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.

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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.