The Birth of Golden Oldies

“When did they first start calling them oldies?”

I was riding in the car with my son-in-law Ben Sharpe, who had just changed the radio to “50s on 5.”

He’s so young that he grew up with oldies stations on the radio. And he was wondering when new songs became “oldies.”

I’d never thought about it before but I told him I remembered when I was in junior high hearing WKIN deejay Gary Morse refer to “moldy oldies” and Gary was making fun of what was already commonplace: an old song being called a “golden oldie.”

That was in the early sixties.

So rock and roll had been around less than a decade and already they were pulling golden oldies from the vault.

I told Ben there weren’t entire stations devoted to oldies but they did occasionally interrupt the Top 40 for a golden oldie.

Later I remembered a “moldy oldie” about “moldy oldies.” There was a hit during my junior high years called “Those Oldies But Goodies Remind Me Of You” by Little Caesar and the Romans.

I looked it up and it was a hit in 1961. (Also Little Caesar’s real name was Carl Burnett.)

So if we arbitrarily select 1954 as the year that rock and roll began – that’s the year that Danny and the Juniors released “Rock Around the Clock” – then rock was only seven years old and already Little Caesar was crooning about Oldies (but Goodies).

But oldies, in reference to music, goes back much further than that.

In 1942 WNOX-AM in Knoxville advertised a show called “Saturday Nite Serenade:” “Bill and Jessica revive the oldies…and insert a couple of sparkling new songs.”

Oldies in 1942!

And if they were calling them oldies in the newspaper in 1942 then they surely go back even further.

XXX

Gary Morse was my idol when I was in seventh grade. I went to church with him – Bethel Presbyterian – and he was already working as a disc jockey when he was in ninth grade. WKIN-AM made him the first teenager playing music on Kingsport radio for other teenagers.  

Gary wasn’t the first radio announcer to play a rock and roll record in Kingsport. Chuck Foster was playing rock and roll on WKIN-AM’s “Boogie and Blues” and “Jive at Five” shows as early as 1955.

But Gary was the first member of the rock and roll generation, the kids who grew up on rock and roll, to work as a deejay on a local station.

Gary started spinning discs on WKIN in 1959, when he was just 14 years old. And he had been hanging around the station for three years before that, fetching coffee, learning the ropes.

He was still a student at Robinson when he took over the afternoon music show at WKIN. He’d cut out immediately after school, riding his motorcycle down to the station, which at the time was on the corner of Market and Wexler streets.

In fact, Gary didn’t just ride to work, he rode into work, with other station employees opening the doors for him so he could ride all the way into the studio, hop off his bike and turn on the mike.

For the next hour or two – WKIN signed off at sunset which varied by the season – “Bouncin’ Gary,” as he called himself, was in the “snake pit,” which is what he called the studio, spinning those stacks of wax. All rock and roll, all the time.

And occasionally throwing in a “moldy oldie.”

Click on map to enlarge

The Tri-Cities of 1839 - Kingsport, Blountsville and Paperville

The Library of Congress website (www.loc.gov) is a treasure trove of digitized material from early maps to historical recordings.

Dig around and you will be amazed at what you uncover.

A few years ago I found this 1839 map of post roads. There weren’t very many roads serving the fledgling Post Office west of the Mississippi in 1839 but upper East Tennessee and southwest Virginia had roads from Kingsport to a number of small towns, including Paperville – about where Bristol would later be founded - and Blountsville. No road to Johnson City because there was not yet a Johnson City.

Abingdon, Rogersville and Jonesboro appear to be thriving communities as does Greenville, which hadn’t yet acquired its distinguishing middle “e.”

Greene County had the “e” but not the city.

Other 1839 towns didn’t thrive and are now lost to history.

Ever heard of Rockhold’s Store? Or Gustavus?

Of particular interest: Kingsport is located in Powell County, which was sandwiched in between Sullivan County and Hawkins County.

Powell County was home to Kingsport, Pactolus, New Canton and Fall Branch. Powell County didn’t survive either.

Leesburg, just west of Jonesboro (before it became Jonesborough) appears to be a town of some significance. It was. It was home to the DeVault Tavern, which is still standing but is now a private residence.

I’m very familiar with Leesburg. My Uncle Luther lived there. He knew the owners of the DeVault Tavern and took me there once – about 1980. The owners showed me a map of Leesburg that must have dated to around the time of the post road map. It looked like a prosperous small town with a handful of streets and lots laid out in a grid. I knew from all my visits to Uncle Luther that there were no streets or neighborhoods in Leesburg. In 1980 Leesburg was home to a dozen farms and one store, Dewey Waller’s General Store, at the intersection of Leesburg Road and Old Stagecoach Road.

Uncle Luther told me it was a map for the proposed town of Leesburg but the town was never built.

What happened? I asked.

“The railroad went through Jonesboro.”

 Powell County was on the Post Map as early as 1839 but the Tennessee legislature didn’t introduce legislation creating the county until Dec. 1869.

The official act read this way:

“An act to establish the county of Powell and for other purposes. Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Tennessee, that a new county be, and the same is hereby established by taking a part of the counties of Sullivan. Hawkins. Greene and Washington, with the county site at Fall Branch, and be known by the name of Powell county, in honor of Samuel Powell, late one of the Judges of the Circuit Court.”

There follows 679 words describing the county’s boundaries.

It’s a description that would only make sense to someone alive in 1869:

“Commencing at a poplar tree near the late widow Whetlock’s, on the Sullivan and Washington county lines” on to a Spanish oak then to “a black oak near Andrew Goins’ field.”

The act was passed into law in June 1870. (That same session also passed a law to tax dogs.)

But it never took. Almost ten years later the Morristown Gazette (June 22, 1879) would report: “We understand a movement is again being made to establish the county of Powell from parts of Hawkins, Sullivan, Washington and Greene, with the courthouse at Fall Branch. This Powell county seems to have as many lives as a cat. It has been killed four or five times in the last forty years.”

You can see the entire map at:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3700m.gct00185/?sp=3&r=0.458,0.351,0.076,0.036,0

Click on map to enlarge

The Tri-Cities A Half Century Later – 1881 Map from Killebrew's Large Map atlas

When you hear the name Twin Cities, you know what people are talking about: Minneapolis and St. Paul. Same, sort of, for the Quad Cities. You know it’s somewhere out there, maybe Iowa? But you’ve heard of it. (It’s actually in Iowa and Illinois and is composed of five cities – explain that one to me.)

If you are from Kingsport, Tri-Cities means only one thing.

But the first reference on Google is Tri-Cities, Washington.

There are many, many areas that call themselves the Tri-Cities.

There’s:

Tri-Cities, British Columbia, Canada - Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody.

Tri-Cities, Ontario, Canada - Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo.

Tri-Cities, Illinois - Geneva Batavia and St. Charles.

Tri-Cities, Michigan - Bay City, Saginaw, and Midland.

Tri-Cities, Nebraska - Grand Island, Kearney, and Hastings

Tri-Cities, New Hampshire - Dover, Somersworth, and Rochester.

Tri-Cities, Oklahoma - Tuttle, Newcastle, and Blanchard.

Tri-City, Oregon - Myrtle Creek, Canyonville and Riddle.

Tri-Cities, Virginia - Petersburg, Colonial Heights, and Hopewell.

Tri-Cities, Washington - Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick, Washington.

Ah, but only one has Tri-Cities airport. And that’s in, uh, Blountville, Tennessee.

So you can understand why Tri-Cities Tennessee is now looking to change it’s name.

Here’s the report from WJHL-TV in Johnson City:

TRI-CITIES (WJHL) - Local leaders want to change the name Tri-Cities and they're willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars to find the right replacement.

Johnson City commissioners voted unanimously to authorize an outside marketing firm to conduct a $48 thousand dollar study to research a new regional branding strategy.

"It needs to be right the first time and it doesn't surprise me that there would be some additional resources needed in order to do that," said Lori Payne, Kingsport Chamber of Commerce Chairman.

Johnson City Mayor Jenny Brock said that cost will be split between several localities who're collaborating to put the area on the map in a global economy.

"No one likes change, change is difficult," said Andy Dietrich, former chair of the Johnson City Chamber of Commerce. "We can't keep doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results."

He said the only area projected to grow in the next ten years is Washington County, Tennessee. The region as a whole is expected to decline economically, he said.

Dietrich sees regional branding as an opportunity to bring new business and tourism to town.

All of which reminds me of a joke told to me twenty years ago by Tom Jester:

You know the difference between a rain forest and a jungle? Marketing.

Kingsport’s Most Famous Sears Roebuck Home

Nancy Garrett opened up the Wall Street Journal on May 15, 2006 and did a double take. There on the front page was a picture of her home.

Well, not exactly her home, but a house that was a spitting image of her home.

“I called my daughter and I said, ‘Honey, our house is on the front page of the Wall Street Journal!’”

The Journal had published a story about Sears’ homes, pre-fabricated houses that Sears Roebuck sold through its catalog beginning in 1908.

Nancy’s home, The Glen Falls model, was featured on the cover of the 1926 Sears “Honor Bilt Modern Homes” catalog, and the Journal had picked that particular catalog cover to illustrate its article. The Glen Falls was described as an “exclusive and pleasing Dutch Colonial Home, picturesque, hospitable and dignified,” with nine rooms and a porch.

Catalog number C3245, the Glen Falls came already cut and fitted and could be built on a 60-foot wide lot.

Sears sold some 70,000 kit homes in 370 designs during the thirty years the company was in the pre-fab home business. They were shipped via railroad boxcar complete with nails and a 75-page instruction manual. (You had to supply your own hammer.)

Nancy’s house was originally built by Pace Construction for Arthur Doggett.

“He was president of J. Fred Johnson (department store) and J. Fred lived next door. J. Fred’s first wife was a sister of Arthur Doggett.”

The Journal article noted that many Sears’s home owners were trying to document their house’s origins. Each piece came with a framing number but Nancy said she had never found a framing number anywhere on her house.

She thought that was perhaps because the house had been modified extensively.

Nancy’s house was built sometime between 1926, when The Glen Falls model was introduced, and 1929 when Arthur Doggett’s daughter Ruth had a birthday party with the house in the background of the birthday photo.

The house was next door to the Johnson mansion and Nancy said, “When Mr. Johnson died, Mrs. Johnson said the big house was too much and they switched houses.” The Garretts bought the “Sears’ home” from the Doggetts.

The Wall Street Journal wasn’t the first time it had been a cover home. Nancy said that one year it was on the cover of the Kingsport phone book, as an example of Pace Construction’s work.

Sears has often been called the Amazon of its day. It’s not well-known but Amazon also sells home building kits. You can buy a 1000-square-foot three-bedroom, one-bath home on Amazon for $63,965. Beware the fine print: “Additional Materials Required.”

The Glenn Falls model sold for $4,398 in 1926. My favorite inflation calculator tells me that is $63,248 in today’s dollars., almost exactly the same as the EcoHousesmart log house on Amazon. But the Glenn Falls had two stories, four bedrooms and a den. Obviously you got a lot more for you money with a Sears house in 1926. And nails were included.

Ruth Doggett's sixth birthday party in 1929 - posing in front of the family's Sears home. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Wright. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Added 3 p.m. April 8, 2019

Sears maintains an archive of Sears homes that are still standing. It's a voluntary registry so it's far from complete. There are two Glen Falls models on the registry, one in Dayton, Ohio, the other in Amenia, New York. 

You can check out the Sears Home Registry at:

http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/enthusiasts.jsp

Skip Smith, Who Kept Alive The Memory Of The Dutch Boy Grill

RIP 1950-2019

When it came to the Dutch Boy Grill, Skip Smith was the keeper of the flame.

The Dutch Boy closed years ago but Skip, whose father and uncle founded the legendary drive in, keep the Dutch Boy and its recipes alive through a succession of local diners, from the Dairy Cup in Mt. Carmel to Skip’s Diner to more recently Skip’s Burgers and Ice Cream near Allandale.

The original Dutch Boy, which opened in 1948 on what was then Johnson City Highway, was famous for many things: as a teen hangout, as a hamburger joint but most of all as a chili dog haven.

That chili dog is still fondly remembered half a century after Garland, Skip’s dad, and his brother Clyde sold the place to Nick Nave who turned it into a chicken shack.

Twelve years ago I visited Skip at his home for a taste of the real thing, a Dutch Boy chili dog, prepared by Skip himself.

Skip told me there was one problem: you can’t recreate the Dutch Boy Chili dog, you can only approximate it. That’s because the ingredients have changed since the fifties. Skip served me Dutch Boy Chili on a Valleydale Honee Weenee. “But that’s not the same as the Valleydale Honee Weenee we used in the fifties. There’s no Red Dye Number 3 in it.” So it doesn’t have that wonderful bright red color nor does it have the taste since modern hot dogs are made with a healthier blend of meats.

Skip said there was another problem: “You can’t find ground beef with fresh suet in it. So there’s no juice and juice is chili.”

Skip recorded the original recipe on the back of a bank deposit slip. He told me I could publish the ingredients just not the quantities. And I agreed since you can’t really duplicate the chili anyway.

Dutch Boy Chili ingredients: Hamburger, chili powder, paprika, garlic salt, salt, red pepper.

The Dutch Boy chili hot dog Skip served me that day in 2007 took me back to 1958, when the Dutch Boy was serving chili dogs to hundreds of customers a week. I was one of them.
Skip died last Thursday. 

CLEANING OUT MY DESK – COLUMNS I NEVER GOT AROUND TO PUBLISHING

When I retired as metro columnist for the Kingsport Times News on Sept. 23, 2018, I still had a hopper full of almost-finished, half-finished and half-baked columns.

Over the next few weeks, or months, or maybe even years, I plan to clean out my digital desk and post those columns on my blog. Some are in more finished form than others but none will be a string of nonsensical phrases. (I already published those in the paper.)

So watch this blog space for the Columns I Never Got Around to Publishing.

Feel free to share this link with friends, family, in-laws or outlaws.

(This was scheduled to be my column for Sept. 23, but then I retired.)

It sounds like the headline on one of the Times News’ annual April Fool’s Day pranks:

ELEPHANTS SPOTTED IN FALL BRANCH PASTURE!

But it’s true.

I first heard about it from Dana Light, Jr.

“My cousin Sherry Crowder and I were talking recently about the time when our fathers and another uncle and our grandmother were sharecroppers on Rome Brandon's farm located on the Horton Highway below Fall Branch. They were living in the house across Lick Creek where later Buf Staten lived after World War II.”

(By the by, as an aunt of mine would say, Buf Staten was my grandfather’s brother.)

 “During their time living there Rome Brandon's son Richard (Dick) Brandon worked for a circus as a front man who went ahead of the circus and booked the event. One winter possibly during the 30's the circus wintered on the farm with their animals. Elephants and zebras and so on lived in the big barn close to the creek and a man from the circus lived there and looked after the animals.”

Dana adds, “My dad and uncles helped with feeding and so forth. I remember, and so does Sherry, hearing them talking about people passing and seeing the big elephants in the pasture field below the barn and stopping to look.”

I’m sure lots of folks stopped and gaped at elephants and zebras grazing the pastures in Fall Branch. That would have been way out of the ordinary.

I dug around and discovered that it was the Richard Bros. Circus that wintered in Fall Branch in 1939.

The circus was owned by E.E. Wetzel and Dick Brandon, both of Fall Branch. They bought it in 1938 and made a go of it for two years. They were forced to fold in 1940 while set up in Alabama. The assets - by then down to six trucks and an old tent - were sold to the Mills Brothers, whose Mills Bros. Circus lasted till 1966.

The elephants were owned and trained by Captain Ali Ben Bowman, who claimed to have learned his skills when his father was in India.

The circus wintered in Fall Branch only that one season.

But it was the talk of the town and written up several times in the newspaper. When the show hit the road that spring, it played first in Kingsport.

XXX

The Richard Bros. Circus was founded around 1919 by one of the Ringling heirs, who didn't want to use the family name.

There’s another Kingsport area connection Richard Brothers Circus. Kinnie Wagner, who would later become famous as the Outlaw Kinnie Wagner, joined the Richard Brothers Circus in 1919 when it was playing in Clinchport.

(These columns are copyrighted and may not be rebroadcast, reproduced or republished without the express written consent of the Commissioner of Baseball.)