Friday, July 14, 2006

100 things about Nashville



I've been reading with interest MetroBlogging Nashville's series: 100 Things About Nashville. Good stuff - check out the comments as well.

I simply love Nashville, having been here for twenty seven years.

I was transferred here from Atlanta by Warner Bros. to help open up the country music market with merchandising and marketing. Remember John Anderson's "Swingin"? Later it was the Urban Cowboy movie craze. Why me? It's true, all the best cowboys have Chinese eyes.

I met my bride of twenty six years here; remember when Hickory Hollow Mall was being built; when White Bridge Road and Old Hickory Blvd. on the west side of town were potholed filled two lane roads and the only nightlife in Nashville was the "Rock Block" on Elliston Place. However I have never been to Radnor Lake! Shame on me.

Exit Inn, The Goldrush and Obie's Pizza were the constants in my life. In fact, I lived at 212 Louise Avenue, a former 14 room dental office with no water pressure that now houses the Magical Journey

Here are some of the 100 things from the series that resonate with me:

- Remember when the Nashville skyline consisted of the L & C Tower?

- Nashville evolves. What was once a row of too-tacky-to-be-believed souvenir shops is now a run of too-trendy-to-be-cool bars and eateries.

- The Tennessean has got to be one of the worst newspapers in the top-30 US media markets.

- Nashville has a great library that is under-utilized.

- Old Hickory Blvd forms a circle around Nashville. Unfortunately it is not a very straight circle.

- Briley Parkway is a smaller circle around the city, but it changes names (Briley Parkway, Thompson Lane, Woodmont Blvd, White Bridge Road).

- Nashville may have the most cohesive blogosphere of any city on the planet.

I would add to the "remember when" category:

The Municipal Auditorium was the hot place venue for concerts (Genesis, Prince, Van Halen) along with the Exit Inn, Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym (U2, Bob Marley, Talking Heads); MTSU (The Eagles, Amy Grant) and the opening of Starwood Amplitheatre. I wish I could remember some of the bands, but I must have been really stoned at the time. WKDF 103 and WSM 95 were the dominant radio stations back in the seventies.

Twitty City at Christmas, Fourth of July fireworks at every Hill's Department store locations, the Cumberland River ferry from West Nashville to Ashland City, the Nashville South Stars, my addiction to wrassling at the Fairgrounds (Bill Dundee vs. Jerry Lawler), when wrassling great Jackie Fargo ran for mayor, the old Pie Wagon meat 'n' three, when Shoney's actually did have the best breakfast bar and the best soups, the opening of the long delayed 440 Parkway...

I've gotta stop - I'm showing my age! It's like telling teenagers about the Beatles or the difference between Van Halen and Van Hagar.

2 comments:

Sharon Collie said...

I went to Starwood a bunch the first season it was open. The first concert I ever went to there (and the first one I drove myself to) was The Monkees...alas...no Mike Nesmith. I remember Davy Jones had a really sweaty butt.

I remember going to Hickory Hollow when it first opened right after I started 4th grade in 1979. We always parked at Sears and I thought that was so retarded and old lady-ish.

Wild & Blue is STILL a great album.

Kerry Woo said...

Sista - I haven't been to Hickory Holler in years - like Rivergate Mall, it's so far away. Used to watch a lot of Monkees TV and I especially liked the Monkeemobile.

Wilmington - thanks for stopping by - never been to Delaware. My mother in law used to give the Woo family season passes to Opryland every year as a Christmas present. It's a shame that we have to travel so far to a theme park; but Disney still rocks in my book.