Answer: "the day the music died" was from Don Mclean's American Pie written about the day the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens (La Bamba) were killed in a plane crash.
Nashville Reminiscing
Thanks to Brittney of Nashville is Talking for linking me the other day. My 15 seconds of blog fame! Reading through some of the comments at Nashville is Talking leads me to this quick post today.
Nashville is so different from my child and teenage years. There are many good changes, but so many things I miss.
I miss:
- NO TRAFFIC!
- KDF Rock--Nashville airwaves have never been the same since.
- The old Tennessee Theatre downtown (saw Cheap Trick on the Dream Police Tour there--awesome)
- The Belle Meade Theatre
- Opryland (like we needed another mall--more traffic thank you very much)
- Having the run of Radnor Lake natural area because it wasn't a trendy hiking place.
- Jim Coursey's Barbecue -- the best ever and the greatest sauce known to man, and corn cakes that were like Manna.
- Low Property Taxes !!!!
- Carmen's family restaurant at Hwy 70/100 split. Some of the best Italian food ever--the pizza was gourmet before gourmet pizza became a marketing buzz word.
- Kids could run free in their neighborhoods without fear.
- Seeing Sara Cannon smiling and laughing with anyone at H.G. Hills, the post office, etc in Green Hills (Minnie Pearl)
- H.G. Hills
- Walter Nipper's Nashville Sporting Goods downtown store. It was to kids and sports what Phillips Toy Mart was to kids and toys. (correction: still there, but I miss going; will have to visit.)
- No lines at the Pancake Pantry
If you want a great list of wonderful things that are no longer visit Nashville Memories.
Some things that are better:
- The return of the Ryman as a main venue.
- Rivitalization of Lower Broadway
- Coffee Houses
- No more Ray Blanton (but his legacy lives on in the state legislature it seems)
- TPAC and now the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center
Gethsemani Homilies by Matthew Kelty, O.C.S.O.
24 comments:
Walter Nipper's is still there on 8th
That is great!
O yay I get a star. I really loved that song, but guess I never knew what it was about--it surely had a nice beat!
Cool. Your readership just went up. I hope you can handle the fame. ;-)
I'm glad I don't live in Brentwood anymore. The times I'm there, it depresses me. I see bits and pieces of things that are familiar but can hardly find my street of Concord Rd....
My mother told me that once upon a time the rock wall that you see on parts of Granny White Pike actually ran the entire length of the road on both sides (I believe). So sad that most of it is gone now, you don't find craftmanship like that anymore.
I remember that Malia.
Sista, do you remember the Red Geranium?
Tony
Never mind, hadn't read your post today when I asked that.
Tony
Don't forget us little people out here. :-)
Ya'll are my blog family and ya'll are major to me.
Tony
A lot of the walls do date directly back to the civil war. It is a shame so many have disappeared.
Off the subject ... Tony, could you help us move Saturday, (after the Easter Egg Hunt, of course)? We just need help to load up a truck. I've got two other guys so far, plus Rob.
Tony, I am the mother of Jeffrey Wallace, purgatorypenman. Thank you so much for the CD that you sent. You've gotten it back, I'm sure. They are not allowed to have electronic machines, contrary to the gossip that permeates our society which details instances of inmates having cell phones, TV's, etc. I guess that right only exists in the federal facilities where Martha Stewart and Michael Millken (sp.?) spent time. Would you mind writing to Jeffrey so that I might exchange E-mail addresses with you? I would appreciate it. Thank you for allowing others to view his gifts by directing them to his blog. I truly believe God has a purpose for him in this life yet.
I grew up in West Nashville...thanks to the new Briley Parkway interchange, it has drastically changed. I miss the ferry that you took across the Cumberland River and Stephen's Pharmacy on the corner of White Bridge Rd and Charlotte. That's where both my husband and I bought our school workbooks every year. I miss the Whataburger and Pizza Inn on Charlotte and whatever happened to Po Folks? Does anyone remember the Sailmaker restaurant on West End near the Belle Meade Theater. When I was little the waiters and waitresses dressed up in costume. I miss the triangle slide that was on the playground of my elementary school. And I most definitely miss the 99 cents Plaza theater. There was also a 99 cents theater around 100 Oaks mall. I miss Fair Park, saving up RC bottle caps to trade in for tickets, the haunted house ride, and the roller coaster. Sorry to leave a long post from a perfect stranger, but once I started going, I couldn't stop. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I love the long post from a stranger. Thanks for the wonderful additions. Fair park--so many memories. Everyone liked the Sailmaker. Most consider it Nashville's first theme restaurant.
Drop by anytime.
Tony
Tony-we must be of a similar era. Coursey's was the best, but his cousin Pope Taylor's (Woodbury Pike in Murfreesboro) sauce, corncakes and pulled pork are virtually identical. I was Vandy '75 and my dad was a professor there. I remember the launch WKDA. My sister, fresh out of journalism school, got a full page article on Ryman's closing published in the NY Times.
Sailmaker - glad somebody remembered. I was Mickey Mantle and sometimes Murph the Surf (when I hadn't made it home from the employees' party the night before). About a third of us were Vandy students, mixed with Belmont, TSU, and the balance were sessions musicians from the studios. Most of us eventually quit and went on to shut down another straunt called 'Cajuns Wharf". Ah, the days
I loved Cajun's wharf.
Does anyone remember a shop called Pembroke? Around 1967-1970 or so. It was originally on West End I think, but I remember it near Vanderbilt on 21st Ave. S, near Grand & 21st... in fact I think it was exactly where the O'Charleys was later. A 'head shop' with all the stuff, clothing as well. I find few people that remember those times. Also a shop called The Lions Den in Hillsboro Village. Thanks.
Found this a little late in the game. Tony, you are on the mark about the Cajun's Wharf. I was raised in that place. My Dad was the trumpet player in the weekend band. My babysitters were the cocktail waitresses, the bar tender, and a $10.00 roll of quarters. I was the youngest one in the bar. Back then it was me being at work with Dad. Now it would be child abuse. I miss the Wharf. Some of my best childhood memories took place right there.
A little late as well. I worked at Carmen's when I was in high school. Loved that pizza, except when the cook would make "employee specials" with anchovies!
I was a Vandy student '72-'73. I got my Siamese cat at the Pet Store in Hillsboro Village, ate at Lums (yum yum), saw Tex Ritter raid the cash register at his restaurant across from Vandy, loved the melt-in-your-mouth late-night donuts at the donut place on West End after babysitting for musicians and Vandy profs. I loved Candyland, and refused to eat at the Pancake House in Hillsboro after the redneck owner refused to serve a longhair. Even in 1971, the Pancake House had long lines.
I visited the Hermitage Hotel in the early '60's on a class trip with my fourth-grade class from Memphis. I really, really miss Opryland, esp. the Grizzly River Rampage, and also, more recently, the Thai restaurant near Vandy. I also miss the Belle Meade Restaurant where we home-sick Vandy students could get really good homecooking. And the Sailmaker, that is where a group of us court reporters from Memphis celebrated passing our state test in 1975. We were so high on excitement at doing that that all I remember is the huge ship in the middle, the fact that I had a caesar salad, we all had drinks, and I was as happy and relieved as I have ever been.
But its no where near the same
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