My all-time favorite historical marker

Hey, y’all. I’ve been out of pocket for a few days. We drove to Memphis on Friday, came back yesterday, and boy are my arms tired. Yeah, I know that old joke doesn’t really work there, but I’m wiped out and not fully functional at the moment.

But I thought I’d share this with y’all. On Saturday, we drove from Memphis to Jackson, Tenn., for a family get-together. That’s the place where I had my first newspaper job after graduation from Memphis State. We were there for 10 years. It’s where my wife, and our first three children, were born.

Anyway, before the family party, we showed my youngest daughter (who was born right here) around town. We hit various landmarks, including the houses we’d lived in, the newspaper building, and the Madison County courthouse square, the location of my favorite historical marker anywhere.

I think I’ve told you about it before, but it was good to see it again. But you know what? I don’t think I’d ever noticed before that the inscription is missing several commas. (How many are missing by your count?)

Oh, well. It’s still my fave. And here I am in front of the paper…

5 thoughts on “My all-time favorite historical marker

  1. Bryan Caskey

    That’s a good one. My law partner, who you know well, has that Crockett saying on a sign in his upstairs office.

    Favorite historical marker? That’s a good question. I’ll ponder it awhile.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Each of us will have our own reasons for picking a fave marker.

      For me, it’s a combination of factors.

      First, it’s in Jackson, Tenn., which is a very special place for me. The place where my wife and our first three children were born. Also the first place I worked out of college. I learned a lot there.

      In fact, I covered my first murder trial in that courthouse. Actually, I just covered the final day of it. I wasn’t even a reporter then — I was on the copy desk. But the trial had extended into Saturday, and the reporter covering it couldn’t be there. So I raised my hand to fill in. I wanted off the desk, you see.

      Finally, I was one of those millions of kids in the ’50s who had been big Davy Crockett fans. I didn’t realize at that time that he preferred to be called David.

      That wasn’t his first defeat in a congressional race, I find from looking at Wikipedia. He failed to unseat the incumbent on his first try. He was successfully elected in 1826, but then was defeated for re-election after he opposed Andy Jackson’s 1830 Indian Removal Act. You know, the Trail of Tears. He was the only member of the Tennessee delegation to vote against it.

      But he ran again later and got back in…

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