Do you really think we need more 'villes around here?

I remember in the 1950's, every July my Grandfather and I would make the pilgrimage from Fountain City (which was not a city, btb) to Dixie Lee Junction to buy fireworks. Closest place I guess.

I thought Dixie Lee junction was named for Dixie Lee--Bing Crosby's wife who came from that area.

I guess I am the only person old enough to know that, or to even remember who Bing Crosby was!

Wasn't there a Dixie Lee who was head of the Atomic Energy Commission or the ORNL or something?

That was Dixie Lee Ray, later Governor of Washington.

She used to bring a poodle with her when she toured the K-25 plant as Secretary of Energy and somebody had to babysit the dog in the Administration Building. It couldn't tolerate the noise frequency of the stage compressors in the gaseous diffusion complex.

Egads: I'm older than I thought. She was around before it became the DOE. It was the AEC.

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It was named for Dixie Lee from Harriman, as I am.

If you travel south from Detroit, Cleveland, Louisville or Chicago you'll find that one of the major arteries is referred to as "Dixie Highway." The Dixie Highway system was created in the 1920s and promoted by Florida developers to lure Midwesterners to newly developed South Florida.

Lee Highway is the old name of US 29-211-11 from the Arlington Estate (now Arlington Cemetery in Virginia) of Robert E. Lee to New Orleans.

The Dixie Highways and Lee Highway met just west of Knoxville, which is why there were tons of old school "motor courts" for southbound tourists. The 11-70 Motor Court is still there. It's also why there are tons of stores and restaurants. It was a perfect stop for Northerners just before climbing the Smoky Mountains en route to Florida.

(link...)

This website is Southern Kitch at its best. Make sure to read the "About Dixie Lee" tab. I'm guessing that the founder, W. M. (Benny) Goodman was Jewish and had connections to Florida (my Jewish grandmother considered moving to Florida in the 1930s but stayed in New York instead). Many of the tourists passing between the Midwest and Florida were Jewish and I bet one of them was Benny Goodman, who decided the Dixie Lee Junction was a perfect spot to set up a fireworks business. Confederate Jewry! The Dixie Lee Fireworks operation is still in the Goodman family. I'm pretty inspired to check the place out.

It doesn't say in the link, but they may have also been the ones to set up shop somewhere around the Oliver Springs/Harriman area at 4th of July and New Years. Because we'd buy our fireworks there and us kids thought that spot (wherever it was) was Dixie Lee Junction, until adults convinced us when we became teenagers where the real DLJ is.

Tess, can you relate to this?

I am sticking to my Dixie Lee Crosby story. And, FC, I don't really remember about the fireworks, cause I don't like them too much!

She was the Dr. Pete Stevens, or maybe John Stossel, of her day. I remember her bloviating in an article on a bunch of environmental issues. Something like radon gas or asbestos was mentioned and she suggested people just "open their windows." About sheep going blind due to excess UV from lack of ozone protection, she just scoffed something about them suffering from pink eye.

What a nut-job.

I remember going to an old drive-in movie at Dixie Lee Junction when I was in high school. They showed what was considered pretty raunchy movies back in the early sixties.

There was one called "Not Tonight Henry".

Now, why can I remember a ridiculous movie title like that from forty-five years ago but can't find where I left my checkbook yesterday?

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Yes, it seems that Dixie Lee Junction is a regular den of iniquity, owing partly to it's proximity to the Knox/Loudon county line. Folks from Knox go across the border to get fireworks, folks from Loudon cross over to get liquor.

And the Dixie Lee Drive-in was a notorious XXX rated movie venue, which later moved its operations over to South Knox at the Chapman Highway Drive-in. It's amazing to think that this stuff showed on a huge outdoor movie screen that folks living in nearby neighborhoods could see out their window. But I guess the VHS video (and maybe local ordinances?) pretty much torpedoed their business model.

Now, why can I remember a ridiculous movie title like that from forty-five years ago but can't find where I left my checkbook yesterday?

This sort of memory is computer-age gold. Need a secure password? There you go. (Oh, sure, you might want to decorate it with some non-alphabetic characters.)

Liberty and justice for all.

You know, now that I think about it, Not Tonight Henry was nowhere near as salacious as the stuff you can see on broadcast television now any night of the week.

Have you seen the latest Hardies ad?

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