A Liberal Dose: March 30, 2023
Troy D. Smith
“Needed:
Your Memories about Weather in the Upper Cumberland”
The primary purpose of this column has always been to
present thoughts from the left side of the political spectrum, in large part to
counterbalance the perspectives of several columnists from the right who were regular
contributors to this paper when I started. However, there has usually been a
secondary, sometimes almost as prominent, purpose: to look at things from a
historical perspective, especially things that relate to our town or our
region. I’ve written about labor history in Sparta, about the black Union
soldiers who had largely been forgotten by history, about Native Americans of
the Upper Cumberland, and many more.
This week I am completely focused on history, with no
political flavoring.
One year ago this month, with the untimely demise of
my dear friend and mentor Michael “Birdie” Birdwell (beloved by many of you), I
inherited directorship of the Upper Cumberland Institute for the Humanities and
Social Sciences. My long-term goal was to build on the work the Institute did
in the 1980s when they conducted oral history interviews of all the living
ex-coal miners from the 1930s they could find. I wanted to do something similar
with people who worked in shirt factories and tobacco agriculture -two things that
used to be at the heart of our local culture until about the 1990s, but have
since moved on from our area. I want to get a record of what life was like for
those Upper Cumberland folks who worked in those industries before, like the
coal miners, they have all left us. Along the way, at the suggestion of my good
friend Nick Blaylock, we added to the mix interviews with military veterans.
Between us, Nick and I have conducted several interviews. Mostly, though, the
last year has consisted of clearing a path for the Institute to do this work.
Very soon, we will learn whether our efforts have resulted in gaining physical
work space at the university and additional funding, as well as the development
of a website connected to the TTU archives (coming soon) at which anyone can
listen to or read the interviews we have conducted.
This spring, I have also been part of a team of TTU
faculty who received a “Rural Reimagined” grant to build an archive of Upper
Cumberland weather history. The team, led by geology professor Lauren
Michel, also includes TTU archivist Megan Atkinson and geography professor
Evan Hart. The grant has enabled us to hire seven Tech students part-time to do
research. In addition to combing through government records and old newspaper
articles, they will be interviewing local folks who have been in the area a
long time about their weather-related memories. Do you remember blizzards,
tornadoes, floods, droughts, storms, and so forth that have occurred in the
Upper Cumberland in your lifetime? What was it like? Just like the interview
for the Institute, these will be stored at the TTU archives and accessible to
historians, climate experts, and the general public to listen to and learn
from.
Students will be conducting interviews with willing
volunteers at the White County Public Library several afternoons per week,
starting next week. This project will continue through the end of June. The
Institute and the archives will have an additional two student workers
continuing through August; the student working directly for the Institute will
also, at that time, be conducting interviews about shirt factories and tobacco
farming. All told, these projects are going to be extremely valuable for local
history, and even for local government and businesses as we produce data that
can be used to not only interpret the past but understand the present and work
toward the future. We can’t do it, though, without your help.
If you are willing to be interviewed, please contact
me at tdsmith@tntech.edu
(the best way to reach me) or leave a message on my office phone at 931-372-6297 and
we’ll make an appointment.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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