Amidst the bustle of activity at the University of Tennessee are thousands of people going through their daily routine. Individuals go to work or school and bring their own distinct approach to what they perceive as university life.

A dream comes true

Tucked away behind South College on the Hill, the restaurant Ray’s Place offers a greeting in turquoise, capital block lettering on its door: “Ray’s Place. Come on in.”
Ray Mowery, 73, first ran Ray’s Place on the Hill in July 1989. The football team was “UT good” at the time. “Not sensational, not absolutely phenomenal,” he said. The only other thing that’s changed for him is that he loves his job more now than he did then.
“This is just my ultimate dream to be here,” Mowery said. “I trained here. I took six months of training way back in 1953. … I said then, ‘Oh, one of these days I’d like to be at UT.’”
He didn’t immediately achieve his dream, however. After his training in Ayres Hall during the spring quarter of 1953, he started as a relief operator at a vending facility at the Knox County Courthouse, working there until September 1977.
“I grew up at the courthouse,” Mowery said. “I was only 16 years old when I went there.”
At 17, he found himself taking a cart full of edibles and cigarettes to the jail in the courthouse, which he did for six years.
“One reason I don’t use foul language is I’m a human,” he said. “I’m a human being, and for me, to be foul-mouthed is subhuman. And most of all, I’m a Christian, but I’ll guarantee you, if you want to hear some cuss words, if you want to hear some filth, I can give it to you, because for six years, I heard it every day.”
After his work at the courthouse ended, he worked at a restaurant at TVA tower until he came to the Hill.
“I’ve only had three facilities, and I’m in my 57th year,” he said.
A challenge Mowery had to grapple with was living with blindness, which radically altered the course of his life at a young age.
“I went through the first and second grade before I lost my eyesight,” Mowery said. “I stuck a nail in my right eye when I was seven and was running through the house 13, 14 months later, and I tripped over a throw rug and fell on a chair, the arm of it, and a glancing blow, it knocked my left eye out.”
He had to have both eyes removed and replaced with plastic ones.
His formal education ended, but he was taught by private schoolteachers until his late teens, and he learned Braille.
By the time he was 15, Mowery wanted to get out into the world and learn a vocation. He tried his hand at various different occupations, including re-weaving antique rocking chairs, through what was then the state welfare department.
“But I didn’t like that because I was being in a room by myself, and I didn’t want to be by myself,” he said.
He was told that there weren’t many openings, and he couldn’t have his own place until age 21, but he could work in vending facilities.
“And I loved it,” Mowery said. “I loved it. I was with people every day. And it was my thing. … That’s why almost 57 years later, I’m still doing the same thing.”
Life at work is a bit different for Mowery without his eyesight. He needs customers to open a dialogue with him, telling him what they are purchasing, as well as put their money in a dish in front of him.
“So many people come in and at first, they don’t realize I can’t see,” he said. “And I have to tell them, ‘Well, you need to talk to me. I have no vision at all. I’m blind as a bat. So if you tell me what you got, I’ll tell you how much it is.’”
But ultimately, Mowery said it’s not too different from what everyone does at work.
Ray’s Place’s most popular dishes are its hot lunches, sandwiches and breakfast biscuits. On Feb. 12, the restaurant baked 104 biscuits and sold out of them that same morning. He said the restaurant sells several hundred hot lunches every day, selling out.
“Most of my hot lunches are under $5, and you can’t go buy Krystal and a handful of French fries and a fountain drink for much less than $5,” he said.

On the road again

Seth Glassman, Knoxville Area Transit bus operator, has a day-to-day schedule that takes some getting used to.
For most of his work week, he is manning the third shift on the T:Link, the point-to-point bus service where students call for a pick-up and drop-off at specific locations. He drives the T:Link from 10:10 p.m. to 6:10 a.m.
Then he must hop on another kind of school bus — a more traditional one for the transport of elementary to high school students — at 6:45 a.m. and ferry students to school until 8:30 a.m.
He sleeps from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. — at long last — but must be back on the bus, picking up school students, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Then it’s time to make dinner and, before too long, get ready for work again on the KAT at 10 p.m.
The deviation in his schedule is Sunday, when he works from 6 p.m. to 2:15 a.m. driving the late-night T bus.
As he drives the roughly 20-minute cycle around campus on Feb. 14, which he will do repeatedly all night, he said Sunday is the most difficult because he’s alone for the majority of the circular trip.
Plus, while the T:Link always has unique calls that break up the status quo, the late-night T drives are always the same.
“Before the shift started, I’m saying, ‘What kind of things can I do to make this go faster?’” he said. “And quite honestly, I’m at a loss because there’s really nothing that I can do. It’s the same route over and over again, and there’s nothing that I can do to really make it go different, to cut the monotony out basically.”
After the bus winds its way through the cross-section near the UT Law Building, it comes to a stop next to the University Center.
“Money Wall,” he said into his intercom to another late-night T driver. It’s to make sure the two running buses are far enough apart to better cover the area. He doesn’t leave his parked position until he hears a female voice over the intercom. “Torch,” she said, meaning the other bus is idling next to the Torchbearer in Circle Park.
Despite the difficulties of his schedule, Glassman said he enjoys his job.
“I really like interfacing with students,” he said.
Since he serves students ranging sharply in age from kindergarten through college students, he said he remains mindful of whom he’s driving.
“Sometimes I forget,” he said. “When I’m driving the vans, I almost invariably tell them to sit down, which is what I really stress when I’m dealing with the younger kids. I take safety very, very seriously, so I won’t move the bus until everyone’s seated, but here (with T buses) … they’re not required to sit down, but sometimes I’ll forget while I’m driving, and I’ll almost tell them to sit down.”
As he continues on his Feb. 14 drive, he said he’s looking forward to tomorrow.
“I get to sleep in because there’s no school tomorrow (in elementary through high schools because of Presidents Day),” he said. “So I’m getting excited about that. It’s the little things.”