- [Joe] This time on Tennessee Crossroads, a getaway to historic Bell Buckle.

Then to Appleton, where Rob Wilds find a general store stocked up with memories.

We'll travel to Dandridge with Tressa Bush and take a walk through East Tennessee history.

And we end up in Signal Mountain where Ken Wilshire discovers the work of a talented glass artist.

All those stories on Tennessee Crossroads this time.

I'm Joe Elmore.

Sure glad you joined us.

(laidback jazz guitar) Progress is important for most Tennessee towns, but occasionally a lack of progress can be a blessing down the road.

Take for example Bell Buckle in Bedford County.

Today it looks, well, about the same as it did a century ago.

And you know what?

People love that.

In fact, that's one reason it's a top-notch Tennessee day trip.

(upbeat country banjo music) I just heard a great description of Bell Buckle from somebody who lives here.

It's just down the road no matter where you are, but what you get here, it's worlds away.

- [Voiceover] So anybody who comes here can go back to their childhood.

Most any of us can remember walkin' downtown barefoot, havin' a RC Cola and a MoonPie or goin' to get an ice cream cone.

Like we still have today, gentlemen that sit on the sidewalk (train whistle blows) and watch the trains go by.

- [Joe] The town was booming from about 1870 to 1920 as the major stockyard between Nashville and Chattanooga.

Then, the Great Depression arrived.

The trains quit stopping.

And downtown was boarded up for several decades, that is until Bell Buckle found its new identity as a center for arts and crafts and antique shop.

- [Voiceover] Give it time.

- [Voiceover] Make yourselves at home.

- [Joe] Bell Downtown Railroad Square came to life with quaint, colorful shops that now attract hordes of visitors.

But in order to keep them here and bring them back, Bell Buckle also needed a special dining destination.

- [Voiceover] I knew from my food experience, anywhere you go if you have a good food experience, it'll drive the rest of it.

You can have pottery shops.

You can sell jewelry.

But if you don't have a good food experience, lot of people aren't interested in coming back.

- [Joe] In 1990, Greg Heinike was looking for a new lifestyle and a new food business adventure.

He discovered the town, fell in love with it, and soon the Bell Buckle Cafe was born, that is after he persuaded his reluctant wife and daughters to move from Huntsville, Alabama.

- [Greg] It was kind of tough at first, and my kids were mad.

They were in school, and they weren't comin' up here (Joe chuckles) to a little town of 400.

They slowly started showin' up.

I just come on up here and started workin' on it and slowly my family started showin' up and my kids.

- [Joe] No surprise, the cuisine is Southern country, and it draws rave reviews from visitors.

The extensive menu's got everything from smothered pork chops to barbecue and vegetable choices that range from broccoli salad to carrot soufflé.

- [Greg] My family, all my family here, the people that work for me, some of 'em have been here for 20 years.

And they really try to get it the same every time.

We're kind of like an 1850s shopping center here.

It's just that this building's over a hundred years old.

You can see in the steps, it's all worn down from the people comin' in and out.

(door creaks) - [Jeanette] Hi.

- [Joe] Craig's wife, Jeanette - [Joe] will likely greet you at the door, and you may have a short wait, which is definitely worth it.

Where else can you see a balancing act like this?

Well actually, they're stackable glasses for your beverage, which you'll get along with a serving of friendly hospitality.

- [Greg] My dad told me some sumpin'.

Many years ago, he said, "You know son, "it doesn't cost anything to be nice."

And it doesn't.

It cost nothing to be nice.

And we really like people, and I was lucky I married a woman that likes people, and I'm around people that like people, and we just wanna be hospitable.

We want people to come here and feel comfortable.

♪ Here comes the sun ♪ Doo 'n doo doo ♪ Here comes the sun ♪ And I say it's all right - [Joe] Come on a Friday or a Saturday evening, and you'll get a free serving of entertainment in the Music Parlor.

Valerie Smith is a recording artist who tours around the U.S. and Europe when she's not performing ♪ Since it's been here - [Joe] here at home.

♪ Here comes the sun ♪ Doo 'n doo doo ♪ Here comes the sun ♪ And I say - [Joe] After dining - [Joe] and some serious shopping, you might wanna satisfy your sweet tooth at Albert and Nancy Phillips' ice cream parlor, famous for their white chocolate raspberry ice cream in a homemade waffle cone.

Now in a big way, their general store helped to spearhead the town's comeback in the latter part of the 20th century.

- [Voiceover] My mom and dad actually bought this building in 1971 with the original contents of the store.

They paid $750 for the building with the contents.

- [Joe] Billy Phillips and his brother now run Phillips' General Store, which you could say is part antique mall and part museum.

- [Voiceover] Not only does it have the counters and the showcases and the original rail wing ladders, but it has the original clothes, and they have the original price tags on them.

They'll range from three cents to about 27 cents.

We have original leather shoes that are still in incredible condition for 120 years later.

And even some of those pieces have been used in some well-known movies in Tennessee and in the South over the years.

- [Joe] According to the latest census, Bell Buckle's population has soared to a whopping 500, which means the charming little town you discover on your first visit will be the same one you'll see on the next and so on.

- [Greg] We don't change much around here.

We've gotten better, and we've changed some, and we've improved some, but this is basically the old café like it was 22 years ago, and people like that.

They come through and they say, "It's one of the few places in the country "that we come in, we haven't been here for two years, "but those pork chops taste exactly as good "and the same as they did two years ago."

And with the changing world, that's been an important part of our success.

♪ Will history repeat again ♪ If ever we should meet again ♪ Oo ♪ Yeah (train chugs) ♪ Oo ♪ Yeah (applause) - [Voiceover] Yeah!

- Next stop, Appleton, which was once home of the country's largest general store.

In fact, they called it the Big Red General Store until it closed its doors back in the 50s.

Rob Wilds went down there to discover how it was brought back to life as a storehouse of community memories.

(birds chirping) (upbeat Bluegrass music) - [Rob] They're shakin' the walls and floors at the Big Red Store in the Appleton community, south of Pulaski today just like generations did here, starting at about 1890 when the store opened.

But this round of merrymaking is new because the Big Red Store closed in the mid-50s and fell into decay until Linda Boyd got tired of looking out her window at a dilapidated building.

- [Linda] I live in the house next door, and I would wash dishes, and I'd look out the window, and I'd say, "Somebody please do something "to that building.

"It's fallin' on down.

"Do somethin'."

Nobody did anything, so it came the opportunity for us to buy it, and so we did.

Basically on the inside, we cleaned.

There has been some flooring replaced and some of the columns in the back, but basically we've cleaned and left it as near the original look as it was.

- [Rob] And that made it the perfect place for the people like Marvin Boyd, who remember how it was to come to what was the shopping mall of its day.

- [Marvin] This was the largest country store outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

It was advertised as that and was the largest country store.

You could buy anything you wanted here just about.

- [Rob] Rina Melton saw things from the other side of the counter at the Big Red Store.

- I worked some here when I was twenty years old.

(chuckles) - [Rob] And what was it like?

Was it busy place when you were working here?

- [Rina] Busy place.

♪ If I had a needle 'n thread ♪ Fine as I could sew - [Rob] If you needed a needle and thread and just about anything else, you could get it here.

And Linda and the other owners are doing their best to restock the shelves, so visitors can get a look at the way things were when the Big Red Store could take care of you from cradle to grave.

- [Linda] We've got one of the original caskets, the old wooden caskets.

Your barrel expense would be $46.75.

And the old hearse over here, they would be hauled in that.

- [Rob] Visitors love to come by.

Some remember the store themselves.

Others are seeking signs of ancestors to see what they bought here.

Billy Elledge fits in both those categories.

- We were prowlin' through when Bob and Linda was puttin' some stuff in there.

One of the first ones that I came to was my great-grandpa, Neal Garner.

- [Rob] Is that right?

- [Billy] I believe it's $3 and sumpin', which is not much to us.

But back then, it was a whole lot.

They've got a lot of things like that that people can come in here, and they can look at their ancestors, things from their ancestors.

And it's just a place that very few remains.

- So as they were fixin' the place up, they found all kinds of things left over from the old days of the store like this.

This is sort of the early 20th century version of Excel.

Okay, you kept all your business records right in here.

Every time you'd have a transaction, you'd write down a receipt.

Like here's one from 1937.

This man came in, paid a nickel, and bought some dope.

Now back in 1937, dope was a Coca-Cola, and he probably got it at every kid's favorite part of this store, the soda fountain.

- [Voiceover] As a general rule, all I came in here for was a Double Cola for a nickel.

A nickel in those days was just about as bad as $5 today.

You just didn't have that kind of money.

- When we came down here, daddy'd buy me a candy bar and a Coca-Cola.

Come through the big doors, come right over here, and it was a treat because bein' raised in the country, you didn't have all this like we've got it now.

And that's one of the many memories that I've got of this store.

(melancholy folk guitar music) - [Rob] This store was a big part of the life of this community, a community which has a long (cicadas chirp) and storied history.

While the last Civil War battle fought in Tennessee was fought right here through this community and along the banks of Sugar Creek.

There's a marker that commemorates that.

But the real marker of the life of this community was the Big Red Store, a marker that Linda and her partners definitely want to stand tall once again.

- [Linda] My husband and I would come in here when we were children, kids growin' up.

And it was just amazing to walk in and come in to buy your Coca-Cola, your MoonPie, ice cream, just whatever your treats would be.

And so many people that this has touched their lives, the history.

It's like the older people told their children, and they have told their children.

And now, they can come and see what their grandparents were talkin' about.

- [Rob] With the store reopened as a place for community gatherings and as a museum honoring the lives of people who called Appleton home, there's a very good chance that the Big Red Store will be the topic of fond conversation for generations to come.

(birds chirping) - Thanks Rob.

Chattanooga is home to many talented artists, well like Susan Parry, who's nationally known for her jewelry and small sculpture work.

Well, her journey artistically has been quite amazing.

Ken Wilshire discovered that when he went to her studio.

(lively folk music) (machines rattle) - [Ken] These intricate works of art may appear to be stone, but surprisingly they're blown and sculpted from glass.

They're the painstakingly detailed miniature sculptures of Chattanooga artist, Susan Parry, who's always looking for a new technique to master.

- [Susan] I'm tryna challenge the viewer's senses and my capabilities at the same time by making glass not look like glass.

I want people to say, "Is this really glass?

"Are you sure?"

(laughs) - [Ken] But her artistic journey did not begin with such clarity and certainty.

- [Susan] I can't even begin to (laughs) tell you what I did at first 'cause I tried so many different mediums until I found glass.

You name it, I've knitted.

I've made handmade paper, handmade books, candles, greeting cards.

I used to use art as a way of teaching English to adult foreign students.

I've worked with senior citizens with arts and crafts, so it was always in me.

But then when I found glass, I just got hooked.

There's something about glass, just starting with the raw materials and just going from there.

I didn't even know I could sculpt until a few years ago.

Now, that's the most exciting thing to me to see things come to life right in front of me.

- [Ken] Susan's pieces are colorful, cheerful, and often comical.

With her skillful touch, birds, fish, and vessels of all kinds seem to magically appear from the melting glass rods.

But these are only a few of her charming creations.

- [Susan] I do jewelry, and I do sculptures.

Lately, I've been getting these pieces of driftwood or tree roots and doing birds that are semi-bead, but you really can't tell they're a bead because I connect them with dowels and put them onto whatever wooden base that I'm putting them in.

I work with wire a lot and precious metals.

But mainly, I'm hooked on glass.

I'm like the moth to (giggles) the flame.

You can't get me away from it for very long or I'm not happy.

- [Ken] Still while glass hasn't always been her medium of choice, when she did its creative possibilities, it was an immediate love affair.

- I love glass for so many reasons.

I love the way it captures light.

I love that I can create anything that I imagine.

And I always said that glass is my teacher that you know what something looks like until you try to make it.

It's just so exciting.

I can never get bored with it.

It's like being in love.

(laughs) My heart just fills up.

I'm just so excited!

I can not wait until the next day when I can take it out of the kiln and look at it.

It's another challenge of working with glass.

Because when the glass is hot, quite often the colors don't look the same they look when they're cold.

They usually tend to be different shades of red, orange, yellow, and white depending on how hot the glass is, so I think I have an idea what it's gonna look like, but I truly don't know what it's gonna look like till I get to see it, so it's Christmas every time I open my kiln.

- [Ken] As you can imagine, Susan is a well-respected and recognized artist and teacher.

Her works have been displayed across the country and even at the White House to decorate Tennessee's Christmas tree.

- [Susan] 'Cause I wanted our tree to be more interesting, and I also wanted to use different skill sets, so one of the ornaments is a direct takeoff on the Tennessee flag, except I reversed the colors on purpose.

The other ornament, I wanna do something to celebrate the rolling hills and mountains of Tennessee.

Then I thought and what can tie the two ornaments together to give it that Christmas feel?

I thought, "I want a wreath."

This was my way of saying that Tennessee's an environmentally-conscious state that we're green in more ways than one, and it had the Christmas feel.

- [Ken] Susan's works are actually an ancient artform called lampworking.

It's the oldest method of glassmaking and results in pieces that seem to last forever.

- [Susan] Lampworking got the name in the Renaissance period because at that time artists were melting glass over oil lamps, but this is actually an art form that predates the birth of Christ.

At one time, the archeologists credited the Egyptians with this because they had found samples of their work in the Egyptian pyramids, and they know that they had been working with ceramic glazes.

But the type of glass I work with is soft glass made from elements of the Earth: soda lime, ash, and sand.

- [Ken] Susan, you've been showing us examples of the smaller stuff that you make, but this is a different type of glass and a different type of piece.

Tell us about this.

- This is borosilicate glass, also known as hard glass.

It's the same type of material that Pyrex dishes are made out of.

I can work out of the flame with this a lot longer.

That's why I can get bigger with it.

That's a dragon, - [Ken] Oh, right.

(laughs) - [Susan] a fire-breathing dragon (Ken laughs) at that.

It has ruby-color glass coming out of his mouth.

- [Ken] Because her work is so unique, most of the time when you see a Susan Parry piece of art, the question always comes up.

- [Susan] "Is this really glass?"

And "How did you do that?"

- [Ken] Susan certainly cherishes the loves of her life here on top of Signal Mountain, where inspiration and motivation guide her every step of the way to her next creation.

She has the love of her family, the love of her surroundings, and the love of her craft.

They've all been part of her success.

And like some of her works, the key to her heartfelt passion.

- [Susan] I always say this double prayer when I start my work.

I say, "I've always asked for safety."

But I always say that, "Help whatever I make "will make somebody else happy."

And that's just how I feel about it.

- Well, thank you, Ken.

Now a taste of Tennessee's past that you can discover yourself off interstate 40 just east of Knoxville.

Dandridge is one Tennessee's oldest towns.

And thanks to recent revitalization, it makes for a perfect walking tour.

Tressa Bush put on her walkin' shoes to discover for herself.

(tranquil folk guitar) - [Tressa] As pretty as a postcard, that's just one of many ways to describe one of Tennessee's oldest towns, Dandridge.

Named after First Lady Martha Dandridge Washington, it was the first and has been the only county seat of Jefferson County.

As far as the structures go, Dandridge looks a lot like it did back in the 1800s, minus the paved roads of course.

- [Voiceover] Dandridge offers a unique blend of the old and the new.

We've got a national historic district in downtown Dandridge.

And yet, you've got lots of things to do in here, lots of shops, lots of restaurants in Dandridge.

We've got a TVA lake at our backdoor.

We've got a marina across the street in the city limits.

We're only 30 minutes from Knoxville and 30 minutes from the Great Smoky Mountains, so there's lots to do if you want a base out of Dandridge.

Over to our town hall-- - [Tressa] Bob Jernigan is the historian for Jefferson County.

He was born and raised in Dandridge.

He runs an insurance business started by his father, and it's where he's raising his family.

Bob knows just about everything there is to know about this town that sits in the shadows of the Great Smoky Mountains.

He's the guide for the downtown walking tours.

- [Bob] Our courthouse, this one was completed in 1845, and there's never been a fire in the Jefferson County Courthouse, so our records are intact all the way back to the beginning of the county in 1792.

- [Tressa] In addition to all those records, the courthouse halls are full of everything from pictures of famous people and buildings, even a list of fallen soldiers from all wars.

- [Bob] Dandridge is somewhat unique in that we have four of our original taverns or inns still in existence in Dandridge.

Now, they're not used as taverns anymore.

Town hall occupies the Hickman Tavern.

It's a very nice federal building built in the early 1820s.

If you walk into the foyer of our city hall, you will see this beautiful mid-1800s spiral staircase.

It goes from the basement up to the top, the third floor.

And one of the buildings next to it, which is our Visitor's Center today, was the Hickman Coach House, and it was the office for the stage coach, which came right through Dandridge from Knoxville on its way to Abingdon, Virginia.

The Maxwells are the current owners of the 1882 Building, which was started in life as a doctor's office, and it is now a boutique and gift shop.

- [Tressa] If you had to point out a building that jumpstarted the renovations here, Bob says it would have to be the Vance Building.

Work there was completed in 2000, and it didn't take long for folks from everywhere to realize Dandridge is a good place to live and a good place to do business.

But there was a time back in 1942 when the town's future, well, it seemed all washed up.

- The government decided to build a dam on the French Broad River and form Douglas Lake.

Originally, there was no plan to save downtown Dandridge.

We almost lost our historic district, but the town formed a committee.

They came up with the idea of building this dyke down here to hold out the floodwaters of Douglas Lake.

Therefore, the historic district was saved.

- [Tressa] Why was the town of Dandridge spared?

Nobody really knows for sure, but some speculate residents here were able to contact First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Whatever the reason, folks won't ever forget about it because the dyke, well, it's impossible to miss.

(burgers sizzle) Anybody will work up quite an appetite walking around Dandridge, and you know there are a number of places that can satisfy your tastebuds.

We chose the Tinsley-Bible Pharmacy, which is also a restaurant.

(laughter) And while some folks are here picking up their medicines, others are chowing down on everything from chili to the famous Bible Burger and washing it down with a shake.

All right, so we had the Tinsley-Bible Bible Burger earlier and the Tinsley-Bible shake.

Which one's gonna be the best?

- The shakes are always my favorite.

- [Tress] Shake's always - [Tressa] the best?

- [Bob] Four in the afternoon, - [Bob] it's chocolate shake time for Bob.

- And this is double chocolate?

- Yours looks pretty double to me.

That looks rich.

Whaddya think?

- It's as good as the Bible burger.

- [Bob] That's right.

(laughs) - [Tressa] Dandridge may have been a well-kept secret for many years, but the word is out, and that's good news for the people who live and work here and for those of us who'd like to visit.

- [Bob] I believe we're headed into the second heyday.

Dandridge is about to be rediscovered.

If the growth trend continues, we do stand the chance of losing what they came here for.

We must be careful about that.

And I hope Dandridge can always remain the peaceful, quaint, little historic town that it is today.

(tender folk guitar) - Well, that's our show for this time.

Don't forget to park at our website sometime, TennesseeCrossroads.org, and you can follow us on Facebook of course.

Now for your folks in the Nashville area, we're gonna take a break next week because of some membership programming, which is always my cue to remind you to support your local public television station.

We'll see you around here next time.