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While preparing material for this course, I spent several days in the local library and courthouse archives. It was in the courthouse where I first ran across vague references to "the lost children of the Clinch." Being a teacher, the idea of "lost children" fascinated me, and I came to find myself captivated by |
During the summer of 2000 - the millenium year - I spent day after day
haunting the hollows of East Tennessee, interviewing every oldtimer I could
locate. Slowly, yet clearly, the legend began to take form and possess
me. All the evidence pointed to the source of the legend centering around
the small watershed of Bykota* Creek
which drained into the Clinch River near Clinton High School. Slowly, a
germ of an idea began to develop. Could I find these children; did they
even exist? Encouraged by my principal, Tom Heffern, to find these children
and educate them if possible, I made a vow. I would find them! I would
educate them! I would love them!
It was thus, early on the morning of January 17, 2001, that I began my
journey to unravel the legend. With some trepidation, accompanied by my
cat Freeway, I began my trek up ice clogged Bykota Creek, toward the headwaters
of the Clinch, to find, if possible, the Lost Children of The Clinch.
It must have been fate - my destiny as it were. I was only out from the
school around 45 minutes that morning when I heard the clink of
what sounded like rocks being knocked together. "Maybe it's the first block
bell echoing through the hollow", I thought. It was time for
the school year to begin in earnest. As I progressed up the creek the clink
became louder and louder as I approached Fly By Night Cave. No one ever
ventured into FBN cave. The word was freed men and Boazites lived there.
In fact, the expression, "let's not go there" orginated near that cave.
Nevertheless,
I proceeded to the mouth of the cave and fearfully entered. Woah! What
I saw astonished me, and I was forever changed. There, before my eyes,
were 26 teenagers - probably 10th to 12th grade if they had been in school
clinking rocks together. They looked at me with blank stares. They reeked
with curiosity (or maybe it was ramps which they had been living on). They
glanced up for only a minute and then went back to clinking their rocks.
It was as if my presence made no difference and their life would continue
on the same as before after I left. "Hey!", I said. "While you're clinking
those rocks, if you clink them just right, you can make flakes, and have
some sharp tools." They did, and they did! Then they made some cute amulet
bags and smiled. "This is good," I mused to myself. Pretty easy too!
"This
is pretty cool," I thought. "I'm in the right place and these are, without
a doubt, the Lost Children of the Clinch." Those blank stares were like
blank slates. I bet they could learn anything. Excited and energized I
announced to the group, "Let's get ready to rummmmmbbble; we're going to
become civilized." As my mentor, Harold Kennedy had said so many times,
"We're going to the Temple of Wisdom and drink from the Fountain of Knowledge"!
With that we went on a Quest for Fire (family version) and got some
heat going. Being on a roll, I thought of Elvis".
Kids!
"We're going to see Elvis, and hear the origin of rock and roll. We're
going to listen to radio by pickle light, 'cause Thomas Edison ain't around.
We're going to be washed in the fat of the lamb, and we'll be crossing
Jordan on a golden(rod) bridge. We're going to speak with knotted tongues,
and we'll light peanuts and spit watermelon seeds. If your boomerang don't
come back you'll be catapulted into graduation. The pushme-pullyou has
a mechanical advantage. At the end of the journey you'll be a dyed in the
wool scientist, and if you make some paper you can write it all down on
your own paper. If you think this is all hot air, then put it in a balloon
and sail away. How's the spin on that?"
Needless to say, the children were amazed - weirded out is probably a better
expression. Regardless, they grudgingly agreed to follow me down the creek
and take a crack at learning in my classroom.
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* Bykota: Be Ye Kind, One To Another