The Newport Plain Talk

Foggy mornings disappeared with late week warm winds in our hometown, as if signaling changes, like the steep drop in gasoline prices to the $2.90s.

Folks that I talked with seemed to be worried after checking the ashes of their retirement funds yet most were going about their business as usual. There didn’t seem to be a lack of diners at restaurants and shoppers in food stores. The newest restaurant, Milano’s Italian, off West Broadway was busy Friday noon. One of the tables was packed with county deputies, a couple I knew such as David Crowder and Steve Johnson. The rest looked too young to be lawmen, but I am sure they are the new guard eager to learn and lead. I wish them luck and hope to get to know them. I heard a big “bang” and thought David had dropped his peacemaker but it was only a utensil. Saturday morning more folks were at work painting. On a tall ladder at the Learning Express was Willie Bright. He finally admitted to being a brother to my old friend, Pete Bright. Angela Teague was steadying the ladder and Ron Lindsey was mostly casting a long shadow on the cool morning. At 76, Ron has been retired for about seven years from the city street dept.

You recall, we visited Reidtown, a small unincorporated community just west of Newport, last week and talked about Classic Plantings and the Prices, but there is more in that quiet place. I wanted to alert you that next week I’ll update you on Tommy Bullard, a Newport native, and his technical support work with entertainment productions. I also learned that WNPC’s office manager, Lisa Coggins, (“Lisa Lisa”) is keen to learn and works some with Tommy and his crew. They will be in town Oct. 18 for Oktoberfest weekend in Dandridge.

When the Great Depression began in 1929, after the Black Monday stock market crash, Louise Jones was about six years old. We talked last Thursday afternoon standing in the front lawn of the home, next to Classic Plantings Nursery, where she was born in 1923. The traffic was brisk for pumpkins and mums and I saw a few people drive in that you know. I had not seen Bill Thomas in years and he looked good. Brenda McMillan was also seeking decorations for the fall and there were several folks I did not know.

Louise (Jones) Samples and I walked along Old Newport Highway, as she recounted the years past and her neighbors and change over that large expanse of time in a small swatch of farmland. She was married to J.P. Samples, whose correct death date was in April 1998, which I stated incorrectly last Sunday. “What did the initials stand for?” She said, just initials, though his brother Bob tried to call him “James Ponder,” which was not his name. You recall that Louise was born to Roy Jones, who had married Margaret Reese at a time when the highway to Knoxville was gravel. Their son, Winfred, was born in 1920 at the same frame house where Louise was born and built by Roy. Reidtown Methodist Church was not far away and still stands but has not been in use as a church for decades. You can see it from I-40. There is an older house still standing along narrow Old Newport Hwy. where Louise lives at 1614. It is also a house that Roy built for his parents, Jack and Barbara (Hall) Jones. Louise noted that Perry Hall had donated the land for the Methodist church. There are several churches in the area including the one Louise attends, Reidtown Community Church, and, across Hwy. 25/70, New Beginnings Church. A big family in Reidtown in the 1920s was that of her grandpa, Robert Reese. He and wife, Sarah Ketner, had 12 children. They lived just off the highway where it intersects with Old Huff Hollow Rd. He ran a general merchandise store-his home next to it-and these were two of only a handful of buildings 85 years ago. I learned that of the 12 children, one was the Dad of the late Lois Reese, who eventually owned C.D. Fisher Insurance; and another son’s daughter was Hazel Thornton. The Reidtown store was already vacant when Louise was growing up and attending the Old Edgemont School; schoolmates included Herbert Reese and Evelyn Reese. Nobody had any money during the depression into the 1930s but they had plenty of food because the families raised their own. John Shell of Huff Hollow operated the mill near the Reese store and ground cornmeal. Louise recalls folks carrying sacks of corn to the mill to be ground on Saturdays. Stokely Brothers also operated a tomato canning plant nearby and another business in the town was a cheese producer. She referred to it as a “little factory” that made hoop cheese. Louise’s cousin, Janella Johnson, remembers the facility that was operated by Mitchell Hall.

To Be Continued...