The weather was great and we had another outstanding classic car show last Saturday thanks to Jake Bennett, Jerome and Deborah Smith, Alla Faye Monday, Christy Dobson, Jill Boles, Leroy Ruiz and possibly others If you love classic vehicles you had to have liked those on display.
Now we prepare for our Fourth of July activities in earnest! Although most plans are already in place, there are always those details to be worked out that are required to make such an activity a success. Our Fourth of July observance is only one of a wide range of activities that are attract folks to our area on a fairly regular basis. But it is certainly one of the major ones and one that is looked to from year to year - and not just here in Jellico. Many leave their own areas and observances to attend ours - and especially our fire works displays.
And I was reminded last weekend of a statement made to me by an individual when I first assumed the office of mayor.. According to that fellow who had once worked for the Jellico Street Department, many Friday and Saturday nights when he was helping to clean streets, someone could have fired a cannon from our central traffic light down the middle of North Main Street and the cannon ball would not have struck anyone. That situation has certainly changed.
Last week I wrote about the improvements being made in our downtown and I am going to continue with that theme until the job is completed! Just letting a project gradually disappear from public notice is the best way in the world to also slowly let it die.. In keeping with that theme, the Buck's absolutely astounded me last week when they gave me a complete briefing on the things that they plan to do with their buildings including the old Western Auto/Jellico Hardware, Sue's Flowers and Bill's Dollar Store. When those projected renovations are completed, the center of our downtown is going to take on a new look that I could not have even imagined seven years ago when I first began pushing for renovation and revitalization of our downtown. Some of their plans and ideas for the future are really impressive to say the least.
And the Bucks are quick to point out that they do not plan to be competitive with any existing businesses once the work is completed and businesses are located in those structures. Orin Buck gave me some ideas that he has for new types of businesses that I believe will not only be successful for them, but will bring folks to downtown to shop at other businesses as well - including those who eventually locate at Rarity Mountain. (He told me of one idea that he has for a seasonal business to be located in front of the old Bill's Dollar Store once work is done there, that had me fired up and ready to help him to start setting it up right then.)
One thing they plan to do is something that I have long wanted to see happen here for a very long time and that is the establishment of a large display of local history. We have bits and pieces of our history located everywhere and by a lot of different folks and we need a place where it can all be brought together. As I understand it, folks will be invited to submit their items for display.)
Talk about a nostalgia trip! While I was in the building that once housed our Capital Theatre, the work being done there had exposed the walls of that old theatre and I was given a small piece of the wallpaper that has been there for so many, many years as a souvenir.
I will never forget my first trip to that theatre (or anywhere) to see a movie. I was very small and I asked my father what a "picture show" as we called them back then, was like. He looked at me in an astonished manner and asked me if I had never seen a movie. When I told him that I had not, he gave me instructions to have my mother to get me ready and that we would go that very evening. And we did!
I was all eyes and ears when we walked the railroad track from Yellow Row/Upper Frog Level to the theatre and it was hard for me to keep from running. And the to top it off, when we entered the theatre (I believe admission was something like .25 cents and .14 cents for us), one of the Long boys from lower Frog Level was selling the tickets along with Buleah Smith). Dad bought me some of that hot and very heavily buttered popcorn with an aroma that could drive you out of your mind along with a cup of "orange-ade" and it was almost just too much for me to take in. I don't remember the movie but I sure remember the cartoon for I had never seen animated cartoon animals before and I was in a state of total amazement. I talked about it for weeks.
Later while in the first grade, our entire class walked to the theatre from our elementary school located next to the First Baptist Church. I don't remember what that movie was about either, but I do remember the singing and especially one song. In those days some special features had "bouncing balls" above the words to a song and the audience sang along with the words as the ball bounced above them on the screen. Mrs. Retha O'Hara led us all in singing "Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing". Believe you me, we all sang to the top of our voices.
Mother like many mothers of that day was suspicious of picture shows and thought they might be "sinful" so we didn't get to see too many for an expended period of time. But I do remember being allowed to see "King of Kings" and one I believe that was called "Raisin in the Sun".. But as I got older, it became a custom for me to be given (or earn) .30 cents for "show fare" on Saturdays to see the "riders of the silver screen" cowboys. That amount included enough for a box of pop corn and an ice cream bar The extra penny bought me a bubble gum ball from a machine and if I got a certain color of ball, I received a free box of popcorn that in turn allowed me to purchase a coke as well. I mean big time entertainment!
Some of those Hollywood cowboy heroes also made personal appearances at the Capital including the very popular Lash LaRue who was famous for using his whip to lasso the bad guys. And he was equally well known for the fact that like many other Hollywood types, he marred multiple times with the count reportedly reaching ten wives - including one girl from Woolridge.
One of the most interesting "B-movie" stars to appear here was one of the always present cowboy "sidekicks," "Fuzzy" St. John. St. John regaled audiences everywhere in the days of "roll your own" cigarettes using a cloth bag of tobacco and cigarette papers. He had a way of rolling them, placing them in his mouth and lighting them, all with one hand. And that was guaranteed to bring a roar from the audience.. (It didn't take much to entertain us in those days.)
As I mentioned last week, we had a lot of popular country music performers to appear here back then including some members of the legendary Carter Family and especially June Carter. She later married Johnny Cash and gained notoriety from that fact.. But she was an exceptionally talented performer in her own right as those can attest who can remember before television when the Knoxville WNOX radio program "Mid-Day Merry Go Round" with Lowell Blanchard featured Carter.. (If you really can remember that, don't admit it!)
But the most interesting activity at the Capital that I can barely recall was the "Jellico Ugliest Man Contest" that was held there in the 1940's. A prize of $ 100.00 or a diamond ring -either that would probably equal $ 1,000.00 buying power today - was given to the "winner". The only trouble was that the same individual kept winning and other men were reluctant to enter the competition because they knew that their chances of winning - if any - were slim.
However one fellow who self-admittedly was not the best looking man in town either, was convinced by some townspeople wanting to save the annual event, that he could win and he finally reluctantly agreed to enter the competition. With suspicion of collusion between the sponsors and the judges running rampart, the newcomer "won" the prize. That did not sit well with the dethroned perennial "champion" who charged the judges with having extremely poor vision since he felt that anyone with any eyesight at all could tell that he was by far away the ugliest of the two. (And he really was.) But the controversy killed our "Ugliest Man Contest" and what a pity! In later years, several of us guys could probably have entered and won!
Like all small towns, there have been many other comical situations to occur in Jellico down through the years. Something happened in Jellico years ago that I never saw or had even heard of until recently, that I would have given anything to have seen. In a story recounted to me that several insist is true - and in a scene resembling something done by Otis on "Andy of Mayberry" - one of our local citizens once made a "citizens arrest" of a horse, brought him to city hall and demanded that he be locked up in one of our jail cells. According to one of those relating the story to me, the citizen had called the police several times to report that the horse was entering his garden and eating his corn. Eventually becoming extremely frustrated, the fellow took matters into his own hands, lead the reluctant horse to the Municipal Building with a rope while another fellow followed along behind him with a switch - since he strongly resisted arrest..
From the accounts I was given, the horse was actually locked in a cell . I seriously doubt that he was presented with the charges against him; posted bail; or had a public defender appointed for him. (I would hazard a guess the owner just go there and sprung him within four hours!).
Remember television's Flintstones and the town of Jellyrock where they lived? When Johnny's Trough Restaurant changed hands a few months ago, the new operators wanted the name to somehow relate to Jellico. So they chose "Gem Restaurant" since Jellico is known as the "Gem City of the Mountains". But that just wasn't Jellicoan enough for some and probably including our young folks who may not even know that our town has such a slogan. So a contest was conducted by the operators to give it yet another new name.
Numerous potential names were submitted and almost everyone in some way or another included "Jellico". The winning entrant was "Jellirock".. And the more you think about it, why not? Jellico is now the home for rock crawling for most, if not all of the entire country. And from all indications, the rock crawlers that were here the other weekend loved the name..
Tourism Director Jake Bennett swears that he had absolutely nothing to do with the name and that it is only pure coincidence that one of the drinks listed on the printed and circulated menus for the restaurant is called "The Jake". (A likely story don't you think?)
Where can I get one? Jenny and I were on the Interstate the other day coming north and just as we got into the construction zone for the Rarity Mountain Interchange, I came up behind a vehicle with a rear bumper sticker that really caught my eye! It read something to the affect:
If anyone knows where one can be found or happens to see one like it for sale, purchase it for me and I will gladly refund your money! Some say we must forgive Jane Fonda and forget her treachery and what she did to our servicemen and Prisoners of War who were being so brutalized by the North Vietnamese! Forgive her? Yes! Forget what she did? NEVER!!
E-mail me at: mayor@jellico.tn.us
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