[BretLudwig]

Eclectic teen's tastes evoke bygone age of self-reliance

By Morgan Simmons €¢ KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL €¢ October 27, 2008

"KNOXVILLE €” Tyler Smith's house is hard to miss. Just look for the
Model A Ford parked in the driveway.

Smith also owns a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle equipped with a V-8 engine.
You'd think Smith, being a 17-year-old high school senior, would prefer
the muscle car, but oddly enough, the Model A is what he drives to
school.
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He says the 1971 Chevy is just too new.

"I love the interiors of the old cars, the colors they chose," Smith said.
"They're not made of plastic. To me, they're elegant and classy."
He has affinity for past

Smith is happily out of sync with the 21st century and, for that matter,
most of the 20th century, too. He attends Karns High School, where he
excels in all his classes. To locate his chronological niche, you have to
turn the calendar back to the 1930s, perhaps as late as 1945, when Earl
Scruggs developed the three-fingered banjo style that shaped early
bluegrass.

In terms of his taste in clothes, Smith favors overalls, leather
equestrian boots and a felt fedora. He is an excellent banjo player but
doesn't own an iPod. Next to his Gibson banjo, his prize possession is his
Model A Ford, which was built in 1928.

The teen has no quarrel with television but limits his viewing to the
History Channel and a few black-and-white classics, such as Leave It To
Beaver and The Andy Griffith Show.

It was while studying history in junior high school that Smith developed
an affinity for America's pre-World War II past. He admired the spirit of
self-reliance that characterized the rural South.

Smith said he never made a conscious effort to be different from his
peers.

"My dad always taught me to be my own person," Smith said. "Sometimes it's
kinda hard 'cause a lot of kids my age aren't into the things I am, but
that just makes me more sure I've got real friends."
Opinions formed early

Tyler's father, Rick Smith, remembers how, at the age of 3, his son
already had strong opinions on how to dress. "He'd pick out what he wanted
to wear," Rick Smith said. "He favored hand-me-downs, the clothes I wore as
a kid."

Smith started playing banjo when he was 12. From the onset, the instrument
was his soulmate. He hadn't been playing long when one day he announced to
his parents, "I'm going to keep practicing until there's blood running
down the strings."

Growing up, Tyler shared a room with his younger brother, Corey. At night,
long after Corey fell asleep, Tyler would keep practicing his banjo. Much
of what he knows on the instrument he learned in the dark. To this day
when he plays banjo, he doesn't have to look at the neck.

Smith loves old cars and belongs to the Smoky Mountain Model A Club. For
the past year, he has been building a Ford roadster in his family's garage
using a Model A chassis. The club members €” most of them retirees €”
have been helping him find
parts and offering him advice.

"Most of my close friends are over the age of 50," Smith said. "I kinda
worry what's going to happen when they pass away."

Smith is interested in learning a trade such as welding, which he is
studying at school.

Bill Warwick, a welding instructor at Karns High School, describes Smith
as "a hologram out of the 1930s."

"He's about 60 years out of sync as far as his personality and style of
dressing, but not with his interaction with other students," Warwick said.
"He's one of them. He understands their choices, but that doesn't keep him
from making choices of his own.

"I see him as a well-rounded, modern young man with a vision of the past
he incorporates into his daily life."

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