Last night my Father-in-law and I went to see Always...Patsy presented by our local dinner theater. This is the story of Patsy Cline and her friend Louise and includes about 24 of Patsy's songs. It really was a fun evening.
It seems that we have enjoyed our common appreciation for country music since I started dating his son 20 years ago. My dh has NO tolerance (much less appreciation) for country twang music. It simply doesn't appeal to him. I, on the other hand, was raised around it and enjoy it. My FIL and I connected early on in this area as I went to the hoedown gospel hour with him while we visited our local Christian retreat center.
Last night, we put one more notch in our "love of country music" belt. He called me this morning to say that one of the things that he enjoyed was being able to "connect with his mother" a bit. His Mom...it seems....wore the same belt that we now wear. She shared this love with her sons because her husband didn't really care for it (hmmm????I am really wondering about those genes that are passed down through generations!) Anyway, I think great memories came flooding back for my FIL (and for me). He even shared a memory of going to the Ryman Auditorium with his family as a kid to see the Grand Ole Opry and then driving all the way back to St. Louis after the show was over!
Now I HAD to get some perspective on this trip. Today I mapquested from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN to St. Louis and mapquest says this trip is 307 miles. Today it would take 4 hours and 49 minutes to get there. I am not sure what interstates did or did not exist at this time. I know that cars were slower...so I suspect that this could have taken upwards of 6 hours.
Memories also came flooding back to me. Patsy died before I was born...but I am no stranger to her music or the genre. I have been to the Grand Ole Opry a few times with my family. I love it. I know most of her songs as well as other oldie but goodies that you would hear there because of the times we spent there.
Back to my perspective of FIL's experience however, if you stay until the end, you are there until about 11:00pm. If you drove back to St. Louis after that, you'd be looking at driving until 6:00am. WOW...that's pretty impressive! Now, I know another reason that country music is a memory for my FIL.
We didn't really "Walk after midnight" last night (although we sang along with her)...but we DID have a wonderful time revisiting and connecting with this legendary singer and the country music that we both love. Thanks for this memory....it's a keeper!
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