Frog Level contrary to popular belief is an area of North Knoxville, Tennessee that is commonly called Inskip. Rest assured Frog Level has been, is now, and always will be a distinct place. Just ask any of the old timers who are still around and they'll quickly and proudly tell you about Frog Level.

Growing up I spent a lot of time in Frog Level because I had several relatives that lived there. To me the boundaries of Frog Level were on the east Central Avenue Pike, on the west Schubert Road , on the north Merchants Road and on the south by Sharps Gap.

Frog Level got it's name (as far as I know)because it was a low lying area and marsh's abounded, and you could always hear the sound of frogs croaking. Thus the ' too do ' people who lived in Inskip (east of Central Avenue Pike) referred to the area as Frog Level

On the map below I've marked some areas A thru G.. Some of memories of these areas are below the map

A--This whole baseball field was one big cornfield.. Some of the local kids (I'll not mention names. Ha!)would carefully watch the corn and when it was ready a goodly portion was taken to the back corner ( D )of the field where it was left in the shuck and wrapped in mud from the creek bank and placed in the coals of a fire. When it was ready to eat the baked mud was broken off, and the corn was shucked.. The salt and butter that was borrowed from their parents made the corn a feast fit for a king.

The area (B) that looks like a bulls eye is actually a huge spring that was covered over when the baseball field was built. It was round and had a concrete wall. A chain link fence with barbed wire around the top kept the kids out most of the time...From the spring there was a metal culvert underground that carried the spring water to the creek ( C )..a couple of Mom's glasses or a pint jar was always hid under the pipe where it emptied into the creek and furnished many a cold drink to some hot and tired kids who had been playing fox and hound or some other out door activity. The bridge that went across the creek on Inskip Road had concrete sides on it and was the local hangout and meeting place..

(F)The S curve in Inskip Road at Schubert Road can not be negotiated on a bicycle coming downhill from Clinton Highway. Especially if the chain comes off coming down the hill leaving you with no brakes.. A good friend of mine and his cousin were doubling and found this out one night coming home from the Tillery Theater.. They made the right hand turn and started into the left hand turn and leaned a wee bit too much and the bike slide out from under them.. They went sliding down the road and stopped just before sliding in under an on coming car...Needless to say they never tried that again.

(E...)Central View Baptist Church will always be special to me I went there until I went in the Navy and
heard my Grandpa preach his final sermon here... The parking lot wasn't paved nor was it this big. Grandpa had an upholstery shop that sat next too it.. I can still see him working at being the best upholsterer in town (and he was)

(G)The ole swimming hole. A dam was made out of anything that could be found (ole boards, limbs, etc). This area also served as a staging area for our bb gun battles with some ole boys who lived on down the creek towards Sharp's Gap.

I could probably write a book about all the things that happened in Frog Level.. I hope you enjoy it. Share some of your adventures growing up with me and I'll put them on a web page.

To cut down on spam please email me at cdriven at aol dot com