Don't they care? I'm referring to those Nashville motorists who zoom through the city at Interstate Highway speeds.
Apart from the legality of exceeding the posted speed limit, and based on everything I've heard, it's a waste of fuel and money. Why in the name of common sense do they do [...]
I was the unwitting victim of an elaborate "practical joke" back in the internationally tense and fearful Cold War year of 1956. I think I was targeted because I was the new hire at a major Nashville radio station that was known for staff hijinks. I was also young and [...]
I remember, as a teenager, walking through the Tennessee State Capitol on a random visit and being impressed by the historical artifacts hanging from the walls.
There were bullet-riddled Confederate battle flags, along with other Civil War paraphernalia such as weapons, uniforms, photographs and various documents. I asked myself, why is [...]
The end of an era came for me with the death recently of 93 year old Frank Varallo Jr. Nashvillians of a certain age can be moved to fond recollection by the names Varallo, Petrucelli, Vietti and others.
The story goes that when some of those Italian families immigrated to Nashville [...]
I've been there only once, and that was fifty years ago…but I'll never forget a visit to the old Primm Springs resort.
For reasons that now escape me, our radio station staff was invited to a dinner outing at that remote location in Hickman County. I think it had something to [...]
I've been there only once, and that was fifty years ago…but I'll never forget a visit to the old Primm Springs resort.
For reasons that now escape me, our radio station staff was invited to a dinner outing at that remote location in Hickman County. I think it had something to [...]
President Bush came to town recently and it caused me to wonder whether such visits to Nashville have lost some of their impact with the public. Only a small fraction of the local population saw him in person while he was here.
Time was, much of the city participated in what [...]
President Bush came to town recently and it caused me to wonder whether such visits to Nashville have lost some of their impact with the public. Only a small fraction of the local population saw him in person while he was here.
Time was, much of the city participated in what [...]
I once delivered a radio newscast with an intoxicated woman. I hope my listeners were unaware of that situation.
The year was 1954, and I was in the middle of the Ten PM news in the days when radio was still the primary broadcast news source in Nashville. Suddenly, behind me, [...]
I once delivered a radio newscast with an intoxicated woman. I hope my listeners were unaware of that situation.
The year was 1954, and I was in the middle of the Ten PM news in the days when radio was still the primary broadcast news source in Nashville. Suddenly, behind me, [...]
The recent disaster in Charleston, South Carolina that resulted in the deaths of nine firefighters brought memories of a similar incident in Nashville. Those Charleston victims perished when they fell through the roof of a burning building. Four Nashville firefighters were killed in the same way back in 1937, seventy [...]
The recent disaster in Charleston, South Carolina that resulted in the deaths of nine firefighters brought memories of a similar incident in Nashville. Those Charleston victims perished when they fell through the roof of a burning building. Four Nashville firefighters were killed in the same way back in 1937, seventy [...]
We called it simply, “The Jew Cemetery”. No disrespect or political incorrectness was intended. It was a part of our lives in the 1930s when my family lived a block away from The Temple Cemetery at 15th Avenue North and Clay Street in old North Nashville.
The park-like cemetery was our [...]
We called it simply, “The Jew Cemetery”. No disrespect or political incorrectness was intended. It was a part of our lives in the 1930s when my family lived a block away from The Temple Cemetery at 15th Avenue North and Clay Street in old North Nashville.
The park-like cemetery was our [...]
The recent move by the Tennessee legislature to increase the cigarette tax reminded me that
practically everyone, young and old, smoked when I was a Nashville kid in the 1930s. It was the "sophisticated" and "modern" thing to do. The movies, radio and the print media glamorized smoking endlessly.
Since adults [...]
The recent move by the Tennessee legislature to increase the cigarette tax reminded me that
practically everyone, young and old, smoked when I was a Nashville kid in the 1930s. It was the "sophisticated" and "modern" thing to do. The movies, radio and the print media glamorized smoking endlessly.
Since adults [...]
No one is more surprised than I to discover that I’m still on this troubled little planet. At the moment, however, I would prefer not to be anywhere else, since it’s still the best of all possible worlds.
As for my cardiac problem - to quote a TV commercial - my [...]
No one is more surprised than I to discover that I’m still on this troubled little planet. At the moment, however, I would prefer not to be anywhere else, since it’s still the best of all possible worlds.
As for my cardiac problem - to quote a TV commercial - my [...]
Those of us old enough to remember World War Two are passing from the scene.
It may be worthwhile, therefore, to recall a little of what it was like for the folks back home In Nashville during that time. I was a teenager: too young to serve in the military, [...]
Those of us old enough to remember World War Two are passing from the scene.
It may be worthwhile, therefore, to recall a little of what it was like for the folks back home In Nashville during that time. I was a teenager: too young to serve in the military, [...]
Famous broadcast commentator and newscaster Paul Harvey was invited to deliver the Fourth of July speech at Hendersonville High School's football stadium way back in the 1960s. And as Mr. Harvey might say, here's the rest of the story:
My employers at a Nashville radio station delegated me to be on [...]
Famous broadcast commentator and newscaster Paul Harvey was invited to deliver the Fourth of July speech at Hendersonville High School's football stadium way back in the 1960s. And as Mr. Harvey might say, here's the rest of the story:
My employers at a Nashville radio station delegated me to be on [...]
It was the tallest building in the southeastern United States when it opened fifty years ago, but time and a regional construction boom have eclipsed the L&C Tower's prominence on the downtown Nashville skyline.
The Tower was created when Nashville was the home of two major insurance firms--National Life and Accident [...]
It was the tallest building in the southeastern United States when it opened fifty years ago, but time and a regional construction boom have eclipsed the L&C Tower's prominence on the downtown Nashville skyline.
The Tower was created when Nashville was the home of two major insurance firms--National Life and Accident [...]
I have vivid memories of visiting a restored Fort Negley in the years before World War Two. A WPA project, using original plans, had rebuilt the walls, the lookout towers and other battlements. The entire fort was good as new. It was a hands-on history lesson for a kid.
It's a [...]
I have vivid memories of visiting a restored Fort Negley in the years before World War Two. A WPA project, using original plans, had rebuilt the walls, the lookout towers and other battlements. The entire fort was good as new. It was a hands-on history lesson for a kid.
It's a [...]
I wish I could take recent reports of attempted kidnappings at face value. I'm referring to stories from various Middle Tennessee counties about young people being accosted by strangers.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be taken seriously--each case should be thoroughly investigated. But one such event early on in my journalistic [...]
I wish I could take recent reports of attempted kidnappings at face value. I'm referring to stories from various Middle Tennessee counties about young people being accosted by strangers.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be taken seriously--each case should be thoroughly investigated. But one such event early on in my journalistic [...]
The staging of Super Bowl XLI in Miami this year recalls for me a visit to that city nearly fifty years ago.
Ambitious motorists made the long drive from Nashville to South Florida without benefit of the present interstate highway system, and every little town along the way had a strictly [...]
The staging of Super Bowl XLI in Miami this year recalls for me a visit to that city nearly fifty years ago.
Ambitious motorists made the long drive from Nashville to South Florida without benefit of the present interstate highway system, and every little town along the way had a strictly [...]
One of the most frightful events during my early years in broadcast news was the collapse of the WSM Television tower. That was fifty years ago, in February 1957.
It happened as a fellow staffer and I were sitting in the WLAC radio newsroom atop the original Third National Bank Building, [...]
One of the most frightful events during my early years in broadcast news was the collapse of the WSM Television tower. That was fifty years ago, in February 1957.
It happened as a fellow staffer and I were sitting in the WLAC radio newsroom atop the original Third National Bank Building, [...]
Time was, back before World War Two, going through the toys and games sections in the five-and-ten-cent stores along downtown Nashville's Fifth Avenue was a big treat for a kid.
Kress, Woolworth and McLellan's all had a supply of cheap toys, usually in the basement of their stores. No visit to [...]
Time was, back before World War Two, going through the toys and games sections in the five-and-ten-cent stores along downtown Nashville's Fifth Avenue was a big treat for a kid.
Kress, Woolworth and McLellan's all had a supply of cheap toys, usually in the basement of their stores. No visit to [...]
Back in the 1940s, before television and the Times Square ball dropping, many people celebrated New Year's Eve at downtown Nashville movie theaters (it WAS a simpler time). The theaters would offer special midnight movies to usher in the New Year, along with party favors and noisemakers for the stroke [...]
