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Join Ryan Ploeckelman and Clarksville Now Editor Chris Smith and as we break down the top news stories in Clarksville, TN, each week.
No. We're not gonna change the name to the Clarksville Fundown even though this is the most fun podcast based in Clarksville.
Chris:It is. It's so fun.
Ryan:We're keeping the name.
Chris:We kinda Run down.
Ryan:We kinda went all in on this Clarksville rundown. Hi. My name is Ryan. That guy over there, Chris Smith, editor in chief of clarksville now dot com.
Chris:How you doing, Ryan? Doing okay.
Ryan:We break down the biggest stories in Clarksville each and every week for you. I say every week pretty loosely, but we're back again this week with the biggest stories according to you, the readers of clarksville now dot com.
Chris:Well, you know, the good thing about working in media Mhmm. Is every day is different. Every week is different. We we ain't making widgets.
Ryan:No. We're not.
Chris:This was told to me by a guy at the Leaf Chronicle many, many years ago. He's like, the great thing about working in, you know, around news people is it's everything's different. Every day is different.
Ryan:Yeah. It's true.
Chris:And, really, every hour is different when you're working in media around here.
Ryan:Very true. Yeah.
Chris:Doing radio, doing, you know, news. Podcasts. Websites, the Instagram, all this stuff. It it's changing constantly. Yeah.
Chris:I'm finally, finally inching toward TikTok.
Ryan:Are you? Yeah. Are you gonna start a TikTok?
Chris:Well, I don't know about me, but for Clarksville now.
Ryan:What would you do on a Clarksville now TikTok? Would you have like the the the staff teach you how to do the hot to go dance? Because that would like that that's the TikTok that I wanna see.
Chris:Nothing nothing that, fun. That's that'd be more fun down than run down. Yeah. No. We're talking about maybe, you know, doing some news on TikTok because I've been talking to, you know, I do youth leadership Clarksville, and so I led this group around last week, and I asked a lot of them where they get their news.
Ryan:Yeah.
Chris:And one of the primary responses I got was from TikTok. So if that's where people are, you know, that's where we need to be. So we're gonna we're gonna dip our toes into that.
Ryan:Every time Chris has, youth leadership Clarksville around, he wears a hoodie, and he'll say, like, no cap? Really? For Whistle? Because that's where you're getting your news.
Chris:Lies. All lies.
Ryan:I'm one of you.
Chris:No. No. No. No. No.
Ryan:I think it'd be great.
Chris:Yeah. I I think it'd be fun.
Ryan:But I want you to launch it with your younger staff teaching you how to do the hot to go dance.
Chris:That would be kinda fun.
Ryan:Alright. Because I think you can do it. It's not that hard. Yeah. I think you could pull off the hot to
Chris:go dance. I do have a sense of rhythm.
Ryan:I wouldn't go dance.
Chris:There's a lot of things I'm bad at. Singing, you know, bad at singing, but I do actually have rhythm.
Ryan:I've seen you dance and, you've seen around the world. Very very loosely.
Chris:But anyway yeah.
Ryan:Here's the biggest stories. All that to say, it's story time y'all.
Chris:Yeah. Yeah. So we got a phone call, last I think this was a week before last from a school librarian. Mhmm. Actually, I think it may have been an email, who was upset because, I don't I'm glad you specified.
Chris:Well, I don't wanna be incorrect. Accuracy, Ryan. It's about accuracy and transparency. She was upset because, CMCSS sent down a list of about 400 titles
Ryan:Yeah.
Chris:That had been banned in another school system and sent it out to all of the librarians. Yeah. She took it as a mandate. These are books if you've got these books on your shelves, you have to remove them. Yeah.
Chris:Because of a new state law that basically says, you know, hey. If you've got certain books that are, you know, inappropriate, they need to be removed from your shelves. Parents can file, you know, complaints if they see certain books. Now the state never said what books, but Wilson County developed this list And they said, strike all these books. Just get them out of our libraries.
Ryan:Mhmm.
Chris:And, apparently, other schools have been distributing the same list of inappropriate books.
Ryan:I love this is this is so indicative of when you have politicians that are not interested in real ed policy passing pop ed policies, what I call it. Mhmm. Outrage ed policy. We're like, you can't have these books. We're not gonna define them for you.
Ryan:We're gonna say, don't you have certain books in there? We're not gonna tell you which books to remove.
Chris:Yeah. So it just puts everybody on edge. Right. You know, the school librarians trying to do their jobs, teaching kids how to do research, teaching kids how to find the resources they need, giving them information that they need, and now they're saddled with this, you know, with this thing of trying to figure out what books are and are not appropriate. They already know what books are and aren't appropriate.
Chris:They're school librarians. They've been educated in all this stuff. Yeah. But, you know, they're not out to give kids copies of Playboy Magazine. They're out to give kids things that are age appropriate that, you know, are responsible things for kids to have.
Ryan:So what are the what are these books on the list?
Chris:So well, just to back up a little bit. The, so we, you know, TN Holler and a couple of other media, you know, sites out of Nashville said that this was a mandate. It's not a mandate. Yeah. Basically, what CMCSS did was they sent this out as a resource, they say Yeah.
Chris:To the libraries and the principals to say, these are these are things you might want to consider.
Ryan:Just a heads up, media is gonna get parents all whipped up about these 400 books. You may just wanna pull them up right now. Save yourself the trouble.
Chris:But I don't know. When my boss tells me, hey. Here is something you might want to consider. To me, that's a my boss is telling me what to do. My and nobody I've ever worked for is going to give me a suggestion.
Chris:Yeah. And then I'm supposed to then decide whether I want to go with the suggestion. No. If some if I'm working in a library, somebody gives me a list of books that I might want to consider removing. I'm gonna remove them.
Chris:Yeah. You know? So I I I have some issues with that. But so among the books are Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. I've not read that one.
Chris:Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale.
Ryan:Once again, not read that one. Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give. Okay.
Chris:I'm not really familiar with most of these books. Any of these folks with Handmaid's Tale that was made into a, HBO series. And then, Sherman Axies, the absolutely true diary of a part time Indian. Erica l Sanchez's I am not your perfect Mexican daughter. Marjane Satrapi's The Complete Persepolis.
Ryan:Chris is gonna read all 400.
Chris:I am proud of you.
Ryan:Take a break. I'll be back in, like, an hour.
Chris:I will read them to you. Chris is going to read them all. So, you know, I mean, yeah, libraries should be, you know, monitoring what books kids are receiving, and some may be age appropriate for high schoolers and not age appropriate for elementary school kids. But I don't know. I don't I it it bothers me that we're sending out this just blanket list of banned books.
Chris:I don't think that other people should be making these decisions. I think libraries need to be making these decisions. Librarians here's my here's my thing.
Ryan:It's not like like like listen. If if if on the list was William s Burroughs Naked Lunch, I'd be like, yeah. You can pull that.
Chris:Yeah. That doesn't need to
Ryan:be done. That's that is that is that is an obscene piece of garbage. That's It is it is obscene. It is a piece of garbage.
Chris:Piece of garbage.
Ryan:Piece of garbage. I'm like, what is even the point of this? So I can see books like that, but my worry is it this all ties into this idea that kids nowadays are soft. Kids nowadays aren't soft. Parents are soft.
Ryan:You parents nowadays are so whiny whiny, simple, like, so soft. They can't keep score at soccer. Mhmm. We can't kids can't have a book that might have an idea that they might not like. Like, you can't protect people from everything that will make them uncomfortable.
Ryan:Mhmm. Right? Like, when we were growing up, oh, man. Did it go around? Because we had to read Catcher in the Rye.
Ryan:And they're like, oh my god. Woah. Everyone's gotta get a permission slip sign because
Chris:we're gonna read Catcher
Ryan:in the Rye.
Chris:Was offensive in Catcher in the Rye.
Ryan:I think there's, like, 2 curse words in it. And so, here you are. You are a high school student, and you're like, oh man. Here comes Catcher in the Rye. This is gonna be great.
Ryan:I just filled out a permission slip. This is gonna be the most wonderfully obscene thing I've ever read. And you're like you finished reading Catcher in the Rye, and you're like, were they was it the is it 2 swear words that I had to get the permission slip sign for? Man, if you're
Chris:in 5th grade, you've heard 50 swear words about time 3rd period hits.
Ryan:Exactly. Be a parent. If you don't want your kids reading, the the who is the Maya Angelou's Mhmm. The the the blue Tony Morrison. Oh, okay.
Ryan:Tony Morrison's blue whatnot? Uh-huh. Then then just say, hey, I don't want you reading that book. Mhmm. We don't pull books from library shelves unless they're in the vein of William s Burroughs Naked Lunch, which is the biggest polygraph ever.
Chris:Gotta trust your school librarians to do this. If you don't trust your school librarians, then just homeschool your kids.
Ryan:And be involved with your children. See what they're bringing home.
Chris:Yeah. But I mean, seriously, if you're gonna be that pent up about what your kids could be exposed to when they're having the wherewithal to actually go read a book Yeah. I mean, that's what we should be concerned about is actual literacy. I mean, kids should be excited about reading. So encourage them to read.
Chris:If they come across something that's challenging to them, have a good enough relationship with your kid that they'll have a conversation with you about that.
Ryan:Exactly.
Chris:And, you know, and turn it into a conversation. It doesn't need to be a bunch of banned books.
Ryan:But I agree. I agree. So, anyway, getting ready for that.
Chris:Yep. So, but I guess we're that's the path we're headed down
Ryan:these days. Some banned books.
Chris:Oh, and by the way, one of the things that came up on social media about this was somebody was saying, well, it's not a ban because you can still get the books at, like, Barnes and Noble. You can still get the books at, like, other libraries and things
Ryan:like that. No. No. No. No.
Ryan:No.
Chris:Whoever that ban is a ban. You can't just say just can't just take words and because you don't you know that people get upset about bans, say, well, no. It's it's a removing inappropriate or not providing an yeah. That's what a ban is.
Ryan:I always know I always know when someone posts a dumb comment on Clarksville Now's Facebook page, and and Chris starts his response with, well, actually,
Chris:I'm like, oh, this should be good. I'll be right back. It's
Ryan:time to pop some popcorn. Find that Orville Redenbacher, and I'll be right back.
Chris:Yeah. Yeah. You can't just change the meaning of words because you, don't like that people disagree with you.
Ryan:Alright. Fan books.
Chris:How about that? So, next story up, Dunlop House. So you know this house that Dunlop House
Ryan:about this before. This is the house The
Chris:old Red Cross headquarters.
Ryan:Yeah. And it's across the street. They're on on second?
Chris:Madison Street.
Ryan:Madison Street. Across the street from it's kinda where progressive directions is and and that sort of thing. It kinda by the apartment complex with the fake windows on it. Right right there in
Chris:that area.
Ryan:Yeah. Yeah.
Chris:Yeah. So some plans came forward, to a city committee recently that indicates a parking garage on that spot. Yeah. So the idea is to demolish the Dunlop House Mhmm. And replace it with a parking garage with retail, and we found out after the article published, that that will also be housing above the parking garage.
Ryan:Yeah.
Chris:So it's basically a parking garage on the lower floors, and on the upper floors, multilevel housing. Okay. So a lot of people are upset about this because they don't want that house demolished, but I don't know. Here, this is a hard thing because that house, while it's really distinctive and beautiful from the outside, by all accounts, that place has been gutted on the inside and is really nasty and is not really salvageable. Here's what you can do.
Chris:Not every historic home can be saved, and not everybody wants to dump $15,000,000 into renovating a historic home that's in that kind of condition.
Ryan:So listen. If you don't want the Dunlop house to be destroyed, here's what you can do. You pool your money together or go to the bank and get a loan, and then go talk to the current owner and say, hey, I'd like to buy it off of you. Mhmm. Most everything has a price.
Ryan:I'm sure they'd sell it
Chris:to you for
Ryan:a certain amount of money, and then you can buy it and you can stick your own money into it and you can turn it into whatever you want to turn. You can renovate it and live in there and whatever, but it's just another one of these issues in Clarksville. I feel like I'm kind of crabby today. I think I'm coming down with the corner. Well, you've
Chris:been very busy.
Ryan:I really haven't been busy and a little crabby.
Chris:Yeah.
Ryan:But this is another problem very similar to the Mason Rudolph golf course thing. Mhmm. Your fond memory should not get in the way of progress. Mhmm. The reality is that every single building on planet Earth, given enough time, will be destroyed.
Ryan:It's just the truth. Well, that
Chris:is true. The entire planet will eventually be destroyed. Yeah.
Ryan:So I get it. You loved the Dunlop House back in the day. You loved to walk by it. Maybe you were in there for a little bit. Maybe you saw it.
Ryan:Maybe you're like, oh, that's just great. But the reality is your fond memories are not going to magically turn it in from a dump into a nice house again. It's just going to sit there.
Chris:Mhmm.
Ryan:And these folks have bought property, and they wanna take their property and turn it into a parking garage and retail. They should be allowed to do that. There's retail right down right there on Madison Street. It's not unusual. So we need to stop, and I think we have to have people in the city that are like, I don't care.
Ryan:Listen. I get it, but I'm not letting your fond memories get in the way of progress.
Chris:Mhmm.
Ryan:If you like it that much, go offer to buy it.
Chris:Yeah.
Ryan:And if you don't, you'll forget about it 2 2 days after it's demolished.
Chris:Exactly. That's the other thing. I mean, so many houses downtown have been demolished. I mean, after the tornadoes, acres and acres and acres of residential house and beautiful old homes, they were just razed, Not necessarily because they were damaged. Yeah.
Chris:But because somebody would like, oh, okay. Well, I I would like to take over this property that was partially damaged, so I'm gonna raise everything there. Yep. So but I do think if people really do care about this, take this momentum and do some things with it. Have some setup.
Chris:Commit to, okay. I want part of my taxpayer dollars to go into a fund to help renovate older homes, and if you're if you own an older house, you can apply for, what, 50, $75,000 to renovate and preserve your older house. There's plenty of older homes in Clarksville that really do need protection and need, you know, money to help restore them. So if you do care about that, do something about it for the future. Do something to keep these houses around, and that means taxpayer money going to help these homeowners keep these houses around.
Chris:Because this is individual little bitty homeowners who are trying their best to keep these houses alive. Nobody bought the Dunlop House planning to let it rot. Yeah. You know? Right.
Chris:Somebody bought it with good intentions to improve it someday, and they never did because they couldn't afford it, probably.
Ryan:Put your money where your mouth is. And if you work for the city, you have to start realizing one important fact in life. You will never make everyone happy. You can't do it. It's impossible.
Ryan:Yeah. So no matter what you decide, people are gonna be mad, and that's okay. People can get mad. Mhmm. It's alright.
Ryan:People getting mad is not the end of the world because they will forget about it. When their favorite store is is built on the side of the old Dunlop house and they're going there to get their tchotchkes or whatever, they'd be like, well, then they're a house here a while. I don't even know because I like this new tchotchke shop.
Chris:And look at that little porcelain angel.
Ryan:Exact oh, man. I've been looking for a porcelain angel like that. So, yes, please. Let's stop letting fond memories get in the way of progress.
Chris:Well, speaking of people not being happy Uh-oh. Uh-oh. What's the biggest thing that people have complained about in Clarksville? Parking.
Ryan:Parking. Every time. Parking and sidewalks. Those are the 2 biggest complaints.
Chris:So the city, guess what they did? They built an 8 story, 587 vehicle parking garage downtown. Mhmm.
Ryan:It's magnificent. It's really pretty looking. I mean It's glorious.
Chris:Yeah. And, put the story up. I think just nothing good ever happens in the comments. Yeah. Because immediately, people are like,
Ryan:we don't need all that parking. We don't how much are
Chris:we gonna have to pay for that parking? That thing's like
Ryan:just a little it's already been paid for.
Chris:Over and over again. Yeah. And so it's a really good I think the comments on that story to me is a really good illustration that, yeah, nobody's gonna be happy about anything. You know? You I think you have to kinda gauge the general mood and understand that the people who are excited about it or who are like, oh, yeah.
Chris:That's awesome. They're not gonna say anything. It's the people who want to find something to complain about Right. The ones who are gonna say stuff about it.
Ryan:So here's the thing we do in Clarksville. When we get something new and cool, like a roundabout, we give it a name and a Facebook page. Has anyone named the parking garage yet?
Chris:Oh. Maybe it needs a park Polly the parking garage?
Ryan:Paul the parking garage? Because we we tend to do alliteration when it comes to naming things.
Chris:Paul or Polly?
Ryan:Paul. I don't know. Polly sounds kinda yeah. Either one. Yeah.
Ryan:Peter the parking garage?
Chris:Well, it's behind the performing arts center. So Paulie the performing arts center parking garage. That kinda
Ryan:I love the way that shows. And that's really nice. No. The pictures look pretty cool.
Chris:Yeah. And a couple of little facts that, you know, if in case you weren't aware, there's a sort of a pedestrian bridge that's going to go, across that alley and lead over to Franklin Street. They
Ryan:haven't built yet yet.
Chris:So you have to walk around the corner. You don't have to walk up that hill. Yeah. You can go directly from the parking garage. They'll have elevators in there.
Chris:So we can go straight across. The straight shots will be, you know, ADA accessible.
Ryan:Right now, that's just air. So you just fall off.
Chris:Yeah. Exactly.
Ryan:Don't do that yet. And
Chris:the bottom floors are gonna be reserved for, public safety folks because basically that lot that that this was built on is where the police department officers all used to.
Ryan:Don't take a police officer's parking space. But that's a surefire
Chris:way to
Ryan:get a ticket.
Chris:Generally not a good idea to to take a
Ryan:Now the county's building 1 too right by the F and M Bank Arena.
Chris:So this is a tote that's a totally separate
Ryan:parking garage. Different parking garage. There's battling parking garages.
Chris:Yeah.
Ryan:And eventually, we're gonna have a parking garage throw down. Mhmm. Who built the better parking garage? The city or the county?
Chris:Well, the city definitely built it first.
Ryan:They did.
Chris:I think the county actually got funding to build it first.
Ryan:Yeah. And
Chris:But they they because of whatevers, they've been sitting on it for a while.
Ryan:Yeah.
Chris:And the city, you know, just some surged ahead.
Ryan:So I I know the people in charge of Clarksville's best.
Chris:Mhmm.
Ryan:I've got it in. You got it in? I'm going to make sure that the category best parking garage is added for next year. Yeah. And we can throw it down between the city and the county.
Chris:Yeah. Because we'll have, 3 large ones.
Ryan:Mhmm.
Chris:4 of them if you count the one under, CTS.
Ryan:Yeah. I don't count that one.
Chris:Okay.
Ryan:But we're gonna have best parking garage in Clarksville's best next year.
Chris:Okay.
Ryan:And it's gonna be a throw down between West Golden and and Mayor Pitts. Yeah.
Chris:I like may maybe they could zoom around inside the garage and and see who can drive the fastest without hitting anything.
Ryan:I want a video. Can you make this happen? Let's get a little Wesley on this. Let's get mayor Pitts and mayor Golden when the when the when the Montgomery County garage opens. Mhmm.
Ryan:Let's let them talk smack about each other's garage. Oh. Like, you can have you can have Joe Pitts mayor Pitts walk into the county garage going, man, ours is way nicer than this. Mhmm. You know?
Ryan:And just have a little that'd be a great little throwdown.
Chris:Yeah. A
Ryan:friendly throwdown.
Chris:I like it.
Ryan:All about that. Let's do it.
Chris:Well, let's start. We'll have to get West to come over to the, city garage on Monday.
Ryan:Yeah. We'll get the
Chris:good talk. Smack about that.
Ryan:Boy. Looks like it was put together a little quickly.
Chris:Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan:Good things take their time. Opens Monday. Opens Monday. Yeah. If you're listening to this past Monday, it's already open.
Chris:Well, who's gonna listen to our podcast a week from now?
Ryan:You could have stopped listening to our podcast, and that would have been a a compelling question to answer.
Chris:So next story. This is so frustrating. So there's a 12 year old kid, who basically was put in a choke hold, on a bus by a, older child. I think it was a 16 year old student. Mhmm.
Chris:Put this, 12 year old kid in a choke hold, and he has basically had all kinds of, complications from that. He ended up having to have surgery. Yeah. So now he's suffering from all kinds of problems. He's unable to walk, talk, or eat solid foods.
Chris:That's horrible. Recovering from the surgery that was, from the injuries caused by the stroke hold.
Ryan:I saw this story, and it was heartbreaking. And there's so many questions that you ask with the story. Mhmm. First of all, why was this child put in a choke hold by a 16 year old? That's that's number 1.
Ryan:Keep your hands to yourself. What what's going on there? Mhmm. Number 2, did no one else see this and no one else stop? Because, obviously, this child was not in a choke hold for for a half second.
Ryan:It was long enough to cause surgery needed.
Chris:Mhmm.
Ryan:So where was the failure here? Because I I reading into the story, apparently, they have video of this thing because the buses have cameras in them, and the and the and the the the the aid on the bus apparently told the 12 year old to tap out. Yeah. This ain't this ain't the this ain't extreme fighting.
Chris:And what exactly does that even mean to tap out?
Ryan:You're supposed to tap them on the to let them know to let go of the choke hold. This is not MMA. This is a school bus for crying out loud. So why was it not broken up? Yeah.
Ryan:Has the 16 year old been arrested? You assaulted a 12 year old. You should be arrested. Does that happen? Do we know that?
Chris:No. See, and that's the frustrating thing about when you're dealing with the school system is they're not gonna tell you. Yeah. They're not gonna say what the disciplinary action was taken against the the 16 year old because there's all these, you know, privacy requirements and things like that. Why.
Chris:But See, I don't think that should be the case. I think when you have a major situation like this, other teenagers need to know, hey. You mess with a kid. You mess with another kid Yeah. And you put them you hurt them that badly.
Chris:Yeah. You're gonna get expelled. Yeah. You're gonna go to jail. Yeah.
Chris:You know, all these you need to know what the consequences of that are.
Ryan:Maybe there's still a
Chris:question through. Nobody ever says what the consequences were, well, then nobody knows. Oh, I need to keep my hands to myself or I could end up getting expelled from school.
Ryan:Absolutely. And maybe they're still working on the consequences. I don't know how long it takes, but no.
Chris:In in 20 years of covering the local school system, I can tell you, they're never gonna tell us how the kid was disciplined. Well, very frustrating.
Ryan:It should be easy because that child should be arrested. Montgomery County sheriff's deputies should arrest the 16 year old Mhmm. And charge that 16 year old assault. You put someone in the hospital. Mhmm.
Ryan:You caused severe bodily harm to to someone to the fact that they had to get surgery, and now they can't walk, talk, or eat.
Chris:Yeah. And people have to know what those consequences are.
Ryan:Right. There's there has to be consequences for things. And and and what happened with like, I can understand. You're driving a bus. You can't be stop you can't be, like, you know, just, you know, watching the road ahead.
Chris:It's hard enough when, you know I mean, I have 3 kids, you know, in a meeting. I remember growing up doing and, you know, they're fighting with each other. You can't, you know, stop the car and turn around and smack them in the head.
Ryan:No. You
Chris:can't. Theoretically, you can, but it's not exactly safe on your state. But so I I I understand with the with the school bus drivers, but there was an aid on the bus Right.
Ryan:That said tap out.
Chris:And that's what I don't under that that I don't get because those aids are there to prevent this exact kind of situation from happening. When when kids are fighting, you're supposed to go put a stop to it Right. Not encourage it by throwing around wrestling terms.
Ryan:Right. Is it is there is it some sort of policy where you can't put your hands on a child or something? Like, would was that was that aid restricted
Chris:to We nobody's nobody's gonna talk about it because it's CMCSS investigating student disciplinary matters. They're never gonna they're never gonna tell us what happened.
Ryan:Well, what should happen is you've already heard.
Chris:Yeah. Now to their credit, apparently, the people at the school have been extremely supportive and helpful with the, the family. It's a Kenwood Middle School. They've been very caring and sympathetic, according to the family members. So, I mean, it's not like nobody at the school cares.
Chris:A lot of people do care. Very upset about this. I mean, nobody wants something like this to happen.
Ryan:I'm sure the bus driver feels horrible because it happened on their watch.
Chris:Yeah. And I'm sure the aide is having a lot of regrets about what happened. Right. I mean, this is why you've gotta, you know, take this stuff seriously and just because kids kids roughhousing on the bus is not okay.
Ryan:To a certain yeah. Exactly. There has to be consequences. And when you have harmed someone to the point that they had to get surgery and they can't walk, talk, or eat, there needs to be severe consequences. That's the reality of life.
Chris:Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. So sad situation, and hopefully, again, this is one of those things that we can learn from and improve the practices at least on an individual level or maybe at a policy level of what you're supposed to do when kids are putting hands on each other in the back of a bus.
Ryan:Just remember, kids, the Georgia satellites encourage us during the eighties to keep your hands to yourself.
Chris:That's right.
Ryan:Listen to the Georgia satellites. Keep your hands to yourself.
Chris:Keep your hands in in your pockets. Mhmm. Where where did that go?
Ryan:He's got a little change in his pocket going, Jang a Lang a Lang, wanna call you on the telephone, give you a ring.
Chris:Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan:Each time we talk, I get the same old thing. He's talking about huggy and kissy.
Chris:Yeah.
Ryan:But I I'm talking about the just keep your hands to yourself.
Chris:Getting no yeah.
Ryan:Follow those the the rules that
Chris:you said was lines and get keep your hands to yourself. That's but don't give me no lines and keep your hands to yourself. Yeah. Exactly. So, the liquor license thing.
Chris:We've been talking about this liquor store deal where there's gonna be a flood of new liquor licenses in July because now they've they've opened the floodgates. There's no more 2 per year. Now everybody can apply, you know, en mass. But now they backed off that a little bit, and I think this is wise, with some distance restrictions. Yeah.
Chris:So you can't have 2 liquor stores within a certain distance of each other. You can't have them within a certain distance of a school and a church and all that. But I am a little wary of this because there's an awful lot of churches in Clarksville.
Ryan:I think you should allow it to be near a church because what if you're the priest? Right. And you're like, hey. Did you guys pick up that wine for communion? Oh, I was supposed to pick that up.
Ryan:Yeah. Alright. Let me roll it and try you you can go on your way, so you can get some wine.
Chris:Yeah.
Ryan:And then you can, you know, bless it, do the thing. Yeah. That could save a whole lot of priests and pastors a whole lot of time.
Chris:Or what if you're that priest and you've had a dang long day, and you've been dealing with, you know, missus Margaret bending your ear about some nonsense, and and you've dealt with a funeral, and then you had pastoral counseling for somebody who's in major grief, and then you can't get the bulletin set up the right way, and the organist can't play a tune right, and you just need a dang 5th of whiskey Right.
Ryan:Well, you
Chris:need to be able to walk out your church door and go to the liquor store and grab a 5th of whiskey so you can drink it on the way home.
Ryan:This is what people
Chris:Maybe not on the way home. Maybe open it. No. After you get home.
Ryan:Right. Exactly.
Chris:Yeah. Exactly. So Yeah. I think
Ryan:my communion argument's a better a stronger argument
Chris:than yours. Probably.
Ryan:I think if you said that in front of the city council, like, if someone said, like, listen. Every a couple of Sundays a year.
Chris:My priest needs a drink. He needs a drink, darnd.
Ryan:Putting up with you.
Chris:But yeah. So they put these, a few restrictions in that. And, you know, one of them is kind of ironic because I remember when, what was it, when Elite opened, I don't recall Paul
Ryan:is such a drunk. He just calls them Elite, not Elite Liquors or Wine and Spirits. He's like,
Chris:they're all lit. Open, like, right across the street. There was a liquor store and another liquor store opened directly across the street from the other one. It was a busy throwdown. And you've seen this, like, with, when O'Reilly's and Advance Auto Parts Oh, yeah.
Chris:Opened right next to each other Yeah. On Madison Street. So you can see where it is kinda silly to open one liquor store right next to another one or right across the street.
Ryan:Why doesn't this city have restrictions on auto parts stores being next to
Chris:each other? That's just ridiculous. You know, one of them one of them is gonna end up closed. It's gonna end up shuttered, and then it's gonna be empty for, you know, year after year. Yeah.
Chris:Put a liquor store in there. That's a good point. Yeah. So so that's a little change there. And last thing, speaking of the city kinda putting its nose in on stuff
Ryan:I want everyone to listen to this because there's so many people that say, Clarksville's growing too fast. Uh-huh. Clarksville's becoming a big city. Progress needs to slow down. I don't like Clarksville being a big city.
Ryan:This next story is here to remind you that Clarksville is still very much a small town. Chris, take it away.
Chris:So, councilman Dwan Little, who was looking through the city code as one does, reading through I can't remember he was apparently, he was looking for something else. Maybe he
Ryan:was just doing some some reading for fun.
Chris:Just a little while. He's not reading the city code.
Ryan:Got the city code and just read it all down.
Chris:He was, reading the city code when he came across a law that's on the books that says that theaters are not allowed to open their doors to the public before 12:30 pm on Sundays. So he took it to the rest of the council and said, hey, this is kinda silly. It turns out this law was has been on the books since 1963, that you can't have theaters open on Sunday mornings. And so he, he took it before the council, and they pretty much unanimously said, yeah. That's ridiculous, and and have removed it all.
Ryan:In 1963, there was notice of theaters being built, and there was a talk about, like, movie theaters or community theaters, and some reverend got up and, like, dear lord, if they can go to the theater on a Sunday, why would they go to church?
Chris:Mhmm.
Ryan:And so he flexed his muscle, went on down to city hall, you know, and made a made a
Chris:a law chain.
Ryan:Of inflamed, you know, plea to the city council to stop citizens from being able to go to the theater on Sunday because they need to be in church.
Chris:Mhmm. Well, what's funny about this too, in addition to that, is that, apparently, everybody's been ignoring this rule. So the the Roxy has has been like, we don't we're not gonna open a do a show at 11 o'clock on a Sunday because we're competing with everybody going to church.
Ryan:Yeah.
Chris:You know? So they haven't really I don't even know if they knew that they weren't allowed to to be open on Sunday morning. So but they haven't been. But I went over, you know, and looked at the, the showtimes at Regal. Movie theaters in Clarksville have been opening at 10: 9:10 AM on Sundays for a long time.
Chris:They've been off so, apparently, they've been in violation of this law for decades, and just nobody paid attention. Nobody knew.
Ryan:That's why it's no longer the great escapes because the the manager of The Great Escapes was sent to prison. He's still there.
Chris:Oh, yeah.
Ryan:He's still in he's still in a in a prison somewhere for opening the doors. Doing life
Chris:in the parking lot.
Ryan:Exactly. Before noon before noon on Sunday, he was showing movies, and he got he's he's man, I I hope they let him out. I I last I heard, he's on death row, and that's why they had to sell to the regal Ah, who continue. To ignore it.
Chris:You know, and I wonder, though, Ryan, if this has to do with the, the porn theaters that we used to have in Clark's. The drive by I
Ryan:wasn't aware that we had any of those in Clark's. How did you know we had those?
Chris:No. We had we used to have, what do we call it? Drive movie theater drive up movie theaters? Drive drive in.
Ryan:Drive in.
Chris:Drive in. Drive in. Drive in. Drive in. Yeah.
Chris:Yeah.
Ryan:We
Chris:used to have, I think there were 2. 1 was, like, in Oak Grove, and one was somewhere in Clarksville. There were drive in movie theaters that played, like, pornographic films on the gigantic screen, not just the big screen, the gigantic screen.
Ryan:Well, that doesn't make sense, Chris. And I know we get your mind out of the gutter for a minute.
Chris:No. This used to happen.
Ryan:Sure did.
Chris:Teenagers would would sneak over to watch these things with no sound.
Ryan:But, yeah. Chris, it's the middle of the morning.
Chris:Oh, man. And I think they were
Ryan:not They're not turning the drive in movie theater showing Porky's part 3 on at 11 AM. You couldn't see the screen.
Chris:Can you not?
Ryan:No. That's why they show them at night, you idiot.
Chris:Well, I've never thought about it. I haven't been to a drive in theater since I was in 5th grade, so I don't know. I guess you I guess you can't do that at night. You have to do it after dark. I it never occurred to me.
Ryan:What was the name of the theater playing Porky's in in at Oak Grove? I don't know.
Chris:I do know. This is a great story from back in the day.
Ryan:Oh, I can't wait. Is this a Porky story?
Chris:It's not a Porky story. It's not no. These movies were much worse than Porky's. Unless it was like pork porkies, you know, does Dallas or something like that or behind the green porkies. There was a, so these movie theaters would send out these, these agency ads to the Leaf Chronicle that would have images of women, and they would be topless.
Chris:And there was a woman in the composing room at the Leaf Chronicle. Part of her job was to turn the topless models where where the
Ryan:Yeah.
Chris:You know, fully uncovered nipples and everything would, basically, white out the nipples and draw bikinis on the ads. Wow. And so she would do that every every time the ads came in. That was part of her job was to draw bikinis on the, topless.
Ryan:She was the 1st person Gannett cut. Yeah. We can't afford a full time salary for fake bikinis.
Chris:Yeah. Oh, man. That So it changed. Yeah. Back in the day, you could watch you could watch porn on the gigantic screen.
Chris:After dark. Yeah. And now, oh, we we we we can't we need to go back to the good old days, back when things were safe and protected when there is drive in theater porn.
Ryan:I just can't I just can't then I can't get out of my head of a young Chris Smith pulling up to a theater at 11 AM going, aren't they gonna show Porky's anytime soon?
Chris:Have you ever been to a seen a drive in Mhmm.
Ryan:Theater? Yeah.
Chris:What was the last drive in movie you saw?
Ryan:Terminator 2? Wow. It was a while ago.
Chris:On a drive in?
Ryan:Yeah. Saw Terminator 2 in a drive in. I remember seeing Smokey and the Bandit at the drive in.
Chris:Yeah. That's that was classic drive in.
Ryan:And one of my favorite movies of all time, this is the well, I'm going deep for this one. Okay. You don't get this on any other Clarksville podcast, by the way. I'll never forget seeing the Kenny Rogers classic. You have to find this movie.
Ryan:It's dang good. It's called the 6 pack.
Chris:The 6 pack.
Ryan:Kenny Rogers I have never heard of this in all my days. So Kenny Rogers plays a down on his luck NASCAR driver named Brewster Baker.
Chris:Now I remember that. I remember that name.
Ryan:Yeah. So so so so Kenny Rogers is Brewster Baker. Uh-huh. And he's down on his luck. He's not doing very well, and his pit crew quits.
Ryan:They've had enough. He's losing, had enough. Well, he's at a bar drinking, and these these this ragtag group of kids, they're orphans. So these orphans decide they're gonna break into his into his camper, and they're gonna steal it. Well, Brewster catches him.
Chris:I I just I just have to pause for a second. This is such a convoluted plot. I literally have no idea where this is going. If you'd let me finish, I'd tell you. Normally, I can predict.
Chris:This is crazy.
Ryan:So the kids turn out know how to do mechanical stuff. These kids well, because they've been on the streets. They're orphans. And so they've learned how to fix cars, take cars apart,
Chris:and all that stuff. Alright.
Ryan:So Brewster Baker down on his luck has no pit crew. These kids start working on his car. Wow. And these kids become his pit crew. And all of a sudden, Brewster Baker is no played by Kenny Rogers, is no longer losing.
Ryan:He's starting to win, and he's also starting to learn the power of family and love. In that ragtag group of orphans
Chris:Mhmm.
Ryan:They work not only are they working on his car, they work their way into his heart. Oh.
Chris:And
Ryan:and they become a family. And the cops show up, and they arrest him for stealing other things.
Chris:Well and violating the Federal Labor Standards Act.
Ryan:Exactly. Kenny Rogers, sneaks into jail, breaks him out, and then he wins, like, the the the the Winston Cup or something with these kids. Okay. And it's quite possibly the I've seen that movie nearly, 500 times. One of my favorite movies as a kid, if you have a chance to catch the 6 pack with Kenny Rogers
Chris:That was crazy.
Ryan:That was a movie that I'll never forget seeing at a drive in theater. Because at the it's the first time I heard a swear word. Uh-huh. Because the because the kid, the real small kid
Chris:Uh-huh.
Ryan:He had a heart of gold, but he had a he would say naughty words occasionally. And he said he he said the s word at the end.
Chris:You know what? I bet he got that from Tony Morrison. Probably. Yeah.
Ryan:Because because the the the sheriff caught up with him. I believe the sheriff was played by, the, the, the guy who played in the honeymooners.
Chris:Oh. Oh.
Ryan:Oh. Yeah. Jackie Gleason. Jackie Gleason played the Oh,
Chris:that would be the sheriff. That would track.
Ryan:So Gleason played the sheriff, and the very last line of the movie is the kid with the with the potty mouth saying, no s Dick Tracy. And I had no idea what that meant at the time.
Chris:It was even more vulgar than you realize.
Ryan:I know. It is not it didn't there was a book version of the 6 pack, and now the Clarksville Montgomery County School Systems had to pull that
Chris:from the shelves. So
Ryan:can't can't read the 6 pack.
Chris:Can't read The Handmaid's Tale or 6 pack or 6 pack of Kenny Rogers. I wanna go watch that.
Ryan:They used to show it on TNT all the time.
Chris:All the time. Yeah. That just sounds so terrible.
Ryan:Oh, so good. So good.
Chris:Does he sing to them? Tell me he sings to them at some point.
Ryan:No. He doesn't, but he but Kenny Rogers does have, like, songs about family and and, you know, the the real adventure was soundtrack
Chris:that has Kenny Rogers songs on it. Oh, yeah. But he doesn't actually Yeah. Sing to the children. Mhmm.
Ryan:But he cleans up his life. He stops drinking, and he starts winning. And those darn kids can can change tires like nobody's business.
Chris:Yeah. He's just gonna go to jail for all kinds of DCS violations.
Ryan:What was the one? There was another NASCAR movie with, with Burt Reynolds. Yeah. A cannonball run? No.
Ryan:No. No. No. Burt Reynolds was in it. Lonnie Anderson was in it.
Ryan:Jim Jim Nabors was in it.
Chris:Course. Jim Nabors was in it.
Ryan:Course. Jim Nabors was in it. Remember
Chris:I do not remember. The
Ryan:there was 2 great eighties NASCAR movies. Uh-huh. 6 pack was 1. The second one that I'm talking about was called Stroker's Ace.
Chris:Stroker's I remember hearing I remember hearing about Stroker's Ace. Sadly, my dad never took me to see
Ryan:Stoker's Ace. You haven't seen Stroker's Ace?
Chris:I haven't seen Stroker's Ace. Oh.
Ryan:That's very cool. Now that it's legal
Chris:nothing to do with anything. Yeah.
Ryan:I want the Regal to have a 6 pack strokers ace double feature at 8 AM on a Sunday Yes. To celebrate.
Chris:Yes. I will skip church to go to that.
Ryan:Absolutely. Who wouldn't? That's the Clarksville rundown. Why why anyone listens? We don't know, but thank you for listening.
Ryan:We appreciate it. We'll be back next week, maybe. Maybe.