of Tennessee: those places off the tourist’s lists
June 21, 2010 by Devin Greaney · 1 Comment
Wolf River Boardwalk, Rossville
We are familiar with Dollywood, The Ryman Auditorium, Shiloh National Military Park and Graceland . But what about the hidden gems in Tennessee? Thanks to suggestions from readers (and a few of my own). Here are some places off many tourist maps.
Shelby Farms welcomes Spring: As the weather warms,
March 29, 2010 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
The largest urban park in the United States is located in Memphis. 4,500 acres of lakes, woods, trails and community centers . As they days get longer and the weather gets warmer, Memphians head out to go running, hiking and biking or more accuratly, give themselves a total immersion in Memphis’ Spring.
Tennessee Weather: The skies over Tennessee fall into History
March 15, 2010 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
Clouds and sunset show off Lookout Mountain from this post card from 1909 or 1910
Tennessee weather has its averages, extremes and the just plain weird.
A visitor walked into the MEMPHIS WEEKLY LEDGER office with a jar of snakes. It was January 15, 1877 and the visitor claimed these snakes fell from the sky. Several others corroborated the story. He said the rain was a drizzle, the drizzle turned into a torrent and when the torrent subsided, residents of the two-block area on Vance between Orleans and Lauderdale found thousands of dark brown snakes slithering across the ground.