August 10, 2012, The Spring Hill Informer

     During its regular monthly meeting last Sunday, Columbia Area Beekeepers Association (CABA) featured guest speaker Steve Scoville, head brewer and mead maker for Little Harper Brewing Co. in Nashville. Mead was one reason those Vikings were so rowdy. For those interested in pursuing beekeeping, check the CABA website for information.

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     Jack of Hearts BBQ is named after owners Todd and Christina Masters' 10-year-old son Jack. Another son, 5-year-old Simon gets his due with a menu side item, "Simon's Slaw." Look for some new menu entries since the pair are expecting twins.

     Special note for those in the know: Chiliheads might want to ask Todd for a non-menu special he might just be able to serve up, his brisket chili.

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     Being based in Spring Hill, the Christian rock band Seventh Day Slumber knows a thing or two about small towns, not that they are at home that much to sample the refinements of such living. Though Small Town America is their tour name, it amounts to the group’s biggest regular set of shows to date. Appearing with them is special guests Blank Pages along with The Beautiful Refrain, and they’ve added some pyrotechnics to create an arena-like experience.

     Led by frontman Joseph Rojas the group originally formed in Dallas, Texas.

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     Current employee count for The Resource Group (TRG) at Northfield : 654

     Passersby will soon see a new marquee when the road from Highway 31 to Northfield is scheduled for completion by October 1. It will run to Northfield ’s Building 7 parking lot.

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     Wildflower Motorsports Park opened here in mid-March. It’s located at 4312 Joe Peay Rd.

      You can find it on Facebook.

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      While some in foreign countries may embrace the notion, let's face it, any roundabout layout in the U.S. is a recipe for frustration, confusion, and accidents.

      The entrance to The Crossings is no exception. To make matters worse, the stone paving is reported to be coming loose due to faulty construction. Who is going to pay the costs for the repairs is the question being debated by city officials.

       Another controversy regarding The Crossings is where is the big truck entrance to deliver goods and merchandise to the various businesses? Some have suggested it is an oversight since the roundabout is the only entrance and it is inadequate for the chore.

       Stay tuned as Tales From The Crossing continues.

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       Folksy Expression Overheard: “Drunker’n Cooter Brown on the Fourth of July.”

July 26, 2012, The Spring Hill Informer

When Jack of Hearts BBQ owner Todd Masters told me he had a celebrity visit recently at his 'cue shop located in The Commons I immediately thought of music people. It turned out I was correct. Still, it was a surprise when he revealed who that music person was. How about Frankie Muniz? The former star of TV's Malcolm in the Middle, Muniz is a drummer for the band Kingsfoil.

     "He was coming through on his way to Chattanooga," said Masters. “The whole band. Their producer brought them in.” Masters said he did not ask for autographs, or pictures to put on his walls. “I tried not to bother them,” he said. He did of course fix them him up with some of his world famous barbecue.

     “They had ribs, the Man’s Best Friend Sandwich, pulled pork, they pretty much ate around the menu.”

     Kingsfoil was touring and on the way to a July 11 date in Chattanooga.
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     The Northfield facility opened in May 1989 as Saturn corporate offices and training center at a cost of $30 million. Though the Saturn brand is now history, the beautiful building has helped train displaced auto workers, such as those connected with GM, Penske, Premier, JCI, Ryder, Securitas, and others, in gaining expertise and certification in other occupations.

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     Though tiny it is, the aqua-and-white travel trailer sitting on the corner lot of Hardin Alley and School St. is an attention getter, especially for those of us who love the miniature. It's a 1965 Serro Scotty in the shape of a canned ham. It even has a name of its own displayed near the front door, "Hazel."

     Sitting on the lawn of owner Michelle Hughes' Vintage Junky store, it doubles in the summer as a display unit and concession stand where soda pop is doled out free when it’s on the menu.

     Is it for sale?

     “It is not for sale,” she said, explaining that her and her husband C.J. bought it last year off Craigslist and they utilize it when the couple travels to shows and exhibits where she features her wares, mainly the painted furniture she specializes in producing.

      Michelle, who refers to the little travel trailer, as "she," gives names to all of her creations as well, including her painted furniture.

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     During our record days of high temperatures, and all the complaints that came with it, at least one source managed to keep the anomaly in perspective. That was Faith Free Will Baptist Church in Columbia with this sign message:

SO YOU THINK

IT'S HOT HERE?

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     It would be different if Yankees really were smarter than the rest of us. Then they could have that attitude like it or not.

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     Folksy expression overheard: "Jumpin' around like one-egg puddin'."

July 12, 2002, The Spring Hill Informer

From 1975 to 2009, Spring Hill had 17 fatal road traffic accidents involving 24 vehicles. Of those 17 road accidents, 21 fatalities resulted. Three of the 17 accidents were attributed to drunk drivers. A total of 55 persons were involved, including 10 pedestrians. +++      Where you would find Amber Falls Winery: Hampshire.       Try some local honey. Try some local wine. +++      Date when the last vehicle rolled off the assembly line in Spring Hill: November 30, 2009. +++      The Resource Group (TRG), based in Jacksonville, Fla., will soon be the third-ranking employer in Maury County in number of employees, trailing only General Motors and Maury Regional Medical Center.      TRG expects to have 800-900 call-center agents on payroll by year's end at its Northfield site. Called simply Northfield when Saturn owned it, its new long title is Workforce Development and Conference Center at Northfield.      Northfield is a huge complex encompassing 320,000-square-feet. By comparison, that is more than half the size of the iconic AT&T "Batman" building in Nashville's downtown.      TRG, specializing in customized customer solutions, is nearing half its target estimation goal of employees and has leased space at Northfield to accommodate the total.       A full service cafeteria launched for TRG staff on July 3 called Northside Bistro. Located in Building 5, Christy Castro is the operator. Castro has owned Christy's 6th Street Restaurant in Columbia for the past several years and has been involved in the food catering business approaching two decades.       Another company ripe and ready for expansion is Timberland Cabinetry Co. The firm constructed a 100,000 square foot building off Beechcroft Rd. in 2008. +++      Thumbs up to our mayor for nixing fireworks on Independence Day. With record high temperatures and the last rain a distant memory, it was a good call.      Mayor Dinwiddie in making his announcement admitted it would be a tough dictate to enforce. For the most part, Spring Hillers put away their explosives and cooperated. Nothing changed at Wakefield, however, as the usual suspects fired their rockets into the backyards of Ridgeport homes and whoop-eed their efforts in so doing.      For the Ridgeport residents who grouped in chairs up and down lawns to watch the Wakefield show, I wondered if they were that interested in the exploding colors in the night sky or in showing vigilance in case their yard or house caught fire.      For me, interest waned years ago when we lost the ability to blow things up with cherry bombs and M-80s +++      Too many businesses have folded in recent years. One I really miss is Joey's House of Pizza, a recent casualty located in the Shoppes of Spring Hill off McClemore. Great  folks and the best pizza around. It really was. There's still a location in Brentwood.

June 28, 2012, The Spring Hill Informer

12/12/12. A doomsday date prediction? No, not unless you are Gene Cotton. It is the date Highway 840 opens and such places as Burwood meet the world. +++      Spring Hill’s population at intervals: 1,464 -- 1990 7,115 -- 2000 13,697 -- 2004 17,325 -- 2005 23,462 -- 2007 29,036 -- 2010 +++      Across the street from Wall's Market on Kedron, the old barn now in skeletal form and weakening daily as its aging timbers attest, was once part of the Kincaid family's property and where their grocery store stood. I talked to Don Kincaid about it on a recent morning while Wafflehousing (drinking coffee) in Columbia. Kincaid grew up in Spring Hill but has lived in Columbia for years and owns Dixie Motors there. "I spent many a cold night in that barn," he said. +++      Congrats to the Spring Hill High School baseball Raiders for its Class AA state runner-up title. A 10-0 crushing from Goodpasture Christian (Madison) served as the title roadblock.         Achieving a state II AA title,  Battle Ground Academy (BGA) in Franklin found the formula by defeating Memphis University School 5-3.      BGA is not to be confused with Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) in Nashville, where New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey attended High School. Dickey is off to a fabulous 11-1 start and will likely toe the slab for the National League in Major League Baseball's 2012 All-Star Game. MBA with Dickey was state AAA baseball champs in 1993. +++      By the end of May, about 60 team leaders who will be involved in the production of the Chevrolet Equinox were hired for the General Motors plant in Spring Hill. Other jobs for area residents will be up for grabs in the coming weeks and months. +++      Thompson's Station's southernmost street: Traders Way. +++      Invariably, without hesitation, when I mention to someone I once sought an aldermanic seat in our fair city, the question arises: What is an alderman? Geeeze. Please. It is the same as a councilman or, in some areas, they call them commissioners. They all have essentially the same duties as members of municipal legislative bodies, but their specific titles are specific to that municipality. Excuse my lecturing; I am practicing my verbosity for another possible political run.      What does an alderman do? You might want to find out who yours is and ask that question.

June 14, 2012, The Spring Hill Informer

Dr. Joe Doctora. What a great name for a doctor. He's an OMS specialist here in Spring Hill. Meaning he specializes in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. You will know exactly what that means if you ever need the treatment. +++      In the writing songs business, short titles are preferred over long ones. That maxim holds true in general, such as in annual event titles. Still, I really like this one: "The Heart of Downtown Spring Hill Antiques & Crafts Festival." The theme name has an artiness of its own. That event was held April 21-22 on School Street. In case you missed it, look for it again next year around the same date. +++      Chicago born Dave Bielawski took on the role as Narrator for Dianne Collins' 2012 production of Scathe. At age 79, his acting chops go way back. He was the "suave movie star" in Jean Kerr's Mary, Mary in shows held January 28-29, 1966, at China Lake, Calif., by the China Lake Players at the Naval Ordance Test Station (NOTS). Bielawski, now a Franklin resident, also appeared on stage there in productions by the Community Light Opera Theatre Association (CLOTA). An actor and sometimes director for CLOTA was Ed Romero, brother of Hollywood movie star Cesar Romero. +++      Billy Direct became the official 1:55 world record holder in the pacing mile in 1938. Dan Patch, the most famous pacer of the day, had run the same time in 1906 but the record was not allowed because of the use of a prompter. The record was not broken until 1960 when Adios Butler turned in a 1:54:3. Billy Direct was sired by Napoleon Direct at the Old Tolley Farm in Spring Hill, a location that later became Haynes Haven.      Several champion horses were sired at Haynes Haven. Some are buried on the property with their own headstones. Many of the roads on what is now General Motors property reflects the history of the place: Brown Hal Street, Hal Pointer Street, Little Brown Jug Trail, Billy Direct Street, Walter Direct Street, Haynes Peacock Lange, CeeLite [the horse's name was actually Cee Light) Road, Greater Glory Road, Tom Hal Street, Napoleon Direct Road, and Walking Horse Street. That is some real horsepower.      Haynes Haven Farm, by the way, has an airport. Sometime after 1967 when Jesse and Anne Dale Stallings bought the place, Jesse, one of the founders of Capitol Airways in 1946, had a landing strip built south of the house.      Some of the above information I gleaned from Coleen Farrell's article "Horses Once Reigned Where Horsepower Now Rules," in the current (June 2012) print issue of Historic Maury. +++      Spring Hill's Rawley Bishop has not yet received the call-up to the parent Detroit Tigers but he was promoted to the club's top farm team, the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens, meaning he is just a heartbeat away from making the big club. The big first baseman was at Double-A Erie. A record setting slugger while playing college baseball at MTSU, he appears on pace to join the Tigers soon. Toledo has current players Fu-te Ni, and Chris Bookcheck. Its most famous alumni though was the legendary Jim Thorpe.

May 17, 2012, The Spring Hill Informer

     Fox Ridge recently bought the 20 or so remaining lots to build out the Campbell Station subdivision. Fox Ridge has completed one home already. The subdivision sat idle for a few years when the previous owner suffered financial woes.

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     If you missed it when it came out in 1992, a nice summer read for local historians or Civil War buffs is Wiley Sword's Embrace an Angry Wind: The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville. Published by HarperCollins it is a hefty 499 pages and offers fascinating accounts of the private lives of the men who battled and the women they loved (I'm sounding like an old Cecil B. DeMille promo writer). Especially intriguing is Sword's depiction of Confederate leader John Bell Hood, the general who, among other footnotes in the bloody history of our internal war, lost his left arm and right leg in vicious Gettysburg and Chickamauga bloodbaths. He's better known not for his limb losses but for not losing any sleep on a fateful Spring Hill night.
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     Fifty-two humans were in line Saturday, April 28, before the Spring Hill Public Library opened its doors at 9 a.m., for the Friends of the Library book sale. That was just the count for the east side of the building. A similar count likely could have been taken for the west entrance. Library workers said it was nothing but a typical turnout for the regular FOL book sales. Friend Beth Cottrell said, "From the book sales, we have been able to buy $46,000 worth of things for the library in the past six years."

     Book-'em Beth-O.

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   An Associated Press Newsfeatures Photo was sent out to service subscribers to run June 8, 1986, along with a story by AP writer Jennifer Johnston. Slugged "Saturn City," the photo was an aerial shot of the old Haynes Haven farm, the "site where the $3.5 billion complex of Saturn Corp., the General Motors subsidiary, is being built. The mansion is being saved."

     The mansion in 2012 is still with, but, alas, poor Saturn.

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     Culture shock. That's a phrase regularly heard from those after moving here from regions elsewhere. The talk is usually about language and customs. For me it was the discovery of the huge fireworks warehouses open for business all through the year. These folks must really be lacking for entertainment. Last week I  found a spent Black Cat brand Exploding Comet Rocket in my yard next to my house. It could have landed on my roof just as easily. Spring Hill is too lax regarding its fireworks laws, and too many days are allowed for their usage. There was no recent holiday I am aware to explain a rocket being shot in my yard. Unless someone decided Earth Day on April 22 was time for a bang-up celebration. That would be ironic. Spring Hill's former public Independence Day fireworks display was cancelled back in 2009 when the Franklin radio station that put on the event could not raise the $20,000-plus deemed necessary for the show. I say ban fireworks in the city and allow only a city-backed event. My house sides with me on this one. I'm betting yours does as well.

May 3, 2012, The Spring Hill Informer

In this season's production of Dianne Collins' Civil War play Scathe, slated for showings starting in mid-May, Spring Hill actor Lee Wilson tackles the lead role of Mississippian West Pointer Earl Van Dorn, a Confederate general whose bedroom manner proved more dangerous than his skimirshes on the battlefield. Wilson holsters a sword in the play and in a recent movie he wore a loin cloth. In that flick, Masters of the Universe: The Fountain of Life, he portrayed King Grayskull. Most of the film was shot in Houston under director John F. Carroll. Another film of Wilson's was South of Southern, in 2011.
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Has anyone born in Spring Hill ever played in the National Football League? For the Tennessee Titans? Yes, and almost. Scott Wells the former University of Tennessee Football center who went on to play for the Green Bay Packers was born here. Rumored to be headed for the Titans this year as a free agent, he instead signed with the St. Louis Rams.
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It's no joke that Neapolis once held an annual "A Taste of Neapolis." It is likely a coincidence that the event ended about the same time the Waffle House there closed its doors.
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Store debuts: Taco Bell, 2004; A Petal For Your Thoughts, 2000; Applebee's, 2007.
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Approximately 559 homes sold in Spring Hill during 2010, at an average price of $206, 104 and an average size of 2277 square feet. Average days on the market was 95.
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"Traditions sometimes fade like an old coat of paint." -- Sherwin-Williams.
Okay, I made that up.
Still, it qualifies as an axiom, especially when it pertains to the squat water tank behind city hall. "City of Spring Hill" has been written on the tank for years, and underneath, "Home of the Raiders." I recalled that went I went to pay my water bill in person. I wondered if our new High School, and its Summitt Spartans, were now represented along with the Raiders. I had to drive around a little to get a good look. Surprise. In what appears to be a fairly new paint job, not only were the Raiders no longer heralded, the Spartans were likewise ignored. "City of Spring Hill" was the only entry. Some school spirit at these two high schools needs to emerge and quell this slight. It'll take some paint, too.
+++ Top tens are popular lists. Firsts, too. In my constant search for pertinent "Firsts," I have discovered that Chapman's Retreat "will be the first elementary school in Williamson County to have an outdoor 'classroom' garden for students to experience hands-on learning." In other words, to learn firsthand that tomatoes and cucumbers come from the ground before they appear in grocery stores. The school is selling t-shirts to celebrate and maybe bring in a few bucks. Bucks by the way are those slender green things that come from printing presses and of which many adults, including myself, have little hands-on experience with.