GOVERNMENT/POLITICS A4 | OUR COLUMNISTS A6-7 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS A8-9 | HEALTH & LIFESTYLES SECTION B
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VOL. 5, NO. 43
karns / hardin valley
OCTOBER 24, 2011
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Haunted! Ghostly doings at Cherokee Caverns
This jumping spider awaits visitors to the Haunted Cave. It looks benign here, but meeting it in total darkness is another matter. Did we mention that it’s named “jumping spider” for a reason?
By Sandra Clark
Pumpkins at Beaver Ridge UMC
See page A-8
If you think caves are grey, get ready for a splash of color at the Haunted Cave. Jim Whidby has named formations such as “big bird’s legs” and “alligator’s head” and, errrr, “Dolly Parton.”
There’s just one week remaining to catch this year’s version of The Haunted Cave at Cherokee Caverns on Oak Ridge Highway. Stop by from 7-10 p.m. Friday, Saturday or Monday (Oct. 28, 29 and 31). The Caverns are located at 8524 Oak Ridge Highway, one mile off Pellissippi Parkway on Highway 162. Info: www. thehauntedcave.net/. “Some things just won’t stay dead and buried,” says manager Mike Whidby. And that must be these Caverns. The annual Halloween event was discontinued in 2008 only to reopen this year. Mike’s dad, Jim Whidby, has handled the promotion for 23 years.
SEE RELATED STORY ON A-2
Coach Derek Witt Streak ends! See Joe Rector’s story on page A-3
FEATURED COLUMNIST VICTOR ASHE
The gloves are off! Victor Ashe says the Knoxville mayor’s race has entered the hard-hitting phase. See column on page A-4
The formations inside The Haunted Cave overshadow anything the organizers can devise. Jim Whidby says scientists have estimated the Caverns’ age at 300 million years. “It was a prehistoric drainage system and there is marine life mixed with clay” in the walls.
This pathway in the cave is totally handicap accessible and goes 120 feet below the surface.
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Karns principal ‘steals’ a star DO YOU
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By Betty Bean Karns High School principal Tracy Sands still has her report cards from her senior year in high school. “I just want you to know I did pass his classes,” she said, running her finger down a column of A’s. “American Government? I had straight A’s – except for that Aplus,” she said, grinning at her former teacher, who was sitting across the table. “Everybody made an A in my class,” Gordon Sisk said. “That doesn’t happen anymore. I remember looking back and seeing lots of A’s and thinking I must be too easy.” Back in 1988, Sands was Tracy Davis and she was a senior honor student at Central High School. Sisk was a first year teacher fresh out of the University of Tennessee, trying to organize a Future Teachers of America chapter. Tracy Davis Sands helped him by joining. Sisk would spend 24 years teaching history and government at Central, picking up numerous honors, including a Teacher of the Year award, along the way. His annual frontier week campouts became
famous (he’d wear buckskin and recreate a 19th century experience cooking game on a campfire and sleeping in a tent on the school grounds). Today, she is Dr. Tracy Sands, principal of Karns High School. Gordon Sisk is the newest member of the Karns High social studies department. “We made bank when we got Gordon Sisk,” she said. “I called the department chair and said, ‘You’re not going to believe who we got. Gordon Sisk.’ ” “He said, ‘You WHAT?’ ” Sands grinned again: “I enjoyed being in his classroom. I learned from him. His classes were relevant and he was upbeat. The content was difficult and there was a lot to learn, but we got the job done. We felt like we were doing it together. I wanted the students here at Karns to have the same experience I had as a student.” Sisk says the transition has been painless and pleasant. He’s enjoying the camaraderie in his department and with his other colleagues as well. He’s teaching a geography class, which is something he hasn’t
Sands says she keeps thinking back to that one year she had in the FTA. “Gordon recruited students – he had half of the top 25 in the senior class. He busted the chorus wide open. And we wanted to be there. He was involved with us – dressing up, acting stupid, being a big goof. He attracted the kids to his program who were change makers. Who wouldn’t want that at their school?” Sands is in her second year at Karns, and she has obviously adapted well to her new job and her new community. She has been joined by her husband, Tim Sands, who was still in the Marine Corps when she started last year. She acquired five degrees and three children while living the transient life of a military wife, and she was ready to get back to her home. “When I came to Karns last year after living in Massachusetts, it was my first time in Knoxville in 20 years. I felt detached. I called over to Central to get in touch with Mr. Sisk about FTA. Then I started trying to con him into coming this way. Didn’t think he’d ever do it, but I did think it would be a nice way to come full circle. “If I can steal a Bobcat, I’m gonna steal a Bobcat.”
Dr. Tracy Sands and Gordon Sisk go back to her high school days. Photo by Betty Bean
done in awhile. He hasn’t broken out his Patrick Henry costume or his buckskins this year, but he figures that will happen in due course. He threw himself into the homecoming festivities and says he was one of about 20 people who learned how to do “a goofy dance.” “I think I was the only male that dressed as a woman, though.” “He was Mrs. Doubtfire,” Sands said. “He was better than Robin Williams, I don’t care what anybody says.”
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