Tennessee
Capital:
Nashville
Date of Entry:
June 1, 1796
Maps:
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| Map of USA. Tennessee outlined in dark ink, shaded & with name written on it. |
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| A close-up of Tennessee & its neighbors. |
Neighbors:
Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri
Water Borders:
Mississippi River
Total Area:
42,143 square miles
Five Largest Cities:
Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Clarksville
Famous Geographical Point:
Great Smoky Mountains
State Nickname:
The Volunteer State. They earned this nickname during the War of 1812, when thousands of men from Tennessee volunteered to be soldiers. They kept it by continuing this tradition of volunteering during ensuing wars.
Famous Person:
Bessie Smith, the Empress of Blues (my favorite blues singer!)
Book Set In/About:
A Death in the Family by James Agee
Set in Knoxville, the unexpected death of a young family man has a ripple effect. Reviews indicate that this depiction of loss and grief is extremely authentic. It's an autobiographical novel; Agee's father died unexpectedly when Agee was a young child.
Movie Set In/About:
"Hustle & Flow" (2005), directed by Craig Brewer
A Memphis pimp struggles to get his rap career off the ground.
Headline of the Day:
"After Graphic 'Mistake,' Tennessee Doesn't Hire Aaron Sterling" in the Knoxville News Sentinel.
This article is way less juicy than the headline seems to indicate. During a live broadcast by the University of Tennessee, they posted a picture of football player Aaron Sterling as though he'd been recruited for the team. He went to another team.
2 comments:
Man, that headline! Such a tease!
I believe I've been through Tennessee on the month-long summer trip with my family. But I might be mistaken.
My friend moved there after our sophomore year of high school. His dad took a job managing an apartment complex. He broke up with his girlfriend (also my friend) at his going away party, which was the same party my boyfriend broke up with me. Another couple ended that night too. It was a great night for boyfriends being done with relationships.
Anyway, he hated Tennessee and was back by the second or third week of school. Two things he said: if a teacher brought up slavery, you might as well just put your head down and take a nap, because the rest of the class would be an argument with no purpose. Also, they were super serious about drum corps there, which he liked. He made an attempt to instil that in our drum corps, to middling effect.
And that's my experience with Tennassee. :-)
I have virtually no experience with Tennessee, other than seeing it from the freeway when we drove through either Arkansas or Missouri on our way to Michigan from Texas (I can't remember in which state the freeway gets close enough to see Tennessee).
Two of our friends (a married couple) in Austin moved there from Memphis, and the husband had one of the most prominent Southern accents of the people I met in Texas (the other most prominent accent was a guy from Virginia). I gather that Memphis is kind of a downtrodden/dangerous town.
My newest sister-in-law is from Knoxville. I was actually looking forward to going to the wedding because I wanted to see some of Tennessee, but as you know, we ended up not being able to go.
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