After spending many years upon this spinning ball called earth, we come to realize that time passes quickly and the body begins to go south. We also look around us and discover that, alas, we are the “old folks.” With this in mind, we place before you the following statements so that you, too, can determine if you are an official “Old Timer.”
You are a Gatlinburg Old Timer if you can remember: When Miss Marjory Chalmers was the school nurse; Ogle’s store sold anything you wanted; the Gatlinburg Inn was new; the Mountain View Hotel opened its doors as the first hotel in Gatlinburg; Evan’s Chapel No. 1 and the Bridge School were in operation (located near where the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Headquarters building is located now); all the children were afraid of water dogs; if you wanted a drink of cold milk. you went to the spring house; the law was our constable Isaac Eslinger; Arthur Ogle did not drive his taxi on Saturday afternoons because he cut customers hair; The First Baptist Church was a white frame building located on the corner of Baskins’ Creek and Parkway. Wiley Oakley was the Roaming Man of the Mountains; Crocket Maples carried the mail by horse-back; Tubbies Barn on Airport Road.
You are an Old Timer in Pitman Center if you can remember: Dr. Robert F. Thomas was you doctor; Pittman Center School’s mascot was the eagle; Walter Blalock and Arnold “Tubby” McMahan had a saw mill; bulger wagons; going for a swim in the river at recess; Emert Cardwell ran the grist mill; capturing silversides to go fishing; Wilburn Cowden teaching woodcarving; the Jeep Angel.
You are a Pigeon Forge Old Timer if you can remember: The First Baptist Church was located on the hill beside the cemetery; the road through town was a small dirt road; the only buildings were the “Old Mill,” Butler Brothers General Store, and Stott Brothers General Store; the elephant in the mill pond; corn and wheat fields everywhere; the hack; the rail road ran through town to McCookville; the Pigeon Forge Bottling Company; Fort Wear Game Park; the Pigeon Forge Canning Factory.
You are an Old Timer in Sevierville if you can remember: The railroad “turn-a-round;” Dr. Z. D. Massey; Yarberry’s Hospital; Dr. Broady’s Clinic; Sevierville being flooded; the K. S. & E. railroad being called the Knoxville Slow and Easy; The Rawlings family helping to establish a library; Rawlings Furniture Store; James H. Atchley opening a funeral home; the Sevierville Electric System was a generating plant at the Beason Dam owned by Dr. J. Victor Henderson; Cy Thurman’s Garage; Isenberg’s Ford; Dick Allen’s restaurant featuring beef stew; Red’s hamburgers; the pool hall on Bruce Street; Bashor’s Florist; Conley Marshalls’s cattle barn; the Park and Pines theaters; the ice house; West Main Street was called Chinatown; Murphy College.
As a dear friend once reminded me, “You’ll cry because time is passing so fast; and you will eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you’ve never been hurt before. Don’t be afraid that your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.” It is good to be an “Old Timer” no matter where you are from.
