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It finally happened. Honestly, I’m surprised it took four and a half months. I knew as soon as I started working in Gallatin again it would happen, but I just didn’t know when. As I left the office late Friday afternoon, I eased past the Gallatin Police Department and saw him standing on the corner with his arms full of newspapers. It was Buzz.
I rolled down the passenger window and asked him where he was going. He was headed to Captain D’s to eat supper. As I had done many times in the past, I offered him a ride, which he accepted. In a minute we were knee-deep in discussing local issues he had read about in the paper. It seemed like old times.
If you have to ask “Buzz who?” you must not be from around here. Lots of Buzz’s friend’s may not even know his last name is Black. The stocky man with a slick dome lives in Westmoreland but can be seen anywhere from Hendersonville to Portland, walking many of the miles and, on occasion, riding with one of his many friends. He doesn’t really look like the 61-year-old he is; all that walking must have kept him young.
I first met Buzz in 1989. I was covering my first County Commission Budget Committee meeting in the lower level courtroom of the Sumner County courthouse on the square. Buzz slipped in after the meeting started and waved to the commissioners as he took his seat. Pretty soon, someone decided the best action to take on a matter was to call County Executive Bethel Brown. “452-3604,” Buzz blurted out. “Thank you, Buzz,” was the response from the unaffected commissioners. That happened a few times during the meeting. I soon realized that Buzz was a savant when it came to phone numbers. If he ever heard one, he remembered it.
His unique memory skills also include graduation classes and maiden names. On several occasions, Buzz would bring a high school yearbook, from what I understand is an impressive collection of Sumner County yearbooks, to a County Commission meeting where his father, the late Bill Black, served as a representative of Westmoreland for many years. He got a kick out of showing the high school pictures of those who were active in public life. If you tell him what year you graduated, he can start naming your classmates, using the maiden names of the ladies.
Buzz is also well-known for his political activism. For years Buzz has stood on the corner of Main Street and North Water carrying the sign of his candidate and waving to people. His rate of carrying the sign of the eventual election winner is high enough that candidates line up to get their sign in his hands, but Buzz is picky on this point.
The last time I worked in downtown Gallatin, I would see Buzz doing odd jobs for the local merchants, mostly taking out the trash, which he still does. He would come by my office most afternoons and ask if I was finished with the newspaper so he could have it. Most of the time he left with my paper.
As we arrived at Captain D’s and our short visit ended, I asked Buzz how he was going to get home in Westmoreland that night.”Somebody will pick me up,” was his answer. I’m sure they did. Before he left he asked me if I knew where he could get a Newt and a Mitt sign. I’m just saying. |
