After being slammed by snow and cold in the high teens, the new moon brought in warmer weather to our hometown perched on the last full week of January.

Friday started out early as a rainy day, clearing by noon and allowing me to break for a ham sandwich at Tucker's Main Street Café. Randy was in the kitchen cooking for lunch. The first person I saw was Bill Agee, waiting for a take-out order. We talked about the rain and how nice it sounds under a metal roof. Bill explained that as a youth decades ago, he lived off Woodlawn and Mulberry with his grandparents at the Houston Fancher rental home. It had a metal roof and sounded wonderful during rain. Dr. Craig Ward, pastor of Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church, arrived and there were a couple of other early eaters before the noon lunch wagon arrived, including the boss, Tammy. I asked how long the business had been operating and she said it opened in Dec. 1994-16 years ago. That was just a couple of months after Plain Talk Co-Publisher Nancy Petrey died of cancer. I asked Craig how the church is doing after ending its first year last Sunday in the new 900-1,000-seat sanctuary. All in all, attendance is higher and the congregation has a stronger, more positive view of what can be done, he said. Likewise, Craig enters his 10th year as pastor with continued enthusiasm to shepherd the congregation and offer many wholesome activities not only for the East side of town, I've been writing about of late, but all Cocke County. High attendance is above 500 and at a Jan. youth league tourney there were about 700 attending.

Walking back towards Ken Hall's barbershop, by the way he was out having gallbladder surgery, I stopped again at the new musical instrument business, Norton's Music Mart located in one of the Bettye Ann (Bullard) Bewley's shops. Tonia Norton was at the cash register so I introduced myself and quickly found out that like me she is a Miami, Florida native. She spent time in Pompano Beach where her father, Benny Dyer, worked. They moved to Blount County. But now lives in Cocke County having married Chris Norton, who is assistant supervisor of the county transportation garage. She has a son, Christopher, 21, who works at the music shop, and daughter, Katherine, 10, a Bridgeport School student. Some of you already know Chris Norton as the pastor of Amazing Grace Church, which is just over the hill from me in what I call the Hannon Subdivision. Operating a retail musical instrument shop is something he has always wanted to do and it flows from his love of music nurtured by his late father, Andrew Norton, a Gospel performer. "It's an adventure," said Tonia of their new business.

Let's return to our visit with the Greggs in Eastport where we left off last Sunday. You don't have to be an old timer to remember Oscar Gregg, one of three brothers who were experts at auto repairs, and anything electric or mechanical. He was also somewhat of an inventor. The brothers also included Ted, who worked at the garage, a very large and long building that spanned from facing the Plain Talk and its rear doors facing the railroad tracks and next to Ruble's clothing shop. On other side along East Broadway were other landmarks, Theo Parrott's service station and the Sinclair station. The fourth brother was Jess and their sister was Leoto. Oscar was the son of Andrew Gregg, a train conductor who was killed in an accident in 1906 at age 36. He had been married to Mary Kendrict of Greeneville. Oscar married Endora Finchum, whose family came from the Indian Creek community in Jefferson County. Her father, John Finchum, ran the Stokely Brothers farm before he and wife, Dorcus, moved to Iowa. Paul said there is one surviving sister from that clan, Louise Pack.

If you turn up Lincoln Ave. at Brock's Market, you will see Beecher Style's house on the right. Just behind it is where Oscar and parents lived. Oscar married and moved to Filbert and Second where Oscar and Endora made their home during the Great Depression. There were many interesting details that Paul had learned of the neighborhood, such as why Second Street is so wide: It was planned for city hall off Filbert. He showed me the location in his front yard where Frank Strickler's parents house stood many decades ago. George Shepherd's signature is on the deed from D.L. Jones and Lillie Duncan to the Greggs. Their first child, Anna Jean, was born in 1929 and Paul 20 years later. Paul showed me a yellowed Plain Talk from November 1949. Now get this, on the front page was a short note of the birth on Nov. 7 of little Oscar at Mims Clinic. When he turned 60 this fall, he had a surprise visit during a big party at City Park. One of his Vietnam military friends from Clearwater, Florida, arrived to share in the celebration. I also made a connection to an old friend, the late Walter Shell Jr., who I got to know at Rhyne Lumber Company, when I helped with their advertising in the Plain Talk. Walter married Anna Jean and they lived at the 620 Second Street home. It was here that their son, Donnie, was born. I saw an interesting two four-generation families photo made at the First Christian Church and Donnie was a tot. Our chat about Junior Shell also brought back some sad memories because of his suffering from emphysema. He was a big smoker as was Paul's father, who died rather young.

If you think about this era of the 1930s through the 1950s you can see it was a time of America's auto industry explosive growth. Just look around Newport and the number of auto dealerships and garages reflect this atmosphere. Stokely Brothers cannery remained the center of industry and anchored Eastport and dozens walked or drove down Lincoln Ave. to work. Endora was one of those who answered the whistle call, whether to sort bugs from beans or drop fatback in cans of beans. I can still smell the aroma or kraut coming from the giant vats on the Westside of the plant.

Paul has one child, a daughter, Amy, who is married to Ernest Ogle of Gatlinburg. They live in Sevierville where she works for Smoky Mountain Spa. Thanks to her, Paul has two grandchildren, Aaron and Allison.

In plain talk the end of the year brought things we expected and other changes as unexpected as the turning of the weather.