The Colonel, the County Judge, and Nehi Soda

Blount County is not the same place I left in 1978. It has changed tremendously in culture and population. At the time I left, there was roughly 75,000 people residing in the county compared to approximately 115,000 today. 40,000 newcomers in 29 years.

Now you can buy liquor in a liquor store instead of from a bootlegger or driving to Knox County. In 1978 and years previous, buying liquor or drinking alcohol openly on your deck or side porch was a taboo. Somebody from the "church" might see you and you would be talked about. Horrors, if you were picked up for DUI and your name showed up in the Times.

In the early seventies, I worked as an instructor at McGhee Tyson Airbase with the ANG Non-Commissioned Officers Academy. At the time, I was the only local on faculty. The main unit at McGhee Tyson was the 134th Air Refueling Group commanded by Colonel Robert Akin. The base was visited by many Blount Countians who were associate community members of The Officer's Club. In the course of a year, the who's who of Maryville, Alcoa, and Blount County would frequent that club. It was one of the few places in the county that a person could buy a drink unless they belonged to the local country club or the American Legion. There were several weak efforts to get liquor legalized in Blount County during this period. Unfortunately for me and my career at the Academy, I joined forces with one of the groups attempting to legalize liquor.

I could write pretty well then and the group I was associated with asked me to write some letters to the Times promoting a referendum. My mistake was pointing out the hypocrisy of the population. I spoke of the private clubs(among them the Officer's Club) where a person could get a drink or a bottle if they had the privilege of membership. All liquor sales at private clubs were illegal,at the time, before the law affecting private clubs was changed in the late seventies. The Officers Club was not an offical USAF club at that time. McGhee Tyson was a state facility and subject to state laws. One of my legal liquor advocacy letters to the Times hit a nerve.

Arriving at work one morning, my boss Colonel M... summoned me to his office. Usually a commanding figure, Colonel M... this day looked a little "shook." He told me that I had been summoned to Colonel Bob Akin's office at headquarters. Arriving at Akins office, I took a seat across from the good colonel. At no time during the one sided conversation did the colonel look directly at me.

He told me that one of the reasons McGhee Tyson Airbase and the 134th maintained its good place in the community was because of the Officers Club and its large membership of "associates" from the Blount County community. He said that my letter to the Times could cause embarassment to these associates who preferred their drinking activities at the club not be exposed. He ordered me to cease and desist my activities promoting legal liquor in Blount County. According to Akin, exposing the legal status of the Officer's Club to the public could jeopardize the jobs of the 300 civil service technicians who worked there. He also told me in passing that at one time, the clubs at McGhee Tyson Airbase represented the largest liquor operation in East Tennessee i.e. the good colonel admitted to me that he was one of the area's biggest bootleggers. After that conversation my fortunes at McGhee Tyson changed for the worse. I eventually left and later went on active duty in the Army.

Shortly after that I got to see another example the hypocrisy about booze in Blount County first hand. The sheriff at that time was a "good old boy" and a close friend of my family. He had a fishing camp on Little River in Townsend. Each year he and my uncle would have a barbeque at the camp. I was a "field" deputy and always got invited. There was always beer and other assorted booze. This particular year there was some nervousness because County Judge Asher Howard announced on short notice he was coming to the barbeque. Panic. What to do with the beer? Asher Howard was very religious and most likely would not approve of the booze. My uncle came up with a solution. There were several empty cans of Nehi soda scattered about. They were gathered up and rinsed out. The rule was that if you wanted a beer, you took an empty Nehi can into the tent where the beer was and poured your full can of Budweiser, Schlitz, or Falstaff into it.

When the judge arrived he saw nothing but the Sheriff and his deputies and assorted county officials sitting around drinking Nehis and chomping barbeque. Fortunately we had a full can of Nehi left when the judge asked for one.

I wonder how much the attitudes about booze have changed since I left home?

Note to readers: I have several blogs, click the "view my complete profile" button to the left to see them all. Also I have a site where I write serial novels,Thomsontalks and a site where I have a collection of southern newspaper links, Dixie Bugle The majority of my writing is done at The Partial Observer, an opinion website, where I am a columnist and publications editor.