Tennessee WordSmith: A Liberal Dose, December 12, 2024 "Perhaps Introductions Are in Order"

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