High School Memories

Over four years ago the idea for the KNOXVILLE HERITAGE website was spawned. In August of 2013, almost three years ago, it became a reality when we launched the site with over 15,000 pages of historic and memorable content. These pages cover many aspects of almost six decades of Knoxville history dating from 1908 through…

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…

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. …

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…

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,…

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…