It's Only Make-Believe

So I'm watching CNN and I think, what if there was a parody character called "Kellyanne Conway Twitty"??? And of course, I am not the first to think of this... I'm not sure who was, but Seth MacFarlane, for one, beat me to the punch.



Ah, Seth MacFarlane... I have mixed feelings about him... he is drop-dead gorgeous and insanely talented, but his sense of humor is no smarter than a fifth-grader.  A precocious fifth-grader, but... anyway, great minds think alike, eh??? ;D

Seth either loves or loves to rag on ol' Conway.  Like all Southern white kids in the 70s, I was exposed to regular doses of Conway Twitty.  We watched all those GREAT country music TV shows every Saturday afternoon (as my Granny used to say about watching Andy Griffith) BECAUSE WE HAD TO.  Now, I really love to wax nostalgic about the old country shows and seriously, they played a YUGE part in making me the music lover I am today.  The TV alternatives were limited.  Today's youngsters can not begin to imagine three or four channels. Even the "big three" have local networks!

I don't remember just three channels. I don't remember a time before PBS. I'm not sure when public TV came to Nashville, but I do remember seeing "Sesame Street" mentioned on another show, before I had discovered the Muppets.  That was the first time I ever saw that my mom tried to hide things from me.  She did not want me to start watching "Sesame Street" because she foresaw exactly what happened. She knew I'd get hooked. She didn't want to have to watch silly puppets!

If she were here, I would ask her if she really thought Gilligan was any better.

But back to Conway Twitty.  I DID discover him when I was young, like age four, but that's when he looked like this (from "Hee Haw," by the way, and also used by Seth MacFarlane on "Family Guy"):



If I'd discovered him when he looked like he did in this next clip, I probably would have thought he was hot, like my aunt Peggy and a lot of other women who were young in the 1960s and 70s did. OMG. When Conway died on June 5, 1993, Peggy and one of her friends stayed up late, drinking adult beverages, crying and listening to his music, probably on vinyl... possibly on cassette... maybe, but probably not, on 8-track... and maybe on a CD... not everyone had a player then but they were gaining popularity.  I understood that SHE liked him and I could understand, kind of, because I figured she was about 50 and he was probably about 50 and he sang all those sexy songs and had kind of a cool voice, but I didn't think he was HOT.  But in this clip below, he was kind of cute, and that song is freakin' amazing:



Here is another phenomenal clip of the same song... I did not know this show existed.  As performances go, it's not the best Conway ever did (although it might explain why he didn't dance much once color TV footage began), but it's a piece of broadcasting history for Dick Clark's intro alone. Conway looked very uncomfortable and staged, and had to be lip-synching (I just don't think there was any other way back then) but wow! What a lucky break for an Arkansas boy to share a TV audience with Fabian!



It's only make-believe... just like he's making believe he is singing...  I have a real-life, not make-believe, Conway Twitty story.  When I was 12, I ran into him - I mean, I literally ran.into.him - in a bowling alley in Hendersonville, TN.  He was polite, maybe a little annoyed, but polite.  Later I saw him playing in the 11th Frame Lounge, adjoining the bowling alley, just through the door.  I didn't go in.  That would've been a riot. I was there with my church youth group.  He didn't look it in black-and-white, but he was in his mid-20s by the time he made it to Dick Clark's Beech-Nut Show.  That makes me feel better.  I think it's kind of creepy for an old woman to think such a young man would be attractive!  But my daughter will be 25 this summer - NEXT MONTH! - so I guess that's why Conway looks like a kid in those video clips.

I have always had a great sense of imagination. I'm glad that it has grown up along with me, but I am really sorry that I haven't written everything I've dreamt up over the years.  I created characters based on people I knew but mostly based on "what if" scenarios I dreamed up about them.  I have a lot of these stories but now, I don't have nearly enough time to write about them. I'm trying, though. I'm busy in my "real job" but I have a lot more time than I let myself believe.  I like writing non-fiction as well as fiction.. or maybe I should say, real life as much as make-believe.  I'm blessed to have great memories and imagination for both.

I can see clearly now

And so will you after you read this!

(Note: I actually wrote this on Friday, 4/14... not today, Easter Sunday! He is risen!!!)

I wanted to clarify something from my last post. I am beyond happy with the rockstar. I don't want to go back in time and change anything. 

Everybody has regrets. Lots of people say "no regrets," but we all know they're trying to convince themselves. When I look back on life, it's easy to see that sometimes I settled for less than I should have, not just in romance but in other ways too.  I regret letting people treat me badly, including Donnie and, at times, the rockstar (though I also regret some things I said and did to him, but you know, another story for another day). I'm no diva expecting the royal treatment, but I'm not a doormat and I've let a lot of people walk on me in the last 49.95 years. 

I'm thankful for the Donnie experience. It that taught me what not to do with a good relationship. I'm thankful I didn't throw myself at Robert. What if he had liked brunettes better? Or tall girls? Or men? He might've broken my heart too. More importantly, he might've kept me from marrying the rockstar, which was obviously meant to be. 

Clearly, it wasn't meant to be with Robert.

I'm glad I saw the picture back in 2015 because:

1) When Donnie contacted me that fall to tell me how he regretted being immature in 1985, I was going through a very rough patch in my marriage. That's over now, thank God, but if I hadn't had the reminder of my regret at not breaking up with Donnie earlier, I might've been easily swayed.  THEN, you wanna talk about some regrets... I'm sure I'd have a book full.

2) I had a great story to add to a sermon about not writing because of my unresolved feelings about John-Boy. Robert kind of looked like Richard Thomas back in the day.

3) I learned about what an inspiring woman Robert's mother was, and I got to meet the family!

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all.

Watching Soundbreaking, one of my favorite PBS shows... tonight it's about the early days of music video... when I was in high school. It was a great time to be alive!!! :D  I was into videos for sure. My dad hated MTV and called it "Hell Music." Did that stop me from watching it, oh, hell, no! I loved it. It was a great turning point in music history. Video may have killed the radio star, but it sure opened up a lot of doors for a lot of people.

Today I took the MRI ARRT registry exam and... well, I think it went all right, but I'll know for sure in a week or two. After all the studying, it's a wonder I can think at all. But now, at least until I know how I did, I can start focusing on the next challenge... which will be writing and web development.  I do have to do my taxes (yuck) and work on bill-paying (double yuck). I have plenty of work to keep me busy this upcoming week, and lots coming up in the next few months, which is a good problem to have.

Loving a music man ain't always what it's supposed to be...

Well, you can say that again.  I'm still waiting for my tour bus and swimming pool. Hahaha!  I can't really complain, though.  He's a good husband and he's bringing home dinner!!!  Also, our band is playing this weekend... but more about that later.

So I have a lot of big plans for my writing and webpages. I know, I say that about once a year, but maybe God is trying to tell me something. 

For one thing, I'm not getting a lot of work hours right now, and this was supposed to be one of my busy times.  In February, I had 21.5 weekdays scheduled to work in March. By March 1, two days had already been canceled. On March 3, a tech called about her upcoming some surgery, which will put her out 8 weeks. She works 4 days a week. Of course, I have some days I'm scheduled to go other places. I can only be one place at a time, but the lead tech knows this, and I'm sure they'll work out the details when it gets a little closer.

On March 6, I learned that I wouldn't be needed on the 7th as well as the 12th through the 15th.  They also cancelled 4 more weeks scattered through the rest of the year at that location. On the 7th, I learned they could not use me on the 8th.  I called the CPR office and was able to pick up a few days there. That day, the surgery date was set for the above-mentioned tech, so I was able to make some plans, which included two days of teaching CPR, including the 13th and 14th. Naturally, as soon as I did that, a coworker asked if I could work on the 14th, so I canceled that day too.  A few hours later, the lead tech asked if I could work on the 13th. I told her that I had just canceled 3 CPR days and I need CPR to keep the wolf from the door during the slow times, but I'd work in the morning if she needed me to, and she took me up on that.  So, I ended up working a half a day on the 13th, then rushing over to teach CPR. On my way home, I got a text message saying that they did not need me on the 14th after all. Unfortunately, they didn't need me to teach CPR by then either.  Last night they called me in to work today, where I learned that I am no longer needed Wednesday through Friday. So I was planning to work 21.5 days and I'll end up with 13.5, unless something changes.

And so it goes.

Besides that, I've been inspired to do a lot more writing. A few months ago, I started subscribing to a website called newspapers.com.  I'd heard of it before, when I was teaching, but I didn't subscribe because I didn't think I could get my money's worth out of it.  In one of my "fact-finding missions" I do researching sometimes, I discovered an article on the site and it suddenly dawned on me... I could use it to help me with Hee Haw, country music history, Frank Sutton history, Ridgetop history, and the list goes on.  We're playing this coming Saturday night, the 25th, in Dickson, TN, at the VFW.  I don't know the time, I would guess 8:00 pm, but I will try to get that updated ASAP.  I also want to get the Brewer's Chapel page updated. In the next few months we will be getting a new pastor. This is pretty standard procedure, Methodists switch out pastors every few years and our pastor's getting ready to retire. He has had some health issues in the past, but this past year has been particularly hard on him. I am not sure what to expect from our new pastor, but we have had this website for a long time that I haven't been updating, and I think if we want more younger people involved in the church, a strong web presence would be a good thing... and that includes getting control of the Brewer's Chapel Facebook page.  A former pastor started it, which is cool, but since he's somewhere else, we need to get that.  I don't mind updating it, either, as long as I don't have to tweet!

Those two things alone would be plenty of writing, but the Hee Haw page needs some serious updating too.  One of those days off this week I will go to Springfield, to the library to do some research, and to take some pictures of the Royal Inn before it gets torn down. Now, it may be years before they tear the place down, but it could be tomorrow!  There is a man named James Lileks, a writer and reporter in Minneapolis who has a website with motel postcards, etc. Really, he has a veritable treasure trove of modern American history.  I need to send him a picture of the Royal Inn if I can get one before they tear it down, since he has one from there.  Maybe I can send him a link to that pic on the FB "You Know You're From Springfield, TN if..." page, too.  I'm sure Bill Jones would enjoy Lileks' webpage.  It'd also be good if I can get it on my Royalty page too. 

So I have a lot of exciting ideas for my webpages. Another idea I'm considering is oral history type stuff, or interviews with older folks.  I think there are organizations like libraries that have organized programs for this, so I'll have to check into it.  Another oral history idea I have is doing people's memories it Brewers Chapel in a online type thing, maybe on the web page.

But if you will, bear with me a couple of weeks because I'm scheduled to take the MRI registry exam on Friday, March 31. I will be doing a lot of studying for that in the next couple weeks. After that, I plan to be writing a lot.  Of course, if I'm working in MRI a lot at that time, then I won't really have a lot of time to work on writing then either, but I'm pretty motivated right now. I've discovered that I can dictate while I'm driving.  I can set up the phone and the iPad both to record my dictation, and I can also use the voice recognition to record on the other one so I can put them together when I get home.  That's what I've done today. It's taken me some time, but I still have several hours before I have to go to bed, so I can study after dinner.

Working for a living...

So tonight I'm sitting here halfway watching TV and halfway working.  I need to figure out how much work I need to do outside of my part-time jobs this week.  But Hee Haw is on!  That's actually pretty good inspiration for working on webpages.  I'm doing nukes tomorrow.  I've got a doctor appointment Tuesday and then working afterward, then all day Wednesday, and teaching CPR the end of the week in Springfield and at Vandy.  This is my "audition" with Vandy so I hope I "pass." 

I figure blogging is a good start to my workweek. 

Tonight's the weekly Arbonne sales call for our team.  I have asked two people to host for me in the last 2 days, 3 really, but 2 are hosting together.  They scheduled a date for me, next month, but that's all right... better than no date at all.  The third didn't, yet, but maybe soon.  I'm going to make some ads to put on my pages.  I don't like to work too much on Sundays... I think we all need to rest one day a week if we can.

I'm pushing the 80/20 rule on eating.  I'm only following about 50/50 right now!  No, maybe 60/40.  I'm working at it.  I went to the Y in Clarksville today and that was a good thing.

Ice, ice, baby... Too cold, too cold

Sitting in a motel room because I'm sort of stuck in Nashville because it's icy. It's kind of nice. I've been lying around and watching a marathon of "My Big Fat Fabulous Life."  My life is boring. Lol. Not really...

Since I last posted a lot has changed. Most notably, I've changed jobs. I'm a PRN tech for Vanderbilt Heart. Hence I'm stuck in icy Nashville instead of home using snow days. I still sub sometimes, though the pay's not great, because I need extra money, but I do get paid more than I did as a full-time teacher. 

It would take all night to write about the last year. Sonny died in August.  In December we got two pound kitties, Ivy and Josie. Ivy has just started allowing us to pet her this month. Josie's not there yet.  They're cute and energetic. They're a lot of fun.

I'd like to start blogging again. I've finally got all the classes out of the way for the masters degree. I've got the credential so now I need to use it. I just have a hard time managing my time. That's one of my lent goals- I'm giving up computer games/puzzles. I'm not giving up the computer, because the time waster is Spider Solitaire and the puzzles are sort of a gateway drug. So maybe when I don't have that to eat up my night, I can do more writing. I hope so anyway.  

SI wk 0 day 6: School's out for summer

Not quite forever just yet...


I really enjoyed my day today.  I wasn't at school all that long and I came home and piddled around here after that.  I decided that every day I'm going to try to do several things.  


One, I'm going to do something each day to improve my health.  Today... well, I ate broccoli and cheese for supper, along with baked beans.  Not the healthiest meal but not the worst either.  I didn't exercise today because my feet have hurt just about all day.  I relaxed.  Isn't that good?


Two, I'm going to do something fun every day, or some kind of treat to myself.  Now you have to realize that I can have fun with a lot of different things!  I did several fun things today.  I watched "The Women of SNL" which was pretty funny.  I've relaxed on the hammock several times (isn't that healthy too?).  I worked on my Jux account, because I'm thinking about trying to sell some medical photography.  Maybe... 


Three, I'm doing something school-related each day because I have lots of good ideas and I'd like to get ahead of the game.  I had to set a limit on that - no more than four hours a day.  There will be days when I have to do more than four hours a day, because of professional development and such.  I'm excited though.  Today was a half-day so there was my four hours.


Four, I'm going to do something spiritual every day.  That's sort of broad... a lot of things fit in here.  Doing something for somebody would fit, as would singing in a nursing home.  Could I count meditating in the hammock here?  


Finally, I'm going to do something for the home each day.  I washed dishes and a load of clothes.  I folded a load of clothes, and I dusted the dresser in the master bedroom.  I had to deal with Sonny's urine... don't want to talk about that.  I haven't done a lot of housework but I've done something today and will improve tomorrow.

SI week 0 day 5: one more day...

Tomorrow's the last official day.  The good thing is that the tough part is done.  The grades are in and I just have a few more loose ends to tie up.  Yesterday was the last day for the kids and tomorrow all they're going to do is hand out report cards.  That may mean I have students coming in and out, but I don't know.  I woke up at 2:35 this morning.  I checked my e-mail and read the FlyLady digest.  I don't remember much of what it said, but in the shower I thought to myself, "I deserve peace."  FlyLady is big about encouraging her followers to say "I love myself," and I'm not arguing with that.  As a Christian though, I tend to think that I don't deserve a whole lot.  By that I mean that I believe I have good things by the grace of God and not anything I have done.  What I thought in the shower, though, is what's in my control.  I should treat myself better than to run myself ragged trying to do the impossible, or to beat myself up for things I cannot control.  I don't need to beat myself up for things over which I once had control but don't anymore. (in other words, things I screwed up).  


In turn, I deserve respect from others whether they are my students or my supervisors.  I deserve proper treatment and I am going to start expecting it.


So I got a lot done at school today. I didn't feel really good and I had to do a lot of running around. I will be doing even more putting stuff up tomorrow and hopefully no one will want to use my computer expertise.

I got more done here than usual too. Folded clothes, washed dishes, and now I'm watching "Trauma: Life in the ER" and getting ideas for how to use these in class. I can't keep showing episodes of "House" UNLESS I find better ways to tie it into my standards. However, I have NO problem at all using TV shows, movies, etc. to teach the kids while they think they're doing something else. 

SI wk 0, day 4: And when I'm itchy, I scratch.

Anybody remember this one?  It was from Sesame Street back in the 70's.  

Today did not start well.  Randy played yesterday's messages and we learned that Derek's surgery has been postponed for two weeks. This means his jaw will be wired shut when we planned to go on vacation. That means we've got to reschedule not just us but six or seven more people. But he is a good kid; he said not to worry about him. Bless his heart. 

After that we discovered that the cat crapped in the bath tub and vomited in the hall. Not only that but he crapped on a towel in the bathroom too.  Not a good morning.

Work was easy, relatively... my first block took their exam and I graded it, and spent most of the rest of the day doing the end-of-year packing and paperwork.  We have 1.5 more days, and I'll spend them doing more of the same.  It's all right.  I'm going to spend a little time each week preparing for next year.

Randy is practicing and Derek went to spend the night with a buddy.  Rach moved out today, to start her new summer job as a youth worker intern at a church in Nashville.  I've been sitting here itching all evening.  I don't know if the loveseat's got fleas or what.  (That would figure, wouldn't it?)  I need to stop being so lazy but I figure I'll work hard tomorrow.  Just doing some laundry tonight.

And I-I-I - will always love you....

I watched the Grammys tonight. I haven't enjoyed an awards show that much in a long time. I didn't think I'd want to watch the whole show but it was great. Loved the Beach Boys reunion. Yes, they are old as water but they REALLY sound good. Why didn't they put Glen Campbell up there with them? He used to be a Beach Boy too. I think he is getting out just in time (poor guy), but I love him and his songs. I can sing "Wichita Lineman." Paul McCartney is also up there in the geriatric category, but he ROCKED. Foo Fighters rock too, always. I thought Coldplay was pretty good, sort of liked Rihanna. Did not enjoy Nicki Minaj's... whatever that was. Some people didn't like Jennifer Hudson's tribute to Whitney Houston, but I thought she did a wonderful job. I am the keeper of the "Hee Haw" flame, and did not care for Taylor Swift's set that looked like some junkyards I've seen in Robertson County. (Cheatham, too, for that matter.) I didn't pay much attention to the others... And that's my Grammy review.

I said, watch what you say, now we're calling you a radical, a liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal

I picked this song because of the word "Radical." I couldn't think of another song that used that word, and I'll get to why I used it. When I looked up the lyrics and hummed through it, memories came flooding over me. Today's been a day full of memories, because I saw a photo - well, 3 actually - of the first boy I ever kissed (my first real, grown-up kiss anyway...and he's sure changed) and also because I have been watching "The Waltons" all summer. Back in 2008, I watched it all the way from the first season to the end, & at the beginning, I thought, I wonder what I saw in Jim-Bob! Then when they got to the later seasons, I remembered when I was 11, 12 years old and I had a thing for tall, skinny, buck-toothed boys.

It's funny how in the end, they all seem to look alike...

But that's not why I picked this song for today's lyric.

I picked the lyric with the word "Radical" because I read the David Platt book by the same name. I REALLY liked it, but now, on day two of the Radical Experiment, I am beginning to come down off the mountain. Blame it on my online class, for taking up so much of my focus today!

Check out the site...www.radicalthebook.com is the book's site, and from there you can get to the experiment link.

I agree with the fact that so often today's churches are focused on the wrong things, like building huge buildings instead of sending missionaries to poor countries. One critic said "Poverty isn't the biggest problem" (Platt doesn't say that it is, either) and goes on to sing the praises of capitalism. I have nothing against capitalism. Done right, it can be a good thing. On the other hand, I don't think all poor people are there by choice, or by bad decisions. I've been the primary breadwinner and lost my high-paying job. I'm one of the lucky ones. I could do something else, even if it did only pay half what my old job paid. Many others can't make more than minimum wage, which won't pay the bills. There are plenty of better paying jobs which require more training or different experience.

Oh, and by the way, if you were not Christian, and starving because your country is in a civil war and a famine, would you accept Jesus just because someone told you you would burn in Hell if you didn't? Of course not. However, you might be persuaded if a Christian gave you food and water first and then told you about a Savior who loves you more than they do. Poverty isn't the big issue, but if you don't show love and help meet needs, your message is going to blow in the wind with all that dust.

I could go on and on about this. I won't, not tonight anyway. Look for the book. See what you think.

Love ya. Mean it.

I don't want to go through the motions...

A few weeks ago I wrote about hearing this song. It's called "The Motions" by Matthew West. I really need to purchase this song and listen to it every day of my life. It's a contemporary Christian song.

• I don’t wanna go through the motions,
• I don’t wanna go one more day
• Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
• I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
• What if I had given everything?
• Instead of going through the motions

Tomorrow is January 14. Last January 14, a girl I knew in high school died of breast cancer. I had not seen her in years but had taken care of several of her family members and her sister is my friend on Facebook. Then on January 15, I learned that my childhood heartthrob had died that same night. (I wrote a long post about that, here.) It was one of the saddest weekends of my life. I can't believe it's been a year. I think about it every day. I'll never forget it.

I have been out of school for a week, and while I have enjoyed it, I just dread going back more after time off. I've copied 16 episodes of Hee Haw onto DVD this week, and that's enough. I wish Jim Ed Brown and the Opry cruisers would leave for the Caribbean already. I bet that commercial was on 100 times in 16 hours. Gee whiz.

Just sing, sing a song

This month is just about over. It has been quite surreal.

Today's title came from FlyLady. The song got stuck in my head.

This month, I have received two of those phone calls everyone dreads, both with happy outcomes. The one where you see your child's number on the caller ID, and a deputy talks when you say, "Hello." This same deputy escorted this child home from a sleepover gone awry, one where kids I didn't know were part of the party went out vandalizing and took my son, who sat on the side of the road and watched. Then there's the one where your little girl is crying and saying, "Mom, I didn't mean to..." five minutes after the car left the house with her and her little brother in it. All the questions follow: "Did you wreck? Are you hurt? Did you hit another car?" It was a minor fender-bender. Well, heck, it didn't even bend any fenders, just got a lot of dirt stuck to the wheel wells. Happy endings.

This month, I have sung in two nursing homes, both with happy outcomes. I am scheduled to sing in two more, and one of the first ones again. I'm also scheduled to sing in two churches other than my own this month. I am nervous, and scared, yet excited beyond my ability to communicate. I suppose I am living the dream. In that respect, my life is going great. I'm not overwhelmed with bookings and opportunities, but they're out there, & I'm getting there.

I created a website for my budding gospel music career. I think I've had 100 visitors. One was a man in Washington who wants me to send him a video for his TV show. I need to work on that soon.

I got a Facebook account. I have over 100 friends so far. I know a lot of people.

We got a settlement from the accident in October, which we were not expecting (well, we weren't until about two weeks ago). This was a good thing.

Mom's doctor decided to investigate the headaches she started having between Christmas and New Year's, and found that the abnormality seen on the PET scan in the fall that he originally thought benign because of her blood work wasn't really benign after all, and had spread to multiple areas.

That was a bad, bad day. That was two weeks ago. I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach, like my legs were going out from under me. I had to lie down on one of the stretchers in one of the stress rooms to get the rest of the information from my brother.

I was doing a pretty good job of updating the Hee Haw page until that happened. Now I just don't really care again, for which I am genuinely sorry, but not sorry enough to get back to the pages yet. Maybe soon.

Rachel learned today that she didn't get into Governor's School. Now she wants to go to Costa Rica again. She is already going in March. I don't know about her going in June. I do know that her brother can't go with her. I can't afford for him to go too AND go to Philadelphia for the 8th grade trip. Maybe next year.

We have had snow and ice, not as much ice as our neighbors just north of us who had ice and no power for days. The snow hung around until this morning. There might even be a little here & there waiting for the next one to show up Monday.

I saw my son get awards for scoring high on a pre-ACT type test & for participating on the wrestling team, I sang at church three times, one solo, once with Randy, & once with Rachel. I saw Gold City in Erin, I worked out a few times, we celebrated Mom's 60th birthday & I decided to go back to chorus this semester.

I worked a lot of hours, probably mostly because we've had someone out almost all month. She worked 4 days all month, I think. Maybe 3. Work is still going, thank God. It's tight there like everywhere else, but I feel OK about it. Just tired.

No wonder I am tired. I have had several months' worth of excitement.

I hope this whirlwind isn't indicative of what's to come the rest of the year. I have a feeling it is just the beginning of the storm.

On the sunny side

Is that SUN I see outside my window?

Just a quick update while I finish my coffee this morning.

Last night I was up late updating my web pages. I have many. My own personal corner of the web is extremely tangled. I sat there looking at it last night and thinking, can I UNTANGLE this mess? I think so. It may take the rest of my life, but I can do it.

I have two main sites, my music page (www.singingbush.com), which is new, and my old site, www.rissystreasures.com, which has many directories and subdirectories and duplicate directories and - you get the picture.

The new page is fine. It may need a tweak or two but it's good. I only need to make two changes, one, to add a form mail page and the other, to move my MP3 files to another site so as not to blow out my bandwidth. The old site has a bunch of bandwidth, so that's where I need to move them.

The old site has lots and lots of pages and lots and lots of links and a lot of them are outdated and broken. My computer is even more clogged up, if you can believe that - and you probably can - so I am trying to clean two directories at once as I go. So the cleanup process is going to be a long one.

Eventually, the site will be like this:
The main index will be rissystreasures.com.

A. It will have links to my music page, my blog, and my MySpace page.

B. The classic country memories site will be divided into four sections:

1. Hee Haw
2. other classic country music shows,
3. other classic TV shows,
4. and my writing, both fiction and non-fiction.

C. Then there will be another section for my laughter pages, which will include:

1. the old laughter pages (at least the ones I don't purge from my archive. I am cleaning house, and anything that is just totally stupid is out the door!)
2. and the royalty project.

D. I will have another directory to add information to the singingbush site, like those MP3s that the other site's not really designed to handle.

Then everything that doesn't need to be there is going to the recycle bin...all those pictures of albums no longer available on Amazon, duplicate pages within the site, etc.

And then there's one more thing. I'm going to design my own "File Not Found" page that says, "Oops! You broke the Internet!"

I feel very self-centered this morning. It has all been about shameless self-promotion lately, to me. I know it's not really all about me. I don't want it to be. It is just...rehearse for this, schedule that, send a CD here, send an email there...I see why people say stardom is not all it's cracked up to be. And I am not even a star!!! And all this webpage updating makes me think, who do I think I am, some kind of writer? But I can't deny the reality that my Hee Haw page still gets, on the average, 100 new visitors every day. That blows my mind.

Actually I think this is all going to free up more time to be more productive both in doing the things I need to be doing (like more writing) and also to do more for other people (already I'm baking bread, doing more visiting, able to do more for & with the kids & Randy, stuff like that). Once I finish this site cleanup I am going to have a lot easier time updating pages.

tryin' to get to you

I cannot update my web pages to let people know about the death of Jim Hager, who rose to fame with "Hee Haw." My host must be having problems. I really cannot say enough about my web host, iPowerWeb...this is the first time I've been unable to log on in the six years I've been using them.

Thanks to an upcoming birthday & last week's "tax-free weekend" I now own a laptop computer, which has pretty much done nothing except take up my evenings since I got it. Oh, I have wanted a laptop for a long time, in hopes of finding time to update my webpages & write more fiction. So far, I haven't done much except download my money management software & copying a few more programs that I won't be using on my old computer anymore. Vista won't let me use EVERYTHING I use to make my pages but I'm working on getting it all together again. Now I just need the host to let me get back on!

Life has been strange the last few weeks. I wrote about why I didn't have much time to blog last month. Well, I think everyone's getting better, if they're not well yet. Even the kids & I have had colds, sniffles, backaches, toothaches...& our flexible benefit card hasn't been working...talk about craziness.

I am not dealing really well with life this week. You can tell when I'm not dealing well with life because I play a lot of spider solitaire. However, I seem to be getting a little better. I actually watched both last week's & this week's "ER"s while I tried to update the webpage. I installed some programs & tried to do a few more things. Anyway, now I need to go to bed. I will write again soon.

More You Tube for everyone!

Randy & I are working on singing a couple of songs at our church's homecoming in May. One of the songs we want to do is "Less of Me" by Glen Campbell. When I picked out the song I had only heard it done by the Oak Ridge Boys, but after we started listening to Glen's version, I decided I wanted to hear more of his music again. Coincidentally, a lady who works around the corner from me was playing his greatest hits one morning shortly after this. When I went to Owensboro I found a CD in a used record store but it was awful; it was all his hits recorded in the mid 1970's with him ad-libbing. So, I took it back & traded it in for a double-CD set of Anne Murray.

Anyway...the other day I read in the paper about someone watching YouTube videos of Glen Campbell with Bobbie Gentry, & I knew I had to make time to do the same. So here you go. If you like Glen, or if you just think you might find him interesting, you really ought to search for all his videos on YouTube. Yes, in the 70's he was the Rhinestone Cowboy & he was involved with Tanya Tucker. But don't listen to him because of that. Listen to him because the man could sing, and play guitar, and write great songs. And he wasn't hard to watch back then either. (I don't like watching him later when he had the beard & all that stuff. I like facial hair all right, but he didn't really need it. The sideburns were plenty.) He picked great songs by other people too. He is still performing although I think these days he is slowing down a little. But heck, he ought to be able to slow down if he wants to.

Here are my favorites of the ones I saw tonight:



I had to post that one.

And then there's this one. I grew up being a big Beach Boys fan, too, & Glen was a Beach Boy for a short period of time. Sometime in that period, Brian Wilson wrote this song which Mike Love chose not to record. I don't know why it wasn't a hit for Glen (& it may have been, but it wasn't what got him a TV show of his own). It is amazing. Brian even says "Awesome" during this...describing Glen's vocals. Well, watch it for yourself.

I wouldn't take nothin' for my journey now

Yesterday was my day off. I had been kind of sentimental for a place I used to live, so I took a road trip to Madisonville, KY. I just wanted to reminisce, I guess, & I wanted to see what had changed & what was still the same.

Recently I re-read Vestal Goodman's autobiography (and, as you can see on my last post, I've been enjoying their music lately too). They lived in Madisonville before we did. The day we moved there, we passed a church & Mom said, "I think that's the Happy Goodmans' church." It wasn't. Even if it had been, they were already gone - the family wasn't performing together anymore & most of them had moved elsewhere. I've written about them before here. And, even when I wrote that, I was looking for an excuse to visit again. I wanted to put things together in my mind...to see their old church, because I couldn't recall it anymore...to see where we lived on Princeton Road...& other places.

So, I went to Madisonville. I prayed about it, & I felt even more strongly that I needed to go. I went to the library, drove by several places, & took a few pictures. Here are a few.


Here is the first place we lived in Madisonville, the afore-mentioned place on Princeton Road. The apartment on the very end, nearest the camera, is the one. We lived there for a month, before we moved to the opposite end of the complex. It was a wild time. I took this picture from the parking lot of the Elks lodge. Lodges were a pretty foreign concept to me when I moved there. The Elks had bingo once a week. The letters on the outside of the building are "BPOE" which stands for Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. I always said it stood for Bingo Players Of Elks number whatever it was.

When we were deciding where to move, I said, "I can't live anywhere there's not a Dairy Queen." I wasn't really serious. Now I very seldom go to a Dairy Queen! But that goes back to my childhood, when the closest fast food was the Dairy Queen in Goodlettsville!


The next photo is of El Bracero, which obviously used to be a KFC. When we moved to Madisonville, it was Video-Ville, which is now located across town. We called it Chicken Video. It is still located in the building which once housed "Club Radical," an attempt to become a Christian teen hangout. When Video-Ville moved over there, we started calling it "Radical Chicken." I didn't get a picture of that place. I took this picture from the parking lot of the old laundromat where I used to go every Tuesday night & wash clothes. I watched "Growing Pains," "Coach," & "thirtysomething" every week while I washed. The laundromat seemed fresh & neat compared to the other ones in town...now it is closed, & the inside looks trashed.

This next picture is where Randy worked back then, the Messenger.

Finally, this last picture is a special place. One night when Rachel was a baby & I was angry at God about a lot of things - well, I don't want to get into all that - I wanted God to prove to me that He was real. Like a brash youngster, I was demanding & I basically said that if He didn't prove Himself to me I wouldn't raise my baby in church. Shortly after that - seven seconds, to be exact - a lady from that church called me. Rachel is a beautiful young lady now who really has God in her life & wants to get into ministry.

Vestal Goodman mentioned this church in her book as well. After the book was written, her nephew Kris Goodman became the pastor there. Yesterday I went into that church & told my story to Pastor Kris. It's strange, but after I told him my story, I felt like I could put things in the past & go on & do what God has for me to do now. I am not sure exactly what He wants - I never have been - but I know He will show me the way.



Speaking of what God wants me to do now...on Tuesday night I went to the Bridge again. I have spent an hour & a half here at the computer writing about my Madisonville trip, so I'm not going to write about the Bridge tonight, but I'll try & tell that story next time.

It's the sweetest song I know!

If you haven't watched my YouTube videos that I have listed at the right of my blog, please do. I didn't actually add those videos to YouTube, but I enjoy sharing them with others. My very favorite is the one at the top, the Happy Goodman Family doing "The Sweetest Song I Know." I think I am addicted to it. I have to watch it at least once a day. It is guaranteed to make me smile!



I remember seeing them do this song on "The Old Time Singing Convention," which came on Nashville's Channel 5 (which was WLAC back then) every weekday at noon. Oh, I wish I could watch some of those clips today! I don't think I appreciated the show as much back then as I would if it were on now, but I do remember watching it & liking it a lot. The Happy Goodman Family looked like they were having so much fun, I wanted to be up there singing with them. Well, I guess I will have to wait until I get to Heaven to do that, but until then, I'm glad I can watch them on YouTube! I remember trying to decipher all four parts at once...I still do that.

I discovered MySpace this week. I've known it was around, of course, but I just created my own space there. You can check it out at: http://www.myspace.com/singingbushlady. I hear that Marisa is too hard to spell & I am tired of using "risabush" for everything. I wanted to be singingbush but it was taken. Anyway, check it out. I hope to add more of my own music there eventually.

And I will always love you

I started to give today's post the title "I would not give you false hope on this strange and mournful day." I just have the song "Mother & Child Reunion" by Paul Simon on my mind. It's kind of a weird song. It sounds like it's about a missing kid or something. But, according to Snopes (which is a good site for debunking urban legends), the title came from a menu item, a chicken-and-egg dish. Pretty clever name, huh?

But instead, I thought I would pay tribute to someone who died this week, Porter Wagoner. Living in the "NewsChannel 5 Viewing Area" as Middle Tennessee (as well as south central Kentucky) is known, the "Thin Man from West Plains" has been on local TV every time we turned it on since his death Sunday night. I'm sure, however, that his fans mourn his passing all over the world.

Today's song was NOT written by him, but FOR him by Dolly Parton. Knowing that does kind of change the way you look at that song, but that's not part of today's post.

Most people reading this blog know that my grandmother died about six weeks ago. She was a BIG country music fan, and certainly a fan of Porter's. I have mentioned before that I have spent many Saturday mornings here at the house putting shows from RFD-TV onto VHS & DVD for Granny. Many of those hours are of "The Porter Wagoner Show." I found it fitting that when I was a kid, I spent many Saturday afternoons in her living room watching those shows, & in her final years I took those shows back to that same living room for her to watch again.

Porter was the kind of man you could laugh at - he definitely was willing to laugh at himself a little - but there was no doubt about it, the man was an entertainer. He was a pretty good songwriter, and a fairly good singer, and a fine musician, but when you really look at his career, it's obvious that he was, first and foremost, a showman beyond compare. It is truly no wonder that his TV show lasted 20 years. And maybe it was just because I lived in Tennessee, where country music was just part of the scenery, but when I was a kid, on Saturday afternoons (before Hee Haw came on at 6 pm), no matter whose house you were in, when Porter walked down that hall in his red boots, everybody was watching.

Of course, I always figured most of us - male and female alike - were watching Dolly to see those outfits stretched oh-so-tightly over certain, uh, shall we say, points of her figure. ("And that tiny little waist!" a little old lady once told me, as we discussed the subject.) But just as Porter was more than gravity-defying peroxide hair & flashy Nudie suits, Dolly was more than her eye-catching figure and her own gravity-defying hairstyles. Porter may not have MADE Dolly a star (she probably would've done that on her own) but he certainly sped up the process by introducing her to his many fans.

To be quite honest, I wouldn't have been the country music historian I became if it hadn't been for Granny (and the country stars of the 70's & before, whose music she loved so dearly), & I plan to make a tribute page to her on my webpages. I actually have plans for these pages, but I have been so wrapped up in the other parts of my life lately (& if you don't know why, go back & read what's been happening since, oh, about August or so) that I really haven't had time for writing about country music or fiction or anything else. But, it is really just around the corner, folks, I promise. Stuff is happening, wheels are turning...give me a month or so & I should be on my way.

So this post is to say thanks to Granny, & to Porter, & to all the other country icons out there whose music & style inspired someone like me. Thanks for the memories!

That's all right, Mama

Two different sides to the coin here.

I was reading about Michelle Duggar yesterday...she's the mother of 17 children. You may have heard of her. She's been on TV many times, as one of the networks seems to enjoy airing the story of the birth of number 15.

Michelle's story is always met by different opinions. One of my co-workers always gripes about children anyway, & she's not the least sympathetic. I often read a blog by a mother of 11, & she's talking about it too. Her reaction is more like mine: God bless them!

On the totally opposite end of the field from Michelle Duggar and sweet baby number 17, are those women who, for whatever reason, do not bear children. I do know a few of those, some who are childless by choice, & others who didn't choose to be that way, but have chosen to accept their lives as they are.

In a little while I am going to a funeral for a lady who did not have any children. I do not know if this was her plan, because I never asked; I figured it wasn't any of my business. I do know that she was a young woman in the 1960's when there weren't as many medical options for those who didn't conceive easily. For whatever reason, by her choice or not, she didn't have children, & in her late 20's or early 30's sometime, she went to college and became a teacher.

In this role, she influenced many, many children in this area, including my sister-in-law, who was enthralled on a daily basis watching her teacher re-apply her lipstick after lunch. Mrs. Opal was a sharp dresser, too. When I last saw her at church a month or so ago, her appearance belied the fact that she was a very, very sick lady. Her suffering is over now, she has gone Home. Her husband and the many friends and relatives whose lives she touched mourn her passing.

In the Laura Ingalls Wilder book I've been reading, one of the timeless articles deals with not understanding people and how that can be dangerous. She tells of a neighbor lady whose actions were odd in the eyes of the community. When visitors came, they were appalled at the unkempt condition of her home. Whispers flew around town about how the lazy woman frittered away her days while her young daughter spent her after-school hours doing all the work. (In that time most women didn't work outside the home, and so homes were EXPECTED to be spotless. It was sort of a competition between the ladies back then, who could get the housework done quickest.) The story goes that the real reason Mrs. Brown wasn't keeping up with her housework was because she'd been writing for newspapers so that she could afford winter clothes for the little girl. Both were perfectly happy with the situation, & had never bothered to share their motives with anyone outside the family.

I think this is an important lesson for all of us.