We are a meld, the blue mountains and me. We are part of each other. Pigeon Forge was my home; The Smoky Mountains, their foothills, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park I considered my yard. From Elkmont to Deep Creek from Walnut bottoms to Davenport Gap, the mountains stretched my playground. The Sevier County 1940s and 1950s era was like no other. Unmatched in countryside beauty, they nurtured a Mayvberry-esque life style. The rural one-day-at-a time pace of the mountains and the peace of the countryside offered home folks an idyllic life. They simply wouldn't live anywhere else. The land, their heritage, and the mountain mystique that held them was reason enough to stay. I grew up in the midst of all of that. Entertainment and play was outdoors only; indoors was for cards and being sick.My friends and I spent almost every waking moment in the Smokies' woods 'n waters. The mountains taught us well. We developed a strong sense of who we were and to whom we belonged. Because of these mountains, its people, and our heritage, we became better people. They raised us right. Even today, it's important to be able to say, "born and raised here." Our lives saw dramatic change during that brief pre and longer post WWII Pigeon Forge period and beyond. The Then and the Now fill my book. If you hunger to know what I, we, miss about those days of the Then, this book is for you. The book's second half depicts the Now. Entitled Reflections, it mirrors the collective perceptions of the many who remember and who still ponder the results progress and the resulting trade-offs. Fiction, conservation perspectives, eclectic poems, and naturalist comments ring prophetically true in the Reflections portion. If you love our mountains and the outdoors, This book is for you. Journey with me into the Pigeon Forge culture of the mid-forties and early fifties. Experience a Sevier county history, culture, and heritage that stretched from Sevierville to Elkmont and from Knoxville to the Chimneys. Travel with my Five Oaks physician granddad and me as he "doctors" his ailing patients strung out from Five Oaks farm to Boogertown. Hike and fish with me high in the Smokies. Learn some valuable growin-up-in-the-woods stuff. Meet crusty colorful old woodsmasters who taught us the ways of nature's woods 'n waters. Walk alongside me in the streets of prewar Pigeon Forge and meet my neighbors. Join me and you'll never be the same.
About the Author: The East Tennessee author, a Pigeon Forge native son, is a former naval officer, served as a major university outreach consultant to businesses and professional organizations, is a commercial real estate advisor in the Smoky Mountain area, and a contributor to the Uplands Chronicles, a weekly column of the Mountain Press. What began as a gift to his sons, the THEN, evolved into a coming of age memoir that encompassed the naturalist and conservationist views reflected in the seventy years of change that crept up on the Smokies. His nostalgic journey captures the Then and Now caught in the whirlwind of change. When time allows he writes, traipses the Smokies, and fishes their waters.