Jamey Tucker’s BlogSquat

Congratulations to Kyle Brinkman. He was just named the new news director at WEAR, the ABC affiliate in Pensacola, Florida.

I worked with Kyle in Huntsville and in Memphis before he became a news director and found his way to Chattanooga five years ago. He’s replacing Peter Neumann who was news director there for 20 years.

Good luck Kyle; ‘Tryin’ to Reason with Hurricane Season’ should be fun.

That’s what a couple people have either asked or e-mailed. I didn’t realize my last post was nearly a week ago.

I’ve been busy with a couple of old projects that are finally coming around to deadlines. Plus, we’re still trying to get the house out of boxes and into proper places.

A couple of stories about Memphis tv stuff. Christine Connolly is leaving the station on the river at the end of the week and Amy Speropolous had her baby, I hear a pretty little girl, last week.

These are two of my favorite former co-workers, congratulations to them both. This is the revolving door time of year in tv newsrooms. We’ve got our share of openings now. Producers, vjs, anchors. I don’t think I’m talking out of school here, they’ve mostly been blogged about before on Mike’s blog.

We’ve got our new water filtration system installed and pumping. Did you know they can actually make it so you’re getting Aquafina pure water coming out of the tap? It’s good, just like the bottled stuff but I think I prefer regular ole Memphis water. It’s basically free.

Funny that the Commercial Appeal picked up on the previous joke. A buddy called early this morning to tell me it made the front of the region section. You can click on the image to see it.

I didn’t make it up; just heard it somewhere else and changed it around a bit.

We’ve been in Nashville now for a few weeks (I’ve been here since January) and I’ve made a few observations about Music City and what’s different about it from Memphis. Here’s what I’ve got:

The Water Tastes Bad
I noticed this a few years ago while covering the State Legislature but I thought it might only be because of rusty pipes in the Capitol. Our house in Hendersonville is on the lake and the water coming out of the tap tastes just like those times as a kid when I kept my mouth open while going off the tire swing at Sportsman’s Lake. We’d gotten used to the fine tap water in Memphis and rarely ever even bought the bottled stuff. Here, I don’t even like brushing my teeth with the stuff. We’re buying a water purifier.
Traffic
Memphis doesn’t have traffic problems. Here you’ll get stuck just about any time of the day. Volume delays? I’d never heard of them before here. At 2 in the afternoon you’ll be stuck, driving about 10 miles an hour for 10 minutes and when it finally clears up there’s….nothing. Not an accident nor construction nor an Amish RV.
Smoking
I didn’t see that many people smoking in Memphis. Here, about 3 out of every 5 cars I pass has someone inside with a cigarette. And it’s the beautiful people too.
Stars
Don’t joke about seeing a celebrity in Nashville. It’s like joking about a carjacking in Memphis. It could happen! Talking with a couple ladies the other day in at outdoor cafe I mentioned Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman’s wedding. One woman asked “are they here?”. I thought she was joking, so when I kidded and said “yeah, they’re behind you”. She thought I was totally serious. I hear of celebrity spottings every day. The only ones I’ve seen in a non-working environment have been Jim Kelly the former NFL MVP and Epstein from “Welcome Back Kotter”.
Somebody pinch me.
Telephone Interviews
In 8 years of Memphis tv I never had anyone think I was calling for a radio interview. In Nashville, it happens at least once a week. It’s weird. I call to set up an interview, show up and they’re surprised I’ve got a tv camera. “Oh, this is for tv?”
Lightning Bugs
Our yard in Hendersonville is full of them. It looks like the summers in my parents yard growing up. The kids are out every night killing the little things. Well, there was an article in the paper about the fireflies having some enzyme that scientists use. They’re buying them from kids. So, you don’t have to have a license or anything. We never saw them in Memphis.
More Green
It’s nice to see lots of trees and hills again.
More Green 2
Seems like there are more people with money here. We drove around some neighborhoods in Brentwood and wow! 10 million dollar homes or more! A buddy says he was in one of those homes and there was an elevator.
Attitude
Contrary to what I was always told in Memphis, folks in Nashville aren’t talking bad about Memphis. But they’re not talking about it at all. There’s no competition with Memphis, people here just don’t like Memphis. Of course, NOT EVERYBODY in Nashville hates Memphis. But I just don’t hear people talking about it at all. Attitudes are different here in another way. Everyone seems to be quite content and happy living here.

A couple guys were sitting on an airplane. One seemed very nervous; biting his nails, sweating. The other guy says “hey pal, what’s the matter?”

“Oh man, I just found out my company’s transferring me to Memphis. I’m scared to death”.

“Why?”

“I keep hearing how dangerous it is. Crime, shootings, carjackings, gangs. I hear it’s not safe to go anywhere”.

The second guy says “Oh, it’s not as bad as the media says it is. I’ve lived in Memphis all my life. Here’s what you do. Find a nice home, enroll your kids in a good private school and mind your own business. You’ll be just fine.”

The nervous guy says “well, I guess I can take your word for it. What do you do there in Memphis?”

“Me? I’m a tailgunner on a bread truck”.

I didn’t know how lucky I was growing up. I thought just about every teenage boy had a good relationship with their dad. It was years later when I realized not every boy got a hug or heard “I love you” or “I’m proud of you” from their dad.

From the time I first remember anything, my dad has been my best friend and role model. I couldn’t have been more than a year old when he gave me my first basketball and football. He taught me how to shoot ball, how to throw a football and how to be a young man. Later he taught me how to drive a car, how to change the oil and how to work hard. He gave me everything a boy needed. $20 bucks for a date (back then that’d be dinner and a movie and gas), late night hoop sessions after a game, a car, college tuition, downpayment for a house and love for my wife and his grandkids.

James Wayne Tucker Sr. shares his name with me and my son. In high school and college everybody called us both “Tuck”. He gets that more than I do these days.

He’s the hardest working man I’ve ever known. When I was a kid he’d work 5 days with the state highway department as an engineer and then Saturdays at his mom’s store. He didn’t go to college and I think at some point he felt a little embarrased by that. He worked his way up from the side of the road cutting grass to the Chief Maintenance Engineer for the Highway Department’s Division that oversees most of north Alabama. Truthfully, that made me more proud of everything he accomplishes.

He’s a lot like George Bailey from “It’s A Wonderful Life”. There’s not a person in my hometown who doesn’t know, like and respect my dad. I like to think I get my people skills from him.

I also get my sensitivity from him. Trey and I both get teary-eyed when we have to say goodbye to friends or look back on good friends and times. Put all three of us together and it’s like looking at a timelapse picture of the same person.

I always wanted to grow up to be like Wayne Tucker. In some ways I think I did. But I’ll never be as good at helping people, at fixing cars and houses, at gardening. And I’ll never be able to love my wife and kids more than he loves me and my sister and my mom.

Our new house has two tv rooms. One we’re calling “the den” and the other which will be called “the tv room.”

Cameron’s doing all of the decorating in the den but I’m lobbying to get the green light to perk up the tv room. It’s a big room with a couple of couches, a recliner, a computer and desk and our big screen tv. The surround sound will be in this room too.

Years ago I bought two different original posters for “When Harry Met Sally” and had them framed. Their great pieces of art and have been in my office in the last three houses. But I’m thinking of decorating the tv room with movie posters. I’m looking at getting the posters for “Annie Hall”, “Say Anything”, “True Grit” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

But then I’ve been thinking of getting some foreign movie posters of US made pictures.

Anybody got any ideas for decorating a movie or tv room?

I said I’d post this if I could find it. I’m thinking this picture was taken some spring break in either 1979 or 1980. I’m the skinny guy sitting with the girls. See Darcy’s rabbit fur coat?
We’re going to visit Bluegrass Baptist this Sunday, wonder if there are any folks who were there in 1979.

I’ve had this conversation before with an AOL customer service representative.
When I first got my new computer a few years ago I had to go online so I could download my old people pc software. In order to go online, I chose to use one of those AOL “Free 8,000 minute” cds. I figured I could use it to download my software and then cancel aol.

If you’ve ever tried to cancel an AOL membership you’ll recognize this conversation. Geez.
link

Thanks to Brittney at Nashville is Talking

Back when I was in high school, my church youth group would go on choir trips. We’d ride on the bus for hours, stop in some strange town, sing in a church, then hop back on the bus for another whistle stop somewhere else.

We loved these trips. Not only did it give us a chance to get out of Mayberry for a few days, but we’d get a chance to check out the girls in other church youth groups.

Funny but I distinctly remember one such trip when our youth group visited Bluegrass Baptist Church. I don’t remember much else except that somewhere on that trip we stopped off at Johnny Cash’s house and took some pictures. I’d always thought that church was in Kentucky (hence the name “Bluegrass”).

The host church would line up families to put us up for the night and it was on this trip that our host family had a party for some of the other kids in the youth group. I remember they put us up in a basement with a tv, pool table, couch etc.

Years and years later, one of my buddies back home was visiting Hendersonville when he went to a party at a house with a basement. He kept thinking “this place seems familiar”. Turns out, it was the same basement and house we had stayed 26 years ago.

And now this is where it gets really strange. I was talking to my mom on the phone Sunday and it suddenly dawned on me that “Bluegrass Baptist Church” wasn’t in Kentucky, but right here in Hendersonville. In fact, it’s just down the street from our new house! I dug up an old photo of our youth group in front of that church and might post it here when I get my scanner out of storage.

But no…our house is not the one from 26 years ago but it’s around here somewhere.

I was standing in a comic book shop today when a familiar voice yelled out “Jamey Tucker”. It was Steve Hayslip, the former reporter/anchor at the station on the river, now working as a morning anchor for a station near another river.

Steve and I talked for a good long while about life in Music City as opposed to life in the Bluff City. We shared some of the same observances about what makes these two places so different. Far less crime. Far better place to raise children. Far less racism. Now I’m sure somebody’s gonna try to pin me down on that last one on me, but I’ll stand by it. In Memphis, everything, and by that I mean nearly everything that exists, is talked about, or dreamed about, comes down to black and white. In Nashville, people are people. Black, white, spanish, asian and everybody else who lives here don’t seem to look at a person’s skin color. Folks is folks. I like that a lot.

Steve’s doing well here and it was good to see him again. He’s one of the good guys who made it out of Memphis.