All Hallows

It's All Hallows Eve - Halloween - so of course I'm going to show you a cemetery.

This is the First Presbyterian Church cemetery downtown, the oldest cemetery in Knoxville city limits. It's a very pretty place to walk, not spooky at all. At least in the daytime.

The church was organized in the 1790s. James White, one of the pioneer founders of Knoxville, donated his turnip patch for the church and cemetery. The earliest headstone is dated 1800. Some prominent East Tennesseans such as James White and first governor William Blount are buried here. During the Civil War, Conferderate soldiers occupied the graveyard, and Union soldiers occupied the church. That must have been awkward.

I haven't heard any good haunt stories about this graveyard, but I'm not about to stick around tonight to find out either.

Spotlight

One more from Hollerpalooza. The music for this little street festival was continuous - and fantastic. Here's the last act of the night - local favorite Cruz Contreras delights the crowd with a spirited blend of country and bluegrass music. I took a lot of photos of the band, but I like this one the best because of the lighting. Maybe he's about to ascend in a tractor beam to the Mothership.

Happy Hollerpalooza

OK, so I'm a few weeks late posting this, but I wanted to show you the annual street fair in the Old North Knoxville neighborhood. This little block on Central Avenue was once known as Happy Holler (or Happy Hollow, to people like me who ain't-from-around-here), and in it's day at the turn of the last century it was apparently a den of iniquity, a concentration of saloons and houses of ill repute.

Happy Holler gradually faded into a forgotten neighborhood, a marginal area of empty storefronts and the occasional prostitute wandering the street looking for business. But what you see in this photo is revival. Not to mention a cool motorcycle.

I've posted photos before of the Time Warp Tea Room, and Mr Freezo, the tiny ice cream shop. But this block also houses an eclectic mix of other businesses and organizations including the Taoist Tai Chi Society, the XYZ gay bar, the Angelic Ministry that feeds the homeless, a pet shop, and some antique and second hand shops. A new vegetarian restaurant is set to open soon.

The city also has it's redevelopment eye on Central Avenue, and I'm very ambivalent about that. What gains we make in gentrification are often offset by what we lose in unique local color.

Big Wheel

The Star of Knoxville paddlewheel riverboat cruises down the Tennessee River on a misty autumn morning. It's time for the fall colors sightseeing cruise, and once the mist burns off, you may actually see some color.

Oh No

I was walking down the street minding my own business, when this poster in the window of a local shop stopped me dead in my tracks and made me laugh with Halloween-y glee. Perhaps I should attend my memorial service. I imagine few people have that opportunity. I wonder if they'll have cake.

This seems like a good time to tell you all about my adopted nom de blog. There's an old Appalachian ballad known around these parts as "The Knoxville Girl." It's thought to be a derivation of a 19th century Irish murder ballad called "The Wexford Girl."

The ballad begins pretty innocuously:

I met a little girl in Knoxville

A town we all know well

And every Sunday evening

Out in her home I'd dwell.

Unfortunately, the story goes downhill from there:

We went to take an evening walk

About a mile from town

I picked a stick up off the ground

And knocked that fair girl down.

To make a long ballad short, he kills her, throws her in the river, she floats down to Knoxville, and he's put in jail for her murder. This is Halloween material, to sing by the light of a full moon.

And yes, I knew this when I chose my name. Blame it on my black sense of humor. Or living in the town that brought you the Body Farm.

Now, where's that cake?

Transom Glass

The transom window in the Preservation Pub is lined with shelves of antique glass bottles. They are especially lovely to look at when the afternoon light streams in.

I saw a shocking announcement on a poster that I'll show you tomorrow - it's all Halloween-y.

Knoxlantis

Way down under the ocean there is a kingdom called Knoxlantis. I cruised its silent streets yesterday in my Toyota Bathosphere looking for a bite to eat. I hydroplaned sideways into the parking lot of the local diner. The neon sign said "Friday Special! All You Can Eat Fishcakes and Saltwater Taffy!" That was my kind of place. I slid into a booth and placed my order. The coffee was watery - and decaf. I fell asleep ...

... and woke up on Union Avenue. Staring at the water droplets streaming down the windshield, I sighed and started the engine, with distant echoes of Knoxlantis rippling half-remembered in my thoughts.