Chattanooga Is Home

Chattanooga is gearing up for some “classic” visitors on Sunday, July 1. Roaring into town, lead by Chattanooga’s own Corky Corker (of Corker Tire), will be classic cars, hot rods, muscle cars, and street rods all participating in The Great Race.

The history of The Great Race began

in 1982 when an auto enthusiast, Curtis Graf, and a close friend, Tom McRae, both of Dallas, Texas, learned about a cross-country rally for classic cars. They approached Norman Miller, a fellow Texan and president of Interstate Batteries, about sponsoring the pair if they entered the race. Miller agreed. Within weeks, the original promoter had lost interest and the entrepreneurial McRae soon found himself in partnership with Miller in promoting the inaugural Interstate Batteries Great American Race.

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Executive Women International will be presenting One Road, a documentary film about The Passage at Chattanooga’s waterfront.

The story of the Cherokee artists from Oklahoma who created and installed the highly acclaimed Southeastern Native American art in The Passage at Ross’s Landing was produced by local filmmaker Mary Barnett and written by Ann Coulter. The documentary was selected from among more than 1,700 entries for screening at the Nashville Film Festival. One Road was released on DVD in December of 2006, available for purchase at the Chattanooga Regional History Museum.

The film will be shown at the Walden Club, Tuesday, June 12th at 11:30 a.m.
[tags]Chattanooga, Chattanooga documentary, The Passage, One Road, Mary Barnett, Ann Coulter[/tags]

One of my favorite digital photography blogs is Picture This, written by professional photographer Tracey. She hosts Monday’s Best Shot and today she started Thursday’s Theme.

The theme today is spin. I wanted to take it a step further and show off spin in Chattanooga. And the obvious place to go would be the Coolidge Park Carousel.

Our family spent an evening at Coolidge Park last February, so this is an old picture, but I think it represents the theme. I like how the horse is actually in focus and the rest, including my son and husband, are moving with delight. Even the gigantic carved animals look like they are having fun.
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I decided that in honor of today’s holiday, Memorial Day, I would spend some time honoring our veterans at the Chattanooga National Cemetery. I have driven past it several times, but had never been inside the gates.

One of the sights I really wanted to see was the sea of American flags planted at every single grave site in the cemetery. 1800 local boy scout and girl scout troops spent Saturday morning placing the 40,000 flags around the 120.9 acres, in honor of those who fought for our country and freedom. As I expected, the sight was overwhelming with the number of flags and the beauty of the landscape they were placed on.
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About 15 minutes from my house, across the state line in Georgia, is the nation’s first National Military Park. The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, is the site of the last confederate victory in the Civil War battle for the gateway to the south. Soon afterward the war move farther south and Chattanooga was taken by Union troops.
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On May 20, 1950, the United States celebrated the very first Armed Forces Day. It was celebrated with parades, air shows, open houses, and receptions. And as the people celebrated, they were also being educated what the Armed Forces are:

It was a type of “educational program for civilians,” one in which there would be an increased awareness of the Armed Forces. It was designed to expand public understanding of what type of job is performed and the role of the military in civilian life. It was a day for the military to show “state-of-the-art” equipment to the civilian population they were protecting. And it was a day to honor and acknowledge the people of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Armed Forces Day is officially the third Saturday of May. However, Chattanooga will be celebrating the observance this Friday, May 4th. Chattanooga has been noted as the only larger city to have the parade uninterrupted since the first observance in 1950. The reason Chattanooga celebrates early is to have school participation: JROTC units from various schools will be marching, as well as some high school marching bands.

The parade begins at 10:30 and will march down Market Street, to Third Street. Several members of our military will be participating as well: Major General William R. Cotney, assistant adjutant general for the Tennessee Air National Guard, is acting as parade marshal. Dr. Don
Loftis is parade civilian chairman and Captain Marty Malone, Tennessee Air National Guard, serves as military project officer. Charles Bates is CAVC liaison officer. General Bruce Carlson, Commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, will be the keynote speaker for the luncheon that follows the parade. (Sidenote: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is where my father is stationed, so General Carlson is kind of my dad’s boss. My dad however, is currently serving in Afghanistan.)

Fuller and I will be there. Will you?

[tags]Chattanooga parade, Armed Forces Day, parade, Chattanooga Armed Forces Day Parade[/tags]

I decided to not pursue a chance to see President Bush today and wrangle a two year old. I’ve had quite the week with a sick toddler and now that he feels better I didn’t want to force him to stand still on some sidewalk somewhere for a glimpse of a black car with tinted windows and American flags on the front.

But, there are plenty of other people in Chattanooga who saw the President or his car. Some were reporters and some were just having lunch.

The bystanders
My favorite account so far is from Gid, who ate very slowly so he could get a picture of President Bush enjoying his Porker’s BBQ. Unfortunately Gid didn’t actually get a picture of himself with President Bush, but one is coming in the mail.

stelmodad was able to get a great view of the motorcade.

Alice blogged her experience from the protestors’ side of the street.

John Wright gave his account of the spectacle from his office downtown.

The reporters
News coverage by the three local stations was very thorough.

WRCB, news channel 3, covered the behind the scenes security efforts and Debbie Chadwick received the President’s Call to Service Award.

News Channel 9 focused on President Bush’s health care message.

News Channel 12 reported on the President’s tour of Erlanger and Project Access.

And The Chattanoogan has a photo gallery of the President’s day in Chattanooga.

If you have an account from today’s historic event, please feel free to share in the comment section!

[tags]Chattanooga, President George W. Bush, healthcare[/tags]

Last week I learned that the American Institute of Architects (AIA) had polled Americans asking for their favorite structures across the USA. The AIA results had been released and the Empire State Building was named the number one favorite.

According to an article from Reuters, the AIA President, R.K. Stewart said,

“The choice of the Empire State Building shows that when you ask people to select their favorites, they chose buildings and designs that symbolized innovation and the spirit of their community — but also, more importantly — they chose structures that hold a place in their hearts and minds.”

I carefully looked over the list, checked it twice, and did not see any listing for architecture in Chattanooga. But, when I think about the standout architecture in Chattanooga, there is a certain structure that does hold a place in my heart and mind.

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When my mom and I went to the Mountain Opry we had to pass the Spaceship house. It was dark but not dark enough for my mom to miss the “For Sale” sign in the yard. Since I was trying to navigate the hairpin turn up the mountain, I didn’t bother trying to look for details.

Thank goodness we have the internet. And for the Chattanooga Times Free Press to have an inside look of the home was a real gem for me to stumble upon this afternoon. (The video shows that hairpin turn I was talking about.) Did you know that space ship houses come with popcorn ceilings and shag carpeting? Me neither.
TFP also has an interesting article about the house and its history.

The house is listed on Loopnet.com

[tags]Chattanooga real estate, Chattanooga, real estate, unique homes, spaceship house, Signal Mountain[/tags]

I got this email today, announcing the DVD release of a Chattanooga-based documentary. I replied to Mary, the email sender, if I could post this and she replied with an enthusiastic “SURE!”

One Road, a documentary short on the story of The Passage public art project is now available for sale for $12.95 plus tax at A Novel Idea bookstore at 38 Frazier Avenue and the Chattanooga Regional History Museum at 400 Chestnut.

This movie, now available on dvd, made its world premiere at the Harvard Design School this spring, and locally at the Hunter Museum of American Art. It was produced by local filmmaker Mary Barnett and written by Ann Coulter, and makes a great stocking stuffer or corporate gift for the holiday season! All proceeds go the Native American Fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga.

The Passage at Ross’ Landing at Chattanooga, Tennessee is the largest and most significant public art installation of contemporary Southeastern Native American art in the United States. Created by a team of 5 Cherokee artists in Oklahoma, the art in The Passage teaches import lessons about how public art can create places of meaning, memories, healing, joy and wonder.

One Road is an independently produced documentary short that tells the story of how the artists symbolically returned to their ancestral homeland in the Tennessee Valley, and how a city came to terms with its past by creating a powerful interpretation of the history of Ross Landing.

[tags]Chattanooga, Ross’ Landing, documentary, The Passage, Mary Barnett, Ann Coulter, public art[/tags]