I was blessed to receive an awful lot of nice gifts over the holidays for which I am thankful including some badly needed new shoes. (How many things are more painful than breaking in a new pair of shoes?) And one gift that I have really enjoyed is a revised and updated version of the very popular publication, "Tennessee Trivia", compiled by Ernie and Jill Couch and published by Rutledge Hill Press.
Jellico received quite a bit of mention in that publication including several references to our most famous citizen, Grace Moore. Named by some as one of the 100 greatest female entertainers of the 20th Century, Moore is referenced in several categories in the publication. Without question she is one of the greatest talents ever produced by our town, our state, and our country and received enormous world wide recognition - especially in Europe.
Our second most well known individual, Homer Rodeheaver, philanthropist, song writer, gospel music publisher and song leader for the legendary evangelist Billy Sunday was also cited for his many accomplishments in the field of music. Rodeheaver wrote, owned or published many of the classic gospel hymns including ownership of "The Old Rugged Cross" and his composition, "Brighten the Corner Where Your Are", was for many years sung around the word as a result of Sunday's "Around the World Crusandes". (I remember singing it as a kid when it was our "theme song" during the First Baptist church summer Bible Schools.) He was well known for his work with the troops in the field during World War I and was possibly the forerunner of the USO tours and the "Bob Hope" of that conflict.
Earl Webb of the Boston Red Sox who holds the all-time major league record for doubles in a single season, is included. Although not a native Jellicoan, Webb early in his illustrious career performed for the Newcomb Furniture Factory team that played many of their games at our Jellico baseball field as was a favorite among Jellico's many baseball fans during those days.
But the most interesting Jellico reference is our great explosion of September 21, 1906 when according to the publication, a freight car containing more than 10 tons of dynamite and sitting in our railroad yard, exploded killing nine, injuring two hundred and leaving 500 folks homeless. We have all seen photos of that total destruction of a large part of our town.
Some events in Jellico's history very worthy of consideration that were not referenced include the troop train wreck during World War II; the first officially certified postal air mail delivery in the state of Tennessee that came to the Jellico "Areoport" in the late 1930's; Branam Hill's Dr. Joe Smiddy's inclusion into the state of Virginia's Hall-of-Fame along with some of America's most notable historic figures including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc.;and the fact that the lead off hitter for the New York Yankee's famed 1927 "murderers' row", Hall of Famer Earl Combs, also began his early career playing for the Gatliff Coal Company with many appearances in our baseball park. Although Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig received most of the publicity, Combs was called the "heart and soul" of that team. (Note: The Aeroport was located on the present site of Indian Mountain State Park until the early 1940's and according to most reports, was the first actual non-military landing strip in both Tennessee and Kentucky following its establishment in 1919. It even slightly preceded Knoxville's McGhee-Tyson.)
There's good news in the drive to renovate our downtown! Ronnie Buck who now owns and operates Jellico Hardware and Tire Company has purchased the old Bill's Dollar Store building and has plans for extensive work on that building. He plans to extend his present business place into that structure and to offer hardware items, lumber and other building materials, name brand paints, lawnmowers and similar items.
One by one the dilapidated and eye sore buildings are being restored and some now even add to the appearance of our downtown. One of our Whitley County Technology Department employees reminded me at school the other day that it is hard for him to believe the improvements that have been made in our downtown in the last five or six years. That's music to my ears because renovating and revitalizing our downtown was one of the four objectives that I outlined when I first ran for mayor six and one half years ago. The other three objectives in addition to the renovation and revitalization which has been largely successful were:
(As I have written before, if you want to see what can be done to bring back a downtown area, just drive down Gay Street in Knoxville. What is being done there is nothing short of amazing and a lot of us old timers are looking forward to the reopening of the Tennessee Theatre after a multi-million dollar renovation to include the completely restored Mighty Wurlitzer organ.)
And speaking of the appearance of our downtown: A lady who reads these articles and says that she is aware of the fact that they are widely read all around town, asked me to mention that we all need to be mindful of littering and trashing the place where we live, work and go to school. She said that she recently found an item that had been carelessly thrown down on one of our main downtown streets by some unthinking individual that presented a threat to the safety of our children. That's a point well taken and our sanitation crews can only do so much! Keeping our town clear of litter of all kinds is the responsibility of everyone. If it isn't thrown down, it doesn't present a danger to anyone, doesn't detract from the appearance of our town and doesn't have to be picked up.
Two other individuals asked me to print two different questions that I promised to include in this article. So in keeping with that commitment, here are those two questions:
(1) How can you hide a radio station?
(2) How were the people of Jellico so good in 2004 to bring not one, not two but three Santas to Jellico for our Christmas Parade this year?
Anyone having the answers to those questions is asked to respond. Should be interesting!
The music is scheduled start back up downtown on weekends. (Larry Meadows and Bill Rigney.) Begins Saturday, January 15th 7:00 PM Tramell Building/Community Conference Room. Door prizes and free refreshments! (Check the Community Bulletin Board on the Tramell Building for any future announcements.) That should provide for some good entertainment on these winter nights!
It seems that nearly everyone I talk with is more than just happy with the weather that we have enjoyed. And why not? We have had a warm fall and winter to date with virtually no snow and with lower electric bills than normal. We sure need to count our blessings!
I had to go to Cincinnati at the worst time and immediately following their recent snow storm. The highways and streets were in terrible condition. Once there I literally could not get on a parking lot where I was going and I had to park next to a dumpster where enough snow had been removed to allow a truck to get to it for emptying. In the northern area of that city where I was, the snowfall had been officially announced as nine - 10 inches but the man attempting to remove snow and ice from the parking lot (without much success) said that it was much deeper than that. And some of the drifted areas looked like they were as much as four or five feet high. I was able to get back out of town okay although the streets and highway were still very treacherous. But I have since talked with a few folks who were traveling further north at that time and some say that they had to stay until streets and highways had been cleared enough for safe passage home. I sure don't envy those folks living up there one bit!
In the meantime, some of our plants are starting to bud out. Talk about strange weather patterns. But we had all better remember that "ole man winter" usually shows up around here in January and/or February. And every time I brag on our great weather, we usually immediately experience a reversal and there was some possibility of our "cooling off" when this article was written. Keep fingers crossed and hope that doesn't happen this time. (Don't forget, the blizzard of the century in 1993 came in mid-March!)
Like a big percentage of Americans, I made a New year's resolution to lose weight and to get into better physical condition. And that just happens to coincide with a drive that our school system has to purchase the new Automated External Defibrillator (AED) technology for every school within the system. The AED's that can easily be operated by non-medical personnel, are now on hand in airports, on planes, in government buildings, in restaurants and in many other public places. Eventually they are expected to be required equipment in a lot of areas. (A student at an area high school died last spring from a heart attack whose life may well have been saved if an AED had been available at the school. But by the time trained emergency personnel arrived at the campus, it was too late to help the sutdent.)
The Whitley county School system has planned a "Fun Run/Walk" on the main campus (Whitley County High/Middle School/Central Elem for 10:00 AM on Saturday, February 5th to raise money with which to help with the purchase of AED's. The drive is receiving great support from area businesses, professional people and individuals who are serving as sponsors and I understand that our Jellico Community Hospital will be a booster of the project.
If you made a similar New Year's resolution and want to get in better physical shape, have a child relative or friend enrolled in Whitley County Schools (several readers of this column do), or if you just want to do something good to help children (and adults) this is a good activity in which to become involved and everyone is invited to do so.
You never know what children - and especially the very young ones - are going to say.
And one of our youngest pre-schoolers at Boston Elementary School couldn't wait to get back to school from Christmas break to recite his "ABC's" for me that he had learned over the holidays from one of his Christmas toys. Proudly he recited "ABCMPDZT" and then with a big smile, wanted to know if I was going to give him a reward for his achievement. I made sure that he got a nice big sucker. After all, that's the way I learned them too!
E-mail me at: mayor@jellico.tn.us
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