Back in 1985 that was not the case. The school was 100% white and I mean cracker southern WHITE. Truck driving, rock 'n roll listening, white boys! The SacTownGuy was actually the LAGuy at that time. A move from sunny Los Angeles to the Smoky Mountains was an eye opening experience mid-way through my junior year of high school! Moving from a school that was 60-70% "minorities" (who is the "minority" if you have a roughly equal mix of several groups of people?) to a school that was zero percent minorities made me feel like the minority. I recall the time sitting in the back of class, not listening to the teacher (big surprise) and a couple of my classmates were looking through my wallet. They were quite dismayed to see photos of many African American gals and even asked if I was a "n___ lover." In reality the LAKid was living a "sheltered" life going to school in central LA because I didn't know those redneck racists really still existed but they most certainly did.
There were many other examples of racism I was exposed to but today's blog is not about that issue. As mentioned in my previous post though things are substantially better down south I don't think they have their race issues resolved quite yet in the Smoky Mountains. Make sure you read the quote from the Knoxville newspaper in my previous blog, down below, for comfirmation of that.
When the LAGuy moved from LA to Tennessee it was like Kevin Bacon in Footloose... but I couldn't dance. Gatlinburg, Tennessee in 1985 was a few years "behind" LA in just about everything. A couple noted exceptions: 1) the people of eastern TN were substantially better sports fans and 2) ... while I haven't come up with anything else yet. The place was truly different. I remember one of my first days at the new school walking through campus with some of my finest cloths on... Guess overalls... two tone. Man those things were sweet!
I don't remember if I did the one arm strap down look or both down but I felt pretty good rockin' the Guess Jeans overalls right!? At some point one of my classmates looked at me with a real stupid look, very thick accent, and said, "guess what?" That was followed, a day or two later by another classmate, with equal dumb look and thick accent, "Swatch watch... what's a Swatch watch?" Not but a few days later, in the parking lot, as I rocked my steady LA beats during the lunch period... "Bingo Boingo... what's Bingo Boingo?" Or "Run DMC... what is Run DMC?" My little LA world was awakened just like Kevin Bacon arriving at his school in Footloose... driving his VW Bug. I drove a VW Rabbit. Guess how many other foreign cars there were at my new high school? ONE. I saw one guy who occasionally drove a VW Bug.
Everybody else was rockin' Camaro's, Trans Am's, Mustang's, trucks of all makes... and almost all vehicles in sheet metal gray color! Cars define some people in high school... including me so I was an outsider by my car among so many other things.However, I tried to play along so I got the confederate flag front "tag" for my car, put a bag of Red Man chew on my dash, but the best thing I did... I got a horn that played 100 different songs... including the Dukes of Hazard song they played whenever Bo and Luke were about to jump over a river. That was the best. Driving through town if I saw my classmates I would hit the button and the Duke boys song would play to announce that I was there! It even had a loud speaker built in so you could yell at people on the sidewalks. Damn, I wish I had that still!
I remember the day I met the guidance counselor in the school when I went to register for classes. He looked me up and down and with that deep southern accent said, "you play football?" I told him I didn't that I played soccer. The guidance counselor replied, "that's ok... we can always use a good kicker on the football team." Let's just say that high school football is sort of big time in eastern Tennessee. The games are on the radio and on TV with many replays so you can watch it over and over! I ended up playing soccer on the high school's first team. We were not good but of course no other local teams were good as most people hadn't played before. One of the few times in my life I was one of the two or three best players on the soccer team!
The SacTownGuy worked at Burger King that summer. Mastered the fry cooker the first night, was whipping out burgers a night or two later, and was running the cash register with in a few days. My manager, John Henry, thought I must be a rocket scientist I was such a fast learner of all those difficult tasks! I always remember the first time John Henry told me the shake machine was "tore up." I had no clue what he meant. Was there a hole in the machine? Tore up, of course, meant it was broken. They really should give you a dictionary when you arrive in the south!
Speaking of arrivals I remember crossing the county line the first time I arrived there. The large sign, no joke, read,
"WELCOME TO SEVIER COUNTY
HOME OF DOLLY PARTON."
Yup, old Dolly grew up there and went to our rival high school. The year I left she bought a local amusement park in the next town over and turned it into Dollywood which is of course still there today.
I never saw Dolly while I was there... I am guessing she does not spend a lot of time there.Well, guess what, my time is done for today. More another day.
peace out.
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