Smokey Mountain Breakdown

I spent all of today in Newport doing research. Very productive day.

I met for about three hours at the feed and seed with the gamefowl enthusiasts and learned more about cockfighting and raising gamefowl than I ever imagined. I knew I was pretty ignorant about it, but there is just so much to know. And, not surprisingly, so much is misunderstood about what they do and why they do it. Most of this was research for the “Jo-Jo and the Chicken Boy” short story, but I picked up a bunch of stuff for the article I’m doing on the History of Cockfighting in the Appalachians that I’ve promised Dave Tabler for his Appalachian History site. My sources have been really helpful and very charming and are going to get more material for me.

I’d, of course, love to attend a match, but given the current crackdowns nationwide on the cockers, that’s not likely to be possible. But, I did get a bit of the feeling from their passion for it what it must be like. They like the story so far and I think they are going to be my best readers and editors to keep the story in the realm of reality.

I went to the library afterwards to see if I could find anything from the post-WWII period, particularly about a legendary pit match that occurred during that time…the first 1000 dollar derby. Nothing from 1946 to 1947, but I did learn that foxhunting, which is practically non-existent in this area now, was hugely popular. I took notes on some fairly gruesome local murders and events from that time period. And learned of a cave just outside of town that is like 200 feet deep. There are also caves along the river that some of the local homeless folks live in. I really want to check those out. The library director suggested I contact someone from the sheriff’s department about those.

So, I have lots of good material to start my cozy mystery series I’ve been planning to write. I’ve been bouncing it around for about a year now so it’s probably matured enough in my brain to actually start writing it. The great thing about setting one of those in Cocke county is that there actually is a history of odd and violent murders here. Most of the cozy series' that I love…you know I have really low taste in my personal reading habits…is that they are set in these sweet little towns where it’s hard to imagine awful things happening. Awful things do happen here, but it’s still a very charming place with many charming people.

The Diversity Festival in Cocke county is one of those things that makes me swell with pride for my little community.

The history of the festival began six years ago. The Ku Klux Klan for some bizarre reason chose Newport, TN to have a rally. Why Newport? Beats the hell out of me. I guess it's just safer for them than having it in Harlem, Washington Heights, Seattle, San Francisco, L.A. or south Atlanta. I think we would be in for some serious Klan ass-whuppings if they chose to exercise their right to free hate speech in any of those places. And blood stains are just so damn hard to get out of whites, so I suppose dry cleaning bills were a concern as well.

So Newport's little community organized a festival synchronized on the date of the Klan rally to offer citizens a hate-free alternative. It has not been without its ups and downs. Our black mayor in 2002, Roland Dykes, had a cross burned on his front yard three days before the rally that year. One of my sources told me the late Mayor Dykes quipped that he roasted a wienie on the thing. "Best damn hotdog, I ever ate." He said.

The Festival's stance was to just stay away from the rally and to quietly protest by attending the festival. This didn't stop outsiders from coming in to protest. And this was okay since all of the Klan members were outsiders as well.

The Klan seems to have stopped trying to come to Newport so I guess whatever we all did worked.

But we still get together every year to see all of the wonderful and different sorts of people who make their homes here.