CB Radio Days..
Remember those fun days back in the 70's when everyone was into the CB radio crazy? You just had to have all the required hardware plus more. You wanted to be heard by many other CBers. I got into the craze with both feet. First I got a mobile radio for my truck, next one for our car. So everyone was setting up base stations so I had to have one. Found an old Guardian 23 tube type and had her peaked with power. You just had to have an antenna on the house to broadcast. My first one was a simple one but later I had to have one of those Moonrakers on a high tower. Man I was almost set to talk around the world. You know you needed more power than the 5 watts the FCC allowed. 300 watts tied to the radio illegally and I could talk long distance. When you made contact with other ...

CBers in other states and foreign countries you send and received cards in the mail called QSL cofirming you contact.
I met a lot of good people I might never have met if not for my CB radio. A group of fellow CB'ers formed a club and we called ourselves the Channel 22 club. I came up with an award to be presented each week called the Bucket Mouth Award. It was a piece of plywood cut into the shape of a bucket with a wire handle. The award was to be given to the person that talked the most that week on the radio. The winner had to have all the club at their house for the meeting. We would bring food and drinks for the occasion. Man those were fun days!!! You used handles when you talked on your radio and never used your name. Handles like The Texas Longhorn, Double Trouble, Grinch, Amber Lady, Georgia Peach, Jolly Green Giant and my handle; The Aggravator.
Our club put on a charity event for a local deputy sheriff that was in bad health. CBer's from all over the midstate came to help out. The whole town including the mayor supported our club efforts. We raised several thousand dollars that went to the sick deputy.
Yeah, those were fun days before the cell phone. CB slang words like what's your 20, 10-4 good buddy, bear at mile marker 100 and 73's filled the air waves. Now we don't go any where without our cell phones.

NO GUARANTEES IN LIFE

Two thoughts are on my mind this morning and both are about death. We know we are not guaranteed another day of life on this earth. So many things can happen and life ends. That's just the way life works.
My sister called after receiving word that our last living aunt had passed away. She had lived a long life. Her husband had passed away in 2003. They had raised three children and had several grand children and 13 great grand children. The last years of her life were filled with many health problems. My aunt had lived a long life of 76 years and on May 31 her life on this earth ended.
A tragic automobile wreck happen on our road going to Tullahoma the same day we learned of aunt Wilma Jo's death. My grand daughter Lindsey had called and said there was a bad wreck on Rock Creek road. Saturday while coming back from  Captain D's with a take home fish dinner I saw a truck parked near the accident scene. I stopped and asked the couple did they know how the people were that were in the wreck. The woman said, " My daughter is fine but her boy friend was dead in the accident. He was 18 years old and just graduated from high school in Manchester." I told them I was sorry to learn that the young man lost his life and drove on home.
Later last night I called my son and told him about talking with the girl's mother about the wreck. What my son was going to tell me about the young man made me even sadder. The young man was given up by his family at a very young age. We don't know why his family gave him away. Only they know the reason. The young lad was raised by his grand parents. Some there around his age of 14 one of the grandparent's died and the other one was put into a nursing home. The boy had become friends with a new family that had moved into his neighborhood. They didn't have any children and they adopted the young man at age 14. Finally the boy had another family. Life was looking good for the young man all the way through high school. So young and life looked promising........the young man had driven from Manchester to Estill Spring to pick up his girl friend and were on their way to Tullahoma when he lost control of his car and ran off the road and the car landed on its roof. Such a loss of the life of a young man.
One person had live a long life and been blessed with children, grand children and great grand children. The others death came at a young age. May they both rest in peace. Death knows no age limit.

ANOTHER FIRST FOR ME...!!!!

My wife recently was in the hospital with pneumonia. She stayed 14 days and was very sick with other problems too. Three days in ICU unit and the doctor ordered two units of blood. I had never given blood, I have a thing about seeing blood especially if it's mine. I guess you could call me a wimp. I passed out during my blood test when we went to be married, LOL, now but she has never let me live that down.
Once I went outside the hospital to get some fresh air after ICU visiting hours were over; guess what was out front of the hospital?? Yeah you guessed it...the Blood Assurance Bus. I'm thinking what a good time to be a big boy and go give blood. My body wanted to go but my feet didn't want to move. I finally entered the bus and people were packed waiting to donate. When I told them the story about my wife receiving two units of blood and I wanted to give blood for my first time. They were very nice and put me to the head of the line after a lot of question and a finger prick to test my blood. I looked around and I was the only man giving blood. The head of the blood bus explained a new way to give blood and you would get credit for two units instead of the regular way of one unit.
The machine they hooked me to after I said yes is called a Apheresis. The machine draws blood from your body and spins it extremely fast which separates the Red cells and places them into two donor bags. This machine take about twenty minutes to complete the cycle. Once the red cells are collected the machine pumps what is not used back into your body along with saline and an anticoagulant medication. I was doing great until that machine started pumping the fluid back into my arm. Yeah, I had to look at my arm. I remember saying, "I'm feeling faint" When I woke up I had two ice packs on my chest and two on my back and a pretty lady handing me a sprite and a little debbie cookie. Not bad at all???
The large tech told me it was over and that fainting is very normal for a first timer. Didn't make me feel any better with all those ladies looking on. He said you have the same amount of fluids in your body as you came in here with. Drink plenty of fluids and eat a good meal tonight. It was quite an experience for me but if I ever give blood again it will be the conventional way.

MOTHER GOES TO THE OPERA.........THE GRAND OLE OPERA.

My Mom was a simple woman. Her love for her family and friends always came first. Now as I look back on all the things she did to keep our family's necessities in check. It was amazing at how much she did for the family that I didn't realize at the time. We were raise to help with the chores as we became of age. Mother loved to cook. She could have a big meal prepare in about an hour from scratch. Dad loved meat so there was always meat on the table. Mom would cook what Dad liked most of the time. What's that old saying?? The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Well, it was working for my Dad.
Not only doing her duties with the task of running a household; Mom sewed baseballs and softballs to help out with the family income. Worth, a local company made baseballs and softball. Mom was a home sewer of these products. A sack of balls consisted of 144 balls. The company furnished all the goods to complete the process of finishing the balls except  the actual sewing the covers on. This was done by hand. Mom was good at finishing the balls. When all were finished Dad would take Mom and the balls to Worth to be graded. Mom was always very nervous on that day. If the inspector, who graded each ball culled one Mom would have to sew another to replace it. Mom usually had an extra one already made just in case. Once the entire 144 balls passed inspection the company would cut Mom a check. Back them they paid twenty cents a ball so Mom got a check for $ 28.80 and another sack of balls to take home and begin the whole process again.
Saturday nights at our house Mom and Dad would listen to the radio. A popular country music program called The Grand Ole Opera was broadcast over a famous radio station out of Nashville, Tn. with the call letters WSM. The station was owned by an Insurance Company, National Life. Their call letters WSM....WE SERVE MILLIONS. Listening to her favorite music late into the night Mom was an authority on who was singing a song when it came on the radio. Stars like Kitty Wells, Ray Price, Faron Young, Carl Smith, Jim Reeves, Hank Snow, The Browns and a little fellow named Little Jimmy Dickens. There was ONE SINGER that MOM admired more than any other. He was a new face on the Opera named Marty Robbins. Through the years MOM bought all of Marty's records and albums. The early ones were on the 78's and later ones on the 45's. Back then record players were all we had to play our records on.
MOM, always talked about someday going to Nashville and to the Grand Ole Opera. Dad, was always willing to please MOM. She only bought one kind of pinto beans and there wasn't any store locally that sold them. Dad would drive Mom on a 60 mile round trip to buy pinto beans at a Piggy Wigglys store in Fayeteville. I guess it also helped that this was MOM'S home town.
One week MOM was very excited......we were finally going to the Grand Ole Opera. I think I was about 14 years old, my sister 12 and brother about 7. What a trip we had and MOM talked about till her death in 1993. She had such a good time with what she enjoyed; her country music. As we stood in line to get our tickets MOM saw Marty Robbins get out of a car and enter a door on the side of the building where the performer's entered. Man, was she excited!! That sure made her day. That night at the opera and what an event it was for MOM still lingers in my memory.

KITTEN FOR AUNT MAE

In all the years I've visited Uncle Ted and Aunt Mae I've never seen a cat or kitten around their place. A while back I decided to pay them a surprise visit as I haven't been by their place in a long time. Uncle Ted was sitting in his favorite chair out on the front porch. My, that's strange!! There is a yellow kitten curl up in the other chair on the porch. Uncle Ted has always been a dog lover. Through the years I've seen bird dogs and coon dogs greet me when I arrive. Uncle Ted is a avid hunter.
Greeting were exchanged and my curiosity got the better of me. What it the world is up with that kitten?? " That ain't my kitten that belongs to Mae." I guess that's the first kitten I've  ever seen at your place. " You would be right on that." I'll tell you a story about how Mae got that kitten.
I don't know if the story is true or not but it came from a preacher who heard it from another preacher. You know some of those preachers tell some tall stories. Well, the preacher and his wife had this small kitten and the darn thing climbed up this small popular tree in his front yard. He tried every thing he could think of to get the kitten down put to no avail. The tree was too small for him to climb . After a lot of thought he decided to tie a rope around the tree up as far as he could reach. He backed his truck up to the tree and tied the rope to his trailer hitch. He pulled the truck up till the tree came down close to the ground. As he got out of the truck the rotten rope broke and the kitten was airborne off into the wild blue yonder. He couldn't find the darn kitten. The next day as the preacher was shopping at the grocery store he noticed a lady member of his church buying cat food. He asked, " I see y'all must have a cat." The lady begin to laugh and told the preacher the strangest thing happen yesterday. My daughter has been after me to get a kitten for the last several months. I told her to go out in the yard and pray for a kitten. As she was praying I looked out the window and a kitten came flying through the air and dropped near the child's feet. "Strangest thing I ever saw!"
I was hooked on every word of Uncle Ted's kitten story. I guess stranger things have happened. Well, Nick I decided after hearing about the preacher's story to get Mae a kitten after all these years. And I'll tell you.... I kind of like the little bugger.

UNFORGETTABLE HAROLD

Going through life I've met some amazing people. People with different traits; good points and bad points. I try not to judge people but some times it's hard not too.
One of the most remarkable people who has left a favorable impression on me is Harold Kimbrell. I first met Harold while working for my Dad. Harold and I started working for him about the same time . From those early days one could see that Harold was a hard worker. Harold was some what older than me; maybe five years older. Harold and I hit it off from the start. I was going to college and working with Dad during the summer while we were out for the summer.
I was taking accounting in college and it was near income tax time. Harold asked me if I knew how to fill out tax forms and I told him yes. " Will you fill mine out" and I was happy to help him with his return. He was going to get $ 56.00 back and was quite happy once he got that check back from the government. Harold never told me he had never filed a tax return. Come to find out he had worked at a local filling station for 5 years and had received $75.00 cash a week. Not too long after receiving his check; one day a stranger showed up on our work site wanting to talk with Harold. He was an agent with the internal revenue service and told Harold he owed the government back taxes for 5 years . He told Harold how much he owed but I can't remember the sum. Brash, Harold stated he wasn't going to pay the back taxes and the agent said we will get it one way or another. Back then they could freeze your wages all but $12.00 a week. Harold told the agent I'll quit and go off and work some where you can't find me. Harold's uncle worked on a pipe line some where up North and Harold quit and began work some where out of state. The pipe line work paid big money to their workers. The company would hold back two weeks wages before the first payment to an employee. Harold was excited to get that first check with the big bucks. Hold on this check can't be right it's only for $24.00. Yes, Uncle Sam had found Harold and got their taxes. I can feel the disappointment that Harold must have felt at the time.
Harold later came back to work with Dad and me. Harold was a quick learner. He pick up building techniques the first time he was showed. For years Harold and I worked side by side for Dad. We always did the roofing on the houses that Dad built. Harold and I would always race to see who could get back to the starting line first. I would always lay off the roof as to how we started laying the shingles and nailing them down. I would start in the middle of the roof and strike lines every 10 inches apart and both of us would start in the middle one going right and the other going to the left. Once we reached the end of the building we would return to the middle to start again. I would always beat Harold back to the starting line no matter how hard he tried to get back first. This went on for years. I had being laying the roof off where I only had two less shingles to run than Harold. Finally after all those years Harold caught what I was doing and said, " I'm going to lay off the next roof we do." From then on he won some and some times I won.
Harold was very strong for his size. He was about 6 foot 4 inches in height and weighted around 170. He would bet people like plumbers, electricians that he could carry up 3 bundles of shingles that weighted 210 pounds at a time up the ladder to the roof. I've seen several workers lose their $5.00 when Harold pitched the 3 bundles down on the roof. Harold like to frequent the bars around Tullahoma on the weekends. Harold after some alcohol would get into fights. He won a lot of these bar room fights. One weekend while at a rough honky tonk, Joe Rico's, he got into a fight with two air force men. The owner of the bar went and locked the door and helped the airmen beat up Harold. Harold was taken to the hospital to recover from the beating.
We were building a house in Shelbyville and Harold would ride in the back of my pickup on the way back to Tullahoma. Near the bridge over Duck River just out of Shelbyville we saw a lot of ground hogs. Harold would shoot them from the moving truck with his 22 rifle. He killed several back during those days. Once while we were framing a roof Dad wanted Harold to throw the 100 foot tape down to him. Harold pitched it off the roof to Dad and it landed hard on Dad's foot and broke Dad's foot.
I had found a 1940 Ford coupe at a store in Tracy City. I didn't know how I was going to get it home. Harold said he knew where we could get a tow bar to tow the old car home. Harold would go with my brother and me to bring the car back to Tullahoma. Once at Tracy City we aired up the old tires and attached the tow bar to the bumper of my 1954 Ford convertible. The old 40 didn't have brakes and the old motor was in the trunk. We had the tow bar chained and wired with bailing wire to the convertible. I decide than I would ride in the old 40 on the way back. Every thing was going according to plans and we stopped on top of Sewanee mountain to check out the hookup before descending the 5 miles off the mountain. What was I thinking riding in that old 40. We were almost down off the mountain, probably 250 feet from the bottom, when the tow bar, chains and wire broke. I was able to steer and passed Harold with another car approaching us. You should have seen Harold eyes as I passed him and my brother Frank. After I cleared Harold and got back in front of him in the right lane before the car coming at me reached us. Harold gassed the convertible and got in front of me and begin to brake as we finally came to a stop on the side of the road. We were able to reattach the tow bar and made it safely home. I've always shivered at the through of what if the 40 came loose further up the mountain. Guess I wouldn't be writing this. We had a new guy working in the crew. He was just out of college and was the son-law to the man we were building houses. Doc Oliver wanted Dad to teach Don the building trade. He would leave his hammer on a middle 2x4 brace in the wall and if we were sheet rocking Harold would say just cover up his hammer. Don lost a lot of hammers during those days. Years later while doing a remodeling job I found one of Don's old hammers while tearing out paneling in one of the house we built.
After many years of working with Harold work got slow and Dad and I went to Clarksville to build houses. Harold went to work for a big home builder in Nashville and soon became the foremen. While Harold and his boss were at a bar one night the guy told Harold we need to ride out to where I want you to start our next house. He was leaving town on a two weeks vacation and told Harold he wanted him to start the house while he was gone. Once at the site the owner drove a wooden stake in the ground 100 feet off the road. " This is were to start the front of the house." Harold and the workers had the house frame in in no time. He noticed an old man coming around watching them build the house every day. Once back off his vacation the owner came out to the job site and looked puzzled. Harold I think you have built the house on the wrong lot. "What do you mean I've built the house on the wrong lot. I built it were you drove the wooden stake." The house was on the wrong lot, it belonged to the old man that was coming around every day. The contractor tried to swap lots with the old man but he wasn't having any thing to do with that. They did agreed to exchange lots plus the contractor paid the old man $10,000.
I have fond memories of the times Harold and I worked together. Dad had a slow pitch softball team and Harold was one of our best players. Times continued on and Harold and I grew apart raising our families and working. Harold years ago met death when he fell from the back of a pickup truck. I didn't receive the bad news until weeks later and was sad to learn of his death. His son lives in the same town I live and I hope these written memories I have will some how help Doug know some things about his Dad that he missed. Rest in peace Harold.

POPCORN SUTTON........MASTER MOONSHINER

Marvin ( Popcorn) Sutton a world renowned Moonshiner. A scrawny long bearded man with a fowl mouth and a passion for copper pipes, kettles, corn, sugar, yeast and fire. A true master at the trade of making white lighting liquor.
He made his home in the rural town of Parrotsville, Tennessee which is located in Cocke County. This rural county has been identified in the past as the world capital of moonshine. The practice of makin moonshine dates back to the Scots Irish who brought the art to the new world.
Better known as Popcorn Sutton he learned his trade from his father. Making moonshine was legal up until after the Civil War. Popcorn had several run in with the law over his illegal moon shine in the 1970's. People who consumed his product stated that it was the best they had ever tasted. After several brushes with the law old Popcorn stated time and time again, " that's the last likker I'll ever make. He tried hard to keep out of trouble but said, " once making likker gets in your blood it's hard to stop.
Popcorn always wore and old hat and bib overalls.For decades he crouched over as he walked from carrying sacks of sugar and corn to his still in the hills. Popcorn received his nickname from an unfortunate encounter with a popcorn machine in a bar.
Around his home town he liked to be called a distiller. Old Popcorn became quite famous. He's wrote his autobigraphy, " Me and My Likker." He's appeared on TV in documentaries on whisky making and even has a video on you tube, " The last run of Likker I'll make." He played the banjo and if the mood hit him he would serenade his guest.
Popcorn insisted on making his living on the art of moonshine maked  the old fashion way. In 2007 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives raided and busted him with 850 gallons of moonshine hidden in an old school bus and a shed along with some guns. He didn't want the agents to take photos of his stills and himself. His photo standing in front of a brick building shows him giving them the old middle finger.
He was convicted in 2008 with two 18 month prison sentences. He's probably the last known moonshiner to be convicted. Now here is where the story takes a sad turn. Popcorn being in ill health and facing jail time was found by his wife Pam, in his green Fairlane Ford dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Popcorn Sutton died at the age of 61. Gone from these Tennessee hills but not forgotten; a remarkable character who lived life his way.
Tonight on our local news, a story about a man who is legally making Popcorn Sutton White Lighting by Popcorn's recipe in quart mason jars. It's got old Popcorn photo on the jars and it's made in Nashville.