The most quintessentially Tennessee story you’ll ever see
I’m a northeast boy and have been for my entire life other than a stint in a west coast university. So perhaps I’m not as in touch with out Southern compatriots as I should be. But this story is what I envision every time I hear someone talk about Tennessee.

When Ricky Butler went to sleep on a rural, East Tennessee roadside, he didn’t have to worry about comfort but apparently he was feeling insecure.
McMinn County deputies found the 31-year-old Decatur man sleeping on his back in a roadside ditch, with a loaded rifle on his chest and an almost empty jar of moonshine in the bib of his overalls.
Butler told deputies who woke him up Sunday that he didn’t know where he was. He also told them the jar had been full.
Deputies said Butler also had a machete and hand-rolled cigarettes believed to be marijuana.
Wow. Weed, moonshine, a loaded rifle and a machete all on one man sleeping in a ditch. Let that soak in for a second. Pretty amazing right?
What do Tennessee cops say to a man on the side of the road with weed, moonshine, a rifle, and a machete? “The press corps are waiting, Mr. Mayor.”

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