Historic Sevierville-June 2, 2011

I have more to share than I have room for tonight. So, I'm picking one of the unusual things we did today. We were returning to the park on a different route this morning when I saw a sign that said "Historic Downtown Sevierville". So, we went downtown. We parked across from the old Courthouse. It is a very nice building. We started walking around and there were some neat businesses. We happened upon a small engine shop. Jerry was drawn in so I followed. The engines were in the back. The front was a tropical bird store. Oh my goodness, what a sight and what an incredible amount of noise. The young man who was in charge proceeded to "take us under his wing" and introduce us to every one of his birds. And each had to talk to us. He had one of those African Gray Parrots that live for 80 or 90 years. He said the bird in his the family will. The cockatoo in the front was not for sale. It was truly a gorgeous bird and it was peach in color, not white and small like most of them are. We actually had fun in there. His love for those birds was infectious. However, we did not buy a bird. While he was telling me about a beautiful red parrot, Jerry felt a tug on his sleeve and he sort of jumped. It was one of those big birds pulling on his shirt to get his attention. Indeed he got Jerry's attention. It was quite comical. I told this young man I was going to blog about his shop and he gave me a card so I could do it correctly. The colorful business card reads "FOX SHOP" "Small engines", "Tropical Birds", "Thrift Store". Can't you see how all of those are connected? He said the shop has been called the Fox Shop since it's inception in the 1920s so they kept the name. The original wooden floors are still in there. It was a really something to see. We walked out the door and I said, "I think we just got a taste of the real Sevierville." We probably won't forget this day for a long time.