"Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot ..."

WETS-AM Broadcasting Picnic -1979

I have enjoyed my interlude as the curator of my hometown blog. My original intent was to have an interactive discussion forum for people in Johnson City and the surrounding area, be it from the past, present or future.

I anticipate being in Johnson City in August and will be exploring and catching up with friends. I will reopen this forum periodically when I have further stories and photographs to share. I am very excited about the restoration of downtown Johnson City.

The above photograph is one of me, with Jim Blankenblecker in the background, who at the time was a radio personality at WETB-AM. The annual broadcasting class picnic still exists today. For over twenty-five years, it was held at a picnic shelter in Unicoi. I hear they still show a film clip of Steve Hawkins of WCYB-TV and I doing a talk show interview from the 1975 era, where I pretended to be a member of the Charles Manson family.

Happy Holidays

Photo Credit: Jimmy Ellis, former JC Press Chronicle Staff Photographer

Stems of purple violets and crimson colored silk roses filled a Parisian styled flower cart at the entrance of Dossers Department Store, offering a dash of color for the lapel or hat of a well dressed woman.

On one occasion while shopping with my mother, I found a diamond ring lying in the hosiery bin. My mother alerted a sales clerk and we learned that another clerk had removed her wedding ring while helping a customer and had forgotten to retrieve it. The children's clothing department featured unique dresses and if purchased today, would be comparable to merchandise found in a high end department store. During the seventies, R.J. Hodge and his father ran the old manual elevator at the store. The store was initially established in 1909.

Ed Carter, 1st Johnson City Anchorman

This is from a WIS-TV Newscast Into, in Columbia, South Carolina.

Ed Carter, WIS-TV Newscast Intro 1975

Ed Snodderly

"Working In the New Mine", from his concert at the Paradise Theatre, Paonia, Colorado - July 15, 2006

Tom Headley

Tom Headley and Candy Bryant, from September 2000

As a college student at ETSU in the mid to late seventies, one of my favorite professors was a young Tom Headley, who has maintained his coveted teaching post in Broadcasting since the late sixties. With him in this pre-digital print is Candy Bryant, formerly of WQUT-FM, and now employed in the Broadcasting Department as a faculty member.

Massengill's Specialty Shop

Photo of Massengill's Specialty Shop - Established 1916

Massengill's Speciality Shop was the only downtown store that refused to join the other businesses that vacated the city core in the seventies for the promise of a better life in a suburban mall. The store maintains a fifties ambiance, featuring telephones with dials and antique wooden cabinets displaying cosmetics and silk scarves. It is especially interesting that they still have a hand painted store sign at the entrance. Does anyone know the history of the sign?

John F. Kennedy 1917-1963

I was in my 4th grade classroom at Southside Elementary School when fifth grade teacher Mrs. Herman Stribling rushed into my classroom and frantically stated to my teacher, Mrs. David McClellan, "President Kennedy has been shot"!

It was a sad afternoon for me as I walked the two blocks home after school and watched the events unfold on our black and white console television set. My family and I watched the live events on a nonstop basis throughout the week. There is not a year that goes by that I do not remember that day and my experience.

As I review this paragraph, it is interesting to see how my teachers still self-identified by their husband's first names rather than their own. I would enjoy hearing your stories of attending Southside Elementary School or what you remember of 11/22/1963.

Ed Snodderly, Musician

Photo Credit: "Brier Visions" CD (2005)

During the seventies, Tom Carr's original "Red Pig" was the chosen weekend spot for twenty somethings and the college sect.

Originally located on the corner of University Parkway and West Walnut Street, in the current location of Poor Richards On Campus, this small barbeque joint featured an incredible early musical venue featuring Ed Snodderly, with Jim Thompson and mandolin player Nelson Mandrell. Their most commonly played musical selections during the early seventies period included a rendition of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and "Long Black Veil". Ed Snodderly later became a co-owner of "Down Home" in the early eighties. He has produced many albums thereafter as both a solo artist and with his former band "Brother Boys". His current album is entitled "Brier Visions" and can be purchased from his website.

South Junior High School

From September 1966 to June of 1969, I attended my seventh to ninth grade school years in the former Science Hill High School building, known as South Junior High School. Every other week my mother was the designated car pool driver for me and another neighborhood girl near our home in the tree street neighborhood. In our conventional station wagon, Kay and I were methodically dropped off at 8:00 AM daily at a side door on Library Lane, located next door to the Mayne Williams Public Library. South Junior High School was massive in size and retained the original architecture with no modern upgrades since it's construction in 1915. Students attended study hall on a daily basis and were monitored by strict no nonsense teacher's who watched each student with an eagle's eye for passing notes or talking. One of my favorite specialized classes was Creative Language Arts, taught by Peggy Jeffries. I recall the time when each student had to choose a personal song to lip sync in front of a large room of peers. I chose a selection by Barbara Steisand from my older sister's music collection called Lover, Come Back to Me, albeit I was only twelve years old at the time and knew nothing about the grief and loss of a broken romance

In 1966, pre-adolescent girls wore wool pleated skirts and sweaters, penny loafers or saddle oxfords, and hair flipped up on the ends like actress Marlo Thomas of That Girl. This was the era when girls were required to take Home Economics and master the art of making an A-shaped skirt with a 7-inch zipper. After school, my best friend Suzan and I walked down Main Street to Jones-Vance Drug Store for a cherry coke and a bag of barbeque potato chips. After the snack, we continued our brief walk down the street to the old, run down city bus station on Buffalo Street for a ride home.

The Shamrock

Photo Credit: Alan Bridwell

The Shamrock Beverage and Tobacco Shop was initially purchased by Lafe Cox in 1931, the father of current owner's, Jack and Sheila Cox.

Before the concept of large, supersized shopping centers, there was seldom a week that passed when either my mother or father did not go to the Shamrock for a magazine, an ice cream cone, or an over the counter medication. Prior to the development of the State of Franklin Road, West Walnut Street was one of the busiest cruising streets in Johnson City, being a direct link to East Tennessee State University. The businesses that were there in the sixties included the Dairy Queen, Henry's Carry Out, Wilson Pharmacy, and Giant Food Market.

During my last trip to Johnson City in September 2005, I stopped at the Shamrock for a cold drink and noticed a sign for lemonade. The owner told me that the lemonade was made on a daily basis from freshly squeezed lemons. After telling the owner that the Shamrock was part of my history, I showed him a picture of my father, who had died ten years earlier in 1995. Much to my delight, he immediately recognized him and shared a few personal memories.

One of my favorite things about the Shamrock is the vintage neon sign, which to me is a significant local architectural icon that should be placed in a museum if a future developer threatens to raze the building. It is rare to find a building that has not changed ownership or appearance since I was a child, unless of course you count the addition of the drive-through window in the sixties.

Ross Spears, Filmmaker

Public Photo of Ross Spears

I first met Johnson City native Ross Spears in Nashville, Tennessee in 1980 at the Sinking Creek Film Festival at Vanderbilt University.

His film Agee is a thought provoking documentary on the life of Pulitzer prize winning writer James Agee, a native Tennessean. The documentary was later nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Feature Documentary." Ross Spears has focused solely on films that address the history and culture of his native South and is currently working on a new comprehensive history of the Appalachian region, entitled Appalachia. He is the son of former Mayor Ross H. Spears Jr. (1960). His family previously built and owned the elegant Shelbridge in 1921. Now owned by ETSU, it is the current residence of ETSU President Paul Stanton.

Ross Spears founded the James Agee Film Project in 1974 as a non-profit media organization that attempts to contribute to the understanding of the South and its culture. The film project focuses on a wide range of subjects that include American history and literature, social justice, religion, and child development.

Ed Carter, WJHL-TV Anchorman

Ed Carter is the tall, dark haired man on the right, with hands folded.
Photo Credit; WJHL Website

One of my earliest memories as a young child in the late fifties was the visual image of WJHL television reporter Ed Carter.

About a year ago, I began a personal quest to find out what happened to him after leaving Johnson City. I emailed my friend Steve Hawkins of WCYB-TV and thereafter, received a response that former news personality Merrill Moore had information regarding his career path in broadcasting. Reportedly, Ed Carter retired from NBC affilitate WIS Television, in Columbia, South Carolina eight years ago. Being curious about his work as a reporter, I contacted WJHL-TV News Director Christine Reiser who reported there were no surviving reels of his work in their film vault. If you have further information or memories of Ed Carter, please contact me, as I remember him as an incredible local news personality.

"Bridge to the Sun"

One of the most famous writers from Johnson City was blonde belle Gwendolyn Terasaki, who married Japanese Diplomat Hidenari Terasaki in 1931.

Her bestselling book, "Bridge to the Sun" (1957) became a MGM film thereafter and chronicled her marriage and life in Japan after the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The film premiered at the Majestic Theatre in 1961 and starred actress Carroll Baker. I recall seeing it on television in the sixties and thought it was a wonderful production. After the premature death of her husband at age fifty, Mrs. Terasaki moved back to Johnson City and resided in a modest home on Baxter Street. In 1986, she moved to Casper, Wyoming to be closer to her only child, Mariko Miller. Mrs. Terasaki died in 1990, at eighty-four years old. Mariko Terasaki Miller is herself a well respected political advocate in the Democratic Party and an Honorary Consul-General of Japan. She returned to Johnson City in Fall 2000 to speak at a commencement address at East Tennessee State University.

Appalachian Hospital

The mystery of where this hospital was located has been solved and it was apparently only a mystery to me! According to Bob L. Cox, it was located on the corner of West Fairview and Boone Street, the current locale of Asbury Center.

According to Sanya Haskin's book, "Johnson City", Appalachian Hospital nurses Gladys Whitt and Verna Walker were two of the many nurses who cared for a baby named Babb, who became an orphan after his mother died during childbirth in 1932. The baby was cared for by the nurses until he was adopted at age two. Does anyone know what happened to baby Babb or if he is still alive? He would be 74 years old now and was likely adopted by a local family. If you have other pictures or information about this hospital in the early years or information about baby Babb, please contact me.

GIANT Food Markets

Graphic Courtesy of Bob L. Cox

With a large red-lettered sign anchored to the roof of their Commerce and King Street Store, Giant Food Market was the most prevalent supermarket chain in Johnson City in the late 1950's and early sixties. The downtown store featured a very large and modern delicatessen, with some of the best pimento cheese in town. More often than not, my family shopped at the other Giant Food Market on West Walnut Street because it was closer to our neighborhood. Their advertising logo conveyed they were the "... worlds finest most unusual stores".

Like many traditional women of the era, my mother would save S and H Green Stamps from her grocery shopping in order to obtain favored items from the Green Stamp Redemption Store, which included merchandise as simple as a new purse or as practical as an electric skillet. Not everything we purchased came from the grocery store. Our meat was purchased from several local butcher shop's, which included small venues like Lay's or the Wade Bulla Company. During this era, people often shopped at small, family owned grocery stores for that last minute loaf of white bread or a carton of milk. A big thank you to Alan Bridwell and Bob Cox for their respective graphic contributions of Giant Food Markets.

The Tree Street Neighborhood

From 1959 to 2002, my family owned a home in what is now referred to as the "tree street" neighborhood, a historical residential section which features an array of architectural styles, predominantly from the early 20th century.

During my childhood, my neighborhood consisted of father's from the World War II era and stay at home mothers who attended monthly PTA meetings. Like me, many of my elementary school friends walked home for lunch, where bowls of hot soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, lovingly prepared by our mother's, awaited us. The radio commonly played the music of Bobby Vinton or Connie Francis. Our mother's went to the beauty shop on Saturday for a shampoo and set while our father's mowed the yard and washed the car. The children played hide and go seek until dark, rode bicycles, and met at the school playground to swing or play on the monkey bars. During cold weather, families worked on puzzles, played cards or a game of checkers, while snacking on buttered popcorn, shaken and popped in a metal pan instead of a hot air machine.

The homeowners on my block consisted of a former ETSU basketball coach, an Eastman Kodak Chemist, a school principal, and Managing Editor James "Jim" Kelly, of the Johnson City Press Chronicle. Being a close community, neighbors knew the first name of every child, including many of their relatives, both in and out of state. We knew where our neighbors worked and what position they held at their company. It was the end of the Eisenhower era and the creation of Camelot, the golden days of John F. Kennedy. My family watched Saturday Night At the Movies, Route 66, the Dick Van Dyke Show, Twilight Zone, and the Huntley Brinkley News Report. We drove big American vehicles with fins and visited relatives on Sunday afternoon, often stopping at the Dixie Drive In or the Shamrock Soda Shop for an ice cream cone or milk shake on our way back home.