Copyright 2008 * All rights reserved
J.C. (Jim) Tumblin, OD, DOS
3604 Kesterwood Drive, East
Knoxville, Tennessee 37918-2557
(865) 687-1948
(Circa 1950)
You never know when those phone calls will come. This one was about 9:00 one evening six weeks ago. A voice on the other end of the line said, "Are you the Jim Tumblin they told me about when I drove up to Knoxville last Saturday--the one who writes those history columns?"
Answer, "Yes, how may I help you?"
The voice, "I'm a clock collector from a suburb of Chattanooga and I found a clock in an antique store off Cedar Lane possibly 17 years ago when we lived in Knoxville that says, 'Fountain City Hardware' and 'Warren Paints' on the face of it. Do you know anything about the store?"
Well, anyone who has lived in Fountain City most of his life and has passed the proverbial "Three Score and Ten" mark MUST have known owner Cliff White and his successor, John Roos, or he should surrender his credentials.*
The caller was thrilled to hear that I had newspaper clippings regarding R. Cliff White and an image of the store front. Until the 128 pages of Images of America: Fountain City (2004) were filled with other Fountain City landmarks, the Fountain City Hardware was considered for inclusion in a chapter to be called, "Our Oldest Businesses." Toward that end I had acquired the image from the C.M. McClung Historical Collection four years ago.
Fountain City Hardware Co.
(Circa 1950)
(Courtesy of the C.M. McClung Historical Collection)
The caller said he would drive back to Fountain City the following weekend, show me the clock and obtain any images I had of the store.
However, illness in the family prevented his coming until this weekend (April 5).The added facts are, as often occurs, stranger than fiction.
Another phone call that came just yesterday (April 3). The caller said, "Are you the Jim Tumblin who collects old Fountain City photos and newspaper articles? If so, I have some material on the Fountain City Hardware Co. and a 8x10 inch interior view of the store. Would you like to see them?"
Needless to say, I drove over to meet that caller as soon as I could get there.
Interior Fountain City Hardware Co.
(Circa 1950)
If magnified to bring out some of its details, the clock on the rear wall just to the left of the center of the photo is, no doubt, the clock mentioned by the first caller.
The Clock in the Fountain City Hardware Co.
(Circa 1950)
Mystery solved. When the clock owner meets me in Fountain City tomorrow, I suspect he will be both surprised and pleased at not only the presence of the photos but also the timely phone call that came yesterday.
-J.C. (Jim) Tumblin
April 4, 2008
*Three score and ten refers to the once expected span of our lives and is
referred to In the Bible (Psalms 90):
The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is their strength labor and sorrow;
for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Shakespeare picked up the phrase, as he often did, and used the phrase in
Macbeth:
Threescore and ten I can remember well:
Within the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.
Oddly, although Shakespeare took numerous phrases and examples of imagery from the Bible, the word Bible doesn't appear in any of his plays.
(Anyone with other information or photographs of the Fountain City Hardware Co. is encouraged to contact the Webmaster whose address is on the home page.)