Oral History Feature | Christopher Robbins

The Robbins family has been operating Tweetsie Railroad from its beginnings in the 1960s. We asked him to share some insight in what it is like working in the tourism industry.

"What advice would you give someone beginning this line of work?
Dive in, it is extremely stimulating. I think especially to ASU students who I see a lot of here and they ask about that. A lot of them don’t realize that there are jobs here that are good jobs, and not just Summer jobs, if you want to go into this field there are a lot of opportunities in hotels, attractions, restaurants, things like that that can really become good opportunities for you, stimulating jobs that are lucrative and satisfying at the same time. So my advice would be to dive in. Don’t look at it as just a Summer job, look at it as this here could be a stepping stone to offer something much greater in my life, no matter what field I go into, there’s things you can learn in this job that can be good for you if you become an engineer, or an accountant, or in the food service business, or an attorney, it doesn’t matter there are lessons to be learned here you can apply anywhere in life."

blowingrockmuseum.org/see/wataugaworks

Photo by Ashley Warren.