Good morning, friends. This fine September day I will share with you a few short stories and facts about my beloved hometown.
Real life stories and facts.
Bristol’s Rhythm and Roots Reunion is one of the nation’s premier music festivals. It is not just regional. Indeed, it is not just nationwide. With Bristol having been officially recognized by the US Congress as the actual birthplace of country music, the reknown of Bristol’s Rhythm and Roots has spread worldwide.
For nearly a decade, yours truly manned a booth on State Street during the annual Rhythm and Roots celebration. I sold books and t-shirts, with all the profits going to benefit local children’s endeavors.
Of all the many people I spoke with over the years from that booth, I remember one man above all.
This man told me he was from France. He wanted to buy one of my self-designed t-shirts (pictured below).
Had this man never told me he was from France, his beautiful accent would have given him away. English, spoken with an authentically full French accent, has to be one of the most pleasant sounds made by the human voice.
That and the fact that he looked like a movie actor portraying a member of the French Foreign Legion. The man was ruggedly handsome in that swashbuckling sort of way that I imagine is often just part of being from France.
While he was purchasing a shirt, I spoke to him. “You know, my father spent some time on a beach in France once upon a time … at a place called Normandy.”
I didn’t know how the man would react. So many years had passed since the Allies had freed France from the grip of the Nazi regime.
This man lit up like a French candlestick. “Sir, I thank your father from the bottom of my heart. I thank all of America.”
To which I replied, “How do you like our Bristol?”
The man spoke again, this time exuding even more reverence. “I have traveled to six continents. I have seen many magnificent places. I have met many wonderfully good people all over this world. Yet I have never been to a town quite as friendly as yours.”
Wow. Bristol. Just wow.
Historically Bristol has often been called the “twin” cities, because there exists both a Bristol VA and a Bristol TN.
Each twin city has its own completely separate government. Indeed, each Bristol city lies completely within different states - one is in TN and one in VA.
Perhaps the longest held community celebration of our twin city is the annual V-T game … when Bristol Virginia High School and Bristol Tennessee High School meet up every year to play each other in a football game. The 112th annual meeting of these two teams was played just this past Friday night.
By the way, I will sneak in here a clip of my grandson, Aaron Rose, making arguably one of the greatest runs ever made in all those V-T football games over the years. If you think I’m just a “bragging blinded-by-love Popaw”, just watch the video yourself. Ten (count ‘em, ten) separate Viking players hit my grandson (number 2 in the video) on this play, yet failed to bring him down before he crossed the goal line.
By the way, it’s a downright shame that Bristol icon Shamas Dougherty is no longer able to attend these games, due to his age and failing health. Please look up his name in a couple of my previous blogs here. Shamas is forever a Bristol legend. Though he has long been called the THS Vikings’ biggest fan, Shamas has somehow become universally loved on both sides of our good town.
Speaking of both sides of our good town, I “take to both” … as we say in these here parts.
I am a 1976 graduate of Bristol Tennessee High School (indeed, our 50th class reunion is less than a month away). I am, therefore, a Viking through and through.
Yet I taught for 30 years in Bristol VA Public Schools. My children and my older grandchildren all graduated from Bristol Virginia High School. I am, therefore, a Bearcat through and through.
Yes, two things can be true at the same time. I am 100% a Bristol Tennessee Viking. I am also 100% a Bristol Virginia Bearcat. I love both sides of our wondrous one-of-a-kind-city that straddles two states on either side of her center. The story of the Twin City of Bristol is surely a story found nowhere else in all the world.
I plan to write more hometown stories … much more … in coming editions. I plan to write more specifically about Bristol’s Birthplace of Country Music Museum. And the Shanghai Restaurant. And State Street itself. There is more … so much more … about Bristol to share.
I promise.
And when we folks from “the heart of Appalachian America” make a promise … we deliver.
To wind up today’s edition, let me again defer to the words of my world-traveler friend from France, who so exuberantly told me all those years ago, “I have traveled to six continents. I have seen many magnificent places. I have met many wonderfully good people all over this world. Yet I have never been to a town quite as friendly as yours.”
Bristol VA and TN … it’s a good place to live.
