Amazing Tennessee by Theresa Jensen Lacey

Author:Theresa Jensen Lacey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc.
Published: 2010-05-17T16:00:00+00:00

9

Wheelers and Dealers

The Chattanooga Choo Choo:

An Old Train Station Saved from the Wrecking Ball

The first Chattanooga Choo Choo was a passenger train that began running to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1880.

Chattanooga’s present Terminal Station was completed in 1909, designed by an American artist in Paris’s Beaux Arts Institute. Its entrance inspired awe, with the Grand Dome resting on four steel supports 75 feet apart. It was an architectural wonder, spanning the entire 68-by-82-foot waiting room.

The last train rolled into the station in 1970, and for a time it seemed the grand old place would be sacrificed to the wrecking ball. Some visionaries in Chattanooga, however, decided to renovate the station instead, and make it a landmark for the city.

In 1973 Terminal Station reopened its doors as a hotel—the Chattanooga Choo Choo. It has since become part of the Holiday Inn family, but don’t think that it hasn’t kept its originality. Just walking around the romantic gardens and fountains, peeking into the train cars that are now used as guest quarters, and strolling the lobby lets you step back into time. There’s even an old trolley to take you around the grounds, and many of the old train cars in the yard have been refurbished and are now unique dining establishments.

The following recipe helped make the hotel restaurants famous. Did I hear someone say, “All Aboard”?

Chattanooga Choo Choo Peanut Butter Pie

1 9-inch graham cracker pie crust

½ cup peanut butter, heaping

1 (4-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 ¼ cups powdered sugar

2 ½ cups heavy cream

½ cup toasted almonds

Cream peanut butter with cream cheese until blended. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Whip cream until light and stiff, being careful not to whip into butter. Reserve some of the cream for garnish. Blend remaining cream into peanut butter mixture, with about two-thirds of the almonds. Spread filling in crust, pipe or spoon remaining cream on top, and sprinkle with remaining almonds.

Chill before serving. Serves 8.

The Song behind the Train

Americans older than baby boomers connect the Chattanooga Choo Choo with Glenn Miller’s big band hit of the 1940s. Mack Gordon wrote the lyrics to “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” and Harry Warren wrote the catchy music. The Glenn Miller Orchestra first performed the song in 1941, and it later appeared in the movie Sunset Serenade and was sung by Tex Beneke and the Modernaires. During World War II, the song was popular in Europe as well as the United States.

Chattanooga Choo Choo

Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

Track twenty-nine . . .

Boy, you can give me a shine.

I can afford to board a Chattanooga Choo Choo;

I’ve got my fare and just a trifle to spare.

You leave the Pennsylvania Station ’bout a quarter to four,

Read a magazine and then you’re in Baltimore.

Dinner in the Diner . . . Nothing could be finer

Than to have your ham ’n eggs in Carolina.

When you hear the whistle blowing eight to the bar,

Then you know that Tennessee is not very far.

Shovel all the coal in . . . gotta keep it rollin’.

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