It's official...

I'm going on break! Consider this my summer vacation.

I'm not going anywhere.

I just need some time to compile some new posts, plus I have plans to make some minor changes to this site.

In the meantime, feel free to navigate some old posts. Almost all of the info is still relevant. And as always, if you want to contribute to the content of this blog, please email me!

Coming Soon: Bella Napoli Pizzeria

From Pickled and Fried:

Bella Napoli Pizzeria is coming to Edgehill Village soon. (It’ll be in the same development that houses Taco Mamacita, but tucked in the back.) It promises to offer “authentic” Italian pizzas cooked in a wood-burning oven.

Bless you, Bella Napoli. I hungrily await your arrival.

Vintage South Nashville - Cascade Plunge

Here's to hoping you guys find a way to stay cool this weekend!

Found on this website with caption: 

"Closed in 1975 after 52 years. The tales of razor blades on the slide were a local urban legend. Operated by Wilma dn Edwin Jones, the pool measured 200 by 800 feet and had two water slides, a 60-foot-tall diving boards, fountains, two one-ton boat anchors and a restaurant."

And from the TN State Library & Archives, ca. 1919: 

With the caption (and some familiar names!):

"Cascade Plunge at the State Fairgrounds shows local schoolteachers Miss Kirkpatrick, Myrtle Stump, Rebecca Whitsitt, Willie Ezell, and two unidentified women."

Fairgrounds Update: Is it over yet?

The presentation that the Civic Design Center gave at the Task Force meeting on Monday is up at their website. Click here to scroll through it.

Some highlights:

• Establish opportunities for local shops and businesses
• Restore and enhance Brown's Creek w/ park space along flood plain 
• Reduce surface parking (whatever development that occurs there will need to include underground parking or a parking garage)
• Overall, whatever happens should be green and sustainable

I thought the presentation was very fair, and included themes of keeping some of the current uses, as well as provided possible opportunities for the relocation of some of the current uses.

Of course that still didn't go over well with some people. (I swear, every public meeting I go to, no matter the topic, I think of this scene from Blazing Saddles. I can't help it!)

The final report that the Civic Design Center will submit to the mayor will be finished sometime before the end  of August. Which means, if you have some ideas, thoughts or just want to show the NCDC some love, you still have time to do so by filling out this form.

Guest Post: Memories from the old guy - The Secret Tunnel

Here's another one from Wayne. If anyone else knows anything more about this tunnel, feel free to chime in!

"Since my boyhood I have heard a legend about a mysterious tunnel. The tunnel supposedly goes between Fort Negley and the State Fairgrounds. It was assumedly dug for an escape tunnel for the fort inhabitants. My every attempt at finding information about this tunnel have failed. I spoke to an older friend of mine who told me for truth that he had been in this tunnel and that it really does or did exist but he could not remember the exact location. That would have been in the fifties. Since that time a lot of construction has taken place including blasting to install sewers. The tunnel would have had to survive over 148 years of construction above or around it. No one in my memory has ever reported cutting into the tunnel or having it collapse beneath their construction, but still the question remains, could there really be an ancient tunnel the location lost to memory? That would be one of the great historical finds of this century.

During the “Living History Tour” at the old city cemetery two years ago they related a legend of a tunnel dug by escaping prisoners from Fort Negley that led them to a mausoleum in the cemetery. It makes you think doesn’t it."

Woodbine Farmers Market Today

Rain or Shine, folks!

By the time I got to the market last week, many of the vendors had sold out or were running out of some of their products. But most of them assured me they would stock up for today.

Me with Woodbine Farmers Market founder, Mary Crimmons

And guys, I have a new favorite after-work snack:

It's this Tomato Herb cheese from Sweetwater Valley Farm in Philadelphia, TN with a drop of horseradish mustard on a table water cracker. Yum!

They offer a variety of cheeses under the Gammon Family Dairy tent (Ask to try the chocolate goat milk. So good!):

The Woodbine Farmers Market is open every Tuesday at Coleman Park from 4-7 pm.

Fairgrounds Task Force Meeting Tonight!

Tonight at the Creative Arts building [edited to correct location] the Civic Design Center will be presenting the latest draft of their fairgrounds research to the Task Force. The meeting is at 6:30 if you want to come hear the latest.

After leaving pretty frustrated from the first State Fairgrounds Task Force meeting, I must say the June meeting had me in a much better disposition. People had some really good ideas, which is good because I had difficulty stretching past my lone idea for the area (uhh...dog park!).

Also, I only got bitched out by one person!

See the Civic Design Center website for pictures from the meeting and notes from the different tables, as well as ideas on job creation. If you have some ideas of your own and haven't been able to make it to the meetings, they even have a handy little form you can fill out here!

See you tonight!