Saturday night we went to the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. One of Howard's high school buddies and his wife were in town, so we shared the experience with them. What a riot! It's a live two-hour radio show divided into four 30-minute segments, each hosted by a different celebrity and a different sponsor. Even though we paid to get in, we still had to listen to commercials - bummer!
It's funny how you grow up hearing names like Charley Pride and Charlie Daniels but you never really know who they are or what they do. Charley Pride is a country crooner with an amazing career. In 1993 he was the first African American invited to perform as a regular at the Grand Ole Opry. And Charlie Daniels - wow! What a performer! He looks like a Texan Santa, gigantic belt buckle and all. Boy can he fiddle! Howard was quite impressed with his bands' musicianship - so that says something.
We also saw Little Jimmy Dickens - had never heard of him before. He's a tiny little (4' 11") 89-year old sequined singer with great geriatric jokes. Here's the gist of one of his jokes:
Patient: Doc, I'm having trouble hearing.
Doctor: Hmmmm, this is strange. You've got a suppository in your ear!
Patient: Thanks Doc, that helps a lot. Now I know what happened to my hearing aid.
Before the show, we soaked up some local color on Honky Tonk Row, also known as Lower Broadway. Honky Tonk Row is about four blocks of great old architecture covered in neon. For music lovers there are musicians playing inside the many venues, and many playing on the streets too. For the fashion-minded there are western apparel and boot shops a plenty. And for the hungry, there are lots of places to eat, especially barbecue places. We ate at Jack's - along with the rest of the world. It's got a lot of character but Howard still has yet to find barbecue that compares to Famous Dave's.
I just love it when you think you're going to do one thing and you end up stumbling upon something else that's way more interesting and meaningful than what you had planned. Today I set out to explore some quilt shops in Franklin, a cute town in Middle Tennessee that's been around since 1799. (Howard and I imagine ourselves living there some day.) Anyway, as I approached the town center, I could see that traffic was blocked off and then I noticed two fire trucks hoisting a gigantic flag into the air. I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me a few minutes to remember that it was Veteran's Day.
As fate would have it, I arrived about five minutes before the parade started - got to see the whole thing. There were local high school and middle school marching bands and a few marching ROTC groups - I had no idea that ROTC still existed! There were a lot of stunning classic cars carrying veterans from many different wars. But, when these guys (below) rolled past, I got all choked up and teary-eyed and suddenly felt a great appreciation for all those who have served our country in the armed forces.
I was standing next to this woman in a pink top (below) - I think she was alone too. She turned to me with tears in her eyes and told me how emotional she felt. She cried throughout the entire parade and shouted out a 'thank you' to every veteran who passed by.
The quilt shops: After the parade, I explored two quilt shops. One was small, cute and super organized. The other was the most chaotic store I've ever been to. It was huge and overwhelming, with a ginormous (spell check is accepting this word!) selection of fabrics. If there's such a thing as a retail hoarder, I think the shop owner might be one. When I asked where the cutting table was, one of the ladies pointed to a mound of fabric. Sure enough, there was a table underneath the pile. She then measured my half yard and tore the fabric - no room for cutting obviously. If Monk were ever to step into this shop (which is physically difficult anyway because the most recent shipments are kind of blocking the front door and the front aisles), he would immediately go into a catatonic state and probably never recover.
