Dana Jones graduated from Andrews High School in 1966 and was a veteran.
This is the second in a series about Andrews resident Dana Jones.
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One of Dana Jones fondest memories was his first car that he bought from Dean Pullium for $250. It was a 1957 Chevrolet, and it wouldn’t run a lick, but it was pretty on one side. The other side was caved in where it had been wrecked.
So, with a spit-shine and mountain brawn, right before the time that everyone came into town, Ronnie Hembree and Nathan Conley would help Dana push the car from his home on Colvard Street to a parking place in front of Maw Wood’s Cafe.
“We put the bad side toward the curb,” said Dana. “Then we would sit on it and act cool while everyone was ‘cruising’ Main Street.” The only thing was, the boys had to wait in town until late at night after everyone else had gone home, and then they would push it back to the house, only this time it was uphill.
Dana graduated from Andrews High School in 1966 and went to work at Magnavox for $1.25 per hour, but only worked there for about a year. The war in Vietnam was still looming like a black cloud over the horizon, and Dana volunteered for service in 1971.
He finished his basic training at Lackland Airforce Base in San Antonio, Texas. He was later stationed in Denver, Colo., specializing in inventory management and was placed in the Mobility Support Squadron. In the spring of 1972, he left for the Philippine Islands for permanent duty. He served two temporary duty assignments, one in Thailand for three months and the other in Vietnam.
But the winds of war was changing during the midst of protests, as the voices of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, John Lennon and others filled the airways with songs of peace and love. The slogan “Make Love Not War” was a testament of the rebellion against a war that was never declared and a quagmire that killed 58,000 young Americans.
Dana recalled boarding a C-130 cargo plane and flew over the jungles of Vietnam for the last time. “Knowing the number of men killed in the conflict, I felt like I was blessed,” Dana said. It was a sobering thought to those who served that so many of their friends and comrades would not be returning home, except in a flag-shrouded casket.
Dana returned to the Philippines for a brief time and was sent back to the United States. “Me and some of the others, actually got down on our knees and kissed the ground when we returned. I rode a Trailways bus from Atlanta, and when I got home, I was so excited that I broke the screen door off the hinges.
After returning from military service, Dana kicked around here and there, trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life. A businessman from Graham County hired Dana to make a run out west and bring back a truckload of Coors beer, for a special event he was planning. Now, this was about the same time that Smokey and the Bandit, starring Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed, was the tremendous box office hit on the silver-screen.
“Being young and foolish, this seemed like a lucrative business, so I continued to fill the demand for the beer that was not sold east of the Mississippi,” said Dana. “I am not proud of it, but I learned a valuable lesson that I have carried throughout my life, if it feels wrong, it is wrong. But after finding out that his daughter, Allison, from his first marriage was coming for a visit, he straightened up and opened a steak house in the Sky City Shopping Center in Murphy. “I guess I did not grow up until I was about 35,” Dana confessed.
Part three will be continued in two weeks.
Kandy Barnard is a columnist for the Cherokee Scout. To talk about the Andrews Valley, call her at 828-361-3268 or email kandybarnard@gmail.com.