The Story

Oak Ridge was a secret city built out of nothing during WWII to assemble the atomic bomb that ended the war. During its time of operation and slightly after, it was highly regulated by the government and was, essentially, a city behind a fence. My great-grandparents were drafted to work in the city, and my grandparents and their generation grew up behind the fence. It was not until after the war when the gates were opened that they realized how strange of a childhood they had experienced, and yet, most of them have chosen to spend the majority of their lives in that same city– working for the same plant, eating at the same pizza place, going to the same high school football games.

Oak Ridge is a special community with a unique history. There have been books written about the city and historical projects done about it, but for the most part, the general public is fairly uninformed about the city. We are also losing members of my grandparent’s generation and the stories that they treasure and retell. I wanted to preserve the character of Oak Ridge and hopefully recruit others who would be interested in doing so as well.

Oak Ridge has always been very close to my heart. I spent many spring and summer breaks with my grandparents. We would go to the same little Books-a-Million, go see the new flowers planted by the church garden club, and maybe take a big trip into Knoxville to go shopping, but only if we were feeling extra ambitious. Oak Ridge has always been a quiet, slow town. As I grew older, I would sometimes grow restless during our longer visits. I decided that I never wanted to live in a small town like Oak Ridge because I had too much to see and do in the world. I was going to see the far corners of the world while making documentaries along the way. I have to laugh now knowing that my lofty aspirations have come full circle to bring me back to Oak Ridge. I had forgotten that the old people I went to church with on Sunday mornings were characters in their own rights and stewards of an unknown historic narrative. I decided that the rest of the world that sees Oak Ridge as I once did needs to be introduced to the charming and compelling history that I had taken for granted.

"Those Who Glow" is a documentary that I created to tell a small piece of that story through the memories of my grandparents and the insights of local historians. I hope it gives you a glimpse into the lives and memories of those who made the Manhattan project possible.