Highway 73 Beer Joints

Living at Hubbard, it was impossible to go home without passing two drive-in restaurants, a major automobile junkyard, a drive-in movie theatre, and two beer joints.

These two beer joints could get you in trouble. First they were both right on the highway and it was impossible at certain times at night to pass by without risking a collision with some hapless drunk heading home. Second, if you were a tourist, and accidently wandered in by mistake, you might end up having a very exciting evening...

Beer joints down South are not the same as "bars" up north. Fights were almost always a guarantee. If you ever had any curiousity about the criminal element, a beer joint could bring you up close and personal. Scratch-off games, pinball machines that paid off in cash, and low-level prostitution were not uncommon. If you were willing to pay a premium price, a bottle of bootleg whiskey could be had - saving a trip to Knoxville.

Not very far from my home at Hubbard, there was a beer joint that literally "hung" off the side of the hill in the low part of a hollow. It had no parking area to speak of and the "empties" were piled up along the side of the building. These beer joints did not check ID's so it was wasn't unusual for an underage crowd to frequent these places. One story that is my favorite was of two boys - one rowdy and one a teetotaler. On this night the rowdy one went missing. There was a death in the family and everyone was looking for him. The "tame" brother who looked remarkably like the "rowdy" one, started searching the beer joints. Without cell phones searches like this were difficult. As the "tame" brother wandered in to the beer joint, he was knocked cold by a beer bottle across the head.

The dangers of mistaken identity...

The Family Genealogist

Have you ever been to a genealogy website? They're everywhere. Someone decides they are going to do the family a favor and chronicle it's history with no idea how much confusion they are going to cause by their efforts. Sometimes what results can be a disaster, particularly if the chronicler is basing his or her information on the partial memories of someone who has no memories left. I've seen some of those sites and I'm sure you have as well.

Then there is the "everybody arrived riding white horses" website... All the history is purged and purified. There were are no black sheep ... not even any gray ones.

In our family we have a great genealogical website. The person who runs it is top notch. Ironically, Claudia Carson, who compiles the Whitehead family history, is a "yankee" and runs the website from her home on Long Island in New York. She has many insights into Blount County just from the experience she has in compiling our family history.

Claudia's secret is that she is non-exclusionary. In other words she has made a decision to include everyone who goes by the family surname. Our family website is full of photographs, stories, and bits of information that relate to our family and other closely related surnames. Our chronicler's methods are scientific and to the best of my knowledge - accurate. Claudia would not claim to be a professional genealogist, but by her actions and discipline, you have no doubt that the history she is compiling is authentic.

There are photographs at our site that you won't find anywhere else. While I've been under the weather, I've explored some of many pages of family history that Claudia Carson has compiled on the Whitehead family. She has located Whiteheads from all over the United States and has made contacts with some in other countries... all from her little home in Long Island...

The website is protected and if you are interested in taking a peek, contact me at miket@thomsontalks.com.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things!

It's tough to be sick. That's where I've been for the past couple of months. It started out with chest pain. Chest pain that resulted in me seeing a cardiologist who schedules me for an angiogram which results in the implantation of two stents to deal with blockages in my heart.

Then...after a few days, I'm so happy I attempt to set a world speed record for testing out my new equipment. Boom! Not taking into account that muscles sprain very easy in cold weather, I disable myself and have for the past several weeks been hobbling painfully everywhere I go. THEN...

While all this is going on... My medications get screwed up and for about two weeks and I'm wandering around in some state of mental confusion. I felt like I've lost an interesting patch of my memory. Now, finally, just in time for Spring, I am finally starting the recover.

I've got 90 percent of the leg functioning again and 100 percent of my brain. I'm only telling people that 50% of my brain is okay. You would be surprised at the amount of crap you can get out of with that excuse. That's a joke...

I'm ready to write again. Send me something!

It's getting rough in Maryville...

I notice that sheriff's deputies are getting a little touchy about what seems to me some of the normal crap they have to put up with when it comes to being a deputy. You've got one who is so sensitive that he is now suing a member of the court body for accusing him of wearing a wire. How nuts! Sounds like another episode of "We can't do the crap were supposed to be doing because we're upset about the crap were doing."

Good old Blount County. Everybody is at each other's throats. Move on people!

Fluoride - It's "encroaching Communism," Folks!

While a member of the Communist Party, I attended Communist training schools in New York and Wisconsin ... and we were trained in the revolutionary overthrow of the U.S. Government. "... We discussed quite thoroughly the fluoridation of water supplies and how we were using it in Russia as a tranquilizer in the prison camps. The leaders of our school felt that if it could be induced into the American water supply, it would bring about a spirit of lethargy in the nation, where it could keep the general public docile during a steady encroachment of Communism. alleged communist Kenneth Goff

The nutcase who made this statement was appearing at churches in the East Tennessee area in the early sixties, in most cases sponsored by elements of the John Birch Society. Another more lovable nutcase, groceryman Cas Walker, was making the case against fluoridation on his weekly tv show. It seems like the messages of Goff and Walker stuck with a few folks even up until today. According to today's Daily Times, customers in the South Blount County Utility District are exercised about the fluoridation of their water supply:

District Manager Henry Durant has) been getting a lot of phone calls from people that are upset,” said utility spokeswoman Stacie Keller. “We don’t usually get phone calls (about issues). When I talked with the secretary (Tuesday), they had gotten 10 to 20 calls from customers who were upset and said, ‘You should have done a survey and asked our input.’

Now I have been drinking fluoridated water for many years. Trust me, it is not the cause of my insanity. However, as a young person it was amazing to me how many rural teenage peers of mine were wearing false teeth by the age of 25. We all drank well water back then and I remember the extensive dental work I had to go through to be accepted into U.S. Air Force flight school at the age of 21. There IS something nasty in Blount County water people...

To be fair and balanced, like Fox News, I did see something disturbing in the South Blount County Utility District public statement by Stacie Keller:

“As we have stated in the past, the benefits of fluoridation in public water is a very inconclusive issue, with valid research and arguments to support both sides. SBCUD wants to remain focused on moving forward and does not want to allow the issue of fluoridation to diminish our district’s progress nor hinder us from achieving our future goals.

An "inconclusive issue" and your going to do it anyway? As prejudiced as I am towards the anti-fluoridation folks, I think this stance by BCUD is sort of irresponsible, or maybe... I am CRAZY!

Until next time...

Leave Chilhowee Mountain Alone!

The photograph to the right is a view of Happy Valley and the Great Smokies as seen from Look Rock on Chilhowee Mountain.


I grew up at the foot of Chilhowee Mountain and I could go into a generalized rant about the importance of protecting it from greedy developers - which it seems Blount County is full of these days. I personally know a couple of these guys from years back. They were low lifes then and they're low lifes now - only with fancier suits. These guys are so good that when trying to buy property, they will convince the seller that "their - the buyer's" development costs are so high that it's a great sacrifice to them personally to have to pay a dime more than the appraised value for a piece of pristine mountain land. I know that doesn't sound logical but it's true. If Cades Cove hadn't been taken over by the National Park Service, I guarantee today you would never see a deer, turkey, or bear, but instead would see stack on stack of condos occupied by Floridians,New Yorkers, and half of Atlanta.

Okay, that is my emotional rant. Below is a letter to the Daily Times by someone much more eloquent than I am who has given a good part of his life and energy to protecting the natural beauty and resources of Blount County Tennessee.

Protecting Chilhowee Mountain important

Dear Editor:

I would like to express my opinion concerning the Planning Commission’s quest for information about scenic views that should be protected. I really appreciate The Daily Times for providing this forum for discussing a very important topic. I appreciate, too, the efforts of the Planning Commission to gather public thoughts about what changes should be made to the county’s 1999 Policies Plan.

I agree with commission member Brownlie that “we need to write tough regulations. Everybody understands the mountains are our resources.”

Chilhowee Mountain is a complex of scenic views and is in itself the most outstanding of scenic views in Blount County. How we deal with it might dictate the policies for the rest of the county.

My fear is that if we set up rules that piece-meal development of certain overlooks along Chilhowee Mountain that would only serve to enable development on the whole mountain. Development that is allowed in certain areas will only serve to set precedents for other areas and encourage wholesale development.

Looking at specific view areas that the county wants to protect sounds like “spot regulations” rather than countywide rules. Allowing development because of the quality involved, as stated in a recent article, seems to be an elitist approach. I hope that doesn’t mean that a well-known expensive hotel could be built on a local mountain top when other lesser financed structures could not. Quality designed and quality built developments demand that roads be built, sewer reckoned with, lighting tolerated, etc. in the same sense that less quality structures demand. These alterations to the mountainside do in themselves produce changed watercourses, erosion, and water pollution to those properties below.

My wish and my recommendation does concern Chilhowee Mountain. We need a rule, a regulation in black and white, that’s made to limit any development to below 1,000 feet from the mountain top. In other words, no development would be allowed on top of the mountain or within 1,000 feet of the top.

The north face of Chilhowee Mountain is foremost in my mind of views that should be protected. Chilhowee Mountain is the first view of the total mountain range when approaching Maryville and Alcoa from Knoxville on U.S. 129. From Mimosa Heights, Chilhowee Mountain appears to be the guardian of the Great Smoky Mountains. The view of Chilhowee Mountain from Maryville Municipal Building is incredible. Also, try stopping by the Foothills Elementary School to get another outstanding view of this treasure of Blount County.

A drive down Carpenter’s Grade Road or Six Mile Road gives one a full view of Chilhowee Mountain from Butterfly Gap, to Indian Grave Gap and the Devil’s Cockspur and on to Alleghaney. From the area of Heritage High School, the Walland Water Gap is a terrific sight. The Three Sisters, on toward the east, stand majestically as they were shown to be in pictures taken in the 1890s.

Driving on the Foothills Parkway, along the top of Chilhowee Mountain, gives us a breathtaking view of the valley all the way to the Cumberland Mountains. Looking in the other direction, we have a wide view of the Smoky Mountains up to the crest that separates Tennessee from North Carolina.

The very name of Chilhowee has come to be very important to Blount County citizens over the years. Several businesses have incorporated the name in their title. There’s the Chilhowee Baptist Association and the Chilhowee Baptist Center. We have Old Chilhowee Baptist Church and Lower Chilhowee Baptist Church. Some Knox County and Sevier County institutions have followed the same trend.

Other reasons to protect all of Chilhowee Mountain emerge when we look at other sides of the mountain’s history. Landslides have occurred at times on the mountain. At least three landsides are evident when you drive over the Parkway. Several fault caves are to be found in different areas. The area around Look Rock is an example. There have been at least two earthquakes in modern times that centered on the Chilhowee mountainside. The Guess Creek Fault and the Great Smoky Fault seem to parallel the mountain and help define its fragile side. All these factors have to do with the handling of water and sewer and roads from any development.

Almost every weekend there are at least 1,000 homes advertised for sale in The Daily Times. Many of these homes are publicized as having mountain views, even splendid mountain views. At least 60 percent of those views must be of Chilhowee Mountain. The mountain is so revered by Blount County’s people and so admired by our visitors. Let’s protect it.

Sincerely,
William B. “Booty” Miller
2153 Jericho Road
Maryville, TN 37803

"Nobodies" in Tennessee get Busted for Drugs while "Somebodies" skate free

In almost every city in Tennessee you read about the such and such "Drug Task Force" arresting some "nobody" for drug possession or distribution. That's very good and I applaud it because I think illegal and some legal drugs are the bane of American society.

Steroid abuse has become so common place in all sports that most fans grudingly accept it, causing me to wonder why baseball, football, and certain track and field events don't just set up different leagues and classifications for steroid and non-steriod athletes. If the steriod users want shorter lifespans in trade for weight gain and hitting the ball out of the park consistently so be it. Forget the argument about being role models for kids - it's not convincing. Pull your 15 year old football player,baseball player,soccer player,or high school weightlifter into the den for a chat. Do they know any of their peers who take steroids? You betcha! Have they ever thought about taking steroids - be tipped off by the nervous foot shuffle.

We live in a culture where drugs are becoming more and more acceptable. The police and enforcers of drug law are conflicted. They want to do a good job of ridding Tennessee society of marijuana,cocaine(crack and powder),and certainly want to shut down methamphetamine production and distribution, but struggle with the issue of going after the "big fish" in their town and locality who regularly use drugs,check in frequently to rehab centers, and feel they are "untouchable" and immune from the force of the law. These "untouchables" may be attorneys, county commissioners, wealthy mill and plant owners, and successful business people. It's okay for them to use drugs, but not so for the "scum."

So what does Law do? To make good theatre for the law abiding folks who are in every Tennessee community, the drug task force goes after "nobody" scum that everybody would suspect would be on or selling drugs anyway. It's called the "path of least resistance" and it keeps them out of trouble with their bosses who play golf and suck up to the "somebodies," who, by the way, prefer their cocaine powdered.

If I ain't telling the truth, shoot me!