Nashville Stories

[OscarMadison]

Whether you're that rare native or an occasional visitor, you most likely have a story about Nashville.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Getting drunk at some bar on Music Row at 11 am on a Saturday. $2 tallboys, the place was half filled, didn't care for us at first, and I ended up buying a CD of songs from patrons of the establishment.

 

[qtlaw]

Was there in 2021, truly the Bachelorette capital of the world. It was a Monday night in Sept (IIRC) and was downtown for a client dinner. They were all over the place in horse drawn buggies, on the streets.

After a dinner and the post-meal cocktail went back to my hotel (near Vanderbilt and that famous street where recordings happened and Grand Ole Opry I think) and decided to walk to a nearby bar to hear music. Once again Monday night, and there was some very enjoyable country music being played live and the crowd was about 75-100.

A great time in Nashville.

 

[Songbird]

Haven't been but did some stuff on her when she followed her dreams there.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Went to Nashville with my mom and brother the summer before 9th grade, so this would've been 1982. It was pretty cool. Country Music Hall of Fame, various things on Music Row, the old Opryland amusement park (loved it! so of course they turned it into a shopping mall, the bahstids), and the Opry.

No bachelorettes.

Very cool.

 

[dixiehack]

Ours was a working class family that lived three counties away, but still we made it to Opryland more summers than not.

When times were flush, we’d stay the night at the Holiday Inn off Briley Parkway, which may have as well have been a cruise ship to us. Not only was it more than three stories tall, but it had a Holidome with an indoor pool! I can’t stress enough how baller this was.

Holiday Inn Holidomes

Other years, amusement park tickets were a stretch goal for us, and in the halcyon days of the late 80s, there was no internet available to the masses to provide hotel reviews.

Which is how we came to alight on the Days Inn on Murfreesboro Road one fine evening.

The following issues were observed, outside of it being a seedy part of town where ladies of the evening tended to congregate:

• The bathtub had a very concerning stain, which may or may not have come from someone’s bodily fluids.
  
• The ice machine did not work, but if you went down to the front desk they would scoop some out for you there.
  
• The desk clerk also regretted to inform us that the cable company had picked that weekend to jam the channels they had been illegally recieving. Our two viewing options were a religious programming station and a proto-Jewelry TV.

I can’t remember if that is the same weekend dad got us lost in north Nashville and/or we got stuck in the mother of all traffic jams after the July 4 fireworks.

God I miss Opryland.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Ours was a working class family that lived three counties away, but still we made it to Opryland more summers than not.

When times were flush, we’d stay the night at the Holiday Inn off Briley Parkway, which may have as well have been a cruise ship to us. Not only was it more than three stories tall, but it had a Holidome with an indoor pool! I can’t stress enough how baller this was.

Holiday Inn Holidomes

Other years, amusement park tickets were a stretch goal for us, and in the halcyon days of the late 80s, there was no internet available to the masses to provide hotel reviews.

Which is how we came to alight on the Days Inn on Murfreesboro Road one fine evening.

The following issues were observed, outside of it being a seedy part of town where ladies of the evening tended to congregate:

• The bathtub had a very concerning stain, which may or may not have come from someone’s bodily fluids.
  
• The ice machine did not work, but if you went down to the front desk they would scoop some out for you there.
  
• The desk clerk also regretted to inform us that the cable company had picked that weekend to jam the channels they had been illegally recieving. Our two viewing options were a religious programming station and a proto-Jewelry TV.

I can’t remember if that is the same weekend dad got us lost in north Nashville and/or we got stuck in the mother of all traffic jams after the July 4 fireworks.

God I miss Opryland.

You too? We also stayed at the Holiday Inn with the Holidome!

 

[FileNotFound]

My GF and I went to see Isbell at the Ryman last October. We stayed at this place:

https://thedivemotel.com/

It was delightfully campy.

 

[dixiehack]

My GF and I went to see Isbell at the Ryman last October. We stayed at this place:

https://thedivemotel.com/

It was delightfully campy.

The East Nashville gentrification is starting to creep up Dickerson Pike? Holy cow.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I-840 was the best road project ever. Will never have to drive to Nashville again if it isn't my final destination.

 

[Driftwood]

Too numerous to tell.
I've done it all: weddings, bar fights, funerals, strip clubs, got elected the head of state-wide organization, called out state reps to their face in the cafeteria of Legislative Plaza, seen major sporting events and Jimmy Buffett, fished, ran 5Ks, wined, dined, something that rhymes the two aforementioned, watched a goat eat a man's raincoat at Opryland.
I've spent a lot of time in Nashville.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Robbie Fulks has a pretty good Nashville story.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Ours was a working class family that lived three counties away, but still we made it to Opryland more summers than not.

When times were flush, we’d stay the night at the Holiday Inn off Briley Parkway, which may have as well have been a cruise ship to us. Not only was it more than three stories tall, but it had a Holidome with an indoor pool! I can’t stress enough how baller this was.

Holiday Inn Holidomes

Other years, amusement park tickets were a stretch goal for us, and in the halcyon days of the late 80s, there was no internet available to the masses to provide hotel reviews.

Which is how we came to alight on the Days Inn on Murfreesboro Road one fine evening.

The following issues were observed, outside of it being a seedy part of town where ladies of the evening tended to congregate:

• The bathtub had a very concerning stain, which may or may not have come from someone’s bodily fluids.
  
• The ice machine did not work, but if you went down to the front desk they would scoop some out for you there.
  
• The desk clerk also regretted to inform us that the cable company had picked that weekend to jam the channels they had been illegally recieving. Our two viewing options were a religious programming station and a proto-Jewelry TV.

I can’t remember if that is the same weekend dad got us lost in north Nashville and/or we got stuck in the mother of all traffic jams after the July 4 fireworks.

God I miss Opryland.

My first real paying job in high school and, for some college breaks, was as a lifeguard at my local Holiday Inn, which had a Holidome.

If I ever wrote an autobiography, not that my life is that interesting, there would be at least one chapter on the hijinks of my lifeguarding nights at the Holiday Inn.

But as a socially awkward teenager, I never got invited back to a room by a girl or a woman. Some creepy old guy once demanded that I do, and said if I didn’t, he was friends with our hotel general manager and would make sure I got in trouble. I told our GM, who rolled his eyes and told me not to worry about anything.

 

[User 149557]

I last went in 2004 for the NCAA tournament and was shocked how underrated it was as a non-country music destination — right as megachurched northerners began moving in and ruining the place.

 

[swingline]

@Driftwood, I want to hear more about that goat.

 

[Driftwood]

@Driftwood, I want to hear more about that goat.

It was pouring the rain that day. For some reason, they were handing out some kind of passes at the gate. They were yellow. We went into the petting zoo area, and one particular goat was attracted to the yellow pieces of paper and kept trying to eat them. A guy came in with a yellow rain poncho on. The goat fell in behind him and started eating the entire back side of the poncho. The dude never noticed, but I had the best time watching it all.

 

[garrow]

I don't drink and don't follow country music, so each time I've been to Nashville, it has been to check out Vandy or great used bookstores.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

I don't drink and don't follow country music, so each time I've been to Nashville, it has been to check out Vandy or great used bookstores.

Vandy?!? How much do you hate football?

 

[TigerVols]

So after my sister graduated Vandy she packed up her long black hair and Southern twang and move to NYC where she landed a PR job. Her galpal, Gina, celebrated her graduation from Belmont by visiting Sister TV in her new town, where they went to lunch and my sister noticed a long haired, distinguished guy with a British accent checking them out. “That’s Steve Winwood” my sister informed her friend, who replied “who’s that?” Well, who could blame her? This was more than a year before Higher Love reignited his career.
But the quick looks back and forth were soon followed by his introducing himself because, dear readers, Steve had fallen in love at first sight!
Soon enough the couple were married and living in a beautiful view home tucked in the hills off Tyne Blvd in Forest Hills in Nashville.
Wanting to learn as much as he can about his new hometown, Stevie decided he needed to go to a football game. Because this was of course before the Titans, he had slim pickings but he rounded up tickets to a Vandy game hosting Florida. And needing a local to help explain things, Sister TV asked if I would like to chaperone him.
And that’s how TigerVols spent an afternoon with Steve Winwood (and his guitarist Dave Mason) on West End watching Vandy pound Florida 24-9.
All these years later the couple are still together.

 

[Driftwood]

I think the most prophetic time in my life came in downtown Nashville.
I don't remember what year it was, but within the last decade, Nashville has stared having these little scooter things all over the place.
When I first saw them, my thought was, "Well, that's fine if you are going down hill, but eventually they will all end up down by the river."
If you are familiar with Broadway, from about 5th up the Rosa Parks, it's uphill. I was standing on the corner of 7th and Broadway, and I saw a guy on one of them zipping uphill.
"Ohhhhhh. They're motorized. That won't end well."
That was March. In May of that year, I see a headline in The Tennessean: Scooter Rider Dies in Downtown Crash.

Called It!