Knoxville, suffrage, and Great Smokey Mountains

A reminder that every vote counts. Harry Burn obeyed his mother and all was well with the women’s vote movement.

Our visit to Knoxville was fairly underwhelming.

We did go to Yassin’s Falafel house which was rated one of the friendliest restaurants in the US of A. Ends up, there is more than one Yassin’s Falafel house and we went to the wrong one, where they were not so friendly.

Knoxville does take pride in being a leading suffrage city and will soon be opening up a suffrage museum.

One story is that when the 19th amendment giving women the vote was being voted upon by the states, it was Tennessee’s ratification which was needed to make the women’s vote the law of the land. The amendment only passed in Tennessee by a single vote. That vote was from young legislator Harry T Burn who listened to his mother and voted yes after saying he’d vote no. After voting, there were concerns for Burn’s safety and he left the legislative chamber by climbing out of a window and hiding in the state library’s attic. But he will forever prove that everyone’s vote counts and you should listen to your mama!

SEC ‘created here’. What does that even mean since it was created by congress!?

Other notes from the Knoxville:

• Each of our two nights in town, there were mysterious fireworks and we couldn’t figure out why.
• We’ve noted that the South likes their history, but one building had a plaque on it saying it was where the SEC was started. That’s getting a bit detailed, I think.
• Dinah really liked the policemen on horses.

Dinah crossing the creek in the Great Smokies

We also zipped down to Great Smokey National Park, which is the most visited National Park in the country .. and that makes it one busy place. The land was deeded to the country under the proviso that no-one could be charged to visit the park — so instead they charge for parking. The Smokies aren’t as grand as western mountains but they are dense with flora and peaceful. We saw 19 types of wildflowers on our hike (20, if you are like me and count flowering trees, such as Dogwoods, as wildflowers .. but Dinah doesn’t agree with that definition). We did not see the elusive Jack and the Pulpit that we heard about from two different hikers who tried to tell us where they’d seen it. I guess we’ll have to go back.