Hidden Hollow Family Fun

East of Cookeville, Tennessee, we have a rare treasure, Ardy Lee's Hidden Hollow. Hidden Hollow lies on eighty-six acres in a short hollow between two tall hills. When you arrive, you cross an old covered wooden bridge with a hand painted sign saying, "Smile, your on Hidden Camera!" or at least that's how I remember it. Hidden Hollow was a family farm belonging to Ardy's father, Eldridge and his uncle, Everett. Ardy purchased the farm in 1956 when he was transferred by Lockheed Martin to Georga. On weekends and holidays, Ardy, a tool designer by trade, drove from Marietta to Cookeville dragging his family along to work on his vision. No one could calculate the hours that Ardy put into Hidden Hollow, but when he died a few years ago, the private park had swimming and fishing ponds, trails, volley-ball courts, fire pits, bar-b-que pits, a petting zoo and a fifty foot cross lit up so that it can be seen for miles around.

What makes the place special isn't the water powered mill, the multiple buildings for reunions or even the little deli where you can get a ice cream cone for fifty cents. The best thing about Hidden Hollow is that Ardy didn't do it for the money, he only charged a dollar a head up until the day he died a few years ago. I would doubt that the money he brought in would have barely covered his electric bill. Ardy did it for the children of all ages, I think he liked the laughter that filled the little hollow.

My earliest memory of Hidden Hollow was carrying my cousins wedding gown train down the wooden stairs above the water wheel, I was only seven, but I remember it so well because one of the steps was more than a bit rotted and I was told to be careful not to fall through.

Over the years, my family, like many others in our community has held reunions, weddings, picnics and numerous other events at Hidden Hollow. What the people love most about it is the Christmas lights each year, everything that is nailed down has lights on it, even his old fifties model truck that hasn't ran in forty years, has lights on it. The whole place is folksy, it something that you would expect to see on "Roadside Attractions" on P.B.S. with hand painted signs boasting or braggin about one thing or the other, or warning of the ducks crossing the road, whatever Arty could think of to make his place interesting, he would do.

Ardy's daughter, Jeannie Lee Richardson and her husband, Jimmy Richardson inherited Hidden Hollow. Sort of a mixed blessing, as the place was beginning to become run-down as Ardy was eighty-eight when he died and couldn't work like he could when he started. If it hadn't been for the volunteers that came out with shovels and paint brushes in hand, the place that means so much to so many, may have closed. They had to raise the price from one dollar to the breath taking price of two dollars, to help pay for a new water system.

I have no interest in Hidden Hollow, other than the sentimental value that the place holds for me and my family. If anyone needs a helping hand, it is the people who care enough about their community to keep a jewel, a rough jewel, but a jewel, open. Even though I don't know how they could be having anything other than a hard time keeping it open, I believe it must be a labor of love for them. The least that I can do is try and share a communities feelings with someone who has the potential to help. Thank you for your time, I have certainly enjoyed writing about the memories of a little private park in the hills of Tennessee that we all love so much.....