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1978 was a wildly important year.
Space Invaders came out, starting everything video game that would follow. A gallon of gas cost 63 cents and Star Wars was playing in theaters. The first test tube baby and the first cellular phone both made their debut.
Most importantly, 1978 was the year I discovered Dungeons & Dragons. I was eight and into Marvel Comic's version of Conan the Barbarian. Obsessed with it, in fact.
A neighbor buddy took me over to the house of one of his friends, a kid named Sean, and they pulled out this battered old blue copy of the original TSR game that belonged to Sean's older brother who was now in the Navy.
Every fan of RPG's knows exactly what happened next—I was hooked.
I played D&D through middle school. I played a lot through high school.
Then life happened.
I went from the infantry to wildland fire crews to fishing boats in Alaska. From there I got married and worked as both an EMT and security on the Las Vegas strip.
All through that time I didn't play.
I kept buying gaming books of every stripe. I kept running into people just like me who had played a lot when they were younger (and who invariably still had their books) but who had stopped as life paths lead them a meandering route.
Then I had a son. Then I had another. Eventually I'd have another and, as I write this, number four is on the way, and I'm led to believe this one might be a girl. (Thank God for my poor wife.)
I carved out a career for myself as a writer of all sorts of fiction, most recently a Dungeons & Dragons novel for young readers called Aldwyns Academy.
One summer day not too long ago, my then 8-year old came walking out with an original Monster Manual and asked: "Dad, what's this?"
What was this? What was this?
It was only just the best thing ever for an 8-year old boy.
As providence would have it my son Cameron is born on my birthday, just as I was born on my maternal grandfather's birthday.
(That day also happens to be the one in 1867 when General Custer had his unfortunate moment at Little Big Horn—but I'm almost positive there's no correlation.)
The point is that, minus a few weeks, my 8-year old son and I found Dungeons & Dragons at almost exactly at the same age.
My 7-year old wanted to play the game too. And so I agreed to run a game for them.
My oldest son (the gentle giant) became a fighter: alignment chaotic. My 7-year old (the non-emotive pensive) became a magic-user; alignment lawful.
This fits them in real life to such a T that I burst out laughing at the time they rolled up the characters. It's like a sort of slightly tweaked version of Raistlin and his brother in Dragonlance.
I was the Dungeon Master—for the first time in I don't know how many years.
The first thing I learned, though it took awhile for it to sink in, was that, rule modifications and incarnations aside, that while D&D hadn't changed—I had. Put simply, I was a parent and as any parent can tell you, the prism through which you see the world changes.
Dungeons & Dragons is a cultural phenomenon for certain reasons, but those reasons are as varied as the people who experience it. The reason I became enamored with the game all over again, this time through the eyes of my parental glasses was because I could see the great things it was doing for my children.
The book I wrote, Aldwyns Academy, is a book at its heart about choices, how we make them, the external influences that go into decisions, and why we make those choices. Set at a wizardry school, the main protagonist, Dorian, is a somewhat lackluster wizardry student who often doesn't make the correct choices, but his heart is usually in the right place. He lives in the shadow of his mother who is a respected wizard, and the adventure he has while trying to solve the mystery of why Aldwyns Academy is being overrun with ghosts and dire wolves, helps him to step out of his mother's shadow and claim his own power as an individual as well as learning to cooperate with his friends.
It wasn't until I watched my own kids playing Dungeons & Dragons that I realized how much the story mirrored the game.
From start to finish, Dungeons & Dragons is a gaming experience about choices, making decisions under hypothetical pressure. I was able to watch my kids struggle to do the right thing for their characters as they weighed out consequences and risk vs. reward thought processes. And, most marvelous of all, I saw how the adventure gave them confidence in their own choices, even as they turned to each other, to develop as a team in the face of common adversity.
Playing the game, together, was a bonding experience. It didn't just strengthen their imaginations, it strengthened their relationship as brothers.
And perhaps more selfishly on my part, I realized it did something I was very interested in; it strengthened our relationship.
We understood each other. We were bonded not just by family ties but by common experience. It is a sense of connection you can't fake, it's organic and it either happens or it doesn't.
When it does happen, it's one of the best feelings a parent can have.
Now, when I'm too busy to run a game (which is way too often for my taste), the boys are likely to bust out the D&D mechanics to jazz up their Heroscape battles.
Toy soldiers are just as liable to be rolled up with stats. The 7-year old is a talented little artist and he devours the new Monster Manual, drawing manticores and ogre mages, and dragons with surprising discipline.
Most significantly to me is the fact that they are now just as likely to do these things as they are to reach for a screen—be that screen a Gameboy, a laptop, or the television. They are just as likely now to use the screen of their own imaginations as they are an electronic one, and that is worth the price of admission every time.
Dungeons & Dragons isn't something my children play through me, or because of me, anymore. It is simply something, like boogey boarding and watching kung-fu movies, we do together.
If you'd told me in 1978 that I'd still be having this much fun, thirty plus years later, playing the same game with my own kids I'd have been knocked me over so hard my jelly-smeared Han Solo action figure would have gone flying.
The sense of wonder never goes away.
You can suppress it but you can't kill it, and it's infectious. It can be passed on and, if my experience is any indication, it should be passed on.
Thirty years from now, it could be my own grandson experiencing the thrill of rolling a natural 20 exactly when you need it.
I think that would be pretty great.


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A water main break disrupted traffic and business in a central portion of the city Wednesday morning.
Water was flooding into the street at the intersection of Charles and 20th streets in the Charles North neighborhood. According to the Baltimore City Fire Department's Twitter page, the 60-inch water main break took place around 8:45 a.m.
The city is asking motorists to avoid the intersection and immediately surrounding streets, WBAL reported.
» Get real-time traffic updates here.
The fire department said crews were "inspecting homes for water impact."
Have photos of water in the streets? Post them here.
Stay with Patch for updates.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Donald E. Westlake's greatest literary creation, Parker, was first played on-screen by Lee Marvin in "Point Blank" (1967). Marvin's collaboration with first-time feature director John Boorman was wonderfully fertile, giving birth to some indelible cinematic moments. Boorman encouraged Marvin to remain so silent, to suppress his intentions so deeply, that costar Angie Dickinson became totally frustrated in their scenes. Finally, Boorman encouraged Dickinson to unleash her anger by physically attacking Marvin.


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UCSF neurosurgeons and an MRI physicist have pioneered a faster, more accurate and less invasive surgical technique for treating patients with movement disorders, potentially changing the future of neurosurgery.
Latest News
February 03, 2011
January 18, 2011
UCSF researchers have tackled a decade-long scientific conundrum, and their discovery is expected to lead to significant advances in using stem cells to treat genetic diseases before birth.
November 30, 2010
Richard Abbott, MD, won an award for excellence in ophthalmology in the Asia-Pacific region following work to promote uniform global standards for eye care.
September 28, 2010
Surgical patients with known heart disease risks who are given beta blockers around the time of surgery have a significantly reduced risk of post-operative death compared with patients not given beta blockers, according to a study by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
August 05, 2010
Surgery for localized prostate cancer offers a significantly higher survival rate than either external-beam radiation or hormonal therapies, according to a new study led by researchers at UCSF.
August 03, 2010
UCSF has challenged Stanford in a competition to register organ, eye and tissue donors that runs throughout the month of August.
May 20, 2010
Mitchell Cohen, MD, UCSF assistant professor of surgery, has received a $225,000 research grant from the National Trauma Institute to investigate the timing and mechanism of traumatic coagulopathy.
March 31, 2010
In April 2010, personnel aboard the International Space Station plan to carry out an experiment designed by a San Francisco VA Medical Center researcher that will investigate why the immune system's T cells stop working in the absence of gravity. The experiment has implications for understanding the body's ability to mount an immune response on earth, as well.
March 24, 2010
The occurrence of an unusual type of fracture of the femur, or the thigh bone, is very low in patients with osteoporosis, including those treated with the drug family known as bisphosphonates, according to a new study led by a team of UCSF epidemiologists.
March 18, 2010
Taking an innovative path toward personalized medicine, scientists for the first time will be able to eliminate – at an early point in a clinical trial — experimental drugs that show poor efficacy, dramatically shortening the time it takes to get the right medication to the right patient with breast cancer.


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By Adam Hetrick
A Murder
26 Aug 2013
"The murder scene at the end of Act Two features Injun Joe, Doc Robinson, and Muff Potter (the town drunk) excitedly digging up a chest of gold from behind a grave in the cemetery. At first sight of the gold, a fight begins. Muff has drunk so much he passes out, but the other two fight to the death. A knife appears, and Injun Joe stabs Doc, places the bloody knife in the hand of the unconscious Muff, and steals away with the chest of treasure – all under the twinkling stars. The music must not only be exciting and support the violence of the fight choreography, it has to imprint itself on our memory because I must have Tom dance a version of it during the Trial as his testimony, when he later 'describes' (in dance) the action, the thrusts of the knife, and the truth of who actually committed the crime."
"A Murder"
A Murder


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Palestine native and Westwood High School 1992 graduate Angie Kenley was recently named the Secondary Teacher of the Year from the inaugural Abilene Education Foundation's Teachers in the Limelight Celebration.
Kenley, daughter of Ted and Ginger Sweetman of Palestine, won $1,400 along with the award. The 10-year teaching veteran teaches seventh grade at Craig Middle School in Abilene.
The awards, which also went to three other teachers in other categories, were funded through the generosity of Abilene High School 1940 valedictorian Edwin Jennings Jr. The event featured 17 nominated elementary teachers, eight secondary teachers, and 11 math and science teachers.
Out of the teaching profession for four years due to the economy in 1999, Kenley worked two years in Houston as a teacher away from her husband — who was in Abilene — to get back into the profession. She then was able to reunite with her husband in Abilene when she was hired by Mann Middle School in Abilene in 2006. In 2008, she transferred to Craig Middle School due to Mann downsizing in their English department.
"This coming school year will be my fifth year working as an English Language Arts teacher at Craig Middle School, and I absolutely love it there. I have never attended a school where all faculty and staff enjoy working together, love their job, and have amazing school spirit," Kenley said.
After graduating from Westwood High School, Kenley attended Tyler Junior College and graduated with an Associates in Liberal Arts degree. She then transferred to Abilene Christian University and majored in Interdisciplinary Studies and received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1996.
She began her teaching career in the Alief Independent School District in 1997 in Houston. Later, she became certified in 4-8 English Language Arts.
"I figured I would be more marketable plus I truly enjoy teaching specifically ELA," Kenley said.
For Kenley, teaching is her calling.
"Educating children is my passion. Motivation is essential in encouraging them to learn new concepts and explore their unique gifts. A safe, comfortable, and positive environment is vital to help students discover that learning can be a fun experience," Kinley said. "It is so rewarding to see my students grow and blossom into lifelong, successful learners."
One of the reasons Kenley enjoys teaching is because all throughout her younger years as a student, she struggled to maintain her grades.
"I did struggle as a student growing up. Learning was a challenge for me, and I had to work hard for my grades. However, that challenge allows me to nurture my students in a special way, for I know what many of my struggling students go through," Kenley said. "I love what I do, and I am so proud to be a part of Abilene ISD."
Living in Abilene, she and her husband, Anson, have two children, Autumn, 3, and Austin, 2.
Flipping Her Classroom
Kenley has a blog about how she has flipped her classroom. The blog also has a clip of her receiving the award for Teacher of the Year at Craig Middle School and when she received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award for Abilene ISD.
Her blog is: www.mrskenleyflippedelar.blogspot.com


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Muskogee city officials are right to give QuikTrip additional time to determine all of the consequences of building here.
The city of Muskogee has agreed to sell a parcel on the southwest corner of the U.S. 69-Shawnee Bypass intersection.
A recent environmental review revealed the site may "contain waters of the United States."
That means the QuikTrip officials will have to obtain Clean Water Act permits from the U.S. Corps of Engineers.
The Corps will have to be satisfied that any new construction will not cause contaminants to flow into a nearby creek and wind up downstream in bigger bodies of water.
The problem is not unusual.
That the situation could prohibit QuikTrip from building on that corner is a worst case scenario.
That corner seems to have tremendous economic growth potential.
And QuikTrip would seem to be the best option to encourage the other three corners to be developed, too.
QuikTrip has asked for extra time to assess the consequences of the new information.
The city has agreed to extra time.
That was the right move.
That intersection has not produced any kind of tax revenue for decades.
A month or a few more months won't matter much.
Walking away early from the kind of tenant Muskogee should seek for that corner would be a problem.
Muskogee should continue to support QuikTrip until QuikTrip is satisfied that returning to the Muskogee market is the right idea.


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One of the criticisms of Generation X is our lack of a fiscal IQ, paired with an entitled attitude that leads us to credit/debt. The negative net worth Generation X has amassed limits our options, chains us to the lenders we owe, and ruins the quality of our lives. Many of us have witnessed our home values evaporate, retirement accounts are either non-existent or have fizzled, and personal debt has spiraled out of control due to the marketing of credit cards, equity lines, student loans, and 0% interest a.k.a free money (remember free is never free).
After we fill our financial IQ tank with knowledge, the next step for us is to stop this precipitous slide. We can change the next generation by installing a financial IQ in their operating system. I'm not talking about allowances, and please ignore the cries of "I want it" while washing yourselves of that parent guilt. Take a bold step to arm your kids with an understanding of how money works, and that can allow them to change the world.
In our house, the financial education for our kids is a hands-on event, no preach and listen in our house - with two energetic boys, I imagine that would prove fruitless. Nope, we use a "commission" chart that outlines the available work to be performed for a week. The salary for work is negotiable, based on the effort and quality of the work performed. Generally though, a job or commission has a base rate of 25 cents. They have over 10 bucks in commissions available to them, jobs that range from feeding pets, sweeping floors, and washing windows. Keeping rooms clean, beds made, and homework done are "have-to-do's". Neither Mom nor Dad pay on the "have-to-do's".
They also have the freedom to create new work that isn't on the sheet. The lesson here is disregard the list of jobs supplied, create new ones or innovate existing ones and enjoy more success. Pay day is on Friday. They gather their charts and we sit down and discuss compensation. They are empowered to negotiate for more, or evaluate their efforts as "not good Dad" and except less. When money is doled put, the first dollar goes in their "giving" envelope, the second in their "saving" envelope, and the third in their wallet for free spending ( if they choose they can skip this and give or save more). Saturday is our day we go to the bank, and they deposit their hard earned cash, and we take advantage of the immediate reward from watching their accounts grow.
Bottom line, they are in control. They make work decisions that lead to financial reward, and then make conscious decisions about where their money goes. We do not buy them toys; they use their "wallet money" as my four year old dubs it, to buy the things they want. Work, create, innovate, get paid, give, save, spend; that is the equation we use to create a financial IQ that may one day make a big impact on this world.


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Miss South Carolina USA lost the bid to become Miss USA Sunday. Megan Pinckney, 22, got to the top 5 in the Miss USA beauty pageant Sunday, but struggled to impress the celebrity judges enough to win the crown.
She was named fifth runner-up in the competition. Erin Brady, 25, representing Connecticut, won the title in Las Vegas. Brady gets the crown and a New York apartment for a year.
Pinckney, 22, is a native of Charleston and a student at the University of South Carolina. In 2010, she served as Miss South Carolina Teen USA; she is the fourth woman in that organization to serve top honors in the teen and main competition. In 2011, Pinckney was a top 15 finalist in the 2011 Miss South Carolina pageant.
She serves as a legislative aide to state Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland.
The state's Republication governor, Nikki Haley, set aside partisanship for Pinckney, who is a Democrat, and cheered her on Sunday evening.
Ali Rogers, who was the first runner-up in the 2013 Miss America contest, was rooting for her friend on Twitter: @RealMissSCusa looks SO great. Really proud of her for representing what a fit, HEALTHY young woman should look like.
One of Pinckney's ambitions is to have lunch with First Lady Michelle Obama, and "grow up to be" like her.
During the final round, Pinckney talked about distributing gifts to children last Christmas, and how the best part was seeing the look on the parents' faces.
"I think this is the biggest thing I've ever done," she told The State last week. But she struggled when asked if treason was a reasonable charge for someone who had revealed national secrets.
Interview with Miss SC USA Megan Pinckney
The final question, in which Miss Utah USA stirs up painful memories of a flubbed answer by a previous pageant contestant from South Carolina
Commentary on Miss Utah USA's flubbed answer
Forgotten in the Miss Utah USA question hubbub: A real answer to the question
Preliminary competition
The top 5 revealed


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July 31, 2014
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO)-- Prior to Tuesday's win over Grand Junction, Central's volleyball team was win-less in their six previous matches.
After a 3-1 victory over Delta Thursday night, Central has won two consecutive matches and they closing in on a .500 record for the season.
Central faces Fruita Monument in a league contest on Tuesday.
KKCO firmly believes in freedom of speech for all and we are happy to provide this forum for the community to share opinions and facts. We ask that commenters keep it clean, keep it truthful, stay on topic and be responsible. Comments left here do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of KKCO 11News.powered by Disqus


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Publish with Us
Submit a Proposal | Our Editors
With over 800 books in print since its establishment in 1984, Island Press is a leading publisher of environmental solutions and information. Each year, we publish new books on such vital topics as climate and energy, ecosystems, the built environment, and policy, economics, and law. Our editorial team looks for the best new ideas about how to protect the environment, working closely with partners in the education and environmental communities—including leading scholars, non-profits, public officials, and community leaders—to develop innovative, empowering works that address unmet informational needs.
What We Publish
Island Press publishes nonfiction books, textbooks, and electronic publications on environmental issues and solutions. This includes works in the following subject areas:
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To determine whether your book proposal is a good fit for Island Press, please see our list of acquisitions editors and browse our catalog. We generally do not publish work outside the subject areas covered by our editors. Please note that we do not publish fiction, poetry, or books for children or young adults.


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a step to farthebigb59 Oct 5, 2011 10:32 AM (in response to dfhfh)
I agree, that is taking it abit to far, but to some COD is their life, they don't know there is a world outside, full of zombies and evil russians
Re: a step to farjustinsanev2 Oct 5, 2011 11:46 AM (in response to dfhfh)
Re: a step to farrankismet Oct 5, 2011 12:29 PM (in response to justinsanev2)
Re: a step to farcolonelboston Oct 5, 2011 11:10 AM (in response to dfhfh)
It's just one of those things that if you don't like it, just ignore it. I wouldn't ever use it, but if that's what other people want to do, that's their deal.
Re: a step to farwinzow Oct 5, 2011 12:26 PM (in response to dfhfh)
Having something to do while I'm passing idle time is great. I can now add it to my list of 'to do' along with Reddit, Twitter and a thousand other things I have on my phone.
Re: a step to farUnknownDarnell Oct 5, 2011 1:14 PM (in response to dfhfh)
Its a good idea. You at school and your just sitting around. you can watch and edit some of your videos. You come up with a class you can make 1 instead of forgetting like i usually would. Honestly its not needed but its for fun.
Re: a step to farsdrol117 Oct 5, 2011 6:15 PM (in response to dfhfh)
Yes, you are above us all, even though you also joined the CoD forums. It's a feature, get over yourself, just because you won't use it doesn't mean other people will not.


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By MAUREEN HAYDEN
CNHI Statehouse Bureau
INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Mike Pence's call in his State of the State speech to make vocational education a priority in every high school in Indiana struck a nerve with 75-year-old Bill Beach.
Since 2007, the founder of Beach Mold & Tool has tripled his work force to 600 at his manufacturing operations in New Albany, and sees more demand coming soon for the tools and plastic parts that his company makes.
But he can't find enough qualified employees to work on his assembly lines or in some the supervisory and technical jobs that pay up to $30 an hour.
"We're ready to hire people every day," Beach said. "But our biggest challenge is finding people with the skills and with the work ethic to do the job."
Beach knows the value of a good vocational education firsthand. As Pence recounted in his State of the State speech — to an audience that included Beach and his wife, Juanita — Beach was sent off for vocational training in high school by his father, who thought Beach was "good with his hands" but not smart enough to go to college.
Beach came out of that high school work-ready: He got a job as a machinist and later, with his wife, started his own company. An older brother who went off to college to get an engineering degree later came back to work for Beach.
Vocational education — in which students focus on skilled trades that require an increasing amount of technical know-how — can provide students "with a pathway to success," Pence said in his State of State speech. "It can launch entrepreneurs, give kids a reason to finish high school and create a well-qualified work force that will encourage business to build here and grow here."
Pence's plan to boost career, vocational and technical education in Indiana high schools is driven by the "skills gap" that leaves employers like Beach frustrated. Despite a high unemployment rate — 8.2 percent in Indiana — there are manufacturing jobs that are going unfilled.
The exact number of jobs that are empty because employers can't find workers with the right abilities is hard to track. But the U.S. Department of Labor reports more there are more than 300,000 factory jobs waiting to be filled. In December, Indiana's work force development office reported more than 7,000 manufacturing jobs that were unfilled.
State Rep. Steve Stemler, a Democrat from Jeffersonville, said he was "very encouraged and supportive" of Pence's initiative to strengthen vocational training, both in high school and beyond. Stemler, who heads a family-owned plumbing company that does both residential and commercial work, knows the need.
"We need to hire four additional well-trained plumbers right now," Stemler said. "But we're not able to find the workers with the proper skills sets."
Republican State Rep. Ed Clere of New Albany, who sits on the House education committee, also is a supporter of the plan. In 2011, Clere introduced a successful measure to give schools a $900 bonus grant for each technical honors diploma they award. Schools already received a $900 grant for awarding an academic honors diploma, but they didn't receive any financial incentive for awarding a technical honors diploma.
Clere said the change helped underscore the value of technical and vocational education.
"Too often, technical and vocational education has been stigmatized or viewed as less valuable than a college or university track," Clere said. "In fact, it's every bit as valuable, and we need to treat it that way."
There are high schools around Indiana that offer vocational and technical training, but Pence's plan calls for them to strengthened and tied more directly to the demand for higher skilled workers.
He wants, for example, for there to be much more engagement from employers who can help local school corporations design what he calls "demand-driven curriculum" focused on skills that lead to higher-paying jobs and offer the potential for advancement. Those employers would also offer apprenticeships and internships that could lead to full-time employment.
Pence's plan calls for an additional $18 million to be devoted to vocational education over the next two years. That's on top of the $103 million already in his proposed education budget to be spent on vocational training in the state's high schools.


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Investors: Expect Volatility, Continued Uncertainty
Even as fiscal-cliff hope grows, unanswered questions will keep investors on edge.
[Read: Is the Economic Recovery Real?]
According to Kirchenbauer, there are a growing number of positive economic trends, and consumers are generally feeling better about the direction of the market. But a clear course toward greener pastures is far away. "The trends are moving the right direction—they're just moving very slowly. It's not quick enough for all of these people who have been out of work. And we have businesses sitting on their hands ... A year from now, we'll have a much better sense of where we're going," she says.
But Kirchenbauer adds that many of her clients are moving forward with life plans that have been on hold due to the tepid economic recovery. "In general, consumers are spending. We're moving on with our lives. The investor and the consumer are fed up with the slow recovery," she says.
Her advice for them: "Focus on what you can control. You can control your spending. You can control your job choices. You can decide to start a family. Trying to figure out where the tax code is going to be and where the market will go is impossible."


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Mountaintop removal mining devastates the landscape, turning areas that should be lush with forests and wildlife into barren moonscapes. In the past few decades, an area the size of Delaware has been flattened. Coal companies first raze an entire mountainside, ripping trees from the ground and clearing brush with huge tractors. This debris is then set ablaze as deep holes are dug for explosives.
Earthjustice has been in the courts and in Congress on behalf of other local and national environmental and community groups to stop this destructive practice and protect Appalachia for future generations. Learn more.
Photo: Mark Schmerling.


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If you are looking for great quality, style, and impressive handling in a scooter and the 2012 SYM HD 200 EVO is first and last place you need to look. With top of the line engine technology this scooter is not only fun but efficient. It can take you to and from shopping and work or for a long country drive. No matter where you go you will arrive in comfort and style. As much as you love to get on take it for a spin it is even better with a passenger. Yes, this ride fits two comfortably.
The engineers of SYM have brilliantly introduced ceramic coated cylinders into its engines. The HD 200 EVO has a powerful 171.2cc, four-stroke, single ceramic coated cylinder in this overhead valve (OHV) engine. The CDI electronic or optional kick-start makes it easy from the get go. Just jump on and get started with no fuss- no muss. As soon as the engine engages and you are ready the continuously variable transmission (CVT) makes a smooth transition from stop to go and back again. This is such a great feature for city living and commuting. But it is good for more than that as it hits speed above 70 miles an hour. However, have no fear because this little powerhouse has impressive stopping abilities with single hydraulic disc brakes featured in the front and rear. The 2.1 gallon gas tank can take you about 140 miles before you need to reach in that pocket to fill it up again. To cushion those bumps and divots of the road the 2012 HD 200 EVO is equip with telescopic fork suspension in the front and twin sided swing arm in the rear with an adjustable spring pre-load shock absorber. The seat sits a comfortable 31 inches high and keeps the driving in a relaxed upright position. Don't worry there is plenty of room and comfort for your passenger too. You will both fit nicely on this one piece cushion.
Overall, the 2012 SYM HD is an impressive scooter that delivers a reliable ride.


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Business in brief
ReFinery, a consignment store that celebrates eclectic taste and caters to women with diverse personal styles, recently relocated to 5402 Lakeside Ave. The store offers like-new, ready-to-wear condition apparel and accessories in sizes ranging from petite to plus that are current, classic and unusual. ReFinery will also offer a sampling of menswear and accessories and decorative items for the home or gifts. The business was established in 2008 and is locally owned. Store hours are Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Merchandise is accepted by appointment Tuesday-Friday. An open house will be held Saturday, March 31 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For details, call 266-8424 or visit http://www.refineryinc.com .
Certified Personal Trainer Donald Tate recently opened Tate Fitness Studio at 3850 Gaskins Rd., Suite 200. The facility specializes in overall wellness for diverse populations, including athletes, older adults and post-rehab patients. Tate has more than 10 years of experience with helping people set and achieve fitness goals, including weight management, strength training and injury prevention. Personal, group and couples training are available for all fitness levels from beginner to advanced. For more information, call 270-7878 or visit http://www.tatefit.com .
Rawls McNelis + Mitchell, a 16 year-old law firm specializing in complex medical cases, recently leased 6,000 square feet at 211 Rockett's Way in Rockett's Landing. The 14-lawyer firm will occupy the first two floors of the building that is currently home to the Rockett's Landing sales center, which will now relocate to the adjacent Cedar Works building. The firm expects to move in by the end of August.
The Richmond chapter of the National Association of Professional Women will host "Fundamental Principles for Successful SEO: A Business Woman's Guide" on Thursday, March 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Shackleford's, 10496 Ridgefield Pkwy. Travis Paull of Follow Media Consulting will present the program on search engine marketing and explain why it's important to develop a well-written, keyword targeted content for a website that is updated consistently and monitored for rankability. Paull will also explore concepts such as page-rank, visitor behavior, and how Google views human idiosyncrasies and break down the information at a level appropriate for those with little to no experience with SEO. There are no local dues. Purchase of lunch is suggested but not required. To register, visit http://www.facebook.com/groups/napwrichmondchapter .
Piedmont Independent Fiduciaries recently hired Sue Davis, a former Wachovia Securities leader, as the Glen Allen-based firm's new VP of Client Services and Operations. Davis will oversee compliance and regulatory efforts. For more information, visit http://www.pif401k.com .
Sarah Thomas, Southern States Cooperative, Inc. – West Broad Street Service, recently attended a comprehensive three-day training program designed to qualify employees as "Certified FeedMaster Specialists" for Southern States Cooperative, Inc. The rigorous training program is tied to the Southern States' FeedMaster program and is designed to augment the existing knowledge base of employees involved in advising the co-op's customers on issues related to feeding various types of animals. The program provides new and updated information and qualifies for continuing education units (CEUs) by the American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS), a national organization that certifies animal scientists through examination.
Carolyn Hall, a Glen Allen lia sophia advisor, recently traveled to the Dominican Republic for an all-expenses-paid "Rock Star Escape" trip for two at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana. Each year, the fashion jewelry direct seller selects a top luxury resort as an incentive destination to reward advisors who meet certain sales and recruiting goals.
Agents with Cushman & Wakefield Thalhimer recently handled the following lease negotiations: County of Henrico – leased 6,736 square feet in East Towne Plaza at 2901-2935 E. Williamsburg Rd.; Signs by Tomorrow-USA, Inc. – leased 6,325 square feet at 2036 Dabney Rd.; Mola Gebeye – leased an additional 1,520 square feet in their current location and now lease a total of 3,984 square feet at 4116 W. Broad St.; and SK Bedding – leased 2,160 square feet at 4116 W. Broad St.
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden raises admission $1
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden's admission has increased by $1 across all categories. Admission is now $12 for adults; $11 for seniors ages 55 and older; and $8 for children ages 3–12. Admission remains free for children ages 3 and younger and for members.
The last price increase was in 2011, before the Garden consistently hosted Butterflies LIVE! (which is included with admission). > Read more.
Garden tails
The threat of bad weather didn't keep visitors away from Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden July 10 for the facility's weekly Flowers After 5 event (which pairs music and food with a chance to stroll the garden) and its monthly Fidos After 5 (which allows dog owners to bring their pets with them to enjoy the evening). > Read more.
Western Henrico Rotary helps fund Midwives For Haiti Jeep
Thanks in part to a $10,000 gift from the Western Henrico Rotary Club, another bright pink Jeep modified to travel extremely rough terrain has been delivered to Midwives For Haiti so that more pregnant women in the quake-ravaged country will have access to prenatal care and a greater chance of surviving childbirth.
The funds were raised at the annual casino night held in February, club president Adam Cherry said. The Rotary Club also helped purchase the Virginia-based charity's first pink jeep three years ago. > Read more.
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US Army Field Band to perform in Henrico Aug. 3
The United States Army Field Band will present a free public performance at Deep Run Park in Henrico on Sunday, Aug 3 at 3 p.m.
Members of the band are soldiers who also serve as "musical ambassadors of the Army" and perform for schools and communities nationwide.
The Concert Band will be performing along with the Soldiers' Chorus. > Read more.
Weekend Top 10
Take in a show at several locations this weekend! West End Comedy will provide laughs at HATTheatre; the production of "Pump Boys and Dinettes" will close Sunday; and the youth theatre company CharacterWorks will present "Footloose" at The Steward School. Another show perfect for the kids – "Despicable Me 2" is playing at the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center tonight. For all our top picks this weekend, click here! > Read more.
Is there an Echo in here?
'Earth to Echo' aims to become this generation's 'ET'
It's no secret that all found-footage genre movies are the same. Grab a couple of characters, give one of them a camera, and expose them to something supernatural that's content to lurk just off-screen until the last five minutes. Everything else will just fall into place.
But that formula isn't particularly family friendly, if only because that thing waiting a few feet to the left of the cast is usually plotting their violent doom.
That's what sets Earth to Echo apart from the pack. It, too, follows a group of characters armed with a camera and a tendency to encounter unknown life forms. But all those familiar parts have been rearranged just enough to make it suitable for a much younger audience. > Read more.
More News
'Tis the season
Business in brief
Schools sales tax holiday returns this weekend
First Capital Bank to 'Stuff the Bus' in August
VBS offers giveaways to donors as part of 'Donor-Rita-Ville'
Hancock Fabrics to host grand opening event for White Oak store
Chamber, colleges unite to create intern clearinghouse
Southwest to complete its Richmond conversion
Obituary – Frances Alderman Farrar
Citizen seeks HS correspondents
- More Henrico News
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Memorial services for Guy Winston Rawson, III will be held today at 4 p.m. at Webb Funeral Home.
Mr. Rawson, 53, of Meridian, died Saturday at Rush Hospital.
He is survived by his son, Guy Winston Rawson, IV; daughter, Virginia L. Harmon; grandchildren, Guy Winston Rawson, V; Lee Harmon, Sara Belle Harmon, James B. Harmon, II, and Elijah C. Harmon; mother, Pansy Mosby; brothers, Steve Rawson and Charlie McCarra; and sister, Jennifer Davis.
He is preceded in death by his father, Guy Winston Rawson, Jr.
Family and friends may sign the online guestbook at www.jamesfwebb.com
Guy Winston Rawson, III


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Officials from Madison spent countless hours preparing the town for Sandy's strike. Following the storm, they put in even more hours to help keep residents stay safe and clean-up the mess. And then there was the nor'easter, dubbed Athena by the Weather Channel. Now a regional government agency is asking residents in Madison and surrounding towns to participate in a survey about disaster planning and preparedness.
"The South Central Regional Council of Governments [SCROG] has been awarded a grant from the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to develop a Multi-Jurisdiction Hazard Mitigation Plan for Bethany, Branford, Hamden, Madison, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge. The five additional municipalities in the Region (East Haven, Guilford, Meriden, Milford, and New Haven) have completed or are currently working on Hazard Mitigation Plans. They have been invited to participate in this planning process," SCROG's website says. They are looking for residents to participate in a brief survey about disaster planning and preparedness.
"The purpose of this plan is to identify and assess the region's natural hazard risks (such as flooding, winter storms, tornadoes and wildfires) and determine how to best minimize or manage those risks," the survey says.
"Upon completion, this plan will be presented to the local governing bodies of participating jurisdictions for adoption and then submitted to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for review and approval."
Eugene Livshits, SCROG Regional Planner, said the survey will be available through mid-January 2013; by the end of February 2013 the results will be made available to the Advisory Committee, which consists of representatives from the participating municipalities and other stakeholders in the Region. "The final version of the Mitigation Plan is scheduled for review by the State in September 2013," he said.
The survey asks questions about your personal experience with natural disasters and specifically asks you to rank, by importance, categories that are most susceptible to hazards in Madison. Reflecting on Irene and more recently Sandy, what area do you think is most susceptible?
- People (loss of life)
- Economic (business interruption, loss of jobs)
- Infrastructure (damage to roads bridges utilities, schools)
- Governance (ability to maintain order and provide public service)
- Culture/historic (damage to libraries, museums, or history property)
- Environmental (damage, contamination or loss of forest, wetlands, waterways)


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DENAIR — In another blow to the financial standing of the Denair Unified School District, Standard & Poors this month downgraded its bond rating to BBB, just two notches above junk status.
While the change will not add to Denairs red ink in the short term, it highlights that national notice is now being paid to the districts grim balance sheet.
That is a relatively low rating for a California school district, said Standard & Poors analyst Matthew Reining on Friday. He estimated there are less than 10 triple-B ratings among the roughly 500 California districts given ratings.
To be clear, school bond money does not mix with operating funds, the pot of money Denair will empty before years end unless it cuts expenses. Bond debt is entirely paid by local property taxes. But Reining said the prospect of potential bankruptcy or state takeover is a risk they consider.
Its our opinion that the general fund performance matters for the rating, he said.
The lowered rating reflects our view of the continued deterioration of the districts financial position, notes the Standard & Poors published rationale. The firm will reconsider the rating this summer, watching to see if the district gets a state overseer or if it succeeds in balancing its budget, the rationale says.
Denairs triple-B makes it more expensive for the district to get short-term credit or refinance existing bonds, and it leaves bond investors likely taking a loss if they try to sell them. Investors hold $45.9 million in Denair Unified debt, in bond issues property owners will pay off through 2043.
Right now that rating has nothing to do with the district and its still investment grade, its just a low investment grade, said interim Superintendent Walt Hanline. However, he added, If we went out for a (short-term loan) right now, it would affect our ability to get financing. The county continues to be our credit line. But the countys not willing to front us money past June 30.
The Stanislaus County Office of Education has lent the district $1.3 million. About half is month-to-month cash flow help, and half is debt the district will need to pay back, Hanline said.
It is against that backdrop that a citizens committee and school board members will interview six superintendent candidates Friday, with two or three finalists likely to return for second interviews with the board on Saturday, Hanline said. The board expects to announce its choice Jan. 9.
Denair parents have become more active in recent months, speaking out at meetings and now forming a Facebook page. The page takes teachers to task for not settling and comments on teacher salaries.
With 76 percent of its operating money going to salaries and benefits, the district must rein in labor costs to slash about half a million dollars from this school years expenses. The district has not been able to reach a deal for this year with its teachers, and their salaries reverted to prerecession highs on top of ongoing seniority and education raises.
A fact-finding report, probably in the second week of January, will make recommendations for salary levels. The board committed to implementing the recommendations, and its nonunion employees agreed to follow suit. Denair Unified Teachers Association negotiators, however, have said they cannot agree to any deal without a membership vote.
The district had demanded an 11 percent cut, which if condensed into the years six remaining months would be a steep 22 percent taken from teacher paychecks.
But Hanline said decisions have to be made. The report will be the facts and thus being horrified is not an option. It is what it is, he said.
Bee education reporter Nan Austin can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or (209) 578-2339. Follow her on Twitter @NanAustin.


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Sanitation & Transportation Guidance Documents & Regulatory Information
Guidance Documents
Guidance documents contain nonbinding recommendations
The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) are working together (see the 2010 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) to implement the Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 2005. The Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 2005 requires that FDA prescribe sanitary transportation practices to ensure that food (including animal feed) transported by motor vehicle or rail is not transported under conditions that may adulterate the food. This section also contains links to existing regulations and guidance documents that address food transportation.
On this page:
Transportation of Food
Fruits, Vegetables & Juices
- Guidance for Industry: Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards of Fresh-cut Fruits and Vegetables (February 2008)
- Guidance for Industry: Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (November 1997; Revised April 2008 and October 2008)
- Guidance for Industry: Bulk Transport of Juice Concentrates and Certain Shelf Stable Juices (April 2003)
Eggs & Dairy Foods
- Bulk Milk Transporters Bulk Milk Transfer Stations and Fluid Milk Processors: Food Security Preventative Measures Guidance (Updated October 2007)
General, Vehicles & Security
- Guidance for Industry: Sanitary Transportation of Food (April 2010)
- A Notice from FDA to Growers, Food Manufacturers, Food Warehouse Managers, and Transporters of Food Products on Decontamination of Transport Vehicles (Revised August 2006)
- Bulk Milk Transporters Bulk Milk Transfer Stations and Fluid Milk Processors: Food Security Preventative Measures Guidance (Updated October 2007)
- Food Producers, Processors, and Transporters: Food Security Preventive Measures Guidance (Revised October 2007)
Good Manufacturing Practices
Establishment, Maintenance & Availability of Records
- What information must transporters establish and maintain?
- What are the record retention requirements?
- What are the record availability requirements?
- What records are excluded from this subpart?
- What are the consequences of failing to establish or maintain records or make them available to FDA?
- Small Entity Compliance Guide What You Need to Know About Establishment and Maintenance of Records
Eggs & Dairy Foods
Transportation of Animal Food & Feed
- FDA's Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Page
- CVM Guidance for Industry 68. Small Entities Compliance Guide for Protein Blenders, Feed Manufacturers, and Distributors (PDF - 31KB) (February 1998)
- CVM Guidance for Industry 122. Manufacture And Labeling Of Raw Meat Foods For Companion And Captive Noncompanion Carnivores And Omnivores (PDF - 58.7 KB) (Revised November 2004)
- Substances Prohibited from use in Animal Food and Feed (Revised April 2009)
- Requirements for Renderers - see section (C)
- Requirements for Protein Blenders, Feed Manufacturers, and Distributors - see section (D)
- Requirements for Persons that Intend to Separate Mammalian and Nonmammalian Materials - see section (E)
- Cattle Materials Prohibited in Animal Food or Feed to Prevent the Transmission of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy - see section (C) (Revised April 2009)
- Current Good Manufacturing Practice for Medicated Feeds; Equipment Cleanout Procedures (Revised April 2009)
- Defect Action Levels (DALS) (1995; Revised March 1997 and May 1998)
Booklet. This list is compiled from FDA's Compliance Policy Guides on established "current levels for natural or unavoidable defects in food for human use that present no health hazards."
- Action Levels for Poisonous or Deleterious Substances in Human Food and Feed (2000)


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The Pitt-Johnstown wrestling team completed a perfect weekend with three victories during the second day of the Super Region I Duals at Newberry (S.C.) College on Saturday.
"Hard-fought, tough matches," Pitt-Johnstown coach Pat Pecora said. "We're getting there. We're getting better every day. This was a big weekend for a relatively young team to make a nice step forward."
Pitt-Johnstown followed up a big upset of host Newberry College on Friday night with an impressive roll on Saturday, outscoring three opponents by a combined 100-21. The
11-2 Mountain Cats have won 10 consecutive dual meets.
No letdown was evident as the 11th-ranked Mountain Cats beat Limestone (S.C.) College (37-4); Belmont Abbey (N.C.) College (42-3); and No. 20 North Carolina-Prembroke (21-14).
Overall, Pitt-Johnstown went 4-0 in the Super Region I Duals, including a dramatic 21-14 win over No. 4 Newberry on Friday.
"I'm proud of the guys this weekend," Pecora said. "To come out of this 4-0 and wrestling against two top-ranked teams, we did well.
"Evan Link, Dave Fogle, Travis McKillop, Josh Duplin, they all went undefeated for the weekend."
Against Limestone College, UPJ won nine of the 10 individual bouts. Eighth-ranked 133-pounder Dave Fogle and freshman heavyweight Josh Duplin of Westmont Hilltop each won by fall.
Eighth-ranked 184-pounder Travis McKillop earned a technical fall. Pitt-Johnstown led 31-0 at one point of the match.
Against Belmont Abbey, the Cats fell behind 3-0 but then won the final nine bouts. Fogle and McKillop each recorded pins. Pitt-Johnstown 141-pounder Dave Cawley scored a 16-0 technical fall.
"I wasn't worried about a letdown," Pecora said, referring to Fiday's win over Newberry. "I knew we were going to be OK with Limestone and Belmont Abbey. But Pembroke matched up real well with us. The guys came through. When one guy went down, someone else would come back."
Against North Carolina-Pembroke, the Cats fell behind 14-10. But three straight wins put Pitt-Johnstown back on track.
McKillop had a technical fall, Nikos Garafola won by decision, and Duplin took a 2-1 overtime win to set the final.
"The weekend ended exactly the way it started with a tough match that went down to the heavyweight match," Pecora said. "Josh Duplin had to seal the deal for us again. Great ending.
"We wrestled well under pressure in some big matches," he added. "When we needed someone to come through with a tech fall like Travis, he did. When we needed someone like Nikos to come through with a win, he did. It was toe-to-toe, all the way down to the heavyweight match."
The Mountain Cats will visit Mercyhurst on Friday before returning to the Sports Center to face WVIAC rival Seton Hill on Feb. 6, starting a string of three straight duals at home. Anderson (S.C.) visits on
Feb. 9 with Shippensburg following on Feb. 13.
"We have another tough match against Mercyhurst coming up, so we've got to get ready," Pecora said.


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Was your Tuesday night disturbed by the sounds of loud booms? It was for one Altadena resident, who told Patch via email that she heard these mystery sounds all night:
I live in NW Altadena near Lincoln & Loma Alta Dr & on last evening, Tuesday - Dec 4, 2012, I kept hearing 'loud boom' sounds every 10-15 minutes. These sounds continued all night - very frightening - I called the Sheriff's Dept to report it - I never found out what this noise was. Did anyone else hear this and do you know what it was? I know that street lights are being put up on the corner of Altadena Dr & Lincoln.
The watch commander for the Altadena Sheriff's Station told Patch Wednesday that nothing else was reported about any loud "boom" sounds and there was no explanation for them.
The most notable thing that happened Tuesday night, according to the watch commander's report of the Altadena crime log, was a call to report a beauty salon fire in town but when fire officials showed up there was no fire to be seen.
Did you hear any loud boom sounds Tuesday or see anything causing a loud sound? Tell us in the comments.


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This Candor native is already a festival-winning screenwriter and filmmaker.
TC3 has released the Dean's List for the Spring 2014 semester. The list recognizes matriculated students who have attained a GPA of 3.5 or better while completing at least 12 credit hours during the semester. Part-time students are eligible each time they complete a block of 12 credits.
Cherish the opportunities you have had, define your own success, and get ready for your journey. Those were some of the messages heard on Thursday, May 22 as the class of 2014 crossed the stage at Tompkins Cortland Community College.
Tompkins Cortland Community College's innovative proposed Farm to Bistro concept will give students hands-on experience as the College will operate its own organic farm and supply produce to Coltivare, the College's planned downtown Ithaca culinary center. Included in the plan are two new degree programs starting Fall 2014, Culinary Arts and Sustainable Farming and Food Systems.
The officers for the TC3 Board of Trustees will have a familiar look for the 2014-15 academic year. Elizabeth Burns has been re-elected as chair, and Raymond Schlather has been re-elected as vice chair, each for the fourth year. The board's entire slate of officers returns, including Judy Davison as treasurer and Roxann Buck as executive committee member.
Four TC3 student-athletes have been named NJCAA Academic Student-Athlete Award winners. Taylor Policay (Lansing H.S./Ithaca), Kyle Shaw (Groton H.S./Groton), Sara Sinnigen (Dryden H.S./Dryden), and Hannah Wildenstein (Dryden H.S./Freeville) were each honored for their excellence on the field and in the classroom.
The best place to live is on-campus! Your own private bedroom in an apartment that includes a full kitchen, living room, wireless internet, cable TV, and more. All just a short walk to your classes.
With over 15 clubs on campus and the organizations, Student Advisory Board and College Entertainment Board, there is something for everyone.
TC3 opened in an old high school building in Groton – and the first president was often seen with a broom sweeping the hallways. Today, the College has a state-of-the-art academic campus, new athletic facilities, and seven residence halls.
The CTC is a great place share resources and experiences to enhance teaching and learning. Find out about conferences on campus, the Professional Development Mentoring Program and the regular round table discussions.
Tue, 08 Jul 2014
The Ithaca Journal
The business incubator being built by Cornell University, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College has a name, a website, a coordinator on staff and an opening target of early fall.
Wed, 16 Jul 2014
The Ithaca Voice
The Tompkins Cortland Community College Spring 2014 Dean's List includes 129 Ihaca residents.


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Note: The interviews in this video are, in order, with St. Mary's coach Dan Gill, St. Mary's senior Erik Simmons (not Canisius), St. Mary's senior Devin Redden (not Jake Cercone), Canisius coach Kyle Husband, Canisius senior Aaron White (not Erik Simmons), Canisius senior Matt Hart, and Bishop Timon-St. Jude coach Jim Palano. Our apologies regarding some technical errors on-screen.
taggedBishop Timon-St. Jude | Canisius | St. Joe's | St. Mary's/Lancaster


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On a sunny afternoon, it looks just like a sleepy country town in South Carolina. Modest businesses with homemade signs, people sitting out on their porches or mowing their lawns, teenagers a little too big for the bikes they're riding. The smell of good barbecue, fried catfish in the air. People walking on the sidewalks, waving at others who stop their cars to chat. A uniformed policeman ambling an old-fashioned walking beat, smiling and calling to acquaintances. Everyone here seems to know everybody else, and if they didn't see you here yesterday and the day before, they give you a long look.
There's a convenience store as cluttered as an old-time general store, a body shop, an athletic club. Painted on the side of one cinder-block business are bold black words you can see from the street: IN GOD WE TRUST. Then, underneath, in slightly smaller letters: NO LOITERING. NO DRUGS.
It's one of the few hints that this is also the area some consider the most dangerous spot in Knox County, afflicted not only with drugs once more boldly exchanged than they are now, but with more exotic late-20th century crimes, carjackings, drive-by shootings. It's called Five Points, and when people talk about what scares them most about East Knoxville, they invoke it, like a code.
East Knoxville is shaped roughly like an oblong mushroom, stretching, by most definitions, from the Coliseum on Mulvaney Street, eastward about six miles to the city limits, and from I-40 south to the curvaceous riverbank. It's the only part of Knoxville that touches the languid Holston River, which flows down out of western Virginia all the way up in the hills around Roanoke over 200 miles southwest to run alongside Knoxville's eastern city limits, then meanders a couple of miles south before returning northward as half of the Tennessee.
Parts of East Knoxville are still wooded and undeveloped, changed little since British explorer Stephen Holston floated this river 250 years ago. Some parts of East Knoxville still seem rural: an overgrown family graveyard with misspelled markers, crickets chirping in the tall grass. But other parts of East Knoxville have been paved and repaved, developed and redeveloped so often you can read the history of 20th century commercial architecture on its tortured buildings, "modernized," soaked with graffiti.
It's less than 10 square miles, less than two percent of Knox County. But East Knoxville is, without question, the most complex part of this county. Among the 22,000 people who live there are many of Knoxville's very poorest and many of Knoxville's wealthiest. About two-thirds of East Knoxvillians are black; this wedge of East Knoxville, in fact, is home to more than half of African American Knoxville. White and black coexist in several East Knoxville neighborhoods like nowhere else. No other part of town knows these extremes of wealth and poverty, city and country, beauty and blight. No other part of town has more serious problems or more untapped potential.
People who never visit East Knoxville hear about it on the news. Most news is bad news, and most of what they hear about East Knoxville is bad. Some think that the local media is more specific about locating crimes that happened "in East Knoxville" than they are about crimes in West Knoxville. Others say the slanted news coverage slides toward gross inaccuracy. Kim Trent, who works with East Knoxville's Center for Neighborhood Development, moved to a handsome old house in East Knoxville's Parkridge community with her husband and young son five years ago and has been astonished by television crime reports. "When anything bad happens, it's East Knoxville," she says. "Even if it's not in East Knoxville." She says both TV and radio newsmen make the error of assuming every minority-related crime is in East Knoxville. When she hears dumb mistakes, she complains. "Sorry," she says, with an exasperated sarcasm. "I know it's hard to keep up--but that was actually on the west side of town, not on the east side."
However, when TV crews did a story on the renovation of her historic home south of I-40--and east of Bill Meyer Stadium--it was identified as North Knoxville. The TV rule, Trent discovered, is that if it's historic, it must be North Knoxville. If it's crime, it must be East Knoxville.
On some nights, she admits she's been able to hear what sound like gunshots from the area around Austin Homes, less than a mile away. There's crime here, but there's a great deal more. Longtime resident Evon Easley-Milton knows about the crime, but says "the productive parts of East Knoxville outweigh it 99 to one."
If Knoxville could survive at all without East Knoxville, it would be a very different--and much duller--place. East Knoxville is this region's only zoological park, the nationally recognized Knoxville Zoo. It's our only Filipino restaurant, the decade-old Philippine Connection. It's the Carpetbag Theatre, Knoxville's internationally famous black theatrical troupe. It's Howell Nurseries, Knoxville's single oldest business. It's one of Knoxville's best-restored and most-haunted historical showplaces, the Mabry-Hazen House. It's the popular John T. O'Connor Senior Citizens' Center, where hundreds of elderly ladies and gentlemen play bridge and line-dance. It's Knoxville's oldest Jewish and Catholic graveyards, Knoxville's only Confederate graveyard, the black Oddfellows Cemetery, and melancholy Potter's Field. It's the studios of East Tennessee's public television stations, channels 2 and 15. It's Levi's, one of Knoxville's busiest and most community-oriented industries. It's the 70-year-old model neighborhood of Holston Hills, with one of Knoxville's older country clubs and arguably our prettiest golf course. It's Scruggs', Frazier's (a.k.a. "Spooky's"), Kirk's, Alfred's, Dixson's, and other rare restaurants with devotees who claim they serve the best barbecue in town. It's Chilhowee Park, home of the annual Tennessee Valley Fair and popular Kuumba festival.
Soon, East Knoxville will also be home of the largest statue of an African American in the nation, the Alex Haley memorial, in a public park which promises to be Knoxville's biggest tourist magnet. (The playground will be finished by community volunteers next weekend; the long-anticipated statue is scheduled to be shipped in late October.)
At this writing, East Knoxville is also home to Knoxville's only Catholic high school and Knoxville's only pro sports club, the Knoxville Smokies.
But both will be leaving East Knoxville soon. Though neighbors are skeptical of their motives in proposals to move to various all-white neighborhoods out west, the Smokies claim they've got nothing against their neighborhood, insisting it's a matter of visibility, road access, and minor-league standards.
Jan Johnson is director of development for Knoxville Catholic High School, which has been located on the south side of Magnolia since 1932. A former Farragut-area resident, Johnson has lived in Holston Hills for years, mainly to be closer to her job. "Life is a little slower out here," she says, comparing East to West. "People in stores don't seem to be in such a hurry."
She's found that Knoxville's perception of the area's criminal threat is grossly exaggerated. "The way people speak of it, you'd think you can't walk down the street without getting hit in the head," she says. "I've been here for 12 years. We've had no rashes of break-ins or anything like that," she says.
Still, Catholic High is moving to its new home in West Knoxville within three years. Johnson insists they have no complaint with the neighborhood. "Here, we just haven't had enough room to expand," she says. "The Cedar Bluff property was donated by the diocese. Enrollment's growing, and we don't have parking for the students we have now." She says the bishop has promised old Catholic High won't be an abandoned building. Pellissippi State is negotiating plans to open a satellite campus there.
R.T. Clapp, located on Magnolia for decades, is Knoxville's largest and busiest auto-repair business, handling 35 cars a day. Owner King Benson believes R.T. Clapp is among the largest independently owned auto-repair shops in the nation.
Benson, who bought the company 22 years ago, has no complaints about the location; he says R.T. Clapp's getting as much business as they can handle comfortably.
"We feel very positive about East Knoxville and Magnolia Avenue," he says. "There's a steady increase in business investment out here. Anything vacant doesn't stay vacant long." As for crime, Benson shrugs. "It's about zero, year to year," he says. "We're very comfortable here."
Comfort's one thing many East Knoxvillians, black and white, cite as what they like about the place. Easley-Milton, who spearheaded the Haley Heritage Square project, says one of her favorite things about East Knoxville is its easygoing community nature. "People enjoy just driving through, enjoying the quality of that," she says. (Anyone who's done much driving in East Knoxville knows it's no place to be if you're in a big hurry.)
Margaret Miller is director of marketing and development for Carpetbag Theatre, which is located on McCalla. She lives in an older neighborhood near Chilhowee Park. "People have begged me to move because they fear for my life," she says, incredulously. They don't always know that she carefully chose to live there, moving from Cedar Bluff, where she found the traffic oppressive. "All that hustle and bustle of West Knoxville, I did not like." Citing some of the more outrageous recent crimes in West Knoxville, she says she believes "it's not as bad" in East Knoxville.
Nkechi Ajanaku, director of African American Appalachian Arts, lives in a comfortable, tree-shaded neighborhood. "I enjoy my home here," she says, adding that she doesn't worry for herself--"but I have an 18-year-old son, and it bothers me that he's not safe. I see men and boys out congregating on Saturday night on Magnolia and MLK, because there's not a constructive diversion for them."
Meaningful comparative statistics are hard to come by; the police department tabulates crime statistics by "number of calls" from eastern, central, and western sectors of Knoxville. Each sector has its low-income subsidized housing developments, but the KPD gets significantly more complaints about serious violent crime in the "western sector" than in the "eastern sector." However, KPD spokesman Foster Arnett says that may indicate a greater number of reports for the same crimes.
One thing almost all East Knoxville business people and residents, black and white, have in common is an impression that East Knoxville is unfairly maligned by people who don't know it well.
For many whites, East Knoxville has retained its charm; by most accounts, Holston Hills, Parkridge, and some other neighborhoods have not suffered the property-value decreases some residents feared as their neighborhoods became racially mixed. Architect Tom Davick has lived with his wife Linda, an accomplished artist, in Holston Hills for over a decade. "We love the neighborhood," he says. "It's a beautiful community. I work downtown, and it's a 10-minute drive without even having to get on the interstate." Davick adds an allusion to another, unnamed part of town: "It would be hard to fit me and my wife in a phony baronial mansion in a cow-pasture subdivision." Still, for some white families with school-age kids who've feared East Knoxville schools were inferior or more dangerous than others, education has been an anxiety.
The magnet-school program, designed to draw middle-class kids from other parts of town for superior educational programs, was first instituted in East Knoxville three years ago, already with notable results. Green Elementary, Sarah Moore Greene Elementary, Vine Middle, and, now, Austin-East High School have all launched magnet programs. This year, well over 200 white kids who live in other parts of town are coming to East Knoxville every day to attend school.
Five Points
Many Southern cities have an intersection called Five Points, often a thriving cultural center. Knoxville's Five Points, about a mile and a half east of downtown, is where Martin Luther King Avenue intersects with--and then takes the original eastern course of--old McCalla, crossing parallel streets Olive and Ben Hur in the bargain. Geometrically, it doesn't look like a five points as much as a couple of neighboring intersections--but it's had that name for decades.
Looming on its southwestern corner is Walter P. Taylor Homes. Named for a downtown haberdasher and early leader of the Knoxville Housing Authority, Taylor houses about 750 people. Only a minority of the residents of Taylor Homes ever cause any trouble. But housing projects have traditionally drawn drug traffickers attracted to the desperation of people so poor they're willing to deal.
Taylor's not the only subsidized housing project in East Knoxville, but it's the biggest. Austin Homes, closer to town, houses about one-third the number Taylor does. A number of other subsidized or partially subsidized HUD developments are planted throughout the area.
Jimmy Clark is proprietor of Jimmy Who's Music Maker, a small shop on MLK just east of Five Points. He's a friendly guy in a Vols jersey who, considering he's been in the music business for over 25 years, must be older than he looks.
Jimmy Who's is a family operation; his wife and son help out. He mainly keeps the stuff that sells, the urban-contemporary top 40, plus some gospel, rap, and blues. Rap sells best. He displays a couple of Snoop Doggy Dogg posters in his window, and rap's playing in his store, but this former soul & funk disk jockey sounds like maybe he doesn't listen to a lot of rap at home. "Rap is here to stay," he sighs. "We've got to face it."
Jimmy Who's also sells hats and sunglasses, snacks, and black greeting cards. In August, some unsold black Father's Day cards are still on display. "I was the first to bring them to town," Clark says. "The department stores didn't have them at all. We served a very unique purpose." He laughs. "Now it's hard to compete against them."
Originally from Texas, Jimmy Who was a black-radio disk jockey who came to Knoxville in 1972 at the invitation of one James Brown. The Godfather of Soul himself bought a black AM radio station renamed WJBE, and brought Jimmy Who, a sometime concert announcer for Brown, to Knoxville in '72. In Brown's small network of black-oriented radio stations, Clark says, "Knoxville was the smallest town, the town that least needed a radio station," he says. "James Brown never lost faith in this town." But when WJBE went off the air in 1979, Jimmy Who opened his store.
As serious a problem as crime remains in his neighborhood, Jimmy Who says it was worse during his first few years, when he says his store was a little too popular, especially with the wrong kind. Jimmy Who's got a reputation as a venue for dope deals. "The first go-'round, I was very naive, ignorant," Clark says. "Now I stop it in the bud. I don't want it to get started." He sounds decisive. "We don't allow it."
He also says police protection is much better than it used to be. You do see a cruiser rolling slowly down MLK every few minutes, occasionally even an officer walking the beat. "I'm optimistic now," he says, "especially with the way the city's finally talking about putting money into the neighborhood, with the Dollar Store going in" down the road.
Leaving the store, he reminds you to be careful. "Don't look around, act like you don't know where you are," he says. "But they're not looking to mess with nobody in the daytime. And very seldom will you have any trouble at night, unless you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I wouldn't advise nobody to spend any time on Martin Luther King at night--black or white."
It's tempting to spend time there. Here small restaurants operate out of private homes, some with signs advertising HOT FISH SANDWICHES, some with no signs at all. Some have business licenses, some don't. They sell barbecue ribs or chicken wings or hot tamales or the catch of the day from the river: catfish on a good day. Police haven't been giving Knoxville's restaurant underworld a hard time, lately; "They take care of their own," one officer says. There are more significant problems here.
Nightclubs are placed strategically like small fortresses, windowless cinder-block bunkers with a jukebox. They may look alike to strangers, but their reputations are very different.
B&J's, features live music, old-time R&B bands. Eddie's, at Chestnut and Wilson, is an easy-going place frequented by older folks. Gene's, on Chestnut, is notorious for drug-dealing and, sometimes, violence.
One of those cinder-block buildings on MLK at Five Points isn't a nightclub. It's called the Muhammad Mosque. Down the street at the four-way stop at MLK and Castle, a dapper middle-aged man dressed as well as Louis Farrakhan in a grey suit, dark bow tie, and starched white shirt smiles and sells a $1 newspaper named The Final Call to any driver who stops and asks for it. "It's an international paper," the gentleman says, and it is, a black Muslim perspective on world news. An editorial inside sharply criticizes Yasser Arafat for kowtowing to the Israelis.
A woman who blundered across this same shady, peaceful-looking residential intersection after midnight a couple of weeks ago was carjacked and raped.
Christian and Muslim blacks alike are appalled at the violence, often angrier at these kids than whites are. Some who work with the kids believe they're even angry at themselves. "Most of these kids slinging these drugs, they hate their lives," says Chris Woodhull, co-partner in the alternative counseling group Tribe One. "They get tired of banging their heads against the wall."
Five Points is like several different nations within the same borders, each with its own political structure, its own intricate morality. On a Saturday night, the streets are flooded with young people rapping in their cars, laughing, grinning, ambling the sidewalks, stopping to talk. A few have guns or the chunks of fine white gravel that go for $20 a pebble. The next morning, the sunny neighborhood is quieter, more peaceful than any spot in populated Knoxville. Thousands, well-dressed in old-fashioned hats and gloves, are in the dozens of churches here, praying for the kids who mostly aren't there.
It's a sunny afternoon on Chestnut Street, a couple of blocks from the nightclub where a teenager was shot to death a few months ago. At a corner, five black preteen kids, shouting and smiling, are holding signs marked, "We are asking for donations to Ogle's Water Park..."
Ogle's hasn't become a charity. These kids are just hoping to finance a trip there before cold weather. In an accent most Americans would associate with white Appalachians, one black girl explains they attend a "learning center up 'arr" at Tabernacle Apartments. A HUD-subsidized housing project considered a little more upscale than Walter P. Taylor, Tabernacle has had problems with gangs, a colony of West Siders here in the middle of East Knoxville.
A Magnolia Avenue saloon has a stern warning you can read from your car: NO REDS. NO BLUES. NO BLUNTS. Red is the color of Knoxville's East Side gang. Blue is the color of Knoxville's West Side gang, centered around the Mechanicsville/Lonsdale area. Blunts are hollowed-out cigars stuffed with marijuana.
They're called gangs, but some think that word gives them more credit for organization and purpose than they're due. Police and social workers agree they're made up almost entirely of unorganized teenagers, few as old as 20. They're preoccupied with the big-city Bloods and Crips, borrowing their colors and secret symbols. Policemen and counselors agree these kids and their escapist daydreams are being exploited by bigger-time drug dealers, most of whom live in tonier parts of town.
Some nightclubs bar the young. One, Club Royal on McCalla, throws a few more years on the state drinking age, just to be on the safe side. DRESS CODE ENFORCED, its marquee says, 25 & OVER.
Intimates say there are no cultural differences between the east side and the west side. This red-blue conflict is not based on anything except divergent addresses.
Captain Paul Fish is in charge of the KPD's coverage of East Knoxville. Whereas in the past, mainstream blacks have been equally suspicious of both the criminals and the police, enhanced walking beats and close cooperation with neighborhood organizations may be helping previously clannish factions to respect, trust, cooperate with--and sometimes even like--the police officers on the beat.
Fish credits some different, softer approaches. "We were much more arrest-oriented," he says, with stricter codes enforcement. "Under the community policing philosophy, we've tried to get people organized and responsible for what happens in the neighborhood. We're getting more neighborhood feedback than we have in the past. We're getting alcoholics in treatment plans, getting people interested in neighborhood watches, working with Vistas with the Center for Neighborhood Development."
Neighborhood organizations, from the ambitious Parkridge Community Organization, which even sponsors home renovations, to neighborhood watch groups with "block captains" who help report and prevent crime, now thrive all over East Knoxville, meeting regularly to make their neighborhoods safer.
Something's working. "It's been a great summer for us," Fish says. Summer's the worst time for violent crime here, and he reports this has been the quietest summer in East Knoxville in years.
Across MLK from Taylor Homes is a lot with a new building on it and a sign: "Future Home of Dollar General Store."
Several community leaders are excited about that rare construction project, touted by some as the salvation of the neighborhood. Getting a national chain to invest in what has been a high-crime neighborhood is no small feat.
Some neighbors are skeptical that's going to happen here, that "Dollar Store" is going to exploit tax write-offs for the project and then abandon it, like everybody else does. "That's frustrating," says Nkechi Ajanaku, of AAAA. "Look at any urban area. Do Dollar Stores work there? It's not the level of development that needs to occur" to make a real difference, she says. She mentions the riverfront development project. "People don't see spending that kind of money in African American communities," she says.
Cynicism about powerful white interests "improving" black East Knoxville goes back decades, a cynicism learned from hard experience.
Once called Hardscrabble, a century ago East Knoxville was a racially unsegregated region sometimes as rough as its name; still, several of Knoxville's wealthiest white families lived there, atop the ridges.
Along Dandridge Avenue are a few of the region's most historic homes, like the handsomely renovated Mabry-Hazen house, an antebellum shrine open for tours. Down the street, the old brick Williams home that playwright Tennessee Williams recalled from his childhood. Built in the 1820s by ancestor John Williams, a U.S. Senator, diplomat to Central America, and forceful colonel in the War of 1812, the vacant house, recently purchased, gapes down at Dandridge.
In the bottomlands between the hills were much larger working-class neighborhoods, populated by freed slaves and European immigrants. Part of downtown East Knoxville was once called Irish Town. One section near downtown was more recently known as the Bottom.
Old East Knoxville remained intact for nearly a century, served by several churches, black-owned businesses, a black movie theater called the Gem, and a popular park to which black philanthropist Cal Johnson had donated a handsome fountain.
Though it was a relatively small neighborhood--maybe a quarter square mile--it was home to a disproportionate number of Knoxville's most famous, including maverick string-band jazzmen Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong, whose 78 about old Vine Street hit a nationwide audience; artists Beauford and Joseph Delaney, both generally regarded among America's greatest black painters; and poet Nikki Giovanni, who's still publishing new books, including memoirs of her youth in Knoxville. Ida Cox, singer and author of "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues," was already a blues legend when she retired here to become a member of the old Patton Street Church Choir, in the '50s and '60s.
None of these homes, nor Cox's church, still stand. None of their addresses still exist even as addresses. Vine Street's gone. Johnson's park and fountain have vanished. The original neighborhoods of East Knoxville became a suburban-style grass-and-asphalt annex to downtown, the Coliseum, the Safety Building, the Chamber of Commerce, the Hyatt. Urban renewal is better known among East Knoxvillians today as urban removal. It shoved black East Knoxville nearly a mile farther east.
Some saw it as a philanthropic effort of slum clearance, but its execution destroyed much good with the bad, demolishing solid homes and vital community centers along with slums. Few anticipated the trauma it would cause the black community, which lost its tangible heritage. Some describe it as a black Trail of Tears. In Chapter One of Nikki Giovanni's memoir, Gemini, nationally praised when it was released in 1971 and still in print, the poet describes her bitter homecoming when she found her old neighborhood being leveled. "Mulvaney Street is gone," she wrote. "Completely wiped out. Assassinated with all the old people who made it live." In the book she blamed her grandmother's death on the trauma of moving to an unfamiliar house farther east. "Linden Avenue was pretty but it had no life," Giovanni wrote. "She died because she didn't know where she was and didn't like it."
Some in East Knoxville today have never recovered. Bob Booker, historian and director of the stately Beck Cultural Center on Dandridge, remembers urban renewal and has studied its devastating effect on the black community. He notes that only one black business--Jarnigan's funeral home, still in business on MLK--survived the move.
Another longtime East Knoxvillian, a white resident who prefers not to be named, says his community "has been cut off from the rest of the city in a systematic and probably deliberate sort of way, when they built the Business Loop--and when they began warehousing the poor here. This was once a desirable, mixed-income community." He says what's followed has been "30 years of stagnation, a downward spiral."
Stagnation and Charm
It's true that East Knoxville has grown little in those decades, and stagnation has obvious liabilities regarding poverty and crime. However, some are grateful the area hasn't developed more. The scarcity of rapacious, Deane Hill-style developers here might account for the fact that East Knoxville still holds more surviving examples of the work of Knoxville's most famous architect, George Barber (1854-1915), than elsewhere. Photographs of Barber's work, including houses in East Knoxville's Parkridge neighborhood, will be profiled in an upcoming issue of Bob Vila's American Home.
There are other compensations to nongrowth. First-time travelers along Magnolia notice the wide street has a time-warp charm to it, old-fashioned churches, '20s-style apartment buildings, some art-moderne buildings visible underneath modern embellishments. It may have been that charm that attracted filmmakers to shoot parts of the current art-house hit, Box of Moonlight, along Magnolia.
Even though the Tic-Toc's famous barbecue drive-in recently closed, Magnolia still nurtures a drive-in culture, with one of the few remaining drive-in Weigel's, a drive-in ice-cream shop farther out on Asheville Highway--and, the "FAMOUS" Pizza Palace. It's the only spot in Tennessee where you can eat a big Greek pizza with anchovies and drink Old Milwaukee beer ("Brewed for that wonderful world of leisure," a mod sign in the window tells us), and top it all off with a Black Bottom Pie--all without once getting out of your car.
For those who do have automobiles to park in the bays of the Pizza Palace, shopping in East Knoxville has gotten considerably easier in the last 12 years or so. Most agree that East Towne Mall is not really in East Knoxville; Fountain City also claims it as their commercial center. Still, just a couple of miles north of Magnolia, East Towne's much closer to East Knoxville than West Town is.
But considering those holdouts of '50s drive-in culture, it may seem ironic that an unusually large number of East Knoxvillians--perhaps 20 percent, reckoning from census data--don't have access to automobiles. But that figure may well explain part of why, in spite of its problems, this seems such a tight, old-fashioned neighborhood. In East Knoxville, lots of people walk to where they need to go.
Chilhowee Park, established in the 1880s, was originally a public water park where well-dressed white people--and, one day a year, blacks--could do some swimming, sliding, canoeing. The park became so important to park-starved Knoxville that in 1890 it became our first electric-trolley destination; in 1907 it spawned a neighborhood which became known as Park City. Though it was an independent town for only a decade, you still encounter the phrase here and there in East Knoxville.
Across Magnolia in Burlington is Knoxville's most-peculiar residential oddity, Speedway Circle, a tiny neighborhood clustered right on former slave Cal Johnson's old turn-of-the-century horse-racing track. This neighborhood has been Knoxville's entertainment district for more than a century.
Today, of course, Chilhowee Park's Magnolia entrance bears the sign, "Tennessee Valley Fair," there even during the 350 days of the year when the fair isn't in town. In the city-sponsored redesign of the site, that one-note image is part of the problem. Once a public park well-used on most nice days, it's now a largely paved site, waiting for the Fair, or Kuumba, or a handful of smaller events, to come back. City Council just stamped an agreement with architecture firm Bullock-Smith to come up with a master plan for Chilhowee Park to make it more of a year-round public attraction.
Adjacent to Chilhowee Park is the nationally respected Knoxville Zoo. Nancy Young, the Zoo's marketing director, says the Zoo would like to see Chilhowee Park redeveloped with more green space, perhaps like Lakeshore. As part of the redesign, the Zoo is working with the city on more direct access to the interstate exit, a proposal that some neighbors view as vaguely unneighborly.
Young and others speak of the Zoo and the struggling Discovery Center as anchors to an Entertainment Corridor, anticipating the seemingly unlimited tourist-oriented growth of Sevier County to affect East Knoxville's commercial fortunes. Now that I-40 is the favored route to Sevierville and beyond, some of the Sevier County juggernaut is already spilling over into East Knox County's Strawberry Plains: several motels and tourist-oriented restaurants have materialized there, five miles out Asheville Highway, in the last year or two. It may not be so far-fetched to believe East Knoxville proper might make room for tourist traffic. Many patrons of the family-oriented entertainment of Dollywood might take a side trip to a revamped Chilhowee Park and the region's best zoo. It doesn't take much imagination to see the possibility of this old weekend refuge for the whole city serving a similar purpose someday.
Holston River Park
Many praise the area's natural beauty. Sudden views of the mountains or of the Knoxville skyline startle first-time visitors. "There are areas tucked all in and around East Knoxville that are fabulous and picturesque," says Ajanaku, making a case easy to prove. The Holston Riverfront may be the last unspoiled waterfront in Knoxville, but few had a good chance to see it before the city opened the Holston River Park just last year as part of Knoxville's system of greenways. It's located just between Holston Hills and the black neighborhoods of East Knoxville.
Willows grow alongside the shady stream that might remind you of those lazy rivers the Mills Brothers used to sing about. Big enough to drive a boat through, but so narrow the trees on either bank almost touch, this is part of the Holston River, the narrower of the two courses the river takes around big Boyd's Island, where corn grows thickly.
It may be Knoxville's most relaxing park, a large open glade with a mountain-like walking trail leading a short curvy route to Riverside Drive. At one end is a covered shelter with picnic tables where about a dozen mostly white people are gathered with multicolored balloons, celebrating a birthday party.
At the other end is a neat wooden dock that seems made for fishing. Two white boys, about 8, are casting baited hooks into the water. In short haircuts and striped shirts, in the twilight they could be kids romping out of the '40s. Only their tennis shoes give them away.
"I've got sump'm," the cross-eyed boy says. It turns out to be a long leaf. He casts again. "I can't throw good," he apologizes. His friend's seeking advice from a 40-ish black couple.
"'Bout that time," the black man in the Seminoles cap says, reeling slowly, "8:30, 9:00, when the water cools, that's when the best fishing is." He caught a bream earlier, but bream's not what he's here for. "Drum," he says hopefully. "And channel cats. A lady caught three channel cats here the other night."
This park allegedly closes at dark, and it's almost dark now, but the place seems to be getting more popular. A white family arrives and take up a fishing post on the riverbank. Two young black women are sitting at a picnic table listening to some easy modern soul. An elderly white trio walks the track, stopping here and there to examine a plant. Nearby, a Cadillac's offering a jump to another. A young black couple walks around the track; it looks like a second date, maybe third. Laughter echoes loudly from the darkening gazebo.
The overused word predominantly doesn't work at Holston River Park. Maybe 100 people are here this Saturday evening, but an observer would need to be methodical to tally whether there are more blacks or whites. And at Holston River Park, you just don't feel all that methodical.
Though some neighbors criticize it as window-dressing that ignores more substantial problems, Holston River Park is at least a symbol of hope for black and white Knoxville. It may take more than parks, and walking beats, and magnet schools, and neighborhood watches, and Dollar Stores, and famous statues, and entertainment corridors, to exalt East Knoxville--but to many that hope seems more plausible than in years past.
© 1997 MetroPulse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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