Summer overstayed its welcome last week, with Knoxville setting a new record high of 89 degrees on October 15. Mother nature threw a curve ball, going from “feels like July” to “risk of frost” within 72 hours.

The sudden change had me scrambling. My collection of aloes that reside on my screened porch had to be cleaned up, relieved of cobwebs and brought back into the house for the next six or seven months. I also had to pot four fresh new children from my two mother plants, one of which is a most prolific producer: three of the new babies are hers. I call this plant Empress HoJo.

Empress HoJo was a gift from a friend who salvaged her ancestors from the old Howard Johnson’s on Merchant Drive at I-75. The motor lodge had a fabulous glass-enclosed pool with a manmade waterfall, cave and slide. If heading north on 75, you’d drive right by it taking the Merchant Drive exit. When I was a child, there were a handful of times we popped over there for a swim. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

Empress HoJo and three of her children (Photo; Beth Kinnane)

Buy the time I was in high school, it was a regular location for teenage shenanigans, because back in the olden times of the 1980s, you could rent a hotel room or 3 when you were 18, and you could pay with cash. Pool party here we come. The Howard Johnson’s changed hands in 1997 (the attached restaurant became a Denny’s in the early 1990s) after I had skipped town for Kentucky. The site is now occupied by a Starbucks and a dental center.

I don’t know when the indoor pool was shut down or if it was still functioning until 1997. But my friend, upon learning of its coming demise, decided to save as much of the flora from the HoJo’s jungle room as he could. So, I am now in possession of the great, great by the 10th degree grandchildren of the aloe plants that lived there. Currently I have seven.

But the HoJo’s pool is one of several from my youth that have since disappeared. I never got to know the Whittle Springs pool, Inskip is still hanging tough and is probably my first memory of a swimming pool. We made a few visits to the Fountain City Lions Club pool heading north on Broadway by Skatetown. There isn’t a trace of it left now.

The swimming pool at Goldrush Junction (Postcard) in Pigeon Forge.

My parents eventually settled on Beaver Brook Country Club, because, yes, a basic membership was the more economical option for a family with 4 children who lived in the pool all summer (see story here).  As such, I was on the BBCC swimming team, and on occasion we would have a meet at Goldrush Junction in Pigeon Forge. For those who need to catch up, the Rebel Railroad begat Goldrush Junction which begat Silver Dollar City which begat Dollywood. So sayeth the psalm. Anyway, it was marvelous Olympic sized pool, and the theme park back then sponsored a local swim team, the Golden Jays. The area where the pool used to be is now part of the parking lot and front of the park near Red’s Drive In.

Sources: Knoxville Journal and Knoxville News Sentinel digital archives

Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.

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