Blog 3819 – 05.07.2026
Chattanooga, My Home Town
I was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on a frosty morning in late 1950, November 22nd to be exact. Except for a couple of years that my parents moved us north to Detroit, Michigan for work and to be near Mom’s dad, step-mother and younger siblings, I lived in Chattanooga till my eighteenth birthday when I joined the U.S. Army for FTA, Fun, Travel, and Adventure. The soldiers that I was stationed with in South Vietnam had an entirely different acronym for FTA and the last two words were …The Army so you can guess what the first word was. My weekend passes and leaves were all spent in Chattanooga.
In January of 1973, I drove from Chattanooga to Houston, Texas to attend Bible College. I only attend three years and never graduated. I worked full time in addition to taking a full load of classes for the last two of those years and got married. I do not recommend trying to juggle all three of those at the same time. Juggling is where one ball must stay in the air at all times and one of those things is always slightled and most likely all three.
Women are far better at multi-tasking than men. We men are so easily distracted, and usually by a pretty face or form, that we often have difficulty even doing one thing at a time correctly.
But, back to my home town. I have spent most of my life now in Texas, Houston in particular. Both my children were born here. It has been more than a few years since I have made it back to Chattanooga to visit. I still think of Chattanooga as my hometown though it has been forty-eight years since I lived there.
I grew up in the shade of Lookout Mountain and still think that the view of Chattanooga and the Moccasin Bend of the Tennessee River from Point Park is one of the most magnificent. In my adventures to all fifty states, five Canadian provinces, Mexico and nine other countries, I have seen many beautiful and magnificent sites.
Often the little song I learned as a boy plays in my head and my heart: “Chattanooga, Chattanooga, that’s my hometown…”
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David James White
theencouragingword 