Preserving Voices from the Past

Today we are swamped with technology that enables us to listen to virtually any music and other recorded sound at anytime.  To capture and reproduce these sounds in extremely high quality we have, among many MP3 and computer devices; iPhones, iPods, iMacs, iPods, iShuffle, iNano and soon to come…iCloud.  Can an iPen and an iBiscuit…

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“Hey Big Lo…I love you my friend!”

Saturday afternoon October 29, Charles “Bud, Big Lo” Lobetti passed from this life to a much better place.  His physical absence from the body of East High grads leaves a gigantic hole and hundreds of shocked and intensely saddened friends.  I miss him now and always will. I think “Big Lo” is a moniker he…

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Einstein…Knoxville Zoo’s Talking Parrot And Favorite Son

How dare anyone question the intelligence level of past or present residents of Knoxville, Tennessee.  The next time your southern drawl is equated with compromised mental capabilities tell them that even zoo animals in Knoxville enunciate clearly and have expansive vocabularies. A case in point is one, Einstein, the Knoxville Zoo’s famous, and for good…

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Knoxville High School WWII Casualties

If you were born in Knoxville or have spent a number of years there, you are certainly familiar with Knoxville High School and the stately brick structure on Fifth Avenue that was home to KHS students for 41 years.  The Albert Bauman, Sr. designed building, first occupied in the fall of 1910, stands to this…

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September 11th…Reflection and Projection

Ten years to the day from the infamy of 9/11, I can remember in vivid chronological detail where I was, what I felt and what I did on that day.  A dollar to a donut says you can too…virtually everyone who was a teen or older on that day can do likewise.  It’s not something…

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Remembering and Preserving a Family Heritage

She told me she was tired.  She didn’t have to, I knew.  Her voice was soft, which it always was, but it was also weak, which it never was.  Further, she wasn’t up scurrying around trying to make sure everyone had everything they needed.  “More tea, how ’bout a hot roll, can I get you…

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The Night We Locked Our Door

The night we first locked our door I knew the world had changed… never to be the same again.  And I was right. Life on Cherry Street in Knoxville was peaceful and placid… no two ways about it. Occasionally a car would bottom out coming south down Cherry as it crossed Jefferson and make quite…

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Lest We Forget…2011

Two years ago this week I was kept spellbound by a small cadre of airmen from the 381st Bomb Group of the Mighty Eighth Air Force who served our nation with incredible heroism during WWII.  The occasion was the annual reunion of this rapidly dwindling number of men who as  “boys”, just out of their teens, bravely…

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Bob Polston. . . .Builder of Men!

I first met Bob Polston in 1955.  He was 21, but seemed much older.  I was 14, and felt much younger. Bob was coaching a Little League baseball team from the Boy’s Club that played games at the Chilhowee Park field on Magnolia.  The “Midway” of  the annual Tennessee Valley A & I Fair was…

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Knoxville Heritage in the News

    The launch of Knoxville Heritage was recently covered on the Knoxville News Sentinel. We thought you might be interested in reading a little bit more on why this site was created. CLICK HERE TO READ ON KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL CLICK HERE FOR THE PDF

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Musings and Reflection on a High School Reunion

High school reunions are an interesting and evolving phenomenon.  In the early years, the interaction between attendees has a tendency to adapt to the ingrained pecking order that existed at graduation.  There is a nominal attempt to impress classmates with status and progress toward fulfilling expectations, either yours or theirs. As the years pass and…

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Confessions of a “Grown Up” Wanna Be

I feel like an impostor.  I thought I was the only one who felt this way, but admission of my malady to many friends and family have disabused me of this view.  My body, gray hair, aches and pains and the fact that I have 3 grown, mature, responsible and successful children and 8 grandchildren…

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