An example of the work of Card Lock Company, Inc. Located in Prattville AL, they’ve been in business since the 1940s. Let me in (wee-ooh)
Pass to the Eagles’ Nest
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Category Archives: Kingsport TN ephemera
WKPT Ad
This 5-column, 3/4-page ad ran on July 21, 1968, in the Kingsport Times-News. I found it when I was going through an old scrapbook. Look! Not a syndicated show in sight; although, the stations did run some NBC and religious programming on the weekends.
I always liked the NBC logo. The microphone is a stylized RCA 44-BX (bi-directional). The WKPT-AM studios used these, since the installation of the equipment after the fire* was supervised by NBC.
*The WKPT studios burned on September 7, 1948, according to the Kingsport Times-News (I misread that date. It was 1946. When I enlarged the page, I saw that it was a “6”, not an “8”, but it was a kind of skeevy 6, at that). The new studio, with all new equipment, opened in ’48.
Eastman ISO Plus Nutritional Supplement
This really has to do with Eastman in Rochester, but the key fob and key ring were found at a flea here, so let’s check it out.
The patent office shows that Eastman was granted a patent for this ISO Plus Nutritional Supplement, apparently for those of the bovine persuasion, in 1983, the first known date for the commercial use of this product. As of 1992, however, the patent is shown as “Continued use not filed within grace period, un-revivable”.
Perhaps it just didn’t work out.
Another First Baptist Church Postcard
This is postmarked 1956. It was published by Blackburn News Agency. The company was located on Boone Street, started in 1945 by Joseph D. Blackburn and his wife, both former school teachers in Charlotte. In 1960, they were servicing over 200 newsstands in the area with paperbacks and, obviously, postcards (Kingsport Times-News). It was printed by Curt Teich in Chicago.
Blackburn had a series of postcards of Kingsport. This is noted as B-27.
Kingsport Public Library card
In 1954, the Library was co-located with City Hall in the old YMCA building on the corner of Shelby and Center. This card (I’ve removed the name and the actual address) was what any thinking person got immediately upon arriving in town. Whenever we moved, Mom and I located the library and promptly got a card. It was the access to the world and a sanctuary, too.
First Baptist Church
Glenn Souders was working as a photographer for the Kingsport Times-News in the early 60s. I suppose the “Souders Photo Service” was a side business for him.
I mention this for two reasons: a) this is the only card I’ve ever seen that lists him as the publisher (it was printed by Dexter Press in New York) and b) I was hired by Glenn at WKPT Radio in 1967. He, much later, became a priest. He showed up at the station sometime in the 90s and the boss brought him by my office. The expression on my face when I saw him in a collar caused them both to laugh.
An Evening with Canon
This was probably 1982. Jim wasn’t at the Ft. Henry Drive location all that long and, by 1993, the next time a Thursday fell on September 30, he had moved to the Eastman Road location.
I miss camera shops. Back then, I couldn’t afford much in the way of cameras and lenses. I made do, thanks to some horse trading with Jim, but I really yearned after the new cameras and the fast (for then) lenses.
Jim and Janet and Paul and Jeff. Great people to work with (I did some camera repair) and to talk with.
The Stuff That’s Coming
World War II had ended a little over a year before this ad was published in the July 1946 Intermountain Telephone Company Telephone Directory for Kingsport, Gate City and Sullivan Gardens. Dobyns-Taylor was, in essence, priming the pump. Little did they know the flood of products that would soon wash over them.
Dam!
It’s rare to find a postcard with a blatant grammatical error in the first two words of the description on the back. “Heavy buttresses impounds…” I hesitantly raise a trembling hand to voice that, generally, the subject and the verb should agree.
Anyway, this picture was taken in the early to mid-60s. The dam was actually finished in 1917 (100 years ago! Go, dam!). You’re looking at a pile of rocks holding back over 100 million gallons of water. After the Boone Dam imbroglio, a crew came in and inspected this dam. It’s holding up quite well.
Credit line is Photo by John Sullins. It was printed by International Graphics, Inc. in Hollywood FL.
Warriors’ Path State Park
This is how the Park looked in the early 1960s. It was published by Roanoke’s Haynes Distributing Company. The company did a photo run through our area in the early 1960s and C. H. Ruth seems to have been their go-to guy for airplane shots. These cards are called “chromes”, since Kodachrome was the film of choice then.
I’d heard a story that this park grabbed the State Park designation from what is now Steele Creek Park (it was going to be Watauga State Park) in Bristol and, thus, left Bristolians sad. The dates don’t add up, though. There were plans to make Steele Creek a State Park, but organizers had given up on that in 1945. The land for WPSP was acquired from TVA in 1952, a year before the dam was completed.
Steele Creek Park, a city park, came about in 1964. Many Bristolians I’ve talked to have fond memories of enjoying this park when they were kids. It’s still just fine. Good hiking trails! And a LOT of ducks.
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 
