Post #4759 by Swanky on Wed, Jul 31, 2002 8:56 AM

Here in East Tennessee, barbers are plentiful and well attended. Most are ancient guys. There is often a line at 5:30 AM. But, I bet there aren't any 30 year old barbers around. I can still get a haircut from the guy who gave me my first haircut, in the same chair, back in my home town.

The pizzeria next door does a weak business and they make the best pizza Kiliki and I have ever had, while the chain all around keep churning out worse pizza for more money. It sucks. You have to bribe people to eat Harby's rather than Pizza Hut.

There is a local country radio station here that is awesome. I am amazed they still play old country and have local news and it's very "down home." The amazing thing is they are owned by Clear Channel. But various factors keep the mom and pop radio operation going. Thankfully. The "oldies" station that was here closed shop recently. There is a local station that plays the real oldies (Dean Martin and Frank, not CCR and Heard it Through the Grapevine) but they just pipe it in through some syndication thing. Very little music played by local people who like it. Even the college radio station here has made it so that they are playing music by computer now. They forced all the cool older DJ's out to make students play music and they don't.

We make it a policy to eat at what looks like the local owned diners, and shop at the local hardware, etc. whenever possible. SOmetimes the food is bad, but it's better than the sinking feeling of eating at McDonald's.