The River

The other day I got to thinking about the Tennessee River and how it affects Loudon. We all, in one way or another, have used it or dealt with it in some way or another. It doesn't flood like it used to but I'm sure it doesn't take a very big increase in water to back up the creeks feeding into it; so even if you lived away from it, sometimes it came visiting. Several times it rearranged the left field boundary of the baseball field, if it didn't put the whole field under water.

When I was a kid I lost 3 friends to the river. One behind the hosiery mill, one where Ferry Street runs into the river and one behind what would now be the Senior Center. The first place I remember living is with my grandparents there were Ferry Street meets the river, just below the old Chair Factory. I learned to swim right off the bank and there used to be one heck of a drop off there at the mouth of Steekee Creek.

I remember when the lake there used to be lined with houseboats, and when the Coast Guard used to dock there (and more than once they ate their fill of my Grandma's fried chicken). On weekends a lot of people went fishing there off the bank or out in a boat. Mrs. Ross (my 1st grade teacher) and her family, among others, had a motor boat they brought down a lot, and it wasn't unusual to see someone waterskiing down under the bridge.

I was also baptized in the river there at Ferry Street, as were hundreds of others.

Whether it was in town, somewhere along Steekee Creek or down where the little river came in there at Davis Ferry, the river had a major effect on the town and on each one of us.