i miss you, nashville.

[e-dub]

i was never a big commenter on the site, i've been here for years but spent the first few merely lurking.

 

growing up, i was an 'army brat', just not really a brat, per se. i was used to moving around and base housing isn't the least bit urban, no matter what base we were on. growing up, i was fascinated with urban life. the images of the kids hanging out on the steps in front of the row houses just seemed right to me. i didn't know this until i was in my mid 20s, or so, but i used to always pester my mother about anything having to do with cities. so when my time came, i was able to buy a place downtown in nashville, the city i came to love after numerous 'almost-moves' to detroit. 

 

well, rough times came in june of 2014. i tried to hang on for a while, but ended up having to move to take a new job and sell my place in 2015. the move here hasn't turned out at all like what i was led to believe. that sucks, but shxt happens, as they say. i came in with an open mind, the first thing i did when i moved here was drive around and have a look at the old architecture - which knoxville has managed to hold on to a lot of! that's cool... but that quickly lost its luster. this is definitely a college town, and for someone who's next birthday will his 39th, a college town is definitely not for me.

 

in addition to that (i regularly refer to this place as murfreesboro 2.0 to my friends), this place lacks one of things that makes nashville so special: there is a feeling of always being around a bunch of people that WANT to be here. i really notice that sort of thing and it's everywhere in nashville i used to spend my time. i'm doing everything i can to be able to get back to nashville and i'm making progress. this place just feels really dead to me, and the fact that the rest of the city seems to be a suburb for "west knoxville" - which itself is about as suburban as it gets just really irks me.  i used to wave the flag for nashville so vigorously (and still do, really) so it's so very nice to see everything that's happening now. it feels like i've missed so much while i've been gone, even though i come back at least one weekend per month but usually two.

 

anyway, i've just been browsing the forum more over the last couple weeks. it really got me down reading everything that was being cooked up while i wasn't there to see it all, but now reading everything has got me in a better frame of mind to get back and the get back the best neighborhood i've ever lived in.

[Nathan_in_DC]

If you don't mind my asking, what part of Knoxville are you in? I spent 5 years there (mostly college...so yeah...), and enjoyed it quite a bit. I worked downtown, enjoyed the urban vibe that can be had, but I know what you mean when you say it's mostly-suburbs. 

[e-dub]

i'm in south knoxville. 

 

it seems that every day i hear the name of some other little small suburb i've never heard before. i know there are a lot of people in the 'burbs in nashville, but it seems they're concentrated in larger towns. here there seems to be dozens of them with only a couple hundred people. it's so weird.

[SEsideguy]

LIved in Nashville in the late70s early 80s. Any of these still around? Funky fingers, Obewons, Scirocco's pizza, Maude's Courtyard, Pablo's Deli, The Whippet, Mary's BBQ, International Market, Rotiers, Julian's, Friday's on Elliston, Exit Inn, more that I can't recall on 23rd? Help an old guy out!

[MLBrumby]

Sure you don't mean Ciraco's pizza... was where Mellow Mushroom is now at 21st and Grand. Maude's has been out of biz since at least the mid-90s. Several other places have been there. Building is now being renovated into a new eating establishment, a bar I think. Int'l Market is still there on Belmont. I think Mary's went out about 8 years ago, and I think the location downtown is now Pucketts.   Friday's on Elliston (I believe the first one outside of NYC) is no longer there. It was demolished before the IHOP at that corner was built about 7-8 years ago.  Julians was there on West End behind Rotiers (still there) until about 6 years ago, when the site was bought as a part of the Hilton Homewood suites was built. Don't know of Funky Fingers... or Obewons (do you mean Obie's... which I think is still there). Don't remember any of the others... but I was there in the late 1980s and into the early 90s.  Been going up there several times a year since then. 

[SEsideguy]

Very good, thank you ML. Yea Ciraco's, and Obie's. Friday's no big loss food sucks, we had 4 here, down to 3. Julian's and Maudes big loses. Ciraco's I can still remember it's taste, sooo.....good. International Market 4 people could pig out for about 5 bucks total not each. Chicken and football on TV at Rotiers de best. Pablo's Deli on West End great samis, probably gone. The Whippet on friday nights cheap drinks tons of fun. So much more, better stop, gonna get misty. Going to Bristol in the spring, maybe I can swing back thru Music and check it out.

 

[SEsideguy]

Hey there, St Louis is the same way, thirty signs to tell you your in a town of 600 people. LIttle towns, lots of signs, it is weird?

[e-dub]

so, it's a little later than i thought it would happen... but i'm coming back home

 

won't be able to move back to the neighborhood just yet, but i can't wait to!

[titanhog]

On 12/17/2016 at 1:42 PM, SEsideguy said:

LIved in Nashville in the late70s early 80s. Any of these still around? Funky fingers, Obewons, Scirocco's pizza, Maude's Courtyard, Pablo's Deli, The Whippet, Mary's BBQ, International Market, Rotiers, Julian's, Friday's on Elliston, Exit Inn, more that I can't recall on 23rd? Help an old guy out!

Btw...Exit In is still going strong.  Be sure to come through town when you're close.  You DEFINITELY won't recognize the small-town Nashville you remember from the 70's and 80's.