Smoky Mountain Memories

The 1973 vacation was a quick excursion through the Smoky Mountains in dad's truck. In preparation for the trip, dad installed paneling and a dome light in the truck shell and bought two cots for the bed of the truck. The idea was that Chuck and I would sleep in a tent while mom and dad slept in the truck.

We left on a Friday afternoon after dad got home from work. Dad and Chuck drove all night to arrive at our first stop, Stone Mountain, Georgia. We arrived just before sunrise and found a location to set up camp that was near the lakefront. I was so excited to be there that I couldn't get to sleep. I was ready to see the sights but mom convinced me to let dad and Chuck sleep a couple of hours before we started our adventure. Exactly two hours later, I was waking everyone up.

We did everything that could be done at Stone Mountain. We went to the car museum and the historic village. We rode the train around the base of the mountain and the sky lift to the top of the mountain. By the end of the day, I think everyone was exhausted and ready for bed.

The next day we headed north toward Gatlinburg, Tennessee with stops along the way to see the sights. One of our stops was Cherokee, North Carolina. At the time I was into my Indian heritage big time, so I was really looking forward to buying something made by real live Indians. There I was browsing through one of the stores when I saw some beaded headbands with all kinds of designs on them. "Man," I thought "This is perfect, an authentic Indian headband." I picked up this nice-looking headband that had turquoise beads with designs in black, white, and red, and as I ran it through my fingers looking at each design I felt a label on the back. I can still remember turning it over and seeing the tiny gold oval label with the black lettering on it, "Made in China." Here it is over 100 years later and some white guy was still screwing the Indians.

We camped out somewhere outside of town that night and the next day we stopped by Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the national park, and hiked the half mile path to the top. It was a long hike for mom but being a real trooper she managed to make it to the top.

I'm sure that mom and especially dad were expecting the trip through the Smokies to be one of beautiful mountain vistas with picturesque little towns along the way, but did they ever get a rude awakening when they drove into Gatlinburg. Instead of the quiet small town they might have expected, they drove right into the middle of a tourist trap. The main drag was jammed with shops selling Smoky Mountains this and Tennessee that and places like the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum and Hillbilly Golf. It was the perfect place to blow a wad of money, and Chuck and I only were happy to do that. We didn't hit every tourist trap in town but we went to quite a few.

The next day we started our long trek home. With the exception of an overnight stop by Barbara Ann and Fred Perry's house, the drive home was pretty boring compared to the preceding days. All in all it was a fun trip.

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