Will There Be Crabgrass In Heaven?

(Note:  I wrote this and it was published in another venue a few years ago.  So if you have read it before there’s no need to slog through it again.  But, if you didn’t endure it the first time and have said to yourself, “what kind of sacrilegious question is that? …I invite you to…

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The Troubled Past of Knoxville’s Market House

“Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.” -Willa Cather Our history has many stories to tell; stories of war and freedom, of happiness and misery, of victory and failure. These are stories which have melted hearts and touched lives over…

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Hail the World War II Veterans!

“The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.” -Benjamin Disraeli   Some heroes are born, while some are made. Some heroes fight war, while some are victims. Some heroes save lives, while some sacrifice their own. Heroism comes from within. It’s the soul of a…

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What You Should Know About Knoxville

“In learning to know other things, and other minds, we become more intimately acquainted with ourselves, and are to ourselves better worth knowing” -Philip Gilbert Hamilton   It is important for a man to know his hometown to better know himself. After all, tracing your roots will open you to the realizations of your history,…

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Knoxville “Art in Public Places”

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” -Edgar Degas   Art is the expression of one’s soul. It is the imagination of an artistic individual’s mind. It is the creativity of an artist’s heart. Artists see the beauty of the world hidden from ordinary eyes. They are blessed with a…

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Introducing World War 2 Collection

Some of you know of the obsessive WW2 odyssey I have been on for the last 3+ years.  What began as a project slowly became an adventure, which then turned into an odyssey and finally…well you know the rest…obsession set in.  Some have deemed it a sickness and I have extreme difficulty defending myself against…

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US Olympic Swim Team Practices in Knoxville

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” -Albert Schweitzer It’s amazing that there are people who dare to accomplish greatness in the world. People, who wish to…

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Treasures in the Attic

Many of life’s milestones cause us to dig through the remote recesses of attics, open boxes closed for decades, thumb through photo albums not visited for years, and rediscover other items yellowed and rendered smelly by years of hiding in dark, damp places. Most of us have been faced with this retrospective journey because of…

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Remembering Cherry Park-In

There were more than a few gathering spots for East Hi Mountaineers in the 50’s and early 60’s….Babe Malloy’s on Chapman Highway, The Tic Toc on Magnolia with root beer in a frosted mug, Nan Denton’s Orange Julius on Magnolia near Park Junior High and the Blue Circle at Chilhowee Park, to name a few. …

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The Cruze Connection

Already crowded when the U.S. entered WWII in 1942, Knoxville High School was bursting at the seams a few years after the War concluded in August of 1945. This fact, coupled with the projected post war business expansion, led the city fathers and educators to project city growth into areas away from the core of…

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A Dichotomy of Miss Ora Dowell

A few weeks ago I was in the supermarket with one of my grandkids. In utter amazement he recognized his schoolteacher and was stunned to see her “out and about,” doing things that…well…everyone does. I think he thought she lived at the school. Then I thought back to my school days and remembered that I seldom,…

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