Vol. # 2, Ed. # 6 "VOTER REGISTRATION" February 27, 2002
OUR REGULAR CITY ELECTION DAY IS SATURDAY, APRIL 6TH AT THE JELLICO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. BUT WE WILL HAVE EARLY VOTING AT THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING (CITY HALL) STARTING SEVERAL DAYS BEFORE THE REGULAR ELECTION DAY.
WE DID NOT HAVE A QUORUM PRESENT FOR OUR REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING OF THE COUNCIL SO WE COULD NOT CONDUCT BUSINESS AND SET DEFINITE DATES FOR EARLY VOTING. WE WILL NEED TO HAVE A SPECIAL CALL MEETING FOR THAT PURPOSE. BUT WE EXPECT THE EARLY VOTING PERIOD TO BE SOMETIME AROUND MID-MARCH. I WILL PUBLISH THE EXACT DATES IN THESE NOTES AS SOON AS THEY ARE SCHEDULED!
I WOULD ENCOURAGE EVERYONE WHO POSSIBLY CAN TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR EARLY VOTING OPPORTUNITIES. THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING/CITY HALL IS A CONVENIENT LOCATION FOR CITIZENS AS THEY GO AND COME THROUGH TOWN AND FOR THOSE WHO LIVE AND WORK IN THE DOWNTOWN AREA.
SOME MAY HAVE SCHEDULES THAT WILL KEEP THEM FROM VOTING ON SATURDAY, APRIL 6TH; SOME MAY BE ILL OR OUT OF TOWN; AND OF COURSE THE WEATHER COULD BE BAD ON THAT DAY. WE COULD HAVE RAIN AND THERE IS STILL THE POSSIBILITY OF SNOW AND ICE AT THAT TIME OF THE YEAR (MY SISTER, SUE WAS BORN ON APRIL 11TH AND THERE WAS A TEN INCHES SNOW ON THE GROUND THAT DAY. AND OUR GREAT BLIZZARD OF 1993 CAME WELL INTO THE MONTH OF MARCH.)
THOSE WHO CANNOT GO TO THE POLLS AT ALL DUE TO ILLNESS AND OTHER SIMILAR REASONS, CAN VOTE ABSENTEE BY CALLING 562-9777 OR BY WRITING TO THE OFFICE OF THE CAMPBELL COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSION, COURT HOUSE, JACKSBORO, TENNESSEE 37757 AND REQUESTING AN ABSENTEE BALLOT.
AS I WROTE IN MY LAST ARTICLE, THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF JELLICO AND IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT OUR CITIZENS REGISTER AND VOTE! A DECISION WILL BE MADE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE ELECTION AS TO WHETHER WE WILL RETAIN OUR PRESENT CITY CHARTER WITH A CITY ADMINISTRATOR (CA) OR IF WE WILL RETURN TO THE OLD CITY CHARTER THAT WE HAD FOR SO MANY YEARS THAT PROVIDED A MAYOR AND COUNCIL FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
WE CANNOT VOTE DIRECTLY ON THE ISSUE OF WHETHER OR NOT TO HAVE A CA. BUT WE CAN VOTE FOR COUNCIL MEMBERS WHO WANT TO ELIMINATE THE POSITION OF CA BY RETURNING TO THE OLD CITY CHARTER. IF FOUR (4) WHO OPPOSE HAVING A CA ARE ELECTED, THEY CAN MAKE THE CHANGE BACK TO WHERE WE WERE BEFORE THE CURRENT CHARTER WAS ADOPTED.
IF YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO ONCE AGAIN HAVING A MAYOR AND COUNCIL TO RUN OUR TOWN, VOTE FOR CANDIDATES FOR COUNCIL WHO FAVOR RETURNING TO OUR OLD CHARTER AND WHO WANT TO ELIMINATE THE POSITION OF CA. (THOSE WHO FAVOR RETAINING THE POSITION OF CA ALSO HAVE THE SAME OPTION TO VOTE FOR THOSE CANDIDATES FOR COUNCIL WHO WANT TO RETAIN THE PRESENT CITY CHARTER.)
MOST CANDIDATES FOR COUNCIL HAVE MADE THEIR POSITIONS VERY CLEAR ON THE ISSUE. WE HAVE FIFTEEN (15) CANDIDATES FOR SEATS ON THE COUNCIL AND NINE HAVE EXPRESSED THEIR INTENTION DIRECTLY TO ME THAT THEY WILL VOTE FOR A RETURN TO THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL FORM OF GOVERNMENT IF THEY ARE ELECTED.
A REMINDER THAT THE NINE (9) WHO HAVE TOLD ME DIRECTLY THAT THEY FAVOR GOING BACK TO OUR OLD CHARTER WITH A MAYOR AND COUNCIL RUNNING OUR TOWN ARE DWIGHT OSBORN, CHARLES LEACH, CAROLYN LEACH, JOHNNY IVEY, JIM HARMON, ALVIN EVANS, LISA ELLIOTT, JIM DOBSON, AND CLARENCE GENE BECK.
THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE OTHER SIX CANDIDATES HAVE NOT STATED THEIR POSITIONS TO OTHERS OR FAVOR RETAINING THE POSITION OF CA - ONLY THAT THEY HAVE NOT STATED THEIR POSITIONS DIRECTLY TO ME AS HAVE THE ABOVE NINE.
BUT I WILL BE GLAD TO RUN "THUMBNAIL BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES" OF ALL CANDIDATES IN THESE ARTICLES TO INCLUDE THEIR POSITIONS ON THE QUESTION OF THE CA IF REQUESTED TO DO SO. ANY CANDIDATES SHOULD JUST LET ME KNOW AND I WILL PUBLISH THE INFORMATION IN THE NEXT SEVERAL ISSUES.
AND ALL CANDIDATES WILL GET AN OPPORTUNITY TO PUBLICLY STATE THEIR POSITION ON THE AIR IF RADIO STATION WJJT IS ABLE TO WORK OUT AN OPEN FORUM TO BE BROADCAST ON THAT STATION.
BUT I URGE EVERYONE TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT POSITION EACH CANDIDATE TAKES ON THE ISSUE BEFORE VOTING!!! THE QUESTION IS OF SUCH IMPORTANCE THAT NO CANDIDATE SHOULD BE UNWILLING TO PUBLICLY AND CLEARLY STATE HIS OR HER POSITION ON THE CA ISSUE. (I HAVE ALREADY STATED NUMEROUS TIMES THAT I PERSONALLY VERY STRONGLY FAVOR RETURNING TO OUR OLD CHARTER AND ELIMINATING THE POSITION OF CITY ADMINISTRATOR! WHETHER OR NOT I AM REELECTED AND REGARDLESS OF WHO IS ELECTED TO THE CITY COUNCIL, IN MY OPINION, WE DO NEED THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL ONCE AGAIN RUNNING OUR TOWN!)
And we have another big election going on that is of interest to Jellico High School, our town, our area, our University of Tennessee and our state of Tennessee. Jellico High School graduate and former president of the J.H.S. student body, AARON LAY, is a candidate for president of the 26,000 University of Tennessee student body. That is the same position that has been held by many illustrious Tennesseans including Howard Baker and Chris Whittle. It will be a great accomplishment for all of us -and especially for Jellico High School - if Aaron is elected. (Jellico High has produced UT's greatest vocalist, Grace Moore; a captain of the UT basketball team, Condy Troutman; a captain of the UT football team, Billy Harkness; America's once leading sports writer, Tom Siler; and highly successful graduates too numerous to cite. Having one of our own to serve as President of the student body would be another great honor!)
If you know any University of Tenn students -or if you have friends and acquaintances who may know UT students- please contact them on Aaron's behalf. And I am sure that a campaign of that magnitude will be costly and I am also equally sure that donations would be welcomed. Campaign contributions can be sent to Team Tennessee, Aaron Lay for President, 512 Goldfinch Avenue, Knoxville, Tennessee 37920.
Want to see a really interesting photo from Jellico's past? If so, just call up website www.jellico.com/jellico/jellico.htm. Then click on link "Unofficial Jellico Page" and then click again on "Dupuy Pop Corn Stand".
Not many folks can remember James Rosecrans Dupuy's portable popcorn stand that he rolled up and down main street and back and forth to the bus station and railroad depot to meet the frequent buses and passenger trains arriving in Jellico. But the photo shows Dupuy and his stand in front of the "Little Wonder Café" - a once popular eating place in the downtown area. The photo was not dated but was probably taken sometime in the early or mid-1930's.
Dupuy was born August 29, 1865 - only four and one half months after the peace treaty was signed to end the American Civil War. And it would appear to be more than just sheer coincidence that he was named for one of the generals in that conflict. One would have to assume that his father or some close relative had served under General Rosecrans. I do not know anything else about his background or how he happened to end up in Jellico, but from all reports he was an extremely popular fellow and very successful at selling his popcorn (and I understand that on occasion he may have had sandwiches and other food items on his cart for sale to hungry passengers awaiting their bus or train). He passed away in 1942 when Jellico was truly a boom town - known far and wide as one of this country's leading "coal mining" centers.
I don't personally recall Dupuy's popcorn stand although I have heard many folks talk about it down through the years. But I do well remember Estil Roundtree who was his successor in the popcorn vending business. Roundtree had a "fixed" stand about three feet square somewhere on the sidewalk about where the old Central Drug Store was located to the best of my recollection. He popped his corn with the windows open and the aroma reached from the Kentucky Line to South Main Street and Fifth Street. He just about soaked it in pure butter, salted it to perfection and sold it piping hot. It took a strong willed soul indeed to be able to pass by that stand without purchasing a bag. (He had a regular sized bag for a nickel and he also had a "tall" bag that he sold for a dime that contained more popcorn than most folks could hold.. That was not much money but it was not often as kids that we had the nickel - let alone a dime.)
As I wrote a few months ago, it is hard to believe now that a kid could have a great Saturday afternoon in those days if he or she happened to be fortunate enough to have fifty cents. The "cowboy" movies were fourteen cents and the bubble gum machine took pennies. You could place the penny in the machine and if you got a black bubble gum ball, you won a free box of popcorn. Otherwise a box of popcorn cost a dime in the "show house" (theatre) located until 1951 in the old Creekmore Grocery/Bill's Dollar Store building on North Main Street and later where Rite Aide Drugs is now located. You could leave the "show" with a quarter, get a hotdog and Pepsi at Lois's Restaurant and take the remaining nickel to Roundtree's stand for a bag of popcorn to go on top of the box that you had already eaten during the movies.
There was usually a drawing for $ 5.00 two or three Saturdays before Christmas and I won that fortune one time. My sister Sue and I left the movie to run all the way to where we lived in Yellow Row/Frog Level to break the news to our parents. We were so excited about my new found wealth that we may not have even stayed for the main feature.
The "silver screen" westerns featured such heros as Jimmy Wakely, Hopalong Cassidy, Lash LaRue (who reportedly was married several times including once to a Jellico area girl), Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, my personal favorite, Johnny Mack Brown and many others. It came as a total shock to me many years later that I learned that Brown had been a two-time all-American running back at the University of Alabama before he began making movies. I thought that he actually lived and roamed the plains of Texas or the badlands of New Mexico or some similar wild area where the cowboys stayed on cattle drives and had gunfights several times a day. (A person can still see some of those great films each Saturday morning on the televised "Riders of the Silverscreen/Marshal Andy Show" featured on a Knoxville TV station.)
During those old western movie days, we were also treated to "previews of coming attractions", a cartoon and a serial with exciting episodes from week to week. The weekly episode always ended with the hero in a situation in which there was absolutely no way to survive. But then the next week we learned that somehow he had miraculously managed to escape death. And that brought on a loud round of applause from the audience. (Former Jellicoan Alex Abrams lives in the Los Angeles area and he has collected many of those old serials and placed them on video tape. The last time I visited him in California, we watched them for hours and it sure brought back some great memories. I can't help but wonder what those serials would be worth if placed on the collectors market today).
It's great to be able to sit at home in the comfort of our living rooms and watch movie videos. But somehow that just doesn't compare to the good ole days of the "silver screen". Our younger generations in this age of electronic marvels are missing something very, very special.
True story: Scientists at Texas A&M University have successfully cloned a common house cat. What did they name the new kitten? "Copycat"! What else?
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