Blog 3385 – 02.08.2025

Chattanooga. It’s Where My Story Begins

Seventy-five years ago tomorrow my parents were married in a civil ceremony just across the state line from Chattanooga, Tennessee in the small town of Rossville, Georgia. In short order I was conceived and on my way to be born into this world on November 22. 1950

The little rental house that they took me home to from The Women’s Hospital on Central Avenue was located on a one block dead end street off Main Street near downtown Chattanooga called Park Avenue. And it was nothing at all like the more famous and prestigious Park Avenue in New York City. As today’s title and the accompanying hoodie express, Chattanooga, it’s where my story begins.

Except for a couple of years in the very early nineteen fifties when dad moved us to Detroit, Michigan for work, Chattanooga was the back drop of my life growing up. Till I left home to join the U.S. Army after high school, Chattanooga was the center of my world.

During my two years and nine months of active duty service (I got a three month ‘“early out” to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) I saw Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Fort Gordon, Georgia (now called Fort Eisenhower), Oakland Army Depot in California, Tan Son Nut Air Base (just outside Saigon, Vietnam now called Ho Chi Minh City) and Fort Bragg, North Carolina (now named Fort Liberty.)

Little did I realize when I took that Greyhound Bus from Chattanooga to Knoxville for induction into the Army that I would one day travel to all fifty U.S. States, eleven other countries and five different Canadian Provinces. It would have seemed even more unbelievable to me then, that I would spend by far the biggest portion of my life in Texas, Houston in particular. Last month marked fifty years since I drove to Houston from Chattanooga in my 1967 Canary yellow with a black vinyl top Chevy Malibu. I loved that car. It had a 327 cubic inch V8 that purred like a kitten – smooth. That car ran like a scalded dog – fast.

Since my parents died, dad twenty-eight years ago this summer, and mom twenty-five years ago this summer, I have seldom made it back to Chattanooga, though I still have some family and dear friends there.

When I retired from my day job, a little over three years ago, I had hoped that my wife and I would finally fly to Paris and also travel all across the U.S. towing an RV Camper trailer like the one I lived in for almost ten years working on the road as a third party welding and utility inspector for oil and gas companies. Alas, shortly after I retired and after but one road trip to South Carolina and back my wife suffered a mental breakdown and has never been quite the same. Our plans for a trip to Paris and traveling the highways across these United States together are temporary perhaps permanently on hold. I intend to help Linda stay as independent as she possibly can be and in her own home for as long as that is viable.

A few months ago I bought a used RV Camper trailer that I plan to put on some property that my son and I own near Bon Wier, Texas. I hope to use that homestead as a base to help flesh out my son’s dream for Jay’s Hundred Acre Wood and also as a launching pad for more travel adventures that are for the time being on hold.

One of the first trip I plan to make pulling that camper is to Chattanooga where I plan to spent several weeks reconnecting with the place where my story began this time around. I still intend to fly to Paris for a few days as well someday.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

Chattanooga Choo Choo – The Andrews Sisters w/onscreen lyrics

Chattanooga Choo Choo – The Andrews Sisters w/onscreen lyrics