Episode 3911

- [Announcer] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by...

- [Narrator] Some of our biggest checks have also made the biggest difference. The Tennessee Lottery proud to have raised more than $7.5 billion for education. Now that's some game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Narrator] Discover Tennessee Trails & Byways, where adventure, cuisine, and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at TNTrailsAndByways.com.

- [Narrator] The co-op system in Tennessee consists of independently owned co-ops, driven to serve farmer owners, rural lifestyle customers, and their communities, throughout Tennessee and in five neighboring states. More at ourcoop.com.

- [Narrator] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives, and earn a living. More at mtsu.edu/cla.

- This week, we'll dine in style in Hendersonville, dive into the history of Williamson County, enjoy a sweet trip to Tullahoma, and pay homage to heroes in Linden. Well, we've got a full show on, so let's get rolling. I'm Ketch Secor, welcoming you to "Tennessee Crossroads". They say the early bird gets the worm. Well, in our first story, Miranda Cohen travels to Hendersonville and finds the early bird might also get the pancakes and the biscuits, the bacon and much more.

- [Miranda] Some say you have to get up before the chickens and that is certainly the motto here at the Red Rooster Cafe in Hendersonville.

- It's grandma's house.

- [Miranda] Yeah.

- It's that typical comfort food.

- [Miranda] It is great classic comfort food served up in the most comfortable style.

- We like the grandma's kitchen feel, the comfort of, like, the old furniture and just it's been used and loved on and you sit down and you don't have the pretense of something, like, it's too formal because that's just not the way we live.

- [Miranda] The Red Rooster Cafe has been here on Main Street in Hendersonville for more than a decade. In the early hours of the morning, it has long been the place to see and be seen with a legion of loyal diners.

- [Abby] We have customers that are here several times a day. This is their only place to eat. We have people that meet at the same time every morning. I ask them, "I don't know what else y'all have to discuss 'cause you're here every day for years. I can't imagine there's anything else to go over." And they say at that point they just make stuff up. And then we know 'em by name.

- [Miranda] Abby and Paul Fields have been the owners since 2021. When they took the reins, the menu was tried and true, but there was one breakfast classic that they wanted to call their own.

- My big thing was the biscuits, 'cause if you're gonna go someplace to have breakfast, you want a biscuit that just melts. And we made that happen. And I think the biscuits are phenomenal.

- They're very flaky, buttery, and they're good. Just even with biscuits and gravy or jam, like, I just love 'em. If I want breakfast, I do the same order, three eggs and a biscuit. And then if we do lunch, it's the chicken Philly.

- [Miranda] Dozens of farm fresh eggs are cracked early and served up in hearty portions, with catchy names like the early bird, the kitchen omelet, and of course, the signature, red rooster.

- The red rooster, they have the eggs, the biscuits, gravy, or toasted grits, bacon, sausage. We have country ham, city ham, and hash browns, home fries.

- You can get not just bacon and sausage or country fried steak, you can now get fried pork chops. With that, you can get an eight-ounce portion of fried or grilled chicken. The early bird is just a slim-down version of the red rooster. It's two eggs, but probably the close third is our kitchen omelet. We sell a lot of omelets.

- [Miranda] And if you are not an early riser, don't worry. The entire menu is served up all day long. In fact, one of the most popular breakfast items is none other than the big famous red rooster cheeseburger.

- [Abby] There's nothing really fancy about it. No special sauce or anything, but just pick it up and it's all over you. And that's the way I like to eat a burger.

- [Miranda] The classic slow-cooked meat-and-threes, like fried catfish, chicken and dumplings, and meatloaf start rolling out about 10:00 a.m., and no matter what the clock says, it is always the right time for homemade dessert.

- Now I make the coconut cake and I make the pecan pies, and I do have a secret ingredient in both that makes them just really unique. And the flavor is so amazing.

- And it was Paul Fields who perfected the perfect ending to any southern meal: banana pudding.

- [Paul] I bet I made, oh shoot, when we first made the banana pudding, I bet I made 30 different batches trying to get it the way I wanted it.

- We do make it with love. We do make it from scratch. So I think that that personal just care that's put into it.

- I love their fried bologna. I love their nest omelet. It's basically, like, a big bowl with everything that an omelet would have, but just open face. It's really delicious.

- Here at the Red Rooster, get a booth if you can. You may not be able to because it is always crowded. But each booth has its own theme. There's a jeep, there's cowboys, there's Elvis and Dolly. And there are very special booths that are dedicated to the military and to the police. And all the decor is donated.

- [Abby] And I thought, you know, it'd be fun to do a theme booth for each booth. So there was 10 booths, I wrote down, you know, one through 10, and I started writing stuff out that I wanted. But they like to see that and they like to say, "Hey, thank you so much for representing the military."

- [Miranda] That is really special. That is poignant.

- [Abby] The police especially, I think, like to be represented and honored.

- [Miranda] At the Red Rooster Cafe, they know more than your name. They know your order, they know your family, and they know what matters the most.

- We bring our kids here probably four or five times a week. We love all the people in here, all the waitresses, we know all of them by name. So it's really enjoyable. I love being able to have a little place that we come to all the time. It's feels so much like home, and it means the world. We love it.

- But right now we're just enjoying our time here. We leave home and we come home. Does that make sense? Like, I leave my house and I come here and I'm home. I think the Rooster is its own place, and we're just honored to be the caretakers. I think at this point, we'd just like things to be, you come, you go and enjoy yourself and everybody's a friend and you sit next to people that you may not know and you end up, you know, friends for life. It's just comfort.

- Our next story is a perfect mix of old and new. Downtown Franklin has a history and culture center that's focused on telling the stories of the surrounding area. And while you may be tempted to call it a museum, it's so much more, as Laura Faber discovered.

- [Laura] It's a historic building that dates back to 1905, and it sits just off the square in downtown Franklin. This is the old, old, old jail of Williamson County. Of course, it doesn't house prisoners anymore, but it does hold their stories and the stories of many others, too.

- This is the original 1905 Williamson County Jail. All the original brick you can see around you is it's original to the building. The room we're sitting in right now was part of the sheriff's residence that, at the early 20th century, the sheriff actually lived with his family in the county jail. So we know that their living quarters were the front part of this building, the downstairs and upstairs parts, and then the jail cells were all in the back.

- [Laura] Talk about keeping your eye on the prisoners. Historian, Nat Taylor, is the managing director of the Moore-Morris History and Culture Center of Williamson County.

- Built in 1905, activated as the county jail right around then. And then this front part added on just a couple years later for the sheriff's residence. And it was used as the county jail until the late 1930s when the building right next door, where the Heritage Foundation Williamson County's headquarters are currently located, that was the old, old jail. And this is the old, old, old jail.

- [Laura] So it's got three olds.

- Exactly.

- [Laura] Thanks to the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County and lots of donors, this is 6,000 square feet of state-of-the-art interactive exhibit space dedicated to telling the story of Williamson County and Franklin. Franklin native, David Garrett, is board chair for the Heritage Foundation.

- It's a place where history really does come to life because one thing we wanted was it to be cutting-edge technology, because people today respond to museums differently. And so when you come in here, it's sort of like a "Harry Potter" movie. The portraits talk to you, holograms come up. But we wanted to take in all the history of the Middle Tennessee area, not just Civil War, 'cause a lot of places address Civil War. We touch on it here, but we go from indigenous people to the present day.

- Layered maps explain how white settlers transformed the landscape before the Civil War. A diorama describes Tennessee's first railroad in Williamson County and stories of the Franklin Theatre, Gray Drug Store, and the old Walter Pyle Hospital come to life literally. Tyrus Sturgis, chief officer of Engagement for the Heritage Foundation is about to show me how. So Tyrus, would you say that the technology is one of the most unique things about this center?

- It's one of the things that make this place so special. One example is our living portraits, which are motion-activated. Take a few steps forward and see what happens.

- Okay, here we go. This is Calvin LeHew, one of the founding preservationists of Franklin.

- My name is Calvin LeHew, and I was born in country store .

- History very much matters. This is a town that is all about placemaking, about historic preservation, about history.

- [Laura] Bari Beasley is president and CEO of the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County.

- [Bari] You come in and you kind of think and feel you're in a museum, but it is a living, breathing history and culture center. So not only can visitors come in and experience everything in every room and all of the interesting technology and talk to the jailbirds in one of the places and go in the experience room and so many interesting things. And then there's a whole nother side of the business here in that, in addition to it being a history and culture center, we've created every room and every exhibit has been built where it can be turnkey and it can turn into event space. We want people to build their memories here.

- [Laura] You can actually record your own personal history up in the storytellers lab on the third floor. Or maybe you'll get lucky to get a root beer float when visiting. But the exhibit that everyone talks about is the immersive experience room. The culture center sits on the land where White's Tavern used to be. And Benjamin White even appears to tell his story, all taken from historical records. And there's more.

- I'm always really moved by Freeman Thomas' portrait in the experience room. My research wheelhouse is the Reconstruction Era and his story is really compelling. He was enslaved here in Franklin, and he talks about when the Union Army first took over in Nashville, just kind of how excited they got and they ran to the Union troops for their freedom and then went to work for them, helping build forts in the area and then enlisted as soon as they allowed, you know, the African Americans to join the Union Army, he signed up on day one and his narrative just is so moving where he talks about what an experience that was for him and, like, the doors that he saw were gonna open for him in this brand-new life.

- [Laura] It's a new way to teach history, this blend of old and new.

- I think it's a great way to really understand the heart and soul of the community 'cause that's really what you get from, it's not just history that's stagnant, it's why this community is the way it is.

- [Bari] I hope that visitors come to this town or locals come here and they spill back onto Main Street and particularly visitors and they have lunch somewhere and they say, "I didn't know what it," fill in the blank. Whatever it might be. I hope that it is a place that is inspiring, and I hope it's a place that people wanna replicate. There's just nothing like it when you're in a historic building. And so that's what we do every day at the Heritage Foundation. Our whole mission is about saving places and stories that matter.

- If you grew up in the south, chances are you've had a few Sundrop sodas. The taste takes you right back to your childhood. Well, Cindy Carter found a great little spot in Tullahoma that's all Sundrop all the time.

- [Cindy] Sundrop, the golden cola. It's a citrus-flavored soda beloved by those who are familiar with it. And in Tullahoma, Tennessee, that's pretty much everybody.

- [Ashley] Now this is the Sundrop place. I mean, everybody grew up with it.

- [Cindy] Ashley Davis is the general manager of the Sundrop Shoppe & Luncheonette, a local eatery fashioned in the style of an old drugstore soda fountain and cafe. And of course the soda at this soda fountain that is revered above all: Sundrop.

- [Speaker] So we do the Sundrop float, we do a cherry Sundrop float, and we do a Sunkist orange cream soda float. And those are to die for.

- [Cindy] More on those delicious desserts in a minute. As for the highly caffeinated drink that inspires them, Sundrop was created in St. Louis in 1949 and primarily bottled and distributed across a few southern states, including Tennessee. Tullahoma's Prescott Bottling & Distributing company bottled Sundrop until 1991 and continues to distribute the soft drink in five Middle Tennessee counties. Paige Prescott Moore opened the Sundrop Shoppe & Luncheonette in 2019, an extension of her family's longstanding connection to Sundrop.

- The response has been insane, insane. People that come here love it. And they come here often. The people that grew up with Sundrop grew up in the soda fountain, you know, and these two ideas merging, I think, immediately made people feel like this was home.

- [Cindy] A home that is open from eight to three and serves breakfast all day. Check out the Queen City Platter, or how about a T-Town Special.

- [Ashley] I probably make a hundred pancakes a day, at least.

- [Cindy] The restaurant's lunch menu also offers savory soups and salads, as well as hot and cold sandwiches that are Prescott family favorites, like granddaddy's pimento cheese, or Aunt ME's chicken salad.

- [Ashley] I always tell people to try the chicken salad.

- [Cindy] Why?

- We hand-make everything. I cut up everything for that chicken salad myself with my own two hands. French dip is one of our most popular sandwiches. We do a pot roast instead of steak, which really sets us apart. I always tell people to try the white chicken chili.

- Here's the thing, Sundrop isn't just a brand, it's not just history. Here, it's the secret ingredient. You'll find it in everything from the obvious Sundrop float to the not so obvious chicken salad, and nothing satisfies that sweet tooth like settling in at the counter for those soda fountain favorites, like a Sundrop or cherry Sundrop float, milkshakes and malts, ice cream sundaes, or a big old banana split.

- Some of the biggest, most beautiful banana splits that the waitresses love those 'cause it's a chance to get creative. We have the best ice cream. I personally taste tested every ice cream I could find until-

- [Cindy] That's a tough job.

- Yes, very tough job to do. I taste tested until we found the things I thought were perfect.

- [Cindy] And the whole experience inside this Sundrop Shoppe & Luncheonette pays homage to that iconic lime green and bright yellow brand. Shelves and shelves of memorabilia and merchandise for sale honor the golden cola and customers seem to appreciate not just the food but the trip down memory lane.

- Because it is a smaller cafe, it makes people sit a little closer. You're able to lean back to the table behind you and chit chat. I think it's a meeting place for the community.

- [Cindy] A place, a piece of history, and a southern tradition. If you know Sundrop, then you know, but even if you don't, the Sundrop Shoppe & Luncheonette is a sweet introduction.

- [Ashley] When people like it, they really like it. They don't just like it, they love it. It's something that everybody recognizes around here. It's their childhood.

- We owe a great debt to the men and women of America's greatest generation. Growing up during the Great Depression, they were thrust into the worst conflict in history as young adults. As in years past, the town of Linden will hold an event on September 27th remembering World War II. And it has to be seen to be believed. Ed Jones has the story.

- [Gen. Eisenhower] The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41.

- [Ed] Much has happened since the greatest generation saved the world from fascism. But for a few days every fall, the town of Linden remembers their fight. ♪ I'm gonna take that sentimental journey ♪ ♪ Sentimental journey home ♪

- [Ed] This sentimental journey began as the brainchild of energetic Linden resident, Anthony Courter.

- I met a World War II veteran at somebody else's house and he began sharing his story. And I liked the story well enough that I wanted other people to hear it as well. He had an exciting story about some things that he had done during World War II. So I invited a few friends over, about 250 of them. They came over, and half of them were dressed in '40s clothes. And so we kind of got in a spirit, we sang some 40 songs. So we did it again the next year. And after that we decided we needed to bring it into town.

- [Ed] Anthony brought it into town all right. And like the reenactors, it overtook Linden. Growing every year, Remembering World War II enlists the entire community and then some. You can't walk anywhere in Linden without being surrounded by that relevance. Just ask Kerry Diamond who brought her family all the way from Las Vegas for the event.

- It's really neat. It's the closest thing to going back in time to the '40s. And to be able to honor that time period and the values that they had and the veterans that are here, and to honor what really happened it's fantastic. So for us, it's the best way to teach history, the flyovers and the food and the movies and the music. And to see the battle reenactment, I mean, that's amazing.

- [Ed] While battles raged on the front lines, the home front was vital in supporting the troops. And nothing boosted morale like the timeless tunes of the '40s. ♪ He's the boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B ♪ ♪ He was the boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B ♪

- [Ed] While they sound like The Andrews Sisters, these Pennsylvania natives are the Everley Sisters, not to be confused with the '50s crooners, the Everly Brothers.

- Yeah, we didn't really think about that when we named it that, but we're like, "Oh, that sounds good. That sounds kind of '40s. Let's just roll with it." We started out World War II reenacting about five years ago, and everywhere we went, there was three of us. And so everybody thought we were there to sing. And we kept saying, "Well, we do sing, but we don't do this era." And everybody kind of started saying, "Why?" And we really didn't know. So somebody contacted us about doing a weekend of shows, and I accepted, and then told the rest of the girls in the group that we were gonna be doing it. And so that was about two years ago, and we've been doing it ever since.

- [Ed] And audiences are grateful for that. Audiences including those who are in their prime when these songs were written and to whom we are forever indebted.

- They are amazing men and women. And any chance that we have to speak with them, interact with them, sing the songs to 'em that are from their era, it's a lot of work, but it's so rewarding. It's the most rewarding thing we've ever done. ♪ Sentimental journey home ♪

- These are men who did extraordinary deeds, who in the '30s just lived ordinary lives, and they were prepared to do extraordinary deeds. And so the youngest one is 90 years old now. So it's my passion is to get the stories from these men before they all pass. Because firsthand stories are always the best source of the information. So all of those things add to the experience, and hopefully it gives them a better understanding of historical context and a love, a desire to understand history as a whole. And when you come here, I pray that you're able to just feel like you're stepping back into the '40s and experiencing all those things.

- [Gen. Eisenhower] You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking. ♪ Sentimental journey home ♪ ♪ Sentimental journey ♪

- Thanks, Ed. We owe so much to those heroes. We also owe a lot to you, our loyal viewers. We wouldn't be here without your support, and we want to thank you for that and invite you to visit our website at tennesseecrossroads.org. Please join us again next time. Thanks for tuning in.

- Hi, I'm Mike Maddux, owner of Moonshine Mountain Cookie Company, in Knoxville, Tennessee. And we were blessed and honored to be featured on "Tennessee Crossroads". As soon as the episode aired, our online orders took off. And for weeks, our lobby had people coming in telling us that they saw us on "Tennessee Crossroads". So thanks to "Tennessee Crossroads" and PBS for featuring small, locally-owned Tennessee companies, like Moonshine Mountain Cookie Company, and all the others across the state.

- [Announcer] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by...

- [Narrator] Students across Tennessee have benefited from over seven and a half billion dollars we've raised for education, providing more than 2 million scholarships and grants. The Tennessee Lottery, game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Narrator] Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways, where adventure, cuisine, and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at TNTrailsAndByways.com.

- [Narrator] The co-op system in Tennessee consists of independently owned co-ops, driven to serve farmer owners, rural lifestyle customers, and their communities, throughout Tennessee and in five neighboring states. More at ourcoop.com.

- [Narrator] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives, and earn a living. More at mtsu.edu/cla.