Around 100 years ago, John Ballis built the Ballis Tourist Home at 310 West Sullivan Street, with a grocery store and gas station beside it.
Happy birthday?
According to information in the Kingsport Times-News, the Greek-born Ballis chose that name to avoid being tagged as a “foreigner”.
February, 1981
In the early 1950s, cities around the country provided two metal identification tags to all school children. Authorities had considered tattooing, but the threat of severe burns cancelled that. Fingerprinting was out, too, as an invasion of personal privacy. So, it was metal tags, which the kids were supposed to wear around their necks on a metal bead chain. These are two that were issued to children in Jackson School. I’ve covered the information because the people are still alive.
And, while researching these tags, I found out that the “tooth notch” found on authentic military dog tags of the time (and later: when I got my dog tags in 1963, the notch was there…I have no idea of where those tags are now) was actually there to properly orient the metal tag in the Model 70 Addressograph Hand Identification Machine.
I never got tags when I was in school, but, then, we moved around a lot.
At this time, the Kingsport Moose Lodge was located on Reservoir Road, in a location now crossed by I-26. It’s food and natatorium were much admired. In 1985, law officers raided the place and confiscated several slot machines.
On the back of this money clip, the logo “HIT”-USA is debossed. That company, as far as I can tell, is still doing business on line as Hit Promotional Products.
This is a very old sign. The building on which it was painted, at 313 East Sullivan Street, was built in 1920. When I was a kid, it was Brown’s Custom Shop.
THE PEOPLE’S STORE
GROCERIES & MEATS
I’m not sure about that ampersand.
A couple of items bobbed up at an area flea market mall.
About 5.5″ long. Blank on the other side. Sturdy, by golly.
This store was located in a row of shops that has long been demolished. It was on the land now occupied by a car washing operation. Kent Potts owned the store. The Jarman shoe brand is still being made, but the company in Nashville is now known as Genesco.
This card is postmarked Dec. 7, 1943. Two years to the day after Pearl Harbor. By this time in the war, we were raining death on the cities of Cittavecchia and Pescara, Italy, among other unlucky locations.
Three months later, Mussolini would fall from power as the Italians felt their part of the war was lost.
The card is shown as being published by Asheville Post Card Company, but it was printed by Miller Art Company in Brooklyn…which went out of business in 1941 (1922 – 1941).
Consider: this card may have been printed around the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. <sneak in weird music> Strange, but true, maybe.
C. T. C. was Kingsport’s city bus company.
