Lil' bit country

Magnet #637 - Grand Ole Opry

I never got into country music until I met one of my college roomies who listened to it alllll the time. It sounds a little cheesy, but she always had a song in her heart, and on her lips, and she introduced me to the best of the early 90s, inadvertently teaching me all the lyrics. And, I guess it took.

Of course, nowadays, I'm finding that my country music love is in stasis. In the 90s.

My friend went to Nashville and brought this back for me from her tour of the Grand Ole Opry. I've never been - I mean, I didn't grow up with it in the house, so I guess it's no surprise that we skirted the Opry in favor of Opryland, instead.

Oh, my.

I just went to go look up Opryland, and realized it was shuttered and demolished in the 90s! Talk about stasis in the 90s. Nooooooo! But it was the Home of American Music, it says!

The park had some cool rides, including a bunch of long-lost to memory kiddie rides. And oh, those fun cheesy performances where everyone swings and claps to overenthusiastic "get your hands clappin'!!" performers. What's weird is that I can't really imagine my parents running around at Opryland, going to what had to have been country music performances.

I do remember my parents would fob me off on my Uncle Oscar to take me on the scary rides - the most memorable one was a scary, scary plane ride. In my head, I've built into a bunch of planes that were hung from a chain (!!!) That flew around a tower (!!!). But, to be honest it's one of those hazy dazy memories the I distinctly remember being is the air, flying around at breakneck speed, and it was dark. And there may have been a joystick.

Or, that was just a hazy dazy memory of being in a cockpit...on television.

eta:
Found it! Apparently, there was a plane ride. It was called the Barnstormer (natch) and it was a 100-ft-tall spinning airplane ride. Whoa, from Themepark Timelines. Just whoa. Really? My parents let me ride in that thing?

Much too young

Magnet #339 - Coffee

Remember back in 1997, when Garth Brooks played that free concert in Central Park? At the time, I'd been in NYC for only two years - I could count on one hand the number of country music fans I'd met, and they had just shut down one of the city's only country music radio stations.

So when they announced the concert, I was absolutely convinced that I'd be the only one in Central Park. In fact, I was worried that it'd be a huge snafu for Garth, that no one was gonna show up.

Glad to say that I was wrong - I saw somewhere that a quarter of a million people were there, including me and this friend of mine who had just moved up from NC.

The next week at work, I was raving about the concert, and the only other Asian girl at work heard about it and says, wait - you went to the Garth concert? Why didn't you say anything? I wanted to see Garth!

And a fast friendship was born.

Turns out, she was a big fan, but couldn't find anyone else who wanted to go. We'd been working at the same company for at least a few months, but didn't even know the other liked country music. Proof that you just never know who's around the next corner. Little did I know back then that the chick who went to the concert with me and this Asian chick who grew up in the big city but was still a country fan, would become my steadfast roadtrip buddies.

So why the coffee mug?

Because before she met me, she didn't like coffee. But she'd wait patiently while I waited in line for my mocha frappes at Starbucks or whatever coffee shop was nearest.

Now, she has a coffeemaker, and the last time I was at her place, I found out she hoards flavored Coffeemate in her fridge.

Happy birthday, Erika!