Been a long time since I’ve been in that part of town (since before they demolished the roller coaster - and I think that stood there quite some time after they closed it. I imagine Opryland just about killed the place as a “fun park”, though I seem to recall at some point riding on a miniature train they had there. Does that ring a bell ?). Went to the flea market frequently in the ‘80s, but haven’t gone back since. Never did go to any of the racing events, though. It always seemed like the area and buildings were taken for granted, really grubby and run-down. Used to be nicer historic buildings on the fairgrounds, but I think the main one was destroyed by fire in the ‘60s (?) My mother used to drag me down there to the Lawn & Garden show and I really hated it, was so deadly boring. I forgot at what point my parents stopped going to the flea market, I think it was after they started charging for parking. I don’t think my mother felt safe going down there after the ‘90s.
Too much of the Nashville I knew is all but gone it seems. While the wealthy folks can keep “their” areas just the way they want it for years on end without being overrun, the rest of the city, the middle and working class areas you and I remember and traversed that used to be safe, are fast becoming unfit for law-abiding citizens. Some misguided folks (most of whom hail from those nice cushy areas) revel in that “progress” and so-called multiculturalism (for which they themselves would never tolerate living next to), while the rest of us have to just suck it up and live with it. I think we really are losing our country. To have witnessed such decline in just 2 decades (it was bad enough the decline between the 2 decades before that) makes me cringe what we’re going to see in 2 more. A third-world hellhole.
Once again, between you and I, we hijack a thread to Freep Island. “Boss...boss...da plane!”
I got to Nashville in 1976 as a 14 year without family. Tennessee Preparatory School on Foster Avenue kept tight control on us but had to relent for good students who proved trustworthy. Hence we’d get “passes” good for several hours,sometimes for a whole weekend if lucky enough to garner a Sponsoring Family.
During these passes what friends I had and I had amazing adventures trekking to 100 Oaks Mall when it was THE place to go. We trespassed properties, walked the railroad line, crossed the entire length of Woodlawn Cemetery and skirted Beaman Bottling plant to get there. On a good day we’d vomit on Mrs. Grissom’s driveway (maker of vile sandwich spreads). We joked that her real business was providing customers for the graveyard a few blocks from her poison plant.
Occasionally we’d walk the entire length of Murfreesboro Pike to downtown Nashville proper. I saw the last of Harvey’s amazing department store, Castner-Knott, CandyLand and the “Arcade” (a walk-through commerce center through two city blocks) where one could purchase any nut grown on Earth. Those trips weren’t without risks. One time I thought I had half the projects on Lafayette Avenue running after me for a mile for the crime of being white!
Every year they’d bus us to the State Fair on it’s opening discount and group rate days. That was always awesome as we had total freedom, unlimited ride bracelets and enough pocket money to pretend we were average citizens. This usually included a pass to a car race at the original Nashville Speedway where one could be literally deafened by the huge aluminum overhang reflecting the decibels back on the formerly hearing. What? What?
After my attempt at college I lived at the crux of West End and Murphy Road. There was a Shoney’s there were I was regaled for hours on end by an old gentleman named Jack Norman (and his sweet, long-suffering wife). He wrote a book called “The Nashville I Knew”. That’s a mandatory reading assignment from me to anyone reading this. Mrs. Norman told me that I was the only “young’un” who cared about him anymore and that it helped him get off his “moping stool”. One of my big regrets in life is not recording, and thus not remembering, all the lore he coughed up. He knew far more about Nashville/Tennessee politics than you do - and that’s saying something! God bless them both.