The string of late hot June days broke a few degrees with thunderstorms early Thursday evening in our hometown, moving as surely as muddy run-off rain into the creeks and rivers, as we close in on July.

After many months and several visits I've been able to put together at least some of the story on Hugh L. Gregg Jr. and his Eastport neighborhood. We will be moving back into time starting from today and earlier this year when he was seriously ill. In fact, he has been in and out of hospitals half a dozen times since winter and regrets that he ever smoked a cigarette.

In early spring it was one of the rare days full of sunshine that I finally got to drop-in on Hugh, who lives in the house surrounded by the green chain link fence at 648 East Broadway. It seems he has been there for decades but returned to Cocke County in the early 1980s. He acquired the current home about 1994. Like many of you, his family had to leave the county to make a living but returned as he did after building a career in the military and north. His parents were Hugh Gregg, Sr. who married the former Mary Margaret McCarthy. Her family was Irish and she grew up in New York. Hugh Sr. met her when he was a Marine who physically bumped into her in Brooklyn. Hugh Sr. was a Marine during WW I and served along the Mexican border from 1916-1917. I will relate some more interesting stories about him during this series of columns on Eastport, the Greggs, and neighbors. At times you may believe the stories to be outlandish, but Hugh Jr. swears by them and was an eyewitness to many events.

You may recall that I mentioned that Hugh Jr. and Paul Gregg, retired US Postal worker, are double first cousins. Let's see if I can explain what Hugh said. His grandfather was Jack (John Jackson) Gregg, married to Neena Kendrick, whose family was a major landowner just the other side of the French Broad River leaving Newport. Jack's brother, Andy Gregg, was married to Bessie Kendrick. They were sisters. Now, Andy and Bessie's children were Tom, Beecher and Oscar. Paul's father was Oscar. Jack's children were Hugh Sr., Walter, Bessie Trent, Bertie McGaha, James, Edom, and Ossie. The families were all embedded in the Eastport community growing up with a lot of your family and friends. At that time, East Broadway was "Church Street" and the roads were all gravel. It was the heart of Newport between the industrial powers of Stokely Brothers cannery and A.C. Lawrence Leather Tannery near the Pigeon River.

Hugh Sr. was a self-made shrewd businessman, who as I mentioned in earlier columns, worked with Colonel Charles Rhyne, Sr. They built a line of cabinets, the Hoosier style with flour bins, and sold them for $28.95, said Hugh Jr. The men had a knack for making money. One project was acquiring hundreds of gallons of Dutch Boy paint in the late 1930s. They stockpiled it and, when the war started, paint was almost not available. So, Rhyne lumber Company had plenty of paint to sell and remained a vendor into the 1970s, 1980s. Hugh senior was also a commander of the American Legion Post 41 during WW II and afterwards. His primary work was as an interior designer and paint contractor who employed many people.

Last Thursday, when I talked with Hugh he came out with another interesting story related to the 1940s, when Commander Gregg was helping to raise funds when the Legion allowed the Memorial Building to host various musicians and entertainers. This is a true story and took place at the Gregg's Eighth Street and Filbert home. Cass Walker, of Knoxville grocery store fame, called Hugh to set up a meeting because Cass wanted to bring some of his Nashville friends to sing in Newport. Hugh Boy said he peaked around the corner to see Hugh Sr. greeting Cass, Minnie Pearl, "Hot shot" Elmer and an unidentified young boy, well dressed. Oh, Red Foley was there, too, and Hugh Boy recalled he had holes in the bottom of his shoes and pants. "They were just poor entertainers." When the group drove away, junior asked his Dad who the young boy was. "Why, that's Pat Boone." He was little known then but you know the rest of the story. The Memorial Building housed Friday and Saturday shows attended by hundreds who put up 25 cents admission.

During extended chats with Hugh, I learned many interesting things and other stories/tales or two you will read here that have rarely, if ever, seen print, one being the death at Rattler Cave, and how a lone leg got buried near Hugh Boy's Eighth Street home. Hugh Jr. was a child of the Great Depression born March 23, 1933. The government relief office was housed in a small building where Evan's Home Improvement is located. "You had to guard your coal with a shotgun," he said. The corner of Eighth and Filbert is the crossroads where Hugh Boy, as he was known, grew up barefooted with a slingshot in his back pocket and a cane pole in hand. His school friends included J.M. Poe, Junior Poe, Bobby Ray, Ken Porter, L.S. McKay, just to name a few. You might have been one too, let me know. One humorous story concerns the frequent flooding in the Frog Pond area around and about 7th and 8th streets. During heavy rains, their house floated off its foundation into the road. "We had to use ropes to pull it back on its foundation."

Their stomping grounds extended far beyond Eastport because the boys would wander to the Guy Freshour farm off Edwina and "borrow" horses to ride in the woodland, east of Broadacres and Woodacres. They even journeyed west towards Mineral for secret swims in city water supply tanks.

Hugh was not an only child, as most families had many children. Elizabeth died as a baby when the family was traveling to New York. Anita Fowler was married to Harold, of Cosby; Joan Clark married Bud; Hugh Jr. married Sylvia Thompson, of NY; Jack married Donna Donavtich; Betty Faye married Gene Payne. The Hugh Gregg Sr. family lived in Newport until 1948, when "Daddy moved us to Gastonia," NC after selling all his paint contracting equipment to Alton Johnson. From there the family moved north to Michigan. It was in Detroit at a small restaurant that Hugh Jr. bumped into his future wife, 32 years ago (about 1978). "She's God sent. She saved my life several times since I've been sick." She is a member of Grace Baptist Church. All of the children died in Detroit, and Hugh Jr. was the only one to make it back home. He and Paul are the only survivors of the clan. Hugh Sr. retired in 1959 after falling three stories at the Stroh's brewery where he was painting. They bought a house off Third Street and he lived until about 1978.

Let's go back to junior's life and times now. By 1949 he joined the Army but since he was just 16 he got kicked out. After a short wait he reapplied and was accepted. The next 10 years he built an interesting Army life traveling to Tokyo, Okinawa, Honolulu, and Guam working at Army hospitals. Leaving the Army, he joined General Motors in Detroit as a "stock chaser" at Detroit Diesel. It was a time the giant company was building motors for the Alaska pipeline. Hugh completed 15 years there retiring in 1980.

Hugh and Sylvia have lived a modest but comfortable lifestyle in Newport, but at first they lived in Freshour Hollow and off Baltimore Road. By about 1994, they acquired their current home in Eastport. One change he is glad to see this month as that the old abandoned house next door is being razed. Sylvia has three grown children and the couple has one daughter, Amy, who is married to Rusty Miller. They live at Bybee with their three children: Sarah, Sidney, and Aaron.