Retro Post
5/31/2006
Looking at Music City USA for the first time...
I love Nashville. I love the whole country music scene. I will never forget the first time I saw Nashville.
One of the first things I did after I retired from the AF Base was to go on a bus tour with my daughter to Nashville. It was 1990 and I was so excited. I love classic country music. I must say today's country music is hardly worth listening too but in 1990 there were many great country singers.
Our first night in Nashville we were taken on a tour of Opryland Hotel. What a sight. It was Christmastime and the decorations and lights were so fabulous. I was awestruck. Sounds silly I know, but I had worked most of life since I was 16 years old. I had always wanted to visit Nashville and this was my first time to do so.
On the tour of the hotel we stopped to watch for a minute a wedding party's reception. A young man with a beautiful voice was singing "Nobody Answers When I Call Your Name." Vince Gill - he was one of my favorites. I just stood there and listened until he finished the song. The tour group went on without me and my daughter had to come back for me.
Many exciting things happened on that first trip to Nashville. I have visited Nashville quite a few times since then. My daughter and I went to Fan Fair one year and Jim and I went to Nashville for our 40th anniversary and stayed at Opryland Hotel. It was Christmas time again and we could look out the window of our room at the beautiful lights.
Opryland Hotel has a different name now and the Opryland Theme Park is now a gigantic shopping mall.
Progress I guess.
*** "First we want. Then we get. Then we wonder why we wanted it. Then we get again."
Beth
Visiting a place of our dreams can be a surreal experience. I experienced something akin to that when we were able to visit Washington D.C. some time ago. People live and work there and some see it every day but for me it was the most incredible thing I'd ever experienced and a dream come true. Love the saying there at the bottom...so much in life is vanity..good to know what's really important.
ReplyDeleteSpecial memories forever. So nice to meet you just found your beautiful blog and so happy I did. I have enjoyed looking around and I'm now following you, wonderful to meet new friends. Hope you find a spare minute to visit and follow me sometime if you like. Sending you special wishes for a wonderful New Year I’m looking forward to keeping in touch in 2012.
ReplyDeleteAlways Wendy
What a great trip that must have been for you. Hope you have lots of pictures too - what great memories.
ReplyDeleteMusic is my heartbeat and country music (the older stuff and waaay older) is the very best. Your memories have to be wonderful!
ReplyDeleteMy mom went to Nashville and Memphis around the same time as you....early 90's. She and three of her lady friends from church travled from Texas in their car and had picnics at rest stops complete with peanut butter sandwiches and water! They had a ball though and my mom wrote a diary of their trip. I have never been, but my daughter and her husband will be going in September this year. I will go along via cell phone pictures and post them on my blog like I did their New York trip. It was fun. And you're right when you say ,"we want, we get, then we wonder why we wanted it". So, so true. I'll be adding you to blogs I follow. Nice to find your blog.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful memory and I'm glad you got to experience those trips, especially the 40th anniversary. My Jim taught me to love the classic country music too. But neither of us like the new stuff. Have a nice week. Bertieblue
ReplyDeleteWhat an adorable picture of your sweet daughter!
ReplyDeleteI have been to Nashville once and I had a great time there. I think we may have had dinner at the opryland hotel...was it the one with the huge atrium? It had trees and even water running through it. It made you feel like you were outside when you really weren't
Blessings, Joanne
What a Lovely memory Beth , there's something about classical music very relaxing. This memory will stay with you forever . Hugs Sheila and Wile-e xx
ReplyDeleteAhhh what wonderful memories! Sounds like a very special trip.
ReplyDeleteWhen my uncle was a teenager he used to drive from Minneapolis to Nashville on the weekends just to try to find people to play with or listen to. He played steel guitar and played the country music station (this was back when I was a kid in the 50s). That was my introduction to country. He and my dad got to go backstage to chat withRed Foley (Ozark Jubilee Show).
ReplyDeleteBut I grew up listening to pop music and rock and roll...and later acid rock and folk. BUT--I went with a guy for a year who was in both a blue grass and a country band for. Later I lived with a guy who had a country band for seven years, though, in the 80s and heard nothing but country then. So I kind of know some country, too...but not recently. I still like the old stuff I hear first in the 50s. ;)