For the past decade or so, I have been encouraging my parents to move to Nashville so that I can be a help to them when they have their various old-person health crises. So, of course, Brent and Betty Phillips moved to Nashville and the very first thing they had to do was help me though a major health crisis. I may recover from surgery, but I will never live that down.
Seeing as how my parents are new Nashville residents, I thought it might be interesting to get their perspectives on the city. My dad has a running list of things he thinks I should be writing about for the Scene, so I thought he would have the most to say to Scene readers. I started with him alone. This was a mistake.
The following is a lightly edited transcript of actual events.
Betsy: When did you move here?
Brent: End of August.
Betsy: When was the first time you came to Nashville?
Brent: 1974. In the fall.
Betsy: Is that when you tried to kill me?
Brent: Yes, yes it was. You were baptized by the rain. You were 6 months old. We camped in a borrowed tent. And then it rained all week. This was the campground next to Camperworld, out by Opryland. Might have been a KOA. The only thing that we could keep dry was you and the portacrib you were in. We bought every plastic paint cloth on that side of town to try to keep the tent dry. That’s what I remember most about that.
Betsy: Is it true that I floated out of the tent?
Brent: No! We didn’t let you float out of the tent. But maybe there was something in the water and that’s why we’re back down here.
Betsy: What differences do you most notice between then and now?
Brent: You’re quite a bit heavier. Oh, you mean in Nashville itself?
Betsy: Yes, Dad.
Brent: The biggest differences — well, there’s a lot more interstates. And a few more people. And not as heavy an accent because of all the imports from other places.
The other thing is that, even with the Grand Ole Opry and stuff, there was much less reliance on the music industry and much more pride in being a cultural center. The Parthenon and stuff were pushed a lot.
Betsy: Later you spent time downtown because of your job, right? [My dad is a retired Methodist minister.]
Brent: For conferences, yeah. At McKendree and the Presbyterian church.
Betsy: What was downtown like then?
Brent: Ninety-degree weather with men wearing three-piece suits. I thought it was the dumbest thing I ever saw. I realize they were working in air conditioning, but outside, it was ridiculous. One of the guys that was camping with us got sick it was so hot, and here are these guys in three-piece suits.
Betsy: Was downtown dangerous?
Brent: No, it wasn’t dangerous. I think the thing is, even five years ago, during the daytime it wasn’t that Broadway wasn’t busy — they just weren’t busy like they are now. You got a little downtown traffic, but not like you get now.
Betsy: What has surprised you about living here?
Brent: Nothing. We’ve been coming here so often.
Betsy: What do you think Nashville needs?
Brent: What every big city needs — to take better care of its homeless. To get the trucks off Briley again. [Laughs] Everyone can be a curmudgeon a little bit.
Betsy: Do you think Nashville has changed for the better?
Brent: Oh, I never thought it was that bad.
Betsy: You’re making it hard for me to interview you about your new city.
Brent: Well, we haven’t gone through the process of trying to change our drivers' licenses or car titles yet, so we don’t have anything to complain about.
Betsy: Tell me about your new place.
Brent: It’s real long. It’s got three bedrooms. Two-and-a-half baths.
Betsy: Listen Mr. Sassypants, that’s not what I meant and you know it.
Brent: Well, we could use the quotes out of my Christmas letter, how I applied for and got the job of village idiot.
Betsy: Mooomm, get in here and help! [Mom comes in with the dog.] All right, Mom. When was the first time you remember coming to Nashville?
Betty: When you were a baby and we camped up at Merrimack Caverns and it rained and rained and rained and we borrowed a tent from some—
Brent: Not Merrimack Caverns. The ones up here.
Betty: Oh that’s right. What’s the big cave system right up here?
Brent: It rained when we got here or we would have never set the tent up the second day. Mammoth Cave.
Betty: We were camping and it rained, and we found out that the white marks on the tent was mold. Luckily the baby had a portacrib that was up off the ground. We spent the rest of the time doing laundry and buying plastic.
Betsy: Was it just a vacation?
Betty: Yeah, we came down in the fall.
Brent: We had to take you to all the neat stuff at Opryland. That was our first Opryland trip.
Betty: I don’t remember doing anything else.
Brent: We saw The Parthenon. We were young and enjoying life.
Betty: And actually, now that I think about it, that wasn’t my first trip to Nashville. In college, on a marine biology trip, we stopped here and went to The Parthenon and drove by the Ryman. Did we spend the night here? And then we went down to the Gulf after that. But Nashville was part of our tour.
Betsy: What did you think of the city?
Betty: I was pretty impressed. It was the second major trip I took without my parents.
[Squabbling ensues about whether this was actually the second trip my mom took without her parents.]
Betsy [trying to get us back on track]: What differences stand out between then and now?
Betty: More traffic. More expressways. We still like Old Hickory. Briley’s cool.
Brent: I complained about the trucks on Briley.
Betty: There’s a whole lot more people from out of state. Including us, I guess. It was always an adventure to come here. We must have liked it because we kept coming back. We enticed Jim and Sherri [friends of theirs from Michigan] to come down. That’s when you kids were older.
Betsy: What has surprised you about living here as compared to visiting?
Betty: I was really impressed being able to get doctors’ appointments right away.
Brent: I would say that’s a good surprise!
Betty: Usually, we’d be waiting months to get doctors appointments. I’m still impressed with all the local good food places. Seems different than Illinois. We haven’t had any snow yet.
Brent: You’re jinxing us now.
Betsy: What do you think Nashville needs?
Betty: Another ring of expressways around the city? We’re still driving so that makes a big difference. What else? I kind of wish people would pay more attention to the pandemic, but that’s kind of everywhere. Most places are trying to stand by pandemic rules, but how do you tell who’s vaccinated or not?
Brent: We need scarlet letters!
Betty: We need something. Otherwise, the people are friendly and nice. We haven’t run into any—
Brent: Don’t jinx us!
Betsy: Do you think Nashville has changed for the better?
Betty: I don’t know. That’s the trouble with going to a place like Jay [Voorhees]’ church [City Road Chapel United Methodist Church]. We know about the homeless and who needs to be fed. That was not an issue that was publicized when we first started coming here. That was not something we heard about when we were visiting.
Brent: If it wasn’t on WSM, we didn’t know about it.
Betty: The gentrification has made a really big difference in how people are reacting to their neighbors, too.
We’ve been fairly lucky that you’ve been keeping us abreast of what’s been going on here for the last 20 years. It’s not a sudden shock.
Betsy: Is there anything else you think Scene readers should know?
Brent: Do you want to warn them that your mommy gets very protective of you so they better be nice to you or they’re going to have to deal with her? She was a school teacher for over 20 years so she knows just exactly where to get you at.
Betty: And tell them that when there’s an emergency situation or something that’s very scary, I freeze.
Brent: No, don’t tell them that.
Granted, I’m biased because they’re my parents, but I appreciated being reminded that lots of good things are happening here. We have good restaurants to explore. It’s easier to see a doctor here than it is in a lot of places. And it is a place that people can know for a long time and still love. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Nashville, I am thankful for you.
