autumn leaves

I miss you most of all my darling, 
When autumn leaves start to fall.  
--Jacques Prévert (1900-1977) French poet and screenwriter. 

Above: Buffalo Mountain as seen from Mountain Home (VA Center) in Johnson City, TN.

twilight

Twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star.
--Lucy Maud Montgomery

The main administrative building at Mountain Home (known to most as the "VA Center" -- once called "The Old Soldier's Home").

remembrance

Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.
--Daniel Webster (1782-1852) American statesman and senator.

Above: Mountain Home National Cemetery, Johnson City, TN

From Wikipedia: On the grounds of the Mountain Home Veterans Administration Center, the cemetery was established in 1903 as part of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, a federal old soldiers' home. The cemetery features over 12,000 graves highlighted by a monument to Congressman Walter Preston Brownlow, who petitioned the government and worked tirelessly to have the veteran's center created. It officially became a National Cemetery in 1973, and has primarily the interments of veterans who died while under care at the facility.

More information on Mountain Home in a previous post, here.

Memorial Day

We enjoy freedom and the rule of law on which it depends, not because we deserve it, but because others before us put their lives on the line to defend it.
--Thomas Sowell (b.1930) American economist

The photo above was taken at the Mountain Home National Cemetery in Johnson City, TN. Established in 1903, the cemetery now has 10,000 grave sites, the oldest are those of Civil War veterans.

Click here to access the names and burial locations of those interred at Mountain Home. Click here to learn more about the cemetery and its history and here for directions.

Christmas every day

Wouldn't life be worth the living
Wouldn't dreams be coming true
If we kept the Christmas spirit
All the whole year through?
~Author Unknown

The main administrative building at Mountain Home (known now as the "VA Center" -- once called "The Old Soldier's Home"). Click here to learn more about Mountain Home.

Counting the Cost

All we have of freedom, all we use or know -
This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
--Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Immortality

To live in the hearts we leave
Is not to die.
--Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) Scottish poet

Above: Mountain Home National Cemetery, Johnson City, TN

Shoulder to Shoulder

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.
--Elmer Davis

I can remember my grandmother telling me when I was a teen that she enjoyed walking through cemeteries. At the time, I thought that was a bit odd. But somewhere along the way, I've discovered that I, too, like to roam around cemeteries -- looking for the old stones, reading the names -- wondering what their lives were like. The photo above was taken at the Mountain Home National Cemetery in Johnson City, TN. Established in 1903, the cemetery now has 10,000 grave sites, the oldest are those of Civil War veterans.

Click here to access the names and burial locations of those interred at Mountain Home.
Click here to learn more about the cemetery and its history and here for directions.

Honoring their Offering

This is a shot taken a few nights ago of the war memorial located at Mountain Home in Johnson City, TN. Once known as the Old Soldiers' Home, most people now simply refer to the area as the "VA Center" (or just "VA") for the large Veteran's Administration Hospital located there. The extensive campus is also home to the ETSU Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy. Click here to read more about the VA. Click here for an interactive map of all the buildings located at the VA.

The inscription at the base of this impressive obelisk reads...
In memory of the men who offered their lives in defense of their country.

The Old Soldiers' Home

In the heart of Johnson City, TN is "Mountain Home," a place that was once described as a "city within a city." The Old Soldiers' Home, as it was originally known, was unique in that it served Civil War veterans of both the North and the South. This sprawling institution occupied 475 acres and was originally composed of 37 buildings, complete with theatre, chapels (one for Protestant services and one for Catholic mass), Carnegie library, mess hall (above), barracks for 2,500 veterans, dairy farm, power plant, morgue, hospital, ice house, hotel, jail...the list goes on. Construction began in 1901 using an intricate French renaissance style, with the first veteran being admitted in 1903. Construction was ultimately completed in 1910. Veterans still come to Mountain Home, but today they have a new state-of-the-art facility at the VA Hospital. The clock tower building, and many of the other buildings of the Old Soldiers' Home have been restored and are occupied by the Quillen College of Medicine and the ETSU College of Pharmacy. Click here for a map of the area.