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President Bush will be the first
president to visit the
Smokies since the park was
officially dedicated 65 years ago.
A few people here still remember that day.
"I was born on the foot of Mount Laconte with a midwife
in an old log cabin up there," Harvey Oakley explains.
Oakley was born in the
Smoky Mountains years before they
became a
National Park.
"When Roosevelt came, that was a great thing for
everybody," he says.
At 87, he still remembers the park's dedication day.
September 2, 1940, was the only day a president has ever
stepped foot in the
Smokies.
"We got the word he was going to stop, so we hurried up
and got up right against the barber shop." The then
22-year old waited next to one of the few buildings
along a dirt road where
Gatlinburg now stands.
Oakley says a woman here had hand-woven a dress and sent
it to Mrs. Roosevelt. He says he knew the president
would stop to see her.
"I said, 'If he's going meet Maggie Parton, he'll stop
right here and she'll come out there to meet him from
the Mountain View Hotel,'" he remembers. "And sure
enough, he just stepped off like that."
Oakley says he stepped out from the backseat of a car
that had its top down, just an arm's length away from
him.
"This lady over here said, 'Mr. Roosevelt!' and they
[the Secret Service] shoved her hands back out of the
way," he explains. "I knew if I stuck mine in there,
they'd be liable to shoot me!"
His father and sister heard and saw FDR at Newfound Gap,
where hundreds of others gathered for the dedication.
"They was in the crowd somewhere," Oakley says of his
family. "They didn't get up as close as I was."
He wouldn't mind being that close for the
park's second
presidential visit as well..
"I hope I'll get to see Bush that close," he says. "But
I don't guess there's much of a chance of it."
If he does have the chance, he'd tell him what he thinks
of the park he calls home.
"Well I think it's the most beautiful spot in the world
myself," he says. "I think it's the land of paradise."
Oakley says the
Park is a paradise every president
should see. |
