Main Street Mcminnville
Several downtown merchants are holding an open house this Friday and Saturday, November 13th and 14th. Friday’s hours run from 2 until 7 pm, and Saturdays are from 10 am until 4 pm.
Several merchants are taking part in this program, and it’s a nice way to get out and see what our local businesses have to offer. They may not have Wal-Mart prices, but they often have much higher quality and more unique items.
Plus, there is the added benefits of supporting our local businesses in a way that provides real economic impact to our local economy. The profits earned by these men and women stay in our community as opposed to being shipped to corporate coffers elsewhere.
Businesses scheduled to take part are Antiques And the Arts, Computers Plus, Et Cetera, Exchange Furniture, George Bull Music Instruments, Hair Uptown, Maty Katz Resale Boutique, Sharon’s Flowers & Ceramics, Southern Museum & Galleries of Photography, Culture & History, The Cat’s Meow Community Thrift Shop, The Flower Basket & Sweet Shop, and The Shopping Bag.
In my previous post, I discussed the major lack of public parks within Mcminnville. While there are ten or so listed, four of them are in one complex on the Southwest end of town, and the other five are all in one general area on the South side of town. This, of course, is fantastic if you live to the West or South of the city’s center, but for those in any other area, well… We tend to suffer. Let’s take a closer look, shall we:
Parks are shown in red, blue and yellow with the areas they serve in a transparent matching color. The light blue shoes the areas without any city parks. Click for a larger image.
The dark red area shows the Civic Center Complex. The dark blue shows the parks and green way to the southwest of the city. The dark yellows shows two parks in close proximity to the south side of town. The transparent overlays show the general housing areas they serve. They light blue overlay? Well I live in that area like the majority of the city’s residents. We have no parks.
I believe this is a great loss for many of our residents. Local parks and playgrounds offer a safe environment for children and parents to play, have picnics, or organize other activities. The promote exercise and get children outside away from the television and video games. The upkeep mainly consists of a little landscaping and trash pickup. The benefits are positive and many. The negatives, not so much.
While I do not expect the city to even realize this is an issue, I am attempting to contact a member of the Board of Aldermen who works on the Parks and Recreation committee to discuss this issue. I hope to have a response soon, and will keep all updated about my progress.
We’re considering getting bicycles for the family. In fact, we are down right planning on it. However, where can we ride them? Where can we ride them to? Where are the greenways to ride and the swingsets for the kids?
Enter the Mcminnville Parks and Recreation Department. In their website they list the following parks (much of the following information is copied directly from their site):
1. Civic Center Complex
Contains the civic center itself, the Jungle Jym listed below, tennis courts, baseball fields, rentable pavillions, and more.
2. Jungle Jym Playground
This community playground, located at the Civic Center Complex, provides year round fun for children of all ages.
3. McMinnville Fitness and Wellness Center
Located inside the Civic Center containing some health and fitness classes as well as basketball courts.
4.Pepper Branch Park
Located at the Frank G. Clement Bridge and Barren Fork Dam, this park includes picnic tables and benches, fishing sites, canoe launch and open spaces.
5. Ramsey Park
This neighborhood park is located on Bernard Drive and includes picnic tables, picnic pavilion, playground, outdoor basketball court and large open spaces. Open year-round.
6. Rocket Park
Rocket Park is located off Beersheba Hwy and Cope Street. This park includes a ballfield, clubhouse/meeting room, covered picnic tables, restrooms, playground, basketball courts, tennis court and boat ramp access to the Barren Fork River. The clubhouse and ballfield are available for rentals and special events.
7. Pistole Park
The local soccer complex complete with kids playground off of Old shelbyville Highway. Fairly distant from the city.
8. Riverfront Park
Riverfront Park, located on Morrison Hwy at the Westwood Bridge, includes fishing piers, picnic area and pavilion, boat docks and ramp access, volleyball, playground and horseshoe courts. Riverfront is also a trailhead for the Barren Fork Greenway. Open year-round. The pavilion is available for rentals and special events.
9. Gilley Pool
The Gilley Pool, McMinnville’s newest attraction opens May through September. This pool features a zero entry area with a ladder slide, spray cannons, water and spray features. Two separate water slides for children and adults. For the competitive swimmer, there are 25 yard and 50 meter lanes and a 13′ diving area with a three meter diving board.
10. Barren Fork Greenway
The Barren Fork Greenway is a beautiful lineal park located along the banks of the Barren Fork River connecting Riverfront Park to Pepper Branch Park. The 12 ft. wide paved walkway may be used by walkers, joggers, bikers and roller bladers. Scenic views can be enjoyed all along the river. Two piers give access to fishing along the bank.
The thing about that list? Pistole Park is a great place, but is fairly remote and is a soccer complex, not a year round park. The Civic Center Complex contains the Jungle Jym, McMinnville Fitness and Wellness Center, and the Gilley Pool. That’s four parks that are essentially one large park. Five down, and we have two locations, one of which is not very well used outside of soccer season.
Riverfront Park and Pepper Branch Park are located downtown about a mile or so apart at the Westwood and Frank G. Clement bridges. They are connected by the lone Greenway in mcminnville. That’s three more of our city parks located at basically the same location.
This leaves Rocket and Ramsey parks. Rocket is located at the intersection of Bershaby Hwy. and Cope st. About a mile or Southeast from downtown and east from Pepper Branch Park. Another park downtown. Ramsey Park is located, you guessed it, directly between Pepper Branch and Rocket Parks.
A total of four parks are basically the civic center complex, the other five are within a mile or two radius of one another downtown.
This is fantastic news if you live in the Westwood, Bershaby Hwy, Downtown areas or in the neighborhoods to the north of Chancery St. You are set. As for the other 2/3 of the city, we’ve got a long walk.
Indeed, the park closest to my house forces me to cross two four lane highway intersections for the fastest route. Taking the scenic route I can cut this to one, and taking the obscure route, I can eliminate it altogether, but even then I wouldn’t want to cross that many busy roads with my little ones in tow on a bicycle.
My closest alternative? Mcdonald’s has a playground about 200 yards away. That’s right, I can take my kids to Mcdonald’s to play.
The city is planning to spend $25,000 for the YMCA to do a study for the Parks and Recreation department. For that amount of money they could probably install one or two parks on city property in different areas of the city that could really use an actual park for families.
In my next post, I hope to continue this thought with a map of areas of the city currently best served by the cities efforts as well as the locations that are left out in the cold.
The Story of Stuff
As part of the No Impact Week, our family began Sunday by exploring consumption, the role it plays in our lives, and how we affect the world with our lifestyle. We made lists of what we buy and what we need, and made a pledge to not buy anything for the entire week unless it’s needed. We explored some very cool websites like Freecycle and Swaplist.
Most interesting though was this fantastic little video of about 20 minutes in length titled The Story of Stuff. This video has some of the most interesting information I’ve heard in a while, gives it to you easily and quickly, and makes the learning process very entertaining. If you have a moment, I highly recommend you watch it (and include your family)!
According to the Southern Standard, The Arts Center of Cannon County is hosting a photographic exhibit I highly recommend. The exhibit, titled “All Night Long, Junior Kimbrough’s Juke Joint 1993-2000,” is a collection of photographs made at juke joints and other places along the Mississippi. The photographer, Bill Steber, graduated from the same photography program as me at Middle Tennessee State University.
Let me add that I have met Mr. Steber personally and find him a charming and polite gentleman. I have seen his work as well, and it is worth your time if you apprecaite fine art and photography. Mr. Steber is a former photographer for the Tennessean, so many of you may have seen his work over the past two decades. During that time he often made his way southward to photograph the dive bars and juke joints due to his deep appreciation of the blues.
The images take on a very emotional and admittedly dark atmosphere due to his printing techniques. I find it to have a strongly Southern Gothic feel. I suppose this is to be expected when photographing ones experiences with the blues. Accompanying these photos are a collection of photographs depicting life among this specific group of people.
If you find time to take in this exhibit, I doubt you will be dissapointed. I do admit some reservations in the Standard’s reporting, as the website for the Arts Center of Cannon County does not seem to list any information about this show. I highly recommend you call ahead at 800.235.9073 to make sure this is still available!
No Impact Man
The No Impact Project is shaping up to be a very nice way to go green, even if for a limited time. If you’re not familiar with this event, please educate yourself by clicking here.
Take straight from the website, the purpose is:
The No Impact Experiment is a one-week carbon cleanse. It is a chance for you to see what a difference no-impact living can have on your quality of life. It’s not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity for you to test whether the modern “conveniences” you take for granted are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and money.
I’m a firm believer that we are overloaded with junk we do not need, but have been trained to want. This need to acquire makes us unhappy when we don’t have something. When we attain it, we no longer care and move onto the next item. It’s a sad state where we can never truly be happy because we are stuck in a loop of consuming not dissimilar to drug use.
One only has to spend a day with our oldest daughter to see this in action. Like almost every kid she just has to have a Happy Meal with a toy (or a shirt, or ear rings, or a doll, or a milkshake, or this, or that…), and when she gets what she desires, it is often thrown away or forgotten within minutes or days.
I don’t know how much of this I (and hopefully my family) will be able to follow through with, but I do look forward to trying as much as possible and seeing if it does indeed make life a little more enjoyable.
If you read this, please let me know if you participate and how it worked out for you!
This stroller was loaded with five pumpkins before we made it out.
Despite cold and rainy weather, the family ventured out to a pumpkin patch. We chose the Fun Farm which was located about 15 minutes northwest of Mcminnville between Centertown and Woodbury.
They hay slide.
It had relatively low costs at six dollars a person, and Maggie got in free becasue she was only one. The price of admission included a glow bracelet, a free pumpkin of your choosing, and marshamllowes. Not a bad price for what was offered.
Maggie really liked the rabbits at the petting zoo!
Among the attractions was a petting farm. While small and cramped, it did offer a few animlas that were very cute and people friendly. I was able to pick up the rabbits and allow my girls to pet them. The pigs, which reduced the wife to squeals of joy, came out of a dog house and were overly friendly to all. It also included some chickens, sheep, and a few other animals that one could see from a distance.
The friendly pigs!
The Fun Farm also offered various play areas for kids such as a hay jump, hay forts and tunnels, and if you come later at night you can take a hay ride for an additional dollar. The central reason, at least for us, was the hay maze that had a pumpkin patch in the middle. Once you made it to the center you could take a pumpkin of you choosing home with you to carve!
Hot food was served for very modest prices, and the cheese fries were pretty tasty. Still, we were dissapointed that seating was limited to a section of tables covered by a tarp about 50 yards away. Also, they were out of chili which was all my wife wanted to eat to being with.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad experience, but I would offer some advice to anyone going. When planning in advance, there is no planning for weather sometimes. Still, the mud and poor weather conditions did make for some issues with footing and messiness. We have two little girls, and the oldest is active, but is not big on mud and hay. Be warned, this is not for the prissy ones. The food was good, but as I said, seating was an issue.
Over all, I think this event could be greatly improved if they continue to do it the next few years by adding mulched walkways connecting the play areas, decent seating options for dining, a better petting zoo where the animals do not look so miserable, more options for the kids to play, and perhaps some general supervision for unruly kids.
I think this COULD be fun, if your kids are younger boys that like to get messy and play rough. Other than that, grab your pumpkin, cheese fries, and head on out.
Let me preface this blog post by stating that the only reason I am discussing this issue is because of the voting record by our two Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker.
Not long ago a Halliburton employee in Iraq was brutally raped by co-workers. She was then held in a shipping container without food or drink for 24 hours. Upon her release, she was told she would lose her job if she left Iraq to pursue medical treatment. The Department of Justice fought her right to sue with a jury. Keep in mind, this was a company that was funded by our taxes to work in Iraq.
Senator Al Franken, Democrat from Minnesota, introduced an ammendment to a defense appropriations bill that would impose punishment on contractors that, “…restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” A bill designed to stop government contracted employers from who restrict their workers (most likely women) from sueing for sexual assault, rape, and battery.
It’s sad to me that this is even necessary. What may be worse, is that 30 of our nation’s Senators voted against this. All Republican. All male, including Tennessee’s own.
I wonder how they would feel if their daughters or other family members were assaulted like that?
If you’ve never been to one, then you have missed out on an excellent southern past time! Don’t fret though, here is your chance.
The Centertown United Methodist Church is holding the Arthur Lorance Fish Fry on October 17th at 5:00 pm. It’s all you can eat for $5.00, and everyone is welcome to attend. Like one of my favorite restaurants, Uncle Bud’s, the fixins’ are free. If you’re like my wife and don’t like fish, you’ll still be covered as they will have chicken strips too.
Contact Information and Address:
UMC Blog
UMC Website
335 West Green Hill Road
Centertown, TN 37110
Pastor: Tim Ferguson
If the name Arthur Lorance rings a bell in your noggin’, that’s because he was a long-standing member of the Centertown community, the mayor for a number of years, and a member of the Centertown united Methodist Church. Also, he was my grandfather until his passing last year.
The Autumn Fair came and went yesterday, and I have to say it was better than I expected.
Five dollars well spent. I've never seen a larger funnel cake in my life.
We got there a little later than planned, at around 3:15, but basically every booth was still open. There were several booths in the center with food ranging from hot dogs and brats to funnel cakes, roasted almonds, and fried pies. There were some girls that were walking around selling fudge brownies and other goodies from which I bought a bottled water. All of it was reasonably priced for fair food.
The fair featured live performances by Gary Steele’s Karate Studio, the Pioneerettes, and Paula’s Dance Academy among others. We heard some of the karaoke competition, which was as awful as hoped. And my old friends Joe and Kevin Harvey performed with the Joe Harvey Band to which while not certain, we are fairly confident they sang a song with the lyric “Black Flavor Of Love.” I hope so anyway.
There were countless booths set up around the fair from non-profit organizations including dog and cat no-kill shelters with pets available at the fair for adoption. The Republican and Democratic parties were both present offering literature, voter registration, and invitations to take part in their rallies and meetings. Different Main Street businesses were present with not only their stores, but often with booths outside to showcase their wares. One of my favorite booths was a fund raiser to restore the old Park Theater down town. They plan to turn this into a modern theater for plays, live music, and other events. The architectural renderings were impressive by maintaining many of the features of the original theater but offering several modern updates. I am excited about this possibility for the city.
Maggie's favorite fair acquisition? A balloon that held her amusement for quite a while.
The best feature of the fair though? The independant craft booths. If we had hundreds of dollars, we could have spent it all with ease. As it was, we came away with a stuffed Halloween raven in a cute witch’s outfit, a Halloween tutu for the girls, a necklace, and Jennifer had a painting commissioned by a local art teacher, Stephanie Doak.
All in all, this was a winning event for the community, and I hope this tradition continues next year!
