Mystery Mystery ??

Is this a hokes or is it true???

This is from the 12 July 1884 Milan Exchange Newspaper Milan Gibson County, Tennessee.

How could something like this found near Jacksboro Tennessee and for all practical purposes hidden from any history I have seen of this place. Was searching some old newspapers and found this. I am presenting it word for word the way it was printed in this 1884 newspaper. If anyone has any information or what ever please share it with us.

FROM THE NEWSPAPER - - A natural curiosity that bids far to out rival the famous Mammoth Cave of Kentucky has just been discovered on the farm of JOHN DAVIS who resides six miles east of JACKSBORO CAMPBELL COUNTY TENN. This cave judging from reports, "takes the cake" and promises to pan out a satisfactory dish for the curiosity seekers.

Only one chamber has been explored thus far, and that only partly in which prehistoric mummies, with sandals on their feet in excellent state of preservation have been found, some petrified others preserved by the salt of the cave.

The walls of the chamber are decorated with paintings of extinct or imaginary animals. A large stream abounds with blind fish. A portion of the chamber contains pieces of crucibles, and indications of the work in metal.

Mr. Davis has captured a species of jackal or red fox, and the cave seems to be alive with both animal and vegetable. Crickets as large as English sparrows hop or leisurely walk off when alarmed, and rats as large as jack rabbets run about in semi domesticated recognition. Foot prints of exquisite mold are well defined in the hardened mud, and miniature forests along the banks of the river are clothed in snow-white foilage and sensitive flowers.

NOTE FROM ME.... I found this news story while searching old newspapers from the Library Of Congress. I found this in two other newspapers one as far away as Sacramento, California.  I posted this on Facebook, and had so much response I decided to post it on my blog for those who are not on Facebook. Is this true????

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86053488/1884-07-12/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1789&index=0&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Cave+cave+Davis+Jacksboro+John&proxdistance=5&date2=1924&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=john+davis&andtext=jacksboro+cave&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

BRICEVILLE TENNESSEE LABOR TROUBLES - Miners and Railroad Men Defend Themselves -- Militia in Battle Array - This appeared in The Advocate and Topeka Tribune Newspaper Topeka Kansas August 24, 1892

For several months past there has been a threatening murmur among the miners in the vicinity of BRICEVILLE, TENNESSEE., where the trouble occurred about a year ago, and within the past week the trouble has broken out anew.

The prime cause of the discontent is the employment of prison convicts under the convict lease law. On the 12th the miners attacked the guard at Tracy City and liberated some of the convicts. On Sunday following 282 convicts and twenty seven guards were taken prisoners by an organization of free miners. They were taken away to Bridgeport on cars without any damage being done to the company's property. This created excitement among all the miners of EAST TENNESSEE, and on Tuesday's bloody fight seemed inevitable at COAL CREEK (LAKE CITY) (ROCKY TOP), and OLIVER SPRINGS, where a company of militia had been on duty ever since last summer. On Tuesday, this week, numerous shots were exchanged between miners and pickets, and houses were fired into. The telegraph wires were cut, and dynamite placed where it could be used if needed. The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway Company sent a communication to Governor Buchanan, asking that the state protect them in their rights. Later in the evening the company sent the governor formal notification that they would not receive or feed the convicts who had been captured by the miners at Inman and brought to this city without their consent. As soon as the communication was read, the governor called a meeting of the board of prison inspectors. They decided not only to receive the convicts, but also to supply them with food, leaving the qustion of responsibility to be settled hereafter.

The three furnaces operated by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway company at SOUTH PITTSBURGH, employing 450 men, banked their fires, and will not resume work till affairs between the company and state are settled. The SOUTH PITTSBURGH Pipe works have also shut down for the present, as they are dependent upon the Tennessee Coal company for coke.

On August 17 the dispatches stated that a mob of miners were in actual possession of the East Tennessee company's property at OLIVER SPRINGS and COAL CREEK (LAKE CITY) (ROCKY TOP); that all the engines had been captured, and some of the track torn up. That morning the miners assaulted the stockade where the prisoners were kept at OLIVER SPRINGS, and another skirmish took place, but no one was killed. Afterward the guards surrendered to about 1,000 miners, who burned the stockades. Convicts, guards and soldiers were loaded on flat cars and taken to KNOXVILLE. Four convicts escaped. Some of the soldiers were locked in in a warehouse at CLINTON TENNESSEE.

Many different reports were sent out as to the number of men on the side of the miners. Some placed it at 20,000, and many of them are said to be veterans of the late war. As the whole state militia only numbers 2,000 men, calls were made for volunteers. The sheriff of KNOX COUNTY, under authority of Gov. Buchanan, called for 500 men. Many petitions were sent to the governor (who was sick abed) asking him to take vigorous steps to quell the riots, and if necessary call on the president for aid. Thirty soldiers who had been stripped of their arms walked into KNOXVILLE Wednesday night, a distance of thirty six miles from where they had met the miners. Some of the officers are said to have bought their release. That night the governor ordered out all the militias, and called for 5,000 volunteers.

Thursday afternoon the most intense excitement prevailed at KNOXVILLE and CHATTANOOGA, caused by the reports that the miners had captured Gen. Anderson, of the militias. One report says: "During the fight two or three of the leaders of the miners were captured by Gen. Anderson's troops. A truce was raised, and the miners told Anderson that if he would surrender their leaders, they would allow him to return to his fort. He took the men and went down among the mob. When out of range of guns, he was captured and not allowed to return. The leader of the men is the notorious Budd Lindsay, brother of the UNITED STATES attorney for that district, who has killed eight or ten men in his time. Lindsay put a pistol to Anderson's head and told him he must order his men to surrender or he would shoot. Gen. Anderson answered that he would never tell his men to surrender. He was then taken to a hotel as a prisoner." That evening reinforcements of 500 volunteers were sent from CHATTANOOGA and KNOXVILLE to assist the militias and take charge of the 1,000 released convicts. The volunteers got arms wherever they found a hardware store, and some were furnished by citizens. After that day the trouble began to quiet down. Gen. Carnes took command of the state forces, and the latest reports say he has the rioters under control. The soldiers were frequently fired on by miners in ambush, and a number of both sides were killed on Friday. Gen. Anderson, who had been secreted in a farm house near COAL CREEK (LAKE CITY) (ROCKY TOP) for two days, was released on the threat of Carnes to burn the town. 

Several hundred of the miners have since been arrested, and they are being indicted for murder and insurrection.

NOTE .... COAL CREEK BECAME LAKE CITY AND THEN WAS RENAMED ROCKY TOP. I ADDED THE OTHER CITY NAMES TO THIS 19TH CENTURY NEWS ARTICLE :-)

LIST OF DEAD AND WOUNDED IN RESENT KENTUCKY FIGHTING

THIS IS FROM THE EVENING BULLETIN NEWSPAPER MAYSVILLE, KENTUCKY 15 February 1902

(This was before this bloggers time, and I only saw this in an old newspaper, and thought I would share it with you. With all of the CARNAGE talk about Chicago I was thinking we had some bad stuff happening in this area 105 years ago. JACKSBORO, TENNESSEE is mentioned in this newspaper article. I attempted to copy this story exactly the way is was in the original newspaper. Difficult to read some of this old stuff.)  

Middlesboro, Kentucky February 14, 1902 .... Quiet has been restored in the neighborhood of Lee Turner's "Quarter House," three and a half miles from this city, where the fight occurred Wednesday between the Middlesboro officers and Turner's mountaineers. The ruins of the burned saloon and the stockade which surrounded it being the only reminders of the conflict which caused the death of five and probably six men and the wounding of three others. According to the latest reports the list of the dead comprises - Charles Cecil deputy sheriff - Frank Jonson - Mike Welch - Jeff Prader, and Perry Watson of Turners forces. The wounded are John Doyle, deputy sheriff probably fatally. L. Hopper and John H. Johnson mountaineers members of Turners band. Tom Russell a Turner man is missing.

No attempt has been made to capture Lee Turner. He is at Hancraft, Tennessee surrounded by his friends, and it is believed that a demand for his surrender would result in another desperate battle.

The posse which made the attract on "Quarter House" Wednesday evening has disbanded.

Lee Turner left for JACKSBORO, TENNESSEE 40 miles from Middlesboro to see about a law suit in which he is interested. Travel was resumed between here and Mingo mines, passing the runis of the "Quarter House", and all mountaineers who stood guard have vanished into the mountains. John Johnson was found near the "Quarter House" mortally wounded.

UPDATE FROM THE EVENING BULLETIN NEWSPAPER 19 June 1903

Lee Turner In Jail - Two Indictments Against Him as An Accessory to Murders.

Pineville, Kentucky, June 19. Lee Turner of "Quarter House" fame was landed in jail at this place Thursday evening by officers of JACKSBORO, TENNESSEE, where he was arrested several days ago and held for requisition papers.

There are two indictments against him in this county as an accessory before the fact of the murder of Deputy John Doyle, in the battle during which Turner's famous saloon was burned and a number of his partisans killed. His half-brother, General Turner, who was reported to have been killed by Lee, was landed in jail here several days ago to answer the indictment against him for the murder of Doyle and Cecil.

UPDATE THE PADUCAH SUN NEWSPAPER 20 January 1904

CONVICT TO TESTIFY

Eddyville, Kentucky January 20 -- Charles Powers, a convict serving a life sentence at the branch penitentiary for killing four men in the "Quarter House" fight in February, 1902 was taken by order of the Bell circuit court to Pineville, where he will testify in the case of the commonwealth vs Lee Turner, proprietor of the "Quarter House" who is now on trial for complicity in the notorious fight. Powers, who is related to Caleb Powers, has since his incarceration sustained a good prison record, although a typical representative of the Kentucky mountaineer. He strongly insists that Lee Turner was not at the "Quarter House" on the day of the fight.  

MARIACHI

The older you get the more things you have seen. Some of the things start to run together, and you start to question some of those things. This morning was one of those times when I started thinking back to something I saw. Did I see it or did I dream I saw and heard it? Before I tell you what it was let me tell you how I saw what I thought I saw.

When I was stationed at Karamursel, Turkey the Turkish company that booked the entertainment for the Hilton Hotel in Istanbul, would bring the entertainment to our base. Most of the entertainers were good, but occasionally they were spectacular.

One evening a friend of mine ask if I was going to the Airman's Club for the International Floor Show? He told me it was a Mariachi band. You can guess my reaction to that. He was talking to one of the Turks that worked at the Club, and he was told this group did not want to perform for a bunch of GI's because I guess they were thinking most of the American GI's would have the same reaction to them as me to my friend. Having nothing else to do and knowing they did not want to perform was an added incentive to go. 

When I walked into the club the first thing I saw was this beautiful harp with all kinds if pearl inlays in the wood frame. And yes those oversize guitars scattered around on the stage. I had determined I was going to leave the club when the booing started.

The Turkish guy who books all the shows came on stage, and explained to us the difficulty he had trying to get this group to perform for us. Then he ask the group to come on stage. The harp player was in the center, and if I can remember the stage was only a foot off the floor, so this (at the time appeared to be a small young guy), and the harp player placed the base of the harp off stage on the floor and leaned his body into the harp and took the stance to play. AND DID THEY PLAY - The GI's went crazy with applause and whistles. This group was the most fantastic thing I saw all the time attending those floor shows at the Airman's club. The Mariachi band looked like they were in shock at the reception they were receiving from a bunch of GI's.

I never saw them again, but occasionally I would think of that night back in the 1960's when I witnessed a Mariachi happening. This morning I was thinking about that time and like in the comic strips a light-bulb lit up over my head saying YouTube. I don't know if this is the guy grown up, but it will give you a taste of what we saw so many years ago at the Airman's Club Karamursel Air Station, Turkey.

Victorian era

When we think of the 1800's and the 19th century we usually think more of England being associated with this time. The evolved history with it's Kings and Queens and magnificent dwellings, and estates. All this clouds the backwoods of East Tennessee which had a trace of England sprinkled around the mountains. 

Rugby, Tennessee is an example of that era, and if you want to experience the vibes from that time go to Rugby, and let your mind soak that place in. I think it possesses a sadness, that would make it difficult to live there. Other people may have a different experience, and my experience was probably molded in my brain, because the first place I visited in Rugby was the cemetery. It was cold and fogy that day.

I have a small attachment to that time through my Dad. He was born in 1893, and if he was born in England at the time of his birth he would be on the tail-end of the Victorian era. From some of the things he told me several people in Campbell County were not backwoods folks, but some at that time were emigrants from England.

I have always thought if you could snap your finger and be transported to that time it would be a rude awakening. Mostly because of the fairy tail stories written from that time period. Everything about the Victorian era lends itself to beautiful but tragic love stories. And believe me, if you want a small taste of what I am talking about visit Rugby.

MY DAD

Howard Payne was born in 1893. He was the oldest of several brothers, and sisters. All are deceased now, but I remember all of them that were alive during my lifetime. He had a beautiful sister who passed away in her teenage years before I was born, so that would be over 78 years ago. I can remember seeing a photograph of her, and she was beautiful. I did not know where she was buried until a few years ago. She is at rest in the Douglas Cemetery on Wooldridge Road near Jellico, Tennessee.

Dad started to work in the coal mine when he was 14. He joined the Army during the First World War working in the hospital San Antonio, Texas during the flu pandemic. He would talk about that pandemic and how devastating it was. Although he worked in the hospital he never came down with the flu, but it's possible when he passed away he had the flu. He passed away before any of my children were born, so the only thing they know is what I have said about him. For what ever the reason only a few photographs of him are in my collection.

He would always talk about the Majestic Theater in San Antonio, Texas. When I was attending USAF basic training in Texas I got a week end pass and visited the Majestic. Was kind of surreal sitting in that theater.

He was a mathematical whiz, and was always working problems he found in newspapers. I have some of those mathematical genes.

My Dad was a fancy guy, and I can still hear him telling me to never take anything that did not belong to me. He was appalled at how some people he met in the military would take things. I carried that advice with me into the Military, and it served me well. The Military had a way of testing you to see if you were honest. If you proved honest you got some of the best jobs available in your job classification. 

Cannot remember my Dad giving me a spanking, and I carried that to my children. I never spanked my children.

Other than working at Oak Ridge during World War Two, he worked in the coal mines. 

Where is 1964, 1965, and 1966

I arrived at Karamursel Air Station December 1964 and departed June 1966. I have scoured the internet looking for anything I can find from that place, and time. I have found almost nothing on the net. Could it be most of the people of that time are so old they are now deceased, or is it these old folks are not on the internet like me? Or and this is a big Or. Did they erase my memory of that time? (kind of joking on that last sentence) :-)

It has been a frustrating search for information. Believe it or not I cannot find anything about our Base Commander. I found my section Commander, but that is it - Zilch on anything else. He even told me he could not remember the name of the base commander, and that is real strange. One thing that makes it difficult to find the commander is the last name. The base commanders name was Brown, and if I remember correctly was a graduate of West Point.

This is why I can kick myself for not maintaining a journal. In those days remembering names wasn't important to me. I will add a short video of me and some people I was with a lot, but if you offered me big bucks to tell the names I would need to pass, because I cannot remember. They could have been using fake names anyway. I cannot remember the name of the Turkish girl in the 8mm film. I only remember her working in the PX. She lived in the village of Karamursel, and I visited her home once, and met her sister. Two other guys that worked at the Armed Forces Radio Station were with me. I think they thought we were super stars because we were radio announcers. In those days radio announcers were a big deal. I can remember one of the guys last name was Thompson, and the other guy was Polish, and had a last name I will not attempt in this post. Both of them were assigned to the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service USAFE. I worked part time with them and was under the USAFSS command.

I was friends with the base commander, and his wife. I stayed at their base residence when he and his wife were out of the country or doing some kind of base function. I know this sounds strange to anyone who has been in the military, but it's a long story. He attempted to get me to reenlist before I transferred out for discharge in June 1966. If I can ever locate any history of he and his family I will share it. Don't hold your breath. LOL

Some additional information about the girl in the 8mm film. She wanted to come to the USA very much. She spoke perfect English, and was a a friend of mine (not a romantic friend). I don't know if she eventually married the guy you see her with in this 8mm film. I had no contact with any of these folks after leaving Turkey in 1966. Things would have been much different back then if we were in the digital age like now. Much more information and video to help us remember. When you read this stuff you must remember this was during the Cold War, and who knows if these folks were who they said they were. I trusted absolutely no one during those days. Was a strange time and  an exciting time for me.

TYPE TWO DIABETES 

In 1984 when I was assigned to a project where radiation was in and around my location. I was required to undergo a physical, and a whole body screening. The doctor told me my sugar was high, so I ask him to tell me how high on a scale of 1 to 10. He laughed, and told me he wanted to do some more test. At the time I was riding my bicycle over 150 miles per week, so I did not pursue it. My age at the time was 47, and I continued to ride my bicycle.

We had several young men and women engineers who were bicyclist working  at our company, and I was considered a guru because of my age, and ability to hang in the bicycle pack as we hammered down the Oak Ridge turnpike. (hammering was slang for getting-er done, and in my case I was getting-er done with a 12 speed Tempo). That Tempo is gathering dust now.

Two of the young engineers were married to each other, and when we rode she always appeared to be struggling to keep up with us. One Saturday they came up to my house (approximately) 12 people male and female, and we rode to Jellico and back. The temperature was hovering around 90 degrees, and we ran off and left her on Peabody Mountain. I will add, "She looked like a fashion model, and definitely not a biker", She and her husband had recently transferred to Oak Ridge and we did not know much about them. A week or so after that ride we planned another, but her husband was on assignment, so she came to ride without him. She had been setting us up, as she cleaned our plow up the Mountain. She and we had a good laugh at how she set us up.

Any way all this bicycle riding was masking my diabetes. Now lets move ahead from 1984 to 2000. I continued to ride my bicycle, but I was hired on a consulting job at Arnold Air Force Base. For nine months I sat at a computer terminal doing absolutely no bicycle riding. I began to gain weight, and celebrated my 62nd birthday while doing that job. When I came home and signed up for SSI I went to the VA for a physical. The VA doctor said, "partner you are a diabetic". I told him I did not want to medicate, and ask what I could do. He told me to change my lifestyle, and I told him I did not have a lifestyle other than they had a good baker at Arnold AFB. He suggested I get back on my bicycle which I did. It was difficult to find people to bicycle with me in Campbell County, and I became disillusioned with all the harassment I was getting as I rode up the valley. So I stopped riding my bicycle, and started dancing in my computer room. I downloaded some old rock-n-role, and would get down several times a week. Then I went for another physical. The doctor told me I must begin to medicate to control my type 2 diabetics.  I think this was about 2 or 3 years ago. I am now 78.

When I was stationed in Turkey during the 1960's I was on separate rations. Not because I lived off base, but my job required me to travel around Turkey. I have always been particular about eating, and I would only eat at 3 places in Turkey. On my base, the Hilton Hotel in Istanbul, and a small USAF detachment in Istanbul. Most of the time I would go all day without eating waiting until I could get to one of my 3 eating places. When I told the doctor about this he said I was probably a diabetic in the 1960's but my lifestyle was keeping it in check. I did not consume alcohol, as my only vice was cigarettes.

This is probably more information than you care to read, but I am using this social internet stuff as a surrogate to more or less use it as an autobiography of myself until I can find that biography I am looking for who would be willing to do it for me. And I don't expect anyone to do it for free. LOL

SURELY YOU'RE JOKING MR. FEYNMAN

One day while working for Bechtel Oak Ridge I was having a conversation with one of the programmers about code breakers. He ask me if I had read the book "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman". He had just finished reading it so he offered me his copy. I can remember reading that book in our living room. This was before the internet, and some of us were reading tons of books. I was laughing so hard Pat made me go into the other room with this book.

Several years after that while I was working as a consultant at the Quality Assurance department Arnold Air Force Base I began to think about this book. Pat was not with me at Arnold, and I had some free time, but now the internet was my source of reading. I was surprised I could not find the book in any of the book stores, and most of the retailers listed it as out of print. It was one of those books I wanted to read again.

One weekend I drove from Arnold AFB to Smyrna, Tennessee to attend the Air Show. On the way I passed this huge book store, and after the Air Show I stopped at the store and ask the clerk if he had "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman". I expected the clerk to say NO, which he did. A guy working behind the counter heard me ask about Richard Feynman's" book, and walked over to me and ask, "Did you enjoy that book"? I could tell by the way he ask the question he was a fan of that book. He told me they had a copy under the counter, and he had read it. I departed the store with that copy.

To make a long story short I placed a review of that book on my YouTube account, and at last count it had over 100,000 unique views, and now the book is all over the internet, and our video put that book back into circulation. 

We cannot think on this level, but it's fun to hear Feynman make physics look and sound magical. An example of this is in this YouTube video.

SOME INSIGHT ON MY STYLE OF WRITING

I erased from one of my blog post about a search for someone who would be willing to take all my information, and ghost write my life as a biography. The reason I did this was because I awoke in the middle of the night thinking of someone who could do this. So someday if I feel like they would say yes, I may ask them to do it for me. Until then it is a mute request. :) 

Some insight on my style of writing... I usually use my own punctuation's be they correct or not. Sometimes I know they are correct, and at other times I don't care as long as it doesn't appear to me to take away from what I am trying to say.  I usually place my words on paper quickly the same as I would if I was having a conversation with you. I have problems with words that sound the same, but are spelled differently. I don't try to use fancy words that require thought. I use the word that instantly comes into my brain as I am conveying my thoughts.

This may drive academics nuts, but I don't care. I am always saying what I feel, and think.... the way I want to say it with my computer, keyboard, and spell checker. My way of doing this was used by me during many hours of scrutinizing programs submitted by computer programmers and developers. My discrepancy reports were never questioned for a lack of understanding. I also drove the developers and programmers nuts too. I once submitted over 400 written discrepancy reports on the implementation of a database. Not one of them was rejected by the Quality Assurance Department. In a meeting of supervisors one of them was joking when he told me, "I needed a body guard while walking around the base because the programmers and developers were gunning for me". That was a complement.

All of this is because of self education. I taught myself the art of programming Relational Database Management Systems. When doing an RDMS using Microsoft Access which is rich in Macros I never used the Macro, but created Visual Basic to make it do what I wanted it to do. A company once hired me to make a program of theirs talk to a program of mine. They thinking my application was loaded with Macros hit a brick wall when they tried to figure out what I did. They could have found a programmer to do this for them, but getting me to do it saved a ton of money.

I only mention all of this because at my age now these social internet sites are my hobby sites. That's why the thought of writing my autobiography drives me nuts. :)  

TIM'S KITFOX 1

Six years ago I was down at the Campbell County Airport, and this young guy entered the parking lot with a beautiful home built airplane loaded on a home built trailer. This was a YouTube moment, and I could hardly wait to ask him if I could record a video. As you can see by the video accompanying this post he said, "Sure"

He did not build the Kitfox. He had traded an airplane for it. He did build the trailer, and the uniqueness of this combination was impressive.

He identified himself as "Tim", and that's about all the information I have about him other than he said he was a jet mechanic.

Although you may find this hard to believe I haven't had any contact with, Tim other than this video. I have attempted to make contact with him without any success.

So goes the life of a YouTub-er :)

MY CIVIL WAR POLITICS SERIES  

When I opened an account on YouTube in 2006 I never planned to get as evolved as I did. At that time you could find all kinds of public domain literature on the internet, so I decided to present a Civil War document. This document and the information it contained caught my attention because it was more about the politics of that time rather than the battles, and skirmishes.

YouTube was in the process of catching up on  the technology of streaming videos. The quality in those days was nothing compared with today, and the ability to upload HD, and 4K video. My camera was a web cam from Walley World that cost me less than twenty dollars.

After completing a series of Civil War videos to go along with the public domain document, I placed those videos into PRIVATE. Over the years I more or less forgot about them until the other day. After reviewing some of them I decided to place them into a play-list which I will place in this blog.

These videos will give you a good prospective of Civil War Politics. And a lot of politics surrounded the civil war. The thing that makes the work to complete this series worth while is when a student sends you a message telling you it was a tremendous help in school.

The YouTube link below will take you to the first video in this series. Go to my account (ockteby) and you will find a play-list for all these videos.

This is not a professional reading of the information. My intent was to try and communicate the information so you could get the full meaning of this document.

   

500 YEAR FLOOD

Winter in East Tennessee is a mishmash of temperatures and falling stuff. One of the largest of that stuff was more than two feet of snow in one day, and believe it or not "The Month Of March". If you put it all together, this East in the State is pretty good weather all in all. Then we are always looking for the extreme to arrive ever now an then like 24 degrees below zero. Those temperatures this far south is a shocking event, and is a fact of our history.

We have a beautiful creek running through our town that has gone through several evolution's, and one of those was a pretty good flood event. I have always thought the creek became a monster some time in the past. Probably 500 years ago when the only inhabitants were native Americans. I did a video about predicting another 500 year flood that I will post with this blog.

Norris Lake became a part of the landscape back in the 1930's, and I have always wondered if that began to affect our weather. I have friends who believe it did. I haven't researched the pro's and con's of this so I don't know.

I have lived in the area all my life other than my Military service, so I have seen several events. Years ago when the mountains had forest fires, people would just look at them especially at night. The area was so sparsely populated they usually did not pose a threat. The forest would continue to burn until the weather produced rain and high humidity. I cannot remember anyone trying to control those fires. Then comes a 300 or 500 year forest fire like 2016, and the tragic events in the Smoky Mountains. Anyway the Mountains, and Norris Lake has made this part of East Tennessee a retirement paradise.

   

LOOKING BACK AT LAFOLLETTE

Looking back over the years I wish, and I wish I had maintained a journal.  So many memories that are now not complete. Names, and dates are gone forever as I struggle to remember what when and where. This probably relegates this blog to the ramblings of an old man, and will probably resemble story telling more than anything else.

Hanging around the pool room on Tennessee, Avenue would give you a flavor of story telling. In that  venue you could hear some good ones, but that was in the dry years, so none of it was captured for you people. It was the exclusive property of the story teller, and the ones sitting around drinking coffee listening. An example would be the story about a civil war cannon with the barrel stuffed with gold coins buried somewhere around the big rock near LaFollette.

We could talk about a polluted creek that was the repository of crap, Young people would not believe that creek we had back then if you look at it through today's eyes. And some people were foolish enough to eat fish out of that thing.

Parking meters were down all the streets where you could park for a maximum of  2 hours. I think those things took 1₵ - 5₵ - 10₵ with the maximum amount giving you 2 hours. On Saturday people would stake out a parking place staying there all day people watching, and feeding the parking meter. One guy, and I cannot remember his name, would sit in the same spot each Saturday. People watching in downtown LaFollette was major entertainment because you would probably see ever citizen of the county if you sat there all day.