Fathers all over Cocke County fried this weekend in 90 temperatures unless they moved north to fish and grill. Our hometown basked mostly in sunshine ready to greet the start of summer Monday.

We left off last week eating barbecue, sitting in the shade and talking with Arlie "Pepsie" Mason and family. Before I continue please allow me to say a few words about two friends who passed away last week: John Knis and Evelyn Kropff. Last year I visited John at his home off Highway 411 and got to know a little about the retired trucker, who overcame colon cancer years ago to fill out a long life. Both he and Evelyn were 90. Several weeks ago I returned some furniture to Neal and Sue Kropff, off Baysinger Road. They were in town from Miami, and I chatted with his Mom briefly. Neal suffered a stroke many years ago but seems to get around well. I am sure the Knis and Kropff families will miss their loved ones and our community is glad to have hosted them here as good citizens.

Pepsi said he has always enjoyed cooking and seeing/greeting happy hungry people. When the Masons did not run a restaurant, they focused on catering. He opened the barbecue stand sometime in the 1970s. What shows his energy is he also ran a small TV repair shop. The abandoned block building can still be seen behind Expressions Salon, near Pepsi's barbecue. Yes, they worked night and day. During those years from 1960s to 1970s Pepsi perfected his barbecue sauce. He wouldn't tell me the recipe. There were other ventures for this active fellow. He ran Newport Package Store after the city was allowed ABC licensed alcoholic beverage sales. Another unusual job involved his long-time and dear friend J.C. Pack. I know him as Dr. Patti Ketterman's Dad. Pepsie and J.C. got to be friends with John Rice Irwin, who pioneered and founded the Museum of Appalachia, and sold barbecue when the museum opened decades ago. They continued to sell barbecue at the annual festivals. In addition, J.C and Pepsie developed a Christmas tree farm in North Carolina and sold trees. Listening to the family, I wonder how he was able to do all these things, and the list is probably much longer. He still has many friends and invites them to visit him at Wellington Place, and he attends where his son-in-law, Scotty Gorrell, pastors, Providence Baptist Church off Cosby Highway. You might see him singing in the choir on Sundays. He has lived a life well and full and provided many of you with abundant friendship and fat, juicy barbecue ribs and sandwiches. Let's have another.

There are jobs you might want to avoid during the swelter wave moving across a wilting landscape, and that could be my brother-in-law's job of glass blowing in front of a 2,000-degree furnace or cooking over hot grills and stoves. You recall we've been talking about such folks with our visit to Pepsie's barbecue of years past. Jimmy Rae has kept it going using Pepsie's secret recipe. Jimmy worked many hours tearing down the old stand, and working on the new one in addition to cooking and running the business. During my visit with Pepsie at Wellington Place he let me borrow a photo which we reprinted last week of him in the Navy. Under that photo in the frame was a hidden one with no identification. I called Patty Jenkins, a daughter, and she referred me to Annette Mason, whom I visited Thursday morning. She lives in the neat-looking stone house off College. It is where Bill and Betty Whitson lived years ago. I had lost track of Annette since she retired and heard of her illness. She is doing much better now and explained to me she suffers with a rare blood disorder. This all came upon her after cornea surgery late summer of 2009. The illness put a hold on her plans to start a business, even after 40-plus years in the hotel industry. When I showed her the photo, she smiled in recognition of Alf and Kate Miller. They lived in the brick home later the home of Pepsie and Annette. Pepsie was close to the Millers and lived with them when they ran the old White House Grill, the building near the barbecue. The Millers lived in the rear of the "grill," the building now housing Expressions salon. Annette said Alf also started Miller's Furniture and was an uncle to George Miller, who for decades ran the auction house not far east off Knoxville Highway. Alf also ran a tavern off Asheville Highway during the era of the 1940s and 1950s.

During the days working on this column, I've thought more about the Mason family and bumped into Charlie Mason, the commercial real estate expert, when he was visiting the Plain Talk. I asked if he were kin to Pepsie and he thought so, but directed me to Mrs. Paul James. Thursday afternoon, when it was in the 90s, rather than stack hay or sweat in the wood shop, I called Paul and got to talk with Emma Dean James. She is a sister to Charlie Mason's Dad, J.L. "Junior" Mason. Their Dad was Ernest Mason, who worked in the textile industry and left Cocke County to work in Belmont, NC. Ernest was a brother to Cecil Mason, who was Pepsie Mason's father. I couldn't quite understand Emma Dean but thought she said her mother was the former Princey Gentry Mason and they had nine children. The only other living child is Emma's brother, Cleyton, of NC. Paul and Emma Dean live off Smithwood and have so long as I've known them over 30 years, but when first married they lived near her family off Baltimore Road not far from Bethel Church. It is interesting to know more about the families.

By the way, last week I finally was able to revisit Hugh Gregg Jr. and found him in better health. He has suffered one serious malady after another since the winter but was able to ride with me around Eastport over towards Union Cemetery. He has a keen memory of who lived where and told a few most astounding stories and gave me the details of the death at Rattler Cave in the 1940s.