Facebook
Arts & Splash
One of the first things to catch my attention at the Bele Chere Festival in Asheville was a human statue who came to life to play his guitar and sing. The WhiteMan, Ralph Longshore, saw the camera and microphone from Smoky Mountain Morning and stepped off his pedestal to chat with me. I thought he wisely chose to wear white on such a hot day, as opposed to the people I saw two blocks away who were painted gold.
Artist H.C. Warner said he saw an antique radio along the side of the road where someone had put it out with the trash. He made a U-turn and went back to retrieve it. It became the centerpiece of one of his works of art that were on display in the Arts Park at Bele Chere. He had a similar piece that used an old wooden wall phone. He said critics described his work as “low-brow.” I guess I have low-brow taste in art because his stuff appealed to me. His prices were fairly high-brow however.
Former major league pitcher Milt Wilcox has a new passion: dock jumping. Milt stays put. His dogs do the jumping. He runs a business called Ultimate Air Dogs and travels the country putting on shows at festivals and other big events. Dog owners urge their pets to run down the dock ramp. They throw a toy at just the right moment to get their dog to leap into the air. The longest leap wins. In some higher levels of competition, the dog also has to catch the toy in the air. A Chesapeake Bay Retriever named Trout was a crowd pleaser with his impressive distance and big splashes.
The street preachers who used microphones and placards to condemn “drunkards and fornicators” seemed to only encourage dissent. I saw two women holding hands as they passed the preachers. Another man loudly played the vuvuzela toward the man who was speaking.
G’day, Mater
Buford Watson didn’t realize that I had pulled him into an improv game. Part of my interview with him for Smoky Mountain Morning was similar to a scene where one character speaks in gibberish and another translates. I had a mouthful of tomato sandwich and I asked Buford to figure out what I was saying. He didn’t know that I was just making random sounds while mixing in a few recognizable words like Grainger, tomato and Buford. I wanted to hear what he thought I might be saying.
People, including Buford, say the soil in Grainger County makes their tomatoes taste especially good. A “mater sammich” is one of local treats that I tasted during my first summer in Knoxville. The recipe is simple: white bread, mayonnaise, salt and tomato slices. Since then, I’ve thought that one of these years I would make the drive out to Rutledge for the Grainger County Tomato Festival. I finally did, which is how I met Buford. His recipe was even simpler: white bread, tomato slices and onion slices. He sells his tomato sandwiches for $2 each.
We saw the gang from WBIR’s “Live at Five at Four” at the festival. Beth Haynes, Russell Biven, Erin Donovan and John Martin were collecting footage for their own show, which originated from the festival on Friday. I thought we might also see Chef Walter from WVLT but we missed him. He gave the Grainger County Tomato Festival a big plug on Thursday’s show, which is what gave me the idea to go too.
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner
Driving to Richmond was not part of our original plan on Memorial Day. We were in Northern Virginia for my niece’s Confirmation and we intended to come straight home to Knoxville. Fortunately, my mother suggested we take a detour to deliver a gift to my grandmother. The additional two hours of travel time were well worth it because it would be the last time we saw Grandma before she passed away a month later.
A stop in Richmond meant that a few hours later we would pass Thelma’s Chicken & Waffles on Orange Avenue in Roanoke. I had been promising to take my wife there since my son and I tried it last year. However we didn’t know that the restaurant had relocated to downtown Roanoke. Their old building gave no indication of the move.
Grandma’s funeral put us back in Richmond on June 30. On July 1, we spent a ridiculous amount of time driving around downtown Roanoke looking for the new Thelma’s. I called to ask for help but the hostess thought I was coming from the opposite direction than what I was trying to describe. Franklin Road’s 90° turn didn’t help.
We finally got to Thelma’s new digs at Church Avenue and Market Street. If you didn’t know where you were going, you could easily miss it. Despite the minimal signage, the restaurant was busy and the staff told us that business has been good.
‘Stard Spreading the News
If Barry Levenson was a Mets fan, the National Mustard Museum might not exist today. One of my all-time favorite moments in sports was when the Mets won the 1986 World Series. Fortunately for mustard fans, Levenson loves the Red Sox and his despair inspired him to take up a hobby. He chose mustard collecting.
My friend Bean traveled to Wisconsin on his most recent vacation. Naturally, he visited the National Mustard Museum in Middleton. He must have remembered that I switched from BBQ to mustard as my condiment of choice in order to cut calories. He sent me an awesome six-pack of mustards that I will be enjoying for months to come. To celebrate our good fortune, I asked my wife and son to sing the fight songs in the Poupon U songbook that was included in the box.
Frogmageddon
The frogs in my backyard are driving me a little crazy. They want to mate in the place where they hatched. However, the rain-covered tarp where they grew up is gone. In its place is a 36,000 gallon pool of chlorinated water.
I love the loud croaks of the Mountain Chorus Frogs near my house. Last night I could hear several of them when I went outside to empty the pool skimmer basket of leaves. Sadly, I found another dead frog, bleached from the neck down. As I carried it over to the fence, I saw four frogs on the concrete deck, near the edge of the water. I tried to grab each of them. I got two but two others leapt into the poisonous water and swam off. I turned on the pool light, hoping to see them. By then they had returned to the surface and were clinging to the ceramic tiles at the top of the gunite walls. I was able to catch them before the chlorine got them.
There is also some news to report about the two hawks that took up residence in my backyard this spring. My son and I spotted a third hawk the other day. This one was obviously still a juvenile, with some fluffy feathers on its shoulders. My wife said that now we know why the other two were hanging around.
Fontana from Heaven
Fontana Village Resort was originally constructed as a town for the workers who built Fontana Dam in the 1940s. Over the years, it served as a lodge for visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The families who have owned it for the past six years have upgraded the facilities and turned it into a very nice vacation destination.
I spent the night at Fontana Village on Saturday. I was there to shoot a few segments for Smoky Mountain Morning. I took a ghost tour through the old hospital and enjoyed a few toasted marshmallows at their nightly campfire. I was also treated to a great meal in the Mountainview Bistro.
Starting next week, Smoky Mountain Morning will run a Twitter contest with Fontana Village. A lucky family will win an all-expenses paid stay at the resort. To enter, follow @SMMiTV on Twitter. Get additional entries by writing a tweet with the #FontanaYourself Catch Phrase of the Day.
To get to Fontana Dam, I drove an infamous stretch of U.S. Route 129, known as the Tail of the Dragon, from Tennessee into North Carolina. My Honda Civic, which is only a little bigger than a Honda Gold Wing, was photographed multiple times by people who post the pictures online and sell copies. I thought the photographs would make an interesting plot point in a crime drama or novel. Depending on the writer, the photo could either prove the guilt or innocence of a character. It’s a little more exciting than the ATM or toll-booth cameras that are mentioned in half the shows I watch.
Loose Association
It probably would have been a good idea to bring my old paperback copy of “Roadfood” on our trip. Instead I used my new Kindle to purchase a electronic copy of the sequel, “500 Things to Eat Before It’s Too Late.” The e-book made me want to try a loosemeats sandwich in Iowa. I was disappointed that they didn’t have any entries for the Dakotas, where we spent the most time on our trip.
We were in Fort Madison, Iowa, before 10th Street Station opened for the day. On our way to the Field of Dreams, we took a slight detour to the Marion Maid-Rite, only to find that they are closed on Sundays. I gathered that the locals seem to use “maid-rite” to refer to any brand of loosemeat sandwich.
As we drove across Minnesota and North Dakota, I saw no signs for Maid-Rite but plenty of signs for a Wisconsin chain called Culver’s. We chose other places because the home of the ButterBurger sounded too fattening. We were saving some calories for a Maid-Rite. By the time we got to Rapid City, South Dakota, it was late and we were ready to eat anywhere. Culver’s was open and got our business. I ate one of the best salads I had on the whole trip. In hindsight, we should have gone to a Culver’s sooner.
When we were on our way back to Iowa, I started looking for a Maid-Rite near the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum in Clarinda. The closest was in Maryville, Missouri, which happened to be along our route to St. Louis. Faith, the personable franchise owner, made us feel very welcome as she told us about her family. We satisfied our curiosity for a Maid-Rite and split a s’mores milkshake for dessert.
-
Site Search
-
A Word from Our Sponsors
-
With Humble Appreciation:
-
Connections:
-
For Your Consideration:
Frank Murphy in "Fish Bait: the Movie" -
Welcome Visitors
-
Olden Days Archives
2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010