A Liberal
Dose
December 12,
2024
Troy D.
Smith
“Perhaps
introductions are in order”
Before we get started this week: my Thanksgiving message
didn’t make it into the paper that week. If you’re interested, you can read it
here: http://bit.ly/41nC8ws. Now, on to new business.
Have you ever been on any of the Sparta-related pages on
Facebook? I visit those a lot. I’ve noticed recently that there are some
conversation threads on there where almost everyone talking has moved into our
county from some other part of the country within the past few years. I feel
that, generally, that has way more pros than cons. But it did drive something
home to me- I can no longer assume that practically everyone in town knows me.
Twenty years ago, I could assume that -or at least that it was more likely than
not that anyone I ran into was either someone I knew or someone whose kinfolks
I knew. That might’ve been because we had worked together at some point, or
went to school together, or had been neighbors. Sometimes they knew me but I
didn’t know them, because back then I was in the paper from time to time (and
everyone read the paper then) for the western novels I wrote.
All this is to say: it’s entirely possible you, the reader,
know me only from this column. And maybe you find yourself thinking “Where does
this fancy, elitist college professor get off, preaching at me every week about
politics from his ivory tower and his ivy halls?” Seriously, I know some people
who think of me that way. For one thing, they probably don’t know just how much
a humanities professor gets paid at a state university -I work more in kudzu
halls than ivy ones. For another, though, they don’t know ME. So, I’m going to
do something I do every couple of years on here, and introduce myself.
I am a 1986 graduate of WCHS. I was born here, at the old
hospital (which is now NHC). My mother was born here as well- both sets of her
grandparents had moved here from nearby Jackson County before WWI. On my dad’s
side, his family had lived around the Overton County/Jackson County border for
generations. My dad was born on the Overton County side, and his family moved
to Sparta in the early 50s when he was eight. The families of all four of my
grandparents were in this region since White and Overton Counties were formed
(in 1806), and possibly before.
As for me, I lived in South Florida for a few months when I
was 19 (1987-88), then spent almost a year living in Brooklyn (1988-89), in
both cases doing mission work with Haitian immigrants using the French I took
from the dear Mrs. Sarah Jane Thurman (and getting better at it after a couple
of years!) Then I moved back home, got married, and became a father. I had been
buffing and waxing floors since I was 14, and continued to do so until I was
37. I wrote my first novel manuscript when I was 19 (mostly to entertain myself,
as I was being locked in department stores overnight for up to 12 hours, and
the work didn’t take that long). In my mid-twenties I started getting published
in magazines and books, and won some awards. At age 32 I decided to find a better
way to support my nasty writing habit, so I started college as a double-major
in History and English, the first person in my family to ever attend a
university. I graduated from Tennessee Tech in 2004, and in 2005 started grad
studies at the University of Illinois, where I earned my master’s and then PhD
(in 2011). Then I was lucky enough to get a job at my alma mater, and come back
home to Sparta with my Minnesota-born wife and step-daughter. Since then I have
played an active role in my workplace union.
Here's my point. I come from a blue-collar, working-class
family, and I was a janitor for over 20 years. My family has been in these
hills for over two centuries. I am proud to be from Tennessee, and proud to be
from White County. These folks are my people. And if you’ve moved here, now you’re
my people too. I am not some elitist, fancy big-city guy who thinks you’re dumb
and that he’s better than you. I am one of you. I am on here talking TO you… I
am never talking AT you. Thanks for listening.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee
Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party.
His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE
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
The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE
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