Black Fox Holler Road

Andy Pursell - 2008-12-10 10:41:25

I have worked in many different places and states building power lines. But the foothills of Tennessee is a place will always remember. Also I will never forget the crew I was working on. The crew consisted of a Foreman, lineman, operator and a grunt. The foreman was middle aged guy that could make tear drop roll out of a glass eyeball meaning very funny and straight forward. He made the crew. The lineman was me, a guy not having a clue about working in the Smokies. It was a totally different ball game coming from Florida. I was known as a flatlander and they called me that everyday. The operator was a pretty quiet guy. He could set a pole pretty much anywhere you needed it. And as for the grunt he was a pretty hyper guy that was eager to learn. His nickname was Chuck. I asked the foreman why he named him Chuck. He said he looked like a chuck. It was pretty funny! Everybody in line work knows you can't have thin skin in this trade. You just gotta' go along with it and have a good time.

Well, back to the foothills - we had a cold front coming in and the power company put us on stand-by. We ended up working all day putting the lines back up while the trees were knocking them down. One of our last calls we got was on the outskirts of Knoxville on a road called Black Fox Hollow. The power company told us that there were a couple of spans of wire down across the Hollow. Well we headed that way with our small convoy of trucks. As we were driving out I was wondering what a hollow was. I have heard the word before but never seen one.

So I asked the foreman what a hollow was and he started laughing. I asked him what was so funny while he laughed and radioed back to the other trucks. He said, "Old flatlander here doesn't know what Holler is." He pronounced it 'holler' - that's hollow with a southern drawl. The guys started laughing on the radio and said, "He's about to see one!" When we arrived it was just about dark and we could tell that the weather was moving in fast. As we turned onto Black Fox Hollow Road, the old, gravel road began to go straight up along the side of the mountain. Now I was realizing what a 'Holler' was. We got to the top and stopped and I mean to tell you - if you can picture this - at the top where we were was pole number one. If you looked to the west about the length of a football field was pole number ten. So you can tell what old Black Fox Holler Road did. It went straight down and straight back up. We found the downed wire at the very bottom. As we were finishing the job I remember snow flurries and the wind howling through the trees. I also remember the swift, running water racing down the mountain. We got back in the truck and my foreman asked, "Well, you know what a 'holler' is now!" I replied, "Yes - the steep side of a mountain." He started laughing. And now to this day we still talk about the time on Black Fox 'Holler' Road.

Framing Wrench

Black Fox Holler Road