Kingston, Tennessee

Sept 10 & 11—E’town to Kingston, TN
We’ve been on the move again, but this time without Starship Avion. Boy I felt like we were flying without hauling a 25 ft long aluminum tube!
Several months ago Jane, Betsy’s sister had invited me to speak at the September Daughters of the American Revolution meeting. I spoke at ‘em regarding the dress and clothing of the American Rifleman of the Revolutionary War. After the meeting was over, Betsy and I went to Southwest Point where an old fort has been constructed. I was all dressed up, so we may as well take some pictures at the fort.
As with most fort’s , it was always location, location, location. This particular location was chosen for it’s commanding position overlooking the Clinch River.

Speaking of location—Jane and Sandy moved from their beautiful historic home in town to a beautiful home just on the outskirts of town. But look at their view!!
I could sit up here all day and watch the river traffic.

Normally when we travel to Kingston we go through Knoxville, but this time we elected to go the “back way” which was through Oak Ridge, TN. Oak Ridge was where the U.S. government first started working on the Manhatten Project which resulted in the development of the atomic bomb. Oak Ridge was chosen because of it’s isolation and that there were several linear ridges nearby. The planners wanted to keep the lab’s and plants separated so that if one exploded it wouldn’t take out all the others like a string of firecrackers. I think I heard somewhere that Oak Ridge (population 27,000) had more PhD’s per capita that any other city in the U.S.
I have also read that it is sometimes called “The City Behind A Fence” due to the continuing “sensitive” nature of some of the research being conducted there.

And finally, (to emulate “His-self”), Oak Ridge is where The Oak Ridge Boy’s singing group started in the mid 1940’s In their original form they were a gospel group until the late sixties. The Oak Ridge Boys that we remember as the country group are probably the third or fourth generation of the group.