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Browsing Tag: #smokies
I have lots of things to say about yesterday. I plan to open a blog today to get it all out of me, & will share the link as soon as I have it. For now, it will have to be enough for me to say that the outpouring of generosity from ALL OVER AMERICA is something special. I moved chicken cages with a local friend, Donna Parton, a teenager from Georgia, & two guys from Knoxville. One of them had a broken arm but he was still helping. I moved hay that was donated by a man from Jamestown with one of my old co-workers. His wife has manned the fairgrounds tirelessly since the county made the decision to open it to displaced animals. Thank you David Majors for answering my tears & pleading with a MUCH NEEDED fork machine. And Gary was a welcome sight. Thank you Co-op. It’s good to know people in the right places. Thank you Leanne Anke for taking the evacuated horses back to their home on your day off. Thanks to the businesses who are donating their people, their products, & their dollars towards this catastrophic incident. Food City had sent a tractor trailer full yesterday, Borden Dairy another, & I didn’t catch the names of several others in & out. I spoke with a gentleman at the Rescue Squad that Lisega (the new factory on Dumplin Valley Road in Kodak) had sent on their…
Every night I’ve tried to post a little update. I didn’t get to it last night. I was answering the 200+ comments from my last post that evidently went viral. It seems that people all over are hungry for information, & y’all seem to like to hear me tell it because then you know they aren’t alone in your thoughts & observations. Last night brought me another dose of guilt, as I remembered friends in Gatlinburg that I have neglected to check on & now it’s so late it’s embarrassing. I returned some pillowcases to Belk before I went to the library’s Christmas party. I feel like I understand a little bit of why soldiers returning from war are sometimes disgusted when they get stateside. The excess is appalling. I figured my stupid expenditure for frilly pillowcases would better be used elsewhere right now. I felt guilty for going to the Christmas party. I felt shame for enjoying it. I’m telling you, being thisclose to tragedy is a humbling experience. I’ll get another dose of that today, as I go where the Good Lord & Lorie Yount send me. I’m starting at the fairgrounds. I had big plans for cleaning, decorating my tree, & finishing my book today. These were things I mistakenly believed I needed to do. I was wrong. They were things I WANTED to do. There was…
This was the Facebook post that finally convinced me once and for all that I needed a blog. It had 1,617 likes/loves/sad/astounded emojis, over a hundred comments, and 1,331 shares. Totally by telling it like it is. What’s going on in Sevier County, you want to know? You REALLY want to know? Well, the fires aren’t out, unfortunately. They tell me that they keep popping back up from where it was so hot for so long. The fire travels underground, through root growth. Also, when we’ve suffered a drought for the last few months, four inches of rain in two days isn’t hardly enough. It’s better…but it ain’t over. And there are new problems concerning the ashes & rubble now washing into drainage ditches & storm drains clogging the whole system. But that’s less of an evil than what whipped through Monday night. The news isn’t telling it all. Maybe they’re afraid we’re too fragile. But we know. The absolute generosity & outpouring of volunteers in the Volunteer State is truly mind boggling. Every morning & night I give Facebook a quick scroll & I’m astounded by what I see. The compassion & the prayers & the overall messages of “Where can I help today? Who needs what where? Does anybody need a shower & bed?” while I just…
What a day. The county burns on. Certainly humbled me to see the county banding together & helping in any way they can. I drove by the Rescue Squad going home & there were hordes of people donating loads of products. I understand chapstick, Tylenol or equivalent, & shampoo are among the most needed items this evening. There has never been a fire like this & helicopters were back & forth overhead all day, & sirens were a constant as additional crews blasted in from neighboring counties & states, lights & sirens blaring all the way here & through town. I didn’t know what I would wake to this morning but it was a somber mood, a tang of smoke lingering in the air, & alerts on my phone to “staff off” so more emergency calls could go through. It puts life in perspective & I felt guilty sleeping last night, selfish for eating, & anxious being at my regular job. It’s just a sickening feeling. I thank the friends who have checked on me & my community. I haven’t lost anything personally, but plenty of people I know were displaced & everyone was scared. Hopefully we’ll learn from this time & prepare for future disasters. Thank you most of all for the prayers. This fire will be over when God says so. It has been a miracle that no more casualties have been found. Let the rain come. May…
I worked at dispatch less than two years, but I can bet you a dollar to a doughnut they would be praying for rain harder than anybody in this county. I say would be because they ain’t got time to pray. They’re calming screaming homeowners, they’re communicating with fire command, they’re ignoring the constantly ringing black phone that the media relentlessly calls, & they’re probably cussing firemen that aren’t answering their radio transmissions. They’re desperate to go pee, they’re tethered to their console, & somebody is manning the white board and tracking new blazes. They’re probably being very short with each other, relaying only the most pertinent information to one another so they don’t miss a single word on their radios. There’s probably other shit going down too, you know, the usual mix of heart attacks, difficulty breathing, car wrecks, seizures, diabetic emergencies, & people fighting in Kodak. Oh, & all the punks that call 911 for the heck of it and hang up. And this has been going on for DAYS. They probably don’t know what time it is & just wish it would end. Rain cannot get here quick enough. Firemen live for this, don’t let them tell you different. But I’d say they’re getting sick of it by now. Many of them aren’t paid, they…
Have you ever seen one of those super cute, trendy boutiques in a fashionable part of town & you were too intimidated to go in? It just oozed “too rich for your blood” or maybe gave the impression it would be filled with snooty falooty types. I once knew of such an establishment, but I still couldn’t resist the urge to go peruse it, out of my budget or not. The boutique I speak of was housed in an old farmhouse on the Parkway in the middle of downtown Sevierville. The front porch had gigantic hanging ferns & two welcoming rocking chairs creaking in the breeze. I never seemed to have time to zip in, & plus, I was a little hesitant about the parking situation. But the week before my wedding, I was at wits end for two of my bridesmaid gifts. I was going to the post office & I had a minute. I maneuvered Patsy around to the gravel lot behind & cautiously stepped in the back door. “Welcome,” came a confident voice behind the counter. I smiled at the redhead who spoke. I’m sure she offered to help me, & before long we were chatting amicably about what brought me in. She helped me pick some pieces of silver jewelry out for my momma, & some earrings for one bridesmaid. But there was this cow picture on the wall that kept calling my name. It seemed strange to…
This morning felt & looked like January in East Tennessee. What I mean is, it wasn’t super-frigid-freeze-your-fingers-off, but there was a heavy frost. As I drove to work, I took the time to admire all the ice crystals glimmering in the pasture fields & birds sitting close on power lines. There were cattle gathered at gates waiting for their breakfast to be brought around by the bundled up farmer on his tractor. As I drove through hollers, smoke generated by woodstoves & fi…replaces lay low to the ground. There was a stillness to be envied by all those in cities rushing around, too busy to look up (and probably nothing to look at but buildings anyway). I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at the mountain ridge & thinking, “I’ve hiked that…I will hike it again soon.” So you’re probably thinking I crashed ol Patsy into one of those beautiful bare branched trees, but no. I pull into the parking lot & I get a whiff of polecat. I speed around the building, hoping it won’t get stuck in my truck all day. The smell just gets stronger. I hurriedly open my door & bail out gagging. Skunks. Now, that’s life in the mountains…
Alright. Y’all have to read this book. It will take you one day. I would say it will take you one hour, but it won’t, because you’ll have to stop after every story and laugh, then read it to anyone standing near you, then call everyone you know & read it to them. Repeat x81 (that’s how many stories there are). Then you’ll call me & tell me what an excellent recommendation I gave. You’re welcome. Messing With Tourists There’s supposed to be a picture there. Oh well. Here’s a couple of my favorite segments…
Most of you remember him as “The Mule Man” at Silver Dollar City and later, Dollywood. Somewhere, my mom has a picture of he & I together in front of the mill, me grinning like a mule eating sawbriars. Later, when I came to work at the Co-op, I was astonished when he came walking up to buy sweet feed. I hadn’t thought about him in twenty years, & thought he was long gone to heaven. He was OLD when I was little! But here he was, just acting like a normal person, shopping at th…e local feed & seed. I remember after he left, I was beside myself! I had just been in the presence of a real celebrity!!! Gary & Judy were laughing because he was just a regular mountain man to them, & unbeknownst to me, had lived right over the hill from me “in the valley” years ago (& missed it desperately, as he would tell anybody that asked). Red, indeed, was a regular customer, I came to know soon after. I was always dazzled to wait on him & would engage him in conversation every time I had the opportunity. He worked at The Mine in Governor’s Crossing for awhile & would regale me with stories of the tourists who remembered him from their vacations in years previous, taken with their parents. And now here they were with THEIR kids, & had to have…
Today I’m thankful I live in the south. Can y’all even imagine me in Yankeeland? I’m thankful for the flowering dogwoods, magnolias, & crepe myrtles. I’m thankful for the summer days where it’s too hot to even swim, {forget about getting married 😉 } I’m thankful for the accents that use every letter in the word. I’m thankful that most people still have enough manners to hold a door open or let you in front of them in line if you’ve only got an item or two. I’m thankful that we have people willing to keep history alive by re-creating the War of Northern Aggression. I’m thankful for the music of cicadas in the late evenings. I’m thankful for all the little festivals celebrating bar-be-que, apples, & catfish. I’m thankful for fried food, sweet tea, cornbread, & beans. I’m thankful that we’ve captured the hearts of everyone who passes through. I’m thankful that we have a church on every corner. I’m thankful for days spent fishing for trout on the foggy Clinch river, hiking & tripping over the mountains in the Great Smokies, & going even further south to visit the historic cities of Charleston & Savannah. I am thankful the south still exists as a place and as a mindset. Wherever you go, take the south…
