Essie Bowles

There have been many mentors who have molded my life:  broadcasters, ministers, teachers, family, neighbors, friends.  One teacher in particular gave me a repeated lesson in practical match.  This one was the junior high math teacher at what was known “back in the day” as Memphis State Training School, a lab school on the college campus for teaching college students to be teachers.  One in particular, my junior high math teacher, did this:

Essie Bowles "tried" to teach me math. She finally managed to teach me some when I cut her grass one summer. I usually charged $1 per yard. She said she'd pay me 65 cents per hour instead. So I did...and each time she'd time me, have me then sit at her kitchen table, show me how many minutes I worked, and have me figure out how much she owed. And it was always more than $1.

THE DAY CNN LEARNED TO GO WALL-TO-WALL

CNN had assigned me to supervise a 9 am to Noon newscast and have anchors and producers in Atlanta, New York City, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles.  It was a first for the network, a first for me, and a first for me to try out what I had promised myself years before.

I usually left the CNN newsroom on Techwood Drive in Atlanta about 1 pm weekdays, an hour after NewsWatch ended.  On this first day of September in 1983 I paused to look at an “Urgent” from the wire services:  Korean Airlines flight #007 was missing on its trip to Korea from the U.S.  You can imagine CNN gets many “Urgent” messages from the wire services around the world.  But this one seemed particularly interesting to me.  So I stayed in the newsroom for an extra hour or so, forgoing my usual effort to sleep from 2 pm until my kids got home from school.  I could always get more sleep “tomorrow.”

After about an hour and a half of watching the story with no new information I decided to head home.  Once home I kept tuned to CNN for updates.  The original story kept being repeated every half hour or so but no new information was forthcoming.  Normally I’d go to bed about 8 pm only to get up again about 2 am.  That was so I could be at CNN again by 3 am to prepare for the next DayWatch.   This night I stayed up until about 10 pm waiting for more details.  They were few and far between.

I arrived at CNN at my usual 3 am timeslot.  As I prepared for the 4 am arrival of my producers I kept watching for any new details on KAL 007.  There was no substantive update.  The first hour rundown for DayWatch, the 9 am hour, was due to the writers and editors by 7 am.  The 7 am producer was making last minute adjustments to that rundown at 6:45 when another “Urgent” came across the wires:  “KAL 007 had been shot at by Soviet jets.”

Immediately I said to the 9 am producer, the 10:30 am producer, and my producers in NYC and LA: “Drop everything.  We’re going wall-to-wall with 007.”  You must understand that in 1983, 3 years into the life of Cable News Network, top breaking news stories ran at the top and sometimes the bottom of each hour but NEVER wall-to-wall.  There was so much else to put on the air, so much more news to report.

BUT….I also thought of that night in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee; the night Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  That night in Memphis I was busy in the newsroom producing the 10 pm newscast at WMC-TV, editing news film, and doing “phoners” for TV and radio stations across the U.S. and around the world.  I was also keeping an eye on the program monitor in the newsroom watching what we were reporting about the huge story…both WMC-TV program interrupts and NBC News program interrupts.  But it began to bother me that they were, indeed, interrupts.  That night NBC’s prime time lineup was mostly comedy shows.  So at the end of a local or national interrupt the reporter or anchor would say: “That’s the latest on the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the subsequent unrest.  More as it develops.  WE NOW RETURN YOU TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING ALREADY IN PROGRESS.” 

That ending just seemed wrong to me…the “kid” in the newsroom.  I made myself a promise that night that “if I’m ever in charge and a big, really big story breaks I’m taking air and keeping it…reporting the story on-going.”  And that’s just what I was deciding to do that morning at CNN about KAL 007.

My staff in four cities backed me on the decision and off we went preparing for 3 hours if necessary of updates and repeats of the big story.  As usual at 7:30 am CNN Executive Vice President and to many of us our news mentor Ed Turner arrived.  After looking over the 8 am rundown of the 6am to 9 am newscast (EP John Zarrella…now CNN Miami Bureau Chief and space program reporter) he then moved on to the first hour rundown of DayWatch.  It was there, immediately, that he saw we were going wall-to-wall with KAL 007.  He said rather forcefully:  “Byrd, we don’t do that.”  My immediate reply was:  “Ed, if you don’t like it you can fire me at noon.”  He huffed and puffed for a few seconds, shook his head, and walked off to his office.

At 9 am we told what we knew about the missing plane and the Soviet jets.  We updated the information that one of the passengers the flight was a U.S. congressman from Georgia, Larry McDonald.  We went live to The White House and The State Department.  We went live on the phone to other congressmen already in Korea for a conference and live on the phone to CNN’s Moscow Bureau.  We updated.  We repeated.  But we did not go live to The Pentagon because none of the networks had, as yet, worked out the technical details on daily live reports from there.

At about 9:40 am our DayWatch Atlanta production assistant, Pat Reap, came to me and said: “I’ve got Congressman McDonald’s Rome, Georgia office manager on the phone.  Do you want to put him on live?”  I thanked Pat (and, as it turns out, I could never thank him enough) and rushed the Rome office manager on the air.  Atlanta anchors Dave Walker and Lois Hart, CNN’s first anchor on the air when the network began 3 years before, began asking the interview.  In his first answer the manager told them and a nationwide audience:  “I just got off the phone with The Pentagon.  The plane was shot down and everyone on board is dead.”  This was 9:45 am.

We had our big break in the story.  We rolled forward:  live to The White House (nothing on that yet here), live to The State Department (nothing on that yet here), live to Moscow (we’re beginning to get some rumblings here).  Then we got word The Pentagon had called a news conference for 10 am.  CNN and the other networks sent microwave trucks to The Pentagon “just in case.”  The Pentagon news conference confirming the information that the Soviets had, indeed, shot down the plane and everyone on board was dead.  That news conference didn’t end until about 10:30 am.  That’s when NBC, CBS, ABC and the other news outlets had first news they could report on the story.  By that time we were 45 minute down the road on the details.

We went on with the story up to Noon, when we handed things over to the next program.  I then walked across the newsroom and down the hall to Ed Turner’s office.  I just stood in the door. After a moment Ed looked up and said simply:  “You can keep your job, Byrd.”

WALKING & TALKING BABY FACTORY

She was sitting with another girl on the front steps of Messick High School that fall morning of my 10^th grade year…my first at Messick.  She was beautiful.  I knew right then and there she was the one.  She still is.

The details of what led to what are for another time because the focus of this is as the title says.  As we began to make plans to spend the rest of our lives together she kept using the term: “I want to be a walking, talking baby factory.”  I would smile and shake my head approvingly…but I really had no idea what she meant.

So we got married.  11 months (to the hour) she delivered Susan Gayle Byrd.  The pregnancy had been perfect and so was Suzi.  Sandi had beamed as the perfect mother-to-be.  She “wore” her pregnancy with pride and joy. She even delivered Suzi and both of Suzi’s brothers by Dr. J.E. Holmes’ suggested “medial hypnosis”…no drugs, no knockout stuff. 

As her parents and mine waited at Methodist Hospital for word of the birth, waited for a chance to see Suzi and to see Sandi, we didn’t know what to expect.  Or, sure, her mom and mine had been through birthing before:  hers a total of 4 times, mine 3.  But this was Sandy (later changed to Sandi because an “i” was easier to scratch into the bottom of hobby ceramics than a “y”):  The walking, talking baby factory.

Finally we were told we could look at Suzi through the nursery windows.  With great pride I led the procession to the windows and to our first glimpse of Suzi.  We “ooohhh-ed” and “aaahhhhh-ed.”  We took pictures.  We beamed with delight.

Then, suddenly, from behind us we heard laughter.  We all turned around in unison to see Sandi, the walking-talking baby factory, on her side on a hospital gurney, head propped up on her arm, laughed and asking: “You all look so silly.”  There she was, about 15 minutes after delivery, laughing at us.  Turns out Dr. Holmes, the medical hypnosis, and Sandi had all done so well the doctor wanted to send her, and Suzi, home right then and there.  The trouble was the hospital had rules even Dr. Holmes couldn’t avoid.

Dr. Holmes was our family physician.  Dr. Holmes delivered me and my two brothers.  Dr. Holmes delivered all 3 of our children.  And Dr. Holmes, working with the walking, talking baby factory delivered 3 beautiful children.

LOCK AND KEY

When I was getting things ready for the launch of CNN-I I ordered 5 desks, 5 desk chairs, and 5 filing cabinets from the company's usual supplier. When they came in and were put in place the delivery guy handed me the keys to the desks and cabinets: all serial #00001. Each key fit every desk and every file cabinet. I said: "What the @#$%^&@?" He said: "Unless you specify they all come that way and they fit any and all locks with that number." So I walked around testing, opening up file cabinets all over CNN, including some outside CNN'S executive offices. I went to the next floor, opening file cabinets along the hallways of TBS.
I then went to the afternoon story meeting in the CNN conference room. At the end of the meeting I stood up and announced: "I have a field trip." Without further explaining we got on the elevator and went to the 3rd floor....where I had NOT tried this ahead of time. When we got to Ted Turner's outer office area I walked around opening up Ted's file cabinets. About that time Ted walked out and said: "What's going on?"
Soon there were locksmiths all over the complex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TURN THAT LITE OUT!!!!!!!

Back in 1967...when I was "just" the 10 pm producer (Memphis is Central time) and film editor....and when the civil rights folks had 'taken up' James Meredith's "Mississippi March" after his one-man march ended with him being shot.....................................a 3-man NBC film crew came in to do an update on the march as it was to rally one night in Greenwood Mississippi. The crew checked in with me about 3 pm and took off for Greenwood. They knew we'd process their film and I'd edit it late that night for the Today Show the next morning. They got back about 10:15 pm and their film went "in the soup." When it came out about 10:45 I put it on a projector and we watched the raw material. They weren't telling me a thing about what happened.

The film began with a dark scene, a bright white shaft of light beaming out in front of the camera and the sound of 3 sets of feet crunching on the asphalt as they walked the 2 blocks to the rally at the court square. The cameraman, electrician, and the sound man walked forward with the camera rolling. Occasionally a bug would fly through the shaft of light.

Suddenly from off camera you heard someone yell: "TURN THAT LITE OUT." The crew kept walking. "TURN THAT LITE OUT." They kept walking.

Then there was a gunshot...the sound of shattering glass (the camera light)...the view of glass pieces falling through the slowly dimming light shaft. Then darkness. Then we heard: "I TOLD YOU TO TURN THE GOD DAMN LITE OUT." Camera shuts off. That was it.

 

The cameraman turned to me and said: "What can we do with this?" I said: "Watch this." I called NYC and told them what happened and that I would "put a head and tail leader on this. Run it as it..unedited." The Today Show did. And NBC Nightly did, too....unedited.

HE DIDN'T LOOK LIKE JAMES EARL RAY

James Earl Ray has been in the news again in the past few days.  Photos have been re-released from 1968 when he was brought into Memphis from his capture in England a little over 2 months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The pictures show Ray in shackles and a bulletproof vest, being posed with then Sheriff Bill Morris.  The capture and arrival in Memphis were big news back then. But you almost never hear about the time the next morning when Ray was taken from Memphis to prison.

This is that story…one told the next day and forgotten until now.

Ray confessed in a Memphis courtroom March 10, 1969. I was a reporter for WMC-TV in Memphis at the time.  I “just knew” Sheriff Morris would move Ray out of his Shelby County Jail to state prison that very night.  I asked my news director if I could take photographer Bernie Mintz and stakeout the jail in an effort to get film of Ray’s departure.  The boss told me no, saying there wouldn’t be a story there.  I still tried to make my case but he said he couldn’t afford the overtime.  I told him: “If I don’t get a story you don’t have to pay me.”   He agreed.

Bernie and I staked out the rear of the jail all night.  Sheriff Morris, who would become Shelby County Mayor and later would run for governor of Tennessee, knew we were there.  Frequently that night the sheriff and his men would flip the lights off across the rear parking lot, run to the sheriff’s big car, and speed out of the lot.  Bernie and I would jump out of our car each time and film the departure.  And each time, within minutes, the car would return with Morris and his men laughing at us.  This went on hour after hour.

Some time after midnight a sheriff’s patrol car pulled up at the gas pump at the rear of the jail.  Three men in deputy uniforms, along with helmets and thick fur-lined coats got out.  One went inside.  One waited on the steps smoking a cigarette. The third deputy was busy filling the car’s tank.

After a few minutes a deputy emerged from the jail and joined the other two in the patrol car.  It pulled forward a few dozen yards and stopped.  Suddenly the lights turned off again and out ran Morris and his men.  They jumped in their car and sped off with Bernie filming the “escape.”  We got back in our news car.  Then, slowly, the patrol car approached us.  The rear window rolled down and the deputy in the back seat yelled: “Hey, newsmen.  Don’t get cold out there.”  They laughed at us as they drove away.  We didn’t film that.  All was quiet for the remainder of the night.

Eventually the news director called us on the two-way radio saying Ray was in the state prison and we should give up our still watch.  And, he noted, he wasn’t going to pay us because we didn’t get a story.

The next afternoon Sheriff Morris called a news conference.  NBC, CBS and ABC were there.  The New York Times and the Washington Post were there.  It seemed just about every national and local news group was represented. I was there, too…not quite ready for what happened next.

The first question was asked to Morris:  how did you get Ray out of the jail?

The Sheriff said simply:  “Ask Dick Byrd.  Ray spoke to him.”

Jungle Jim, I Ain’t

 

 

Here’s some advice. If somebody from the circus ever asks you to ride one of their elephants…run and run fast!

 

In the late 60’s, when Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus used to travel by train one of the two units, either the Red or the Blue, would come to Memphis to perform each year. 

 

One year I was “selected” to cover the arrival of the train and the subsequent “circus parade” from the railhead to the Mid-South Coliseum in mid Memphis.

 

So off the rail yard I went with photographer Paul Bateman alongside.  As Ringling animal trainer Gunter Gable Williams supervised the unloading of the circus animals Paul began to shoot film and I began to take notes.

Out came the cages of lions and tigers.  Out came an assortment of horses, camels, donkeys and sch. And then out of a really big train car came the elephants.

 

As the huge elephants gathered alongside the railroad tracks, trainer Williams said to me:  “Why don’t you ride one of the elephants to the coliseum?”  I acted disinterested.

 

But then he said, “Well, one of your GIRL reporters rode an elephant last year!”

That was it.  I couldn’t let Kay Pullen get the best of me. After all, she was JUST a girl. So up on the elephant I went.  Paul threw me an audio tape recorder and he planned on walking and driving alongside filming the event.

 

So off we went…through the rail yard and onto busy Airways Blvd. headed north toward the fairgrounds and the coliseum. You must know it was a warm day…a very warm day.  I think the eventual high temperature that day was in the low 90’s.  And as the elephant swayed back and forth, I began to sweat.

 

Also the elephant’s tough hide began to scratch its way through the bottom of my pants.

 

I began to make audio recordings I was calling “Thoughts while riding an elephant.”  I remember giving the elephant’s name on tape (A name I understandably forgot later).  I remember talking about how high I was from the pavement.  But, I also remember how I began to make spitting sounds into the recorder. 

 

That’s because an elephant, too, gets hot on a warm day. And when an elephant gets hot it does something absolutely disgusting to cool itself off.  At least it’s disgusting to someone who just happens to be riding on his back. The elephant would fill his trunk with, for lack of a better term elephant spit. Then he would blow that elephant spit on hit back to cool himself off.

LASSIE’S MOM & BEAVER’S MOM

Dick Byrd
It was 1995 and I was attending the Radio-Television News Directors Association convention in Los Angeles, carrying the Habitat For Humanity flag to spread the word that we had and would continue to have video news releases for TV newscasts.

I arrived in the LA Convention Center ballroom early for the noon luncheon.  About 11:30 a.m. I found a seat adjacent to the emergency exit doors (no….I didn’t anticipate an emergency…it just seemed like a good place to sit).  At about 11:45 a.m. I looked up to find that the wait staff for the luncheon had all left the ballroom and I had it to myself.
Suddenly a banging began on one of the emergency exit doors.  I walked to the door, opened it, and found standing their actresses June Lockhart and Barbara Billingsley.  You must understand in those days it wasn’t unusual for Ms. Lockhart to show up at the RTNDA convention.  She had stumbled into one of the group’s fundraising auctions some years before and just kept coming back.  I opened the door wider for the ladies to enter and couldn’t help myself.  I said loudly:  “Great Scott:  Lassie’s Mom and Beaver’s Mom!!!!!”

They both saw the humor in my emotion.  We had a good laugh, I showed them where “backstage” would be, and they walked away making their way to the Green Room.

Without expecting it I had run face-to-face with two of the most recognizable mom’s in television history, and had done it at a television convention. 

Some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you.  That day I ate the bear.

It was the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1973.  The infamous spillways in Louisiana were opened.  Millions fled the rising waters.  I covered the flood daily for WMC-TV in Memphis.  One day photographer Bernie Mintz and I went hunting for yet another flood story.  We drove into the state of Mississippi and off the main highways.  As we drove down one road the pavement disappeared into the flood.  Bernie stopped the car at the water's edge.  I opened the passenger-side door and, while looking at Bernie, I slipped my right leg out and touched my right shoe to the "ground."  I said out loud:  "Boy it feels slick and muddy here."  I then looked down, and, as Indiana Jones said once in a movie:  "Snakes.  Why does it have to be snakes!!!"
Under my foot, forced out of the flood, were hundreds of snakes.
I've had an indoor job ever since.

Sometimes you look for the little things in life to give it real meaning.  A few weeks ago I was spending nights in the hospital watching over my 92 year old father.  He suffers Alzheimer's, pneumonia, and several other problems.  He hasn't known who I am, or most other folks as well, for some time now. When he isn't in the hospital he's in an assisted living facility.
Twice in the three nights while I was with him in the hospital I glanced over at him and found that he had been watching me.  Apparently he had been studying me.  Suddenly, twice--two different nights--when he saw that I had discovered him looking at me and studying me he flashed his famous big grin and his patented wink.  For those quick moments I think he knew who I was. For those quick moments we had a form of real communication.  Those quick moments were worth all of the effort to be there.  Those quick moments will be treasured forever.

'Mater Cove 'n Mur-vul

There is something cathartic about growing vegetables. So we decided to plant 17 tomato plants (14 varieties)...16 in tubs and 1 in one of those hanging thingees. They plants were 6" tall when planted on Good Friday (we were always told to plant your garden on Good Friday). Now they are 9 feet tall and loaded with tomatoes...big ol' fat ones, smaller globe-like, and even cherry and grape size (the so-called choco-cherry are fantastic tasting...but, frankly, they all are).

With so many you can't eat them all just as "good 'ol slicers" so July 1st we cooked up and canned 36 jars of tomato relish. Talk about a feeling of accomplishment!!!!

Try it yourself. It's not too late to plant and be harvesting before the first frost (unless, of course, you live in International Falls or Duluth).

‘A secret little place’: Smokies’ Upper Tremont Road offers beauty, solitude

this was published 7/19/2011 in The Daily Times Maryville, TN.

‘A secret little place’: Smokies’ Upper Tremont Road offers beauty, solitude

By Dick Byrd   Daily Times Correspondent

Sssssshhhhhh. Don’t tell anybody about this story. It’s a secret among a few people who like solitude while fishing, or hiking, or viewing waterfalls, or photographing wildflowers, or enjoying the Smokies without the crowds. There is a place in Blount County that is smack in the middle of the most-visited national park in the entire nation, but it also out-of-the-way, hidden, and otherwise “away from it all.”  It’s called Upper Tremont Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Getting there is easy: Just drive through Townsend into the Park, turn right toward Cades Cove, then, a few hundred yards later, turn left at the sign for Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont.
You will be on a 2-mile paved road following the Middle Prong of the Little River. This is known as “Lower” Tremont Road. It is pretty, serene, a very good location for fishing, and has the beginning of several popular hiking and horseback riding trails. It is also the location of the institute dedicated to outdoor environmental education.  But this story is about “Upper” Tremont road — beyond GSMIT — beyond the more popular spots, beyond the paved road.

Upper Tremont Road begins where the pavement ends. Upper Tremont Road begins where most of the visitors stop. Upper Tremont Road, to those who know it, is another world apart from the crowds, the timid tourists, those people afraid to venture beyond where the asphalt stops.  This is a gravel road. It still follows the Middle Prong. It still has lots of wildflowers. It still leads to what those who know consider a terrific trail head. It also has waterfalls, an extremely interesting history, and a way to “get away from it all” right here in Blount County.

The Tremont area was once a key logging area for the Little River Lumber Company of Col. Townsend fame. It was also the location of logging towns, a once-popular hotel, and even a Girl Scout camp. And before that part of it was known as Walker Valley, home to the pioneers now made famous in books and articles.

Driving to the end of the 3-mile gravel portion of Tremont Road takes you to a loop parking area. There are tree-shaded parking spaces around the loop. From there it’s just across the walking bridge to the Middle Prong Trail trail head. And from there you can connect with thousands of miles of trails: you can hike to Maine or Georgia on the Appalachian Trail or to the North Carolina coast on the Mountain To Sea Trail.  Or, you can just take a couple of hours enjoying the wildflowers, the streams, the trees, the wilderness, and the quiet solitude of The Great Smokies.

John Bays of Lenoir City knows Upper Tremont Road. He fishes there several times a month. Bays retired to this area of East Tennessee five years ago after searching the nation for a place to relocate. He likes being so close to the national park while also being able to “take to the lake” any time he wishes. When asked if he’d like more people to know about Upper Tremont Road, Bays said he’d like to keep it quiet but, then, agreed it’s probably too great to keep to himself.
He says the fishing is fine on Upper Tremont Road. He was asked if he catches rainbow trout and answered: “A few.”
And asked if he ever catches any of the native brook trout, he responded: “One small one.”  “One small one?” we replied.  “Small, small!” he retorted. You know how fishermen are about their favorite fishing spots.
Bays did admit the trees overhang the stream so much that it has a two-fold effect: it shades the stream keeping it a bit cooler, but it also catches your fishing line if you’re not careful. There goes a fisherman trying again to protect his favorite fishing hole.

Samantha Andersen also loves Upper Tremont Road. The Maryville insurance agent takes her two kids, ages 12 and 7, hiking at the end of the road several times a month during spring and summer.  “They absolutely love it,” Andersen said. “We always pack a picnic and we stop at a nice spot with big rocks in the water. They like to go out on the rocks in the water and we sit and have our lunch. And then they love to play in the water. There are really a lot of nice spots to do that.” “The great thing about the trail is it’s (not) Cades Cove so nobody knows about it,” she said, laughing. “I can’t believe you’re going to tell everybody. It’s beautiful, and it’s a great spot. You should share that with everybody that loves nature. My kids get so much from being out in nature. It’s amazing. They’re like different kids.”
So Upper Tremont Road, while being unnoticed by many, is also “that secret little place” to some. And it’s right here in Blount County ready for the finding, the fishing, the hiking, the picnicking, the flower looking, the leaf peeping, and the sightseeing. But, ssshhh, don’t tell anybody else. Let’s keep this place to ourselves.

Four more small tremors shake East Tennessee quake zone

by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 6/10/2012
Last week The Daily Times reported four small earthquakes in the East Tennessee Seismic Zone within six days.
Now four more have hit within four days. These were: a 2.1 magnitude tremor Wednesday near Maryville; two 2.0 earthquakes Friday near Ringgold, Ga.; and a 1.5 Saturday near Niota.

Show this AdBigger Quakes?
UT Professor of Structural Geology And Tectonics Robert Hatcher told the Daily Times a week ago that recent studies have found this area is capable of bigger quakes but it can’t be determined when or how big. The U.S. Geological Survey rates this region as potentially capable of producing a magnitude 7.5 earthquake.
The four most recent quakes break down like this:
• Wednesday: magnitude 2.1, 5.4 miles deep 6 miles southwest of Maryville
• Friday: two quakes, each magnitude 2.0, 6.3 and 7.8 miles deep and 4 miles south of Ringgold, Ga.
• Saturday: magnitude 1.5, 4.7 miles deep and 4 miles northwest of Niota and 7 miles west southwest of Sweetwater.
• The East Tennessee seismic zone stretches from Northeast Alabama to Southwest Virginia and gets between 70 and 100 small earthquakes per year. Scientists say the zone is about half as active as the New Madrid seismic zone.
That zone includes West Tennessee and four other states.

East Tennessee experiences four small quakes within a week

by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 6/1/2012
East Tennessee has experienced four small earthquakes during the past week, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The USGS notes that on May 26 there was a

magnitude 1.8 near Tellico Plains; magnitude 2.4 near Dayton, May 29; magnitude 1.4 near Dayton, May 30; and one magnitude 1.8 near Tellico Plains, May 31. There was also a magnitude 1.7 on May 31 near Franklin, N.C., but that one, while nearby, is considered outside the East Tennessee seismic zone.

The depth of the quakes varied from 14.2 miles to 1.2 miles below the surface. So far, no damage has been reported from any of these latest quakes. However, there is concern this region hasn’t yet seen “the big one.”
Robert Hatcher, professor of Structural Geology & Tectonics with University of Tennessee’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the East Tennessee seismic zone “is the second most active in the Eastern U.S., behind New Madrid (Missouri-Arkansas), but we have not had an earthquake in historical times (over) 4.8, so this area gets little attention regarding the potential for large earthquakes.”
Hatcher adds the USGS rates these areas as potentially capable of producing a magnitude 7.5 earthquake.
The professor said he is involved in a research project right now supported by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and, so far, “we have found a number of small prehistoric faults that we have concluded were produced by earthquakes of at least magnitude 6.5-7.0, but we have not yet been able to delimit their recurrence interval.”
Other scientists have studied and written about the Eastern Tennessee seismic zone, but without coming to conclusions on the future. Many noted that the depth of most of the tremors — one to 15 miles beneath the surface SEmD hampers detailed study. But they agree that the East Tennessee zone is the second most active region of the continent east of the Rocky Mountains after the New Madrid Seismic Zone.

TVA dams holding back water to help prevent downstream flooding

by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 6/3/2-11

As East Tennessee and much of the South mourn the storm deaths and clean up the tornado damage, a new major problem is beginning. This one is a flood — a big flood that could reach historic proportions in some areas along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. It could be an even worse flood except for the work done by The Tennessee Valley Authority.
A combination of snow melt and ongoing heavy rain has worked to make the mighty Mississippi swell beyond its banks. Flooding is also a big problem on the Ohio and Arkansas Rivers, themselves major rivers that also happen to feed into the Mississippi. And it isn’t close to being over yet. Emergency officials in Shelby County estimated that 5,300 homes and businesses will likely be affected by flooding as the Mississippi River and its backed-up tributaries keep swelling. Properties include single-family homes, commercial and industrial properties, and  apartments in at least 17 of the 41 zip codes in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.

The river gauge at Memphis is forecast to read 44.2 feet today. Flood stage is 34 feet, so today’s river level is forecast to be 10.2 feet above flood stage. The river at Memphis is forecasted to rise to 48 feet on the gauge by May 11, or 14 feet above flood stage.

TVA is currently holding back water to help somewhat. TVA’s series of dams was designed to help control flooding as well as make electricity and provide recreation. Draw downs of the string of TVA dams over the past few weeks have helped boost capacity thus allowing TVA’s system to hold back water from recent rains and keep it from entering the Ohio River and eventually the Mississippi.
Barbara Martucci, a spokeswoman in TVA’s Knoxville office, says the TVA series of dams has the capacity to hold back not only the rain from last week but expected rains for the coming weeks. She adds only Kentucky Lake, the huge lake near the mouth of the Tennessee River, is near capacity. Current forecasts indicate no flooding expected farther up the river. The ability of the many dams upstream to hold back water will continue to help the situation in Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Fringe benefits
TVA has been releasing impounded water from its dams for weeks in anticipation of the Mississippi River flood. Much of that release has been flowing through the turbines creating an abundance of electricity, enough that TVA’s coal and nuclear plants were able to hold back some on production.
TVA has already reported that extra hydroelectric output provided more “green days” of reduced air pollution. TVA officials say such draw downs also allow them to move the warmer top water, revealing the cooler water beneath which is welcome to swimmers and boaters as the recreation season gets under way in East Tennessee.
The flood along the Mississippi is already causing major problems. Homes have been evacuated and more evacuations are expected. Casinos in Tunica, Miss. are closed. Some roads are already closed in Memphis and rural areas along the river and side streams.
The Corps of Engineers had to blow a levee on the Mississippi not far from Cairo, Ill. to relieve pressure on flooding in that area, a controversial move that took some time in federal court to resolve. That operation is flooding what is called the Bird’s Point-New Madrid Floodway.
The big Memphis In May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest scheduled for Sunday along the Memphis riverfront has been moved to the old fairgrounds about three miles east of the river.
Down river in places like Natchez, Miss., the river is just now beginning to be a major problem. But the crest expected at Natchez on May 20 is forecast to be 17.5 feet above flood stage, the highest on record, and that includes the disastrous flood of 1927.
More rain is expected over parts of the already-flooded areas along the Mississippi River in the next 10 days and the National Weather Service flood advisories for such places as Memphis and Natchez use this term to describe how long the flood crest is expected to last: “UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.”
Maryville and much of East Tennessee can expect scattered thunderstorms again next week. But that rainfall, and last week’s heavier rain, is no match for the holding efforts of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Residents downstream on the Mississippi River can at least be thankful for that.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Cades Cove’s Cable Mill: Volunteer miller takes gristmill visitors back in time

by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 6/12/2011

Why is there a gristmill in Cades Cove? Here’s what volunteer miller Gary Haaby says:
“You’d bring me your corn and your wheat and I’d turn them into flour so you could make your bread. No grocery stores in the good ol’ days. In summertime when it’s hot weather, I’d be seeing you down here two or three times a month. You just mill it as you need it. No refrigerator, freezer or Ziploc bags.”

One of Blount County’s most visited, most beloved, and most beautiful things is the John P. Cable Gristmill in Cades Cove. Well over 1 million people visit Cades Cove when enjoying The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s the Park’s most popular area.
Cable Mill sits about halfway around the one-way loop road that runs through the cove, part of a homestead fashioned from the mill, the nearby wood frame house, barn and other outbuildings.
Haaby is a retired school teacher. He lives in Townsend and volunteers as one of the millers in the cove where Cable Mill operates from April through October each year.
He works for the Great Smoky Mountains  Association, which was called the Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association when it was formed in 1953. They are the folks who provide volunteers and who operate the stores in the cove, Sugarlands Visitor Center, the Welcome Center on The Spur and elsewhere in the Park.
This is how Haaby talks about the mill:
“Back a hundred years ago you’d see six or seven of these mills. There were about 700 people living in the cove. The mill has been here for 143 years. It usually ran on Saturdays. And the miller’s gonna get paid. I’m gonna take an eighth of your corn and a sixth of your wheat. And you’ve got to tell me what you want to do with it. I can do it fine, coarse, cracked — whatever you want. In summertime you’d want it coarser because it keeps better that way.
“You’d bring your shelled corn in to me. I don’t shell corn. That’s something your kids’ll be doing at home. That’s why we had kids. I’m gonna drop it in the hopper. It’s all gravity fed. All mills are going to be tall buildings because they run on gravity.
“Inside there is a millstone called a runner stone. And below that is called a bed stone and that’s stationary. The corn is cut between the stones, which don’t touch. Corn goes between the stones and falls into grooves. Some of that corn is sticking up out of the grooves so the top stone shears it off. And the grooves get shallower toward the edges so the farther out it goes the finer it cuts.”
The miller says every four or five years the stones come out and are sharpened. These stones have been on the mill for its entire 143-year life. Outside are more millstones. They came from nearby mills.
Cable Mill is the only mill out of six or seven that were once in the cove. It was rebuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930’s. Now it operates for all to see.

Crazy questions

One visitor a few weeks ago, Gary Keasling from Illinois, said he has been bringing his family to The Smokies since 1998 but this was his first look at Cable Mill.
“I’ve been a welder for 23 years and to go back a hundred and 43 years ... the people were a lot more clever and resourceful than we give them credit,” he said.
Miller Haaby says he gets a lot of crazy questions. “They think the mill is a water treatment facility. The think it’s a way to clean water. But that’s fine. That’s why we’re here. Most folks that come in want to know how it works. But I try to make sure they know what it’s for before they know how it works because that’s the key to it.”

Milled lumber

He also points out that besides grinding corn and wheat, the mill was used to mill lumber. Haaby says the timbers in the nearby farmhouse were cut at Cable Mill.
The booklet, “Gristmills of the Smokies,” published by the association, states that the “Cable Mill’s power comes from Mill Creek, although Cable dug a connecting channel to Forge Creek so that when water levels were low he could tap both streams. A low dam channels water toward the head of the millrace where the first of several watergates allows the miller to regular the flow of the water. The last watergate, on the flume, can be operated by a long lever from within the mill.”
The big waterwheel is 11 feet tall and 5 feet wide. It is a classic overshot wheel used on fast mountain streams. Undershot wheels, used on slow flat water streams, turned as water flowed past the bottom of the wheel. Overshot wheels are much more energy efficient, so even 143 years ago Mr. Cable was thinking “green.”
Asked how he eats his cornmeal, Haaby says, “My wife uses it to make corn bread. She fries stuff. I had a heart attack and so I don’t eat a lot of that stuff. But she does. Right in front of me, she’ll eat it.”

Those blooming daffodils: Driven woman pushes Pellissippi Parkway petals

by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 4/2/2011

It is spring flower time in East Tennessee. And that means it is also blooming daffodil time along much of Pellissippi Parkway/Interstate 140 in Knox and Blount counties.
The woman behind the flowers says 1.7 million daffodil bulbs have been planted along the Parkway in the past 22 years. While most of the daffodils are along the three-quarters of the Parkway in Knox County, at least 3,000 daffodils are blooming in Blount County at the Topside Road interchange.

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All of those daffodils and the nearby blooming redbud trees are the work of one driven woman, Maria Compere of Knoxville. She is involved with a group called the Knoxville Green Association and some years back also formed the Pellissippi Beautification Committee.

The Green Association provides daffodil bulbs, among many projects. The Pellissippi Committee has been directly involved in beautification along the Parkway now for more than 20 years.
Evidence of the committee’s work can be seen along Pellissippi Parkway from Oak Ridge South to Topside Road. It was just this winter that 3,000 daffodil bulbs were planted at Topside in Blount County. Compere sought and received cooperation from the city of Alcoa in the Blount effort. Alcoa paid for the bulbs, and Compere got correctional inmates to plant them.
Alcoa Assistant Planner Jeremy Pearson has been the point person so far in the early effort in Blount County. He says it is just a start — only a portion of an ongoing effort by the city to beautify the roadways.
Efforts have also been taken to beautify Hall Road, but current planning for road improvements along with the sputtering economy have slowed right-of-way planting, Pearson said. He added that any group or organization interested in taking up the challenge of helping make roadways in Blount County prettier should contact the Tennessee Department of Transportation for permission and assistance.

TDOT spares daffodils

TDOT Regional Transportation Director Steve Borden said he is delighted with Compere’s commitment to the Pellissippi Parkway. He and his staff are very particular to make sure, for instance, that their grass-mowing program doesn’t cut down the daffodils along the roadway during their blooming season, but only on the scheduled “second mowing” of late spring.
There was a dust-up of sorts two years ago when charges surfaced of possible mowing of all blooming daffodils, but Borden says his men only cut those blooming plants when they have migrated into the 10- to 15-foot “sight and safety” roadside.
He, too, said he loves the beauty the planting program has allowed, but added people should enjoy the beauty while actually driving along the road and not by stopping, parking, getting out of their cars and photographing the daffodils and redbud trees. He noted it is unsafe and against the law.

Daffodil thieves warned

Compere said she heard of someone recently stealing daffodil bulbs from along the exit ramp from the Parkway at Topside Road. She said anyone seeing that happening should “take the license tag number and notify” her so she can write them a “strong letter.”
The website of the American Daffodil Society notes that the flowering season for daffodils lasts from six weeks to six months, depending on location. Here in East Tennessee, the lifespan of such blooms is more on the six-week side of the ledger.
To see spring at its finest, consider a drive soon along Pellissippi Parkway, enjoying the view of the daffodils and those beautiful redbud trees — from inside your car, of course.

WHAT I LEARNED APRIL 4, 1968

It was Friday, December 29th of 1967.  It had been a quiet week after Christmas in the newsroom of WMC-TV in Memphis.  It was so quiet someone in the newsroom broke the unwritten code of the news business aid said:  "It's too quiet.  What we need is a service station explosion killing 5 or 6 people."  You just don't do that in the news business.  You don't wish harm on anyone.  You don't wish for bad news.
Three days later, on Monday, Memphis sanitation workers began a strike for better wages and better working conditions.  That strike divided Memphis.  That strike led to visits by Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior.  One of those visits ended in his assassination.  You just don't break the unwritten code.
Dr. King's visits, his presence, his murder changed many things in many ways.  It changed my outlook on my career in journalism.  It changed my way of thinking about my hometown, my family, my friends, my community.  But, as it turns out, it also changed my view on history.
When Dr. King started coming to Memphis in support of the sanitation workers he would participate in what had become almost weekly marches on city hall.  The first march he made turned into a riot.  I was driving the station wagon rented by the NBC film crew.  We were at the head of the march, escorted by two young men designated as parade marshals.  As we neared Main Street on Beale Street the march came to an abrupt halt.  Police had closed off the route at the turn onto Main Street.  At that moment about a dozen young black men ran from a nearby alley between Main and Second Streets.  They began breaking windows on shops along Beale.  Police poured in and an all-out battle began.  The NBC film crew got very busy very quickly.  I remained inside the car. 
Suddenly 3 of the young men surrounded my station wagon.  Two jumped on the roof and began jumping up and down.  The third opened a door and got inside with me.  I yelled for him to get out.  He said he wanted a cigarette and pointed to several packs on the dash board.  I said I'd give him one if he'd get out of the car.  He did and I handed him 2 cigarettes through a tiny opening in my driver's side window.  I then locked all 4 doors and waited for the NBC crew. In about 5 minutes they all rushed back to the car. The 2 parade marshals had never left the front of the car.  They escorted us through the police lines and to safety a block away.
Dr. King and his aides were rushed away to an unknown site.  Bedlam ruled for many blocks in all directions.  I drove the NBC crew back to the television station so they could get their film processed and edit their story for the evening news.  When I went upstairs to the newsroom to begin my work shift editing news film and producing the 10 PM newscast it was discovered I was the only station staff member actually in the middle of the huge downtown event.  I was ordered to begin writing "THE STORY' for the 6 O’clock News. 
I banged out the story on a typewriter and handed it to the news director.  He instructed others to edit film to go with it.  Then the entire story was rushed to the studio and presented on the newscast.   NBC's story had been on the Huntley-Brinkley Report a half-hour earlier.
The newsroom was a mess.  Our entire small local staff was there.  5 or 6 NBC people were there.  It was a tiny room.  Somehow the entire local news staff began working on the 10 PM newscast.  I was assigned to edit film for the evening.
In those days the film that was actually used on the newscasts was called the "Ins" and was kept.  What wasn't used, the "Outs" was thrown away.  There just wasn't enough storage room for all of the Outs.  But I thought the sanitation workers strike was more important than any other news of the time so I had been saving the outs since January 2nd.  Each day I'd put the outs on a film spool, label it with the date, and toss it in a cardboard box under my edit station.  When that box filled I got another one, and another one.
When the 10 PM newscast that fateful night finished I was assigned to work on more stories, this time for NBC's Today Show.  About 2 AM my foot struck one of those boxes of "ins" under my edit station.  Suddenly I realized what I had and yelled to the news staff:  "Look what I've got!!!"
From then on we kept everything we could on the on-going story.  Dr. King continued his visits.  The strike dragged on.  The "outs" built up as did the "ins."
On the afternoon of April 4th one of our local news staff members remarked he had just gotten a phone call from "a nut" who said he was in town to kill Dr. King.  When he said that I lunged for a phone and called police.   I was told one other television station and the newspapers had received similar calls.  It wasn't many hours later that we heard Dr. King had been shot.  To this day we believe that phone call was from James Earl Ray.
History was made that day:  bad history, but history none the less.  And most of the documentaries you see about those days in Memphis, most of the history television pieces you see use those ins and those outs.  They are kept in a special collection with material from NBC News and other sources for historians, producers and others to view and to use.  And much of that material was kept on a hunch that "this just might be something important."

“Hey Daddy...There’s a man with a gun!”

“Hey Daddy...There’s a man with a gun!”

One New Year’s Day in the early 1970’s, I took my family on a little Sunday drive (one of the few things we could afford in those days.)

Wife Sandi was in the front seat with me.  In the back were sons Brad and Bryan, 3 and 7, and daughter Susan, 11 (going on 20!).

We were just driving around the eastern part of our hometown, Memphis, Tennessee.  This was “back in the day” when gasoline was under a dollar a gallon so a ride just for the fun of it was do-able.

One of the things I am proud that I have taught my kids is the art of observing what is going on around them.  That came into play when suddenly Susan blurted out:  “Hey, Daddy, there’s a man with a gun!”

I looked to my left and, sure enough, there were two men running between parked cars and both had pistols drawn.  I drove away from the scene quickly, but carefully and found a pay phone (remember, this was the 70’s…no cell phones!)  I dialed “0“ (this was also before 911!) and asked the operator for the police. 

I told them what was happening on Winchester Blvd. just east of the airport. I then told my wife to take the kids home and make sure she drove AWAY from the scene of the action. 

Immediately, I also called staff photographer Bernie Mintz, “Mr. spot news.” Then I waited for Bernie’s arrival, which I knew would be under 10 minutes since he lived 20 minutes away!

By the time he arrived police had found out that the owner of a nightclub in the shopping center had come in the day after all of the New Year’s Eve celebrating to clean up and had stumbled upon an armed burglar. 

He then gave chase to the burglar outside in the parking lot.

Bernie was able to get film (before tape!) of the arrest being made and the handcuffed man being led to the patrol car. 

As Bernie and I began wrapping up our information gathering and filming and just as police were leaving the scene, I looked toward the main runway of the nearby airport and saw a thick plume of black smoke.

Bernie and I drove to the airport quickly enough to find that a small plane had crashed jut short of the runway.  Going “through channels” we were able to get film of the plane and details on how the pilot managed to get out of the wreckage with only minor injuries.