- This time on "Retro Tennessee Crossroads," we'll hop on board the Delta Queen with Joe Elmore.

Al Voecks will take us to an old do-it-yourself bluegrass show.

And coming up on our first story, why am I holding this transmitter?

Why am I holding this transmitter?

Oh.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) Hi, everybody.

I'm Miranda Cohen, and welcome back to another episode of "Retro Tennessee Crossroads."

When you were a child, did you have a model airplane?

Or maybe you still have one today, or maybe you like to fly a drone.

It's the same concept, right?

Well, coming up in our very first story, Jerry Thompson introduces us to some people who took model airplane flying to an extreme, and they were very, very brave.

Here's the story.

- When man first noticed a bird take wing, he started tryin' to solve the mystery of flight.

He tried some weird-lookin' contraptions.

Some had wings that flapped.

Others had the propeller at the rear, instead of in front where propellers belong.

And some even had what appeared to be the tail in front, which resulted in the illusion that the plane was flyin' backwards.

This was the configuration of the aircraft the Wright brothers first flew successfully, just over 84 years ago.

(plane whirring) I'm here today at the Cedar Glade Aerodrome in the Big Springs community near Murfreesboro.

There's a group of pilots here who fly kind of a unique airplane.

It's a relatively new airplane, the Ultralight.

But what really makes it special to these people is the same thing that made it special to the Wright brothers.

The pilots here build their own planes too.

(upbeat bluegrass music) These planes may look like model airplanes, and in a sense they are.

They are overgrown models, capable of carrying people aloft.

They were built from kits manufactured by Team Incorporated at Bradyville, Tennessee.

Kits were built in this small shop, which now turns out kits for shipment all over the world.

If you want one, it'll come in its entirety, packed in two wooden boxes.

Wayne Iceland is the designer of Teams Aircraft.

He built his first plane when he was three years old, and he's buildin' others ever since.

- My dad was a carpenter, and he was up on a roof, building some parts of the roof and he was throw throwing down pieces he cut off.

And I remember I found a wedge-shaped piece of wood and another stick, and that was an airplane to me, and it was similar to this.

And I tried to put a nail in there, and I guess after I cried long enough, he came down off the roof and helped me nail that in there, and that was my first airplane.

That was in 1927.

- [Jerry] Been building 'em ever since, huh?

- And to a degree, been building ever since.

Mostly models, but in later years, the models grew up.

- [Jerry] You got any more designs you comin' out with?

- Oh, you always have more designs, sure.

It's getting time to work on 'em.

It takes, oh, a couple years from the time that you get a design until you built one and tried it and tested it and done the stress analysis.

Really designing an airplane is not the main problem.

It's the stress analysis and getting the flight characteristics down good.

That takes more time than just drawing up an airplane and building it.

That's the small part.

(upbeat bluegrass music) - [Jerry] Every aspiring pilot begins at an early age, dreaming of building an airplane and then experiencing the thrill of flying it.

These people have made that dream come true.

And just watching them in their airplanes, it's much like watching a child with a favorite toy.

(upbeat music) (planes whirring) Eric Clutton, a British transplant and the pilot of our camera plane, knows how much fun it is to fly.

He's been doin' it for years.

- Flying, particularly flying small airplanes, is just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

- [Jerry] Well, I've never heard it quite put that way, but something to think about.

Jim Colley, a former navy carrier pilot and now Teams test pilot, knows the thrill also.

There are two planes that stand out in his memory as fun to fly.

- The two most fun airplanes I've flown were the Grumman Cougar, jet that I flew in the training command, 'cause it was nice and simple, it was a 1950s vintage jet and this.

They're very similar, they're both very simple.

They both have a stick and throttle, both very maneuverable, both very strong, and both a heck of a lot of fun.

- Jim, explain just exactly how the stick and the rudder works on an airplane.

- Okay, this is a basic or a conventional three axis airplane.

It has three axis control.

The stick controls the aileron and the elevator.

The elevator, if I pull back on the stick, the elevator flex upwards like so, forcing the tail down and the nose up.

So that's what you wanna do, if you pitch the nose up.

Push forward and the opposite happens.

But flex the stick to the left, the left aileron comes up and the right aileron goes down, causing the plane to roll to the left.

And opposite in the other direction.

The rudder pedals control the rudder back there.

If I push to the right rudder pedal, the rotor'd flex to the right, causing the airplane to yaw to the right and I push to the left, yaw to the left.

- But what instruments does this plane carry?

- The basic flight instruments this aircraft has are those that are required for basic VFR flight, has an air speed indicator, altimeter, and a magnetic compass, which is essentially all you need for basic VFR sport flying.

- [Jerry] When you mentioned the air speed indicator, what is the airspeed cruising speed of this aircraft?

- This one will cruise about 65 to 70 miles per hour.

- How about showing us what one will do?

- Be glad to.

Let's go to it.

- Any pilot would.

(light upbeat music) (light upbeat music) Jim makes it seem so simple as he takes the plane through its paces.

It's almost like they're one.

Thinking free, flying free.

Any pilot knows the element of freedom comes only in the air.

(plane whirring) There's a special relationship between a man and his airplane.

It's much more than just a man and just a machine.

- They say, you know, mechanical things have no souls.

But I can assure you that that airplane has.

- All airplanes.

- Oh yeah, yeah.

I'm married to my airplane.

- Is that right?

- Yeah.

What I'm looking for now is a widow with a weak heart and her own airfield.

You know, that would really make it happen.

- Then you'd be there, right?

- Oh yeah.

That'd just be (indistinct).

(gentle music) - What a great story.

Now I'm not sure I would've gotten in one of those planes.

I think this is much more my style.

Thank you so much to Michael Fair joining us from Edwin Warner Model Aviators.

- Thank you.

- Tell us about your group and what you're doing out here today.

- Well, this small group, I say small, a group of about 50 guys in this club come out here usually during the week.

And we fly RC model airplanes, all different styles of radio control planes from styrofoam jets to old war birds with props to just about anything.

- Now it's pretty windy out here today.

So I have to ask you, did you watch the story?

Did you see those guys that were actually going up in some of the planes they built?

What did you think of that?

- Yeah, I did see the story.

I mean, a couple of the guys in the club here actually build their own planes and fly 'em.

But now the story I saw was like over 40 years ago.

The planes are really small, guys are building them in their garage, flying them.

I don't know if I'm that brave, you know.

- You don't know if you would do that.

So these of course are unmanned.

- They are, they are.

- So tell us about how you got involved in this.

- You know, I started years ago.

I started in the late '70s and the hobby has changed a lot since then.

Back then all the airplanes were ball, so you had to put 'em together.

The radios were a little more primitive.

You had to have a separate transmitter and receiver for every airplane.

Now the planes really have gotten cheaper, the radios have gotten better.

Technology's just made the hobby a lot easier, really.

A lot more affordable and accessible for a lot of people.

But the fun part about RC planes, I mean, the different skill levels.

Some of 'em are really easy to fly.

The jets are a little more challenging, because it's just like a real jet.

Everything's happening a lot faster.

They're much more sensitive.

So that's the fun part about the hobby.

And each plane flies a little different.

So you just hone your skills and get to where you can, you know, like I say, go as far as you want with the hobby and spend as much money as you want.

- For the people that are watching this at home and would like to get involved, who can do this?

- Anybody can do this.

We encourage people to come out here and we will help them get started.

I have a buddy box set up, which essentially means that I can fly the airplane, get it in the air, and release a button, and you're gonna have control.

And that way you can get a little feel of what it's like to control an airplane and you don't have any of the risk of crashing it.

- So Michael, I'm not sure I would take to the air in one of those things because you must be much more comfortable here.

You are on the ground, but you have the controls in your hand.

- I am.

- What's that feeling like?

- Well, you do, we always say, "If you're gonna fly, you're gonna crash."

And the good thing about this is if you crash, you just take the walk of shame and go pick up your broken airplane and go home and fix it.

Real airplane's a little less room for error, I guess.

So I have flown in a small home built, I have controlled it, but yeah, I'm a little more comfortable with my feet on the ground.

- Now that was a great story, but I think I'm gonna stay firmly planted on the ground with the remote control.

From the air to the water.

In our next story, way back in 1988, we're gonna hop on board the Delta Queen with Joe Elmore, where he takes a ride down the river and pay close attention to this story.

You might just see a card dealing Jerry Thompson in the story as well.

Let's take a look.

- The calliope plays the melody, while the huge paddle wheel keeps a constant rhythm and the music well, it paints a romantic picture of life on the river.

And it brings to life an era when countless steamboats churned up and down America's rivers and cities rose up on their banks to meet them.

The Delta Queen was born in 1926 and built to ferry passengers between Sacramento and San Francisco.

Eventually after World War II, she was purchased by Captain Tom Green and moved to mid-America.

The Delta queen made her maiden voyage on the Ohio River in 1948.

That was some 22 years after she was built.

Now since then, she's faithfully traveled the waters of the Mississippi, Ohio, and now Cumberland Rivers many, many times over.

And you know, since she's the only authentic overnight steamship still running in America, she captures the romance of the steamboat and era for crew and passengers alike.

(upbeat band music) (upbeat band music continues) (steam hissing) She's driven by a 36 foot wide paddle wheel, powered by a 2000 horsepower steam engine with oil fired burners.

But mostly it's an adventurous crew of people who keep the Queen running.

They keep her shining and looking her royal best.

And some like Chef John Mancuso keep her passengers well fed.

In this hot crowded galley, John and his crew whip up delicious meals four times a day with a different selection each meal.

- I'd go as far to say as maybe on a 10 day cruise with the capacity of maybe 170 people, 180 people, you're probably looking in the neighborhood of $25,000 worth of food a week.

- That's a lot of food.

It's awfully hot down here.

How do you stand it?

- It's cooler today, to be honest with you.

(laughs) It's tough.

That's part of the nature of this kind of work.

And the thing about it's that there's no deception involved.

From the very beginning, you know that it's hot in the kitchen.

So you've got that point in time right there to make a decision whether or not you wanna go any further with it.

- Dinner is served in the elegant Orleans room, where passengers are wined and dined like riverboat royalty.

Every evening there's Dixieland music for entertainment or you can just sit on the deck and easily learn to spend the night without television.

Next morning I decided to do some exploring and the first stop was the pilot house to meet Captain Gabe Chengery.

Captain, looking around here, if you've seen a lot of movies and pictures about steamboat and you wanna see a wheel here and I don't find one, what happened to it?

- Well, the Delta Queen originally did have a pilot's wheel, it was nine feet wide and made of polished mahogany.

They took it off the boat back in 1954.

You know, turning a wheel nine feet wide was quite a feat.

They even had a small steam engine to help roll that big wheel.

And they replaced it with this type of steering system here where these two sticks work together and it's a direct linkage down to the steering room.

Our rudders operate on hydraulics and these two steering sticks control six rudders, four in front of the paddle wheel and two behind the paddle wheel.

- The pilot uses this telegraph to relay navigational commands to the engine room, and as the envy of every youngster, he gets to ring the bell and blow the whistle.

(horn blowing) - Love that sound.

- Oh, beautiful.

Have you always wanted to be a pilot when you were growing up?

- Not really.

I made my first trip as a passenger on a Delta Queen 25 years ago, and I never really cared what job I had on board the boat.

All I wanted to do was just be on board so I could ride her and enjoy the boat just like the passengers do.

And I just basically came up through the ranks on board of Delta Queen over a period of about eight years or so.

And for the last 12 years, I've been captain of the Delta Queen and six of those 12 years on Mississippi Queen.

- Nowadays the Delta Queen and her younger sister, the Mississippi Queen, take passengers on three to 10 day cruises on several rivers and often the passengers turn out to be famous celebrities.

Hi, excuse me.

I just heard a rumor downstairs that somebody special once stayed in this very room.

- That's right.

President Jimmy Carter stayed in this room in August of 1979.

He rode from St. Paul down to St. Louis.

- [Joe] I suppose he had a good time?

- Far as I know he did.

- So let's go ahead and we'll play passenger bingo.

We're gonna be giving away some prizes here.

- [Joe] I wonder if former President Carter played passenger bingo.

Or if he heard Mike Gentry play his banjo in the Texas lounge.

Now here's a guy who's living out a river fantasy of his own.

(banjo strumming) - I've worked at various clubs throughout the country, worked in Denver and all over the country, and I had a chance to come on the river and I figured where else should a banjo player be playing but up and down the rivers of America on the steamboat, I love it.

- [Joe] Everyone seems to love the riverboat life.

Everyone who wants to lose their worries and capture a bygone dream.

- I could get used to it very easily.

- I'd gain 50 pounds, however, if I got too used to it.

- [Joe] So with a constantly changing view outside your state room and the same lavish surroundings enjoyed by 19th century riverboat royalty, well, the only thing missing from yester year is the presence of a shady riverboat gambler.

Or is it?

(cards shuffling) - All right gentlemen, we're going to play a little five card draw.

Let the money hit the table and the cards are coming.

Read 'em and weep.

(banjo strumming) - That was another great story.

And it was certainly wonderful to see Joe Elmore and Jerry Thompson again, and it looked like they were having a wonderful time.

Now the Delta Queen retired in 2008, after nearly 80 years of ferrying passengers, but there are still plenty of ways to enjoy the beautiful water rays in Tennessee.

From the star of Knoxville to the General Jackson here in Nashville to those wonderful Mississippi riverboats that go up and down the mighty Mississippi.

In our next story, we'll take you back to the days when summer festivals ruled the bluegrass scene.

Sounds like today, right, with all the great music festivals.

But unlike today, during the winter, most of those smaller groups had to go into hibernation because it was so cold.

So they went from playing outside to inside and that's when the Leanna Opry was born.

- Try to picture this.

Tennessee without music.

Well, that's a tough one, isn't it?

I mean, you got Memphis and the blues and you got the Smoky Mountains and folk music.

No, Tennessee and music, they just go together.

Now you don't always have to go to a fancy nightclub or a large concert hall or even a theme park to enjoy Tennessee music.

Sometimes all you have to do is just put the word out that there is gonna be some picking and grinning going on down the road and people will flock to it.

And that brings us here to the Leanna Opry.

This is the Leanna Community Center.

It used to be the Bethel Elementary School years ago.

We are between Murfreesboro and Smyrna.

This is the home of the Leanna Opry, bluegrass and gospel show that will take the chill off the coldest Saturday night during the winter.

All of this just kind of happens, but if you would ask who is in charge, most folks would point you in the direction of Sophie Tipton and Louise Tomberlin.

The sisters saw an entertainment void and filled it.

- [Sophie] Well, we would go to festivals in the summertime and the bands that were there would say, "What are we going to do this winter when we don't have festivals to go to?

We need a place to play."

So we started with them and we had one in our own community.

- [Anchor] When you first came up with this idea, what did people think?

That you could do it or were you crazy?

- We didn't care really.

We just wanted a place to play and we knew that we would have lots of musicians.

We don't always know about the crowd, but we don't have anything to worry about there, because we always have a big crowd.

Maybe cold nights it's a little bit off, but not very much.

- Do you still play?

- I sing, yes.

We sing every time we're asked, sometimes when we're not asked.

(laughs) ♪ It's the brand new Tennessee waltz ♪ ♪ You literally waltzing on air ♪ ♪ It's a brand new Tennessee waltz ♪ ♪ And no telling who will be there ♪ (audience applauding) - Showtime is six o'clock.

There is no charge to get in, but a hat will be passed.

Most of the time the shows are to benefit something or someone.

The performers don't get paid, but there is never a shortage of talent.

(banjo strumming) - Love of music.

- That's right.

- It's in you and you can't get it out.

You just, musicians aren't satisfied unless they're picking somewhere every weekend.

No one gets paid.

They're more than willing to come.

We always have plenty of talent.

Everyone is welcome.

We don't turn anyone away.

They may not always be the best, but they have a right to get up and try their singing also.

They're just plain folks that aren't professional, but they love the music and it was just born in them and they just love to sing and play.

(banjo strumming) (audience applauding) - If there is no shortage of talent, neither is there a shortage of those who enjoy the show.

This night, the small community center was bulging at the seams.

Most would like to see the show more than twice a month, but Sophie and Louise aren't so sure.

- [Louise] But I don't know where we can handle it more than what we are doing or not, because it's really, we prepare for it.

We have a lot of help, too.

We're not the only ones.

There's lots of folks around here in the community that help.

- [Sophie] We couldn't do it by ourself.

We have lots of people.

(bluegrass music) (audience applauding) - Tom Brantley.

Thanks, Tom.

- Almost as much fun as being out there on the stage is being in here in the rehearsal room.

Groups just kind of get ready to perform whenever they're called upon.

We got this group here from Goodlettsville and you got a group over there from Columbia and over there, you got a group from Manchester and everybody's kind of playing their own song and you really have to kind of wonder if they can hear what's going on.

It's a little confusing to me, but then I'm not a musician.

There's picking and singing and toe tapping, clapping and dancing.

All of this just works up an appetite, and there is no shortage of food.

All of this is donated.

It's a labor of love.

And one thing is certain, if people didn't love it, Sophie and Louise wouldn't do it.

(bluegrass music) (audience applauding) (banjo strumming) Musicians are a certain breed that they just, they're almost drawn to something like this, aren't they?

- [Louise] Yes, they sure are.

Most of them were exposed to this music from the time they were small children, like we were at home with their parents playing music.

And it's just their way of life and their love of music.

They're always back there picking with each other and sometimes this is the only time they see each other, maybe in the year, in the wintertime.

Then they'll see each other at the festivals.

And maybe some are from Manchester, some from Tullahoma, some from White House, Tennessee and Lebanon and all other places around.

And this is the only place to ever meet, except in the summertime at festivals.

(banjo strumming) - Thank you very much, appreciate it.

- What do you have in the back of your mind as far as the future of all of this is concerned?

Have you thought that far ahead?

- [Louise] We don't even, I don't think about the future.

I don't know about you.

- [Sophie] Well, we won't always be around and we're giving the younger people too a chance to enjoy this music and to learn to play it.

And we hope it'll be passed down through the generations.

(bluegrass music) (audience cheering) - Thank you.

Thank you very much.

- One of those younger performers is 12-year-old Jennifer Lynn Hobbs of McMinnville, a definite crowd pleaser who already has a number of trophies to her credit.

(bluegrass music) (bluegrass music continues) (audience applauding) - Thank you.

- This is not a year round event.

The people will be the first to tell you as soon as it gets too hot to sit in here, they'll move to the bleachers at the ball diamond right next door.

Tennessee without music?

It'll never happen, fortunately.

And as long as there are communities like Leanna who will give an opportunity to people to pick and grin and sing, there will always be people to listen.

(bluegrass music) (audience applauding) - What a fun time those people, musicians, and spectators seem to be having.

And we hope you had fun with us, exploring the "Crossroads" vaults.

Now don't forget to download the PBS app where you can watch this and all your other favorite local shows.

And be sure to join us next time for "Retro Tennessee Crossroads."

We'll see you then.

(mellow music) (mellow music continues) (bright music)