NASHVILLE:  WHERE THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE COLLIDE

By Pam Serna

Carol Serna/Contributing photographer

   
                                                                            

Jerkey Shack

As someone whose family has a history of seven generations in Middle Tennessee, I still have very nostalgic moments when I stop and think about #Nashville today and the Nashville of days gone by.  Everywhere you look in Nashville, a new building project is being erected.  Parts of #history are being wiped out without any thought other than how much profit stands to be made in the deal.

I recently wrote a piece in Facebook about #THE#SPIN, the perspective with which a media outlet will air a story, in particular, reports relating to politics.  I mention 'the spin' as I am aware that there will be some who might view the story I am about to tell as my particular spin on the matter; however, it is for the most part, the truth.

What was it that brought so many people to this once very small, quaint country town?  Well, was it the music?  Was it the universities?  Was it the printing business?  Was it simply the fact that Nashville is a port city, which makes it a center of trade?  Is it because they had hopes of finding jobs and improving their lots in life?  Perhaps it was all of the above.  I recently read a very astute observation by someone whose name I'm afraid I don't recall.  But the gist of the statement had to do with the fact that when people from the north retire, they move south and people from the south don't usually move north when they retire.  So, as you can see, there are a multitude of reasons why someone may have become one of the growing numbers of transplants here in Music City.

However, with the rapid pace of growth which Nashville has experienced in the last decade, there are those who tend to forget some of the quaintness which so many people loved about Nashville.  Yesterday, I was returning from Kingston Springs via Highway 70 South.  The drive from Kingston Springs to Nashville along Highway 70 South is simply beautiful.  Many people who have had enough of the breakneck speed with which Nashville has become a boom town have fled the city for greener pastures in the outlying areas surrounding Nashville.  I've even read a recent article that it is getting more and more difficult to find original citizens of Nashville still living here.

I digress.  As I approached the Bellevue area, I could not help but notice the Jerkey Shack which in located on Charlotte Pike where Highway 70 South and Charlotte Pike become one.  It is obviously the small wooden shack pictured at the beginning of this blog.  Here is a closer shot of it taken by my sister Carol Serna.

And beside the Jerkey Shack is another vendor that has a tradition which has been practiced by farmers and vendors in Nashville forever, the roadside produce stand. This particular stand is better known as Fresh and Local Nashville.  The two small businesses are side by side and are literally at the edge of town as you are leaving the Bellevue area.  And if you are not from Nashville, you may not yet know that Bellevue is on the far west edge of Nashville.

 

 
After I passed the road side vendors, there was another sign which caught my attention.  This one was in the yard of a private home; so, to protect the individual's privacy, I have greyed out the phone number on the sign.  But quilting is such a timeless tradition, and yet, it is one which seems to be fading from the mainstream and often being left to the mass producers of goods. 

The thing that REALLY made all of these small businesses stand out to me was the next thing which I saw, directly contrasting with these signs of nostalgia I had just seen.  And if you know anything about West Nashville or the Bellevue area, you already know that the old Bellevue Center Mall has been demolished to make way for a new mall.  Only one mile up the road from where I saw the signs of nostalgia, some of the people who carry in their DNA the memories of a kinder, gentler Nashville, were the signs of 'progress' in the west side of town. Here are the signs of 'Progress' in the Bellevue area. I have also greyed out the name of the construction company.  If you want to know the name of the company, I guess you will need to drive by there and see for yourself or look it up.

The old Bellevue Center Mall Sign