FLYING THE FRIENDLY SKIES

For the first time since 2006, I was above the ground last week, flying in an airplane. As a child, I have to admit being very scared of airplane travel. As someone who studied music from an early age, maybe it was the fact that so many musicians lost their lives while trying to get from Date A to Date B in the air.

Once I did fly for the first time, however, in the fall of 1999, I have to admit I liked it...I liked it a lot. There are some things that puzzle me about the flying experience. For example, why do gummi bears, one of my guilty pleasures, cost $4.99 for the same size bag that I can get for $1.99 at Donna's IGA in downtown Centerville, TN? It's just a question I have wondered from time to time.

That, and a few other quirks aside, I have no problem with the airport experience. Granted, a four hour flight from anywhere seems long, but if you ever want to do some serious people watching, one can do it at the airport. You see all kinds. It's more of a cultural universe than going to Wal-Mart. What has always amazed me about flying is you can leave Nashville at 6am, and within three or four hours (save Hawaii or Alaska) you can be anywhere in the United States. Reno, Bangor, Key West, Bakersfield, Chuicago....It doesn't matter.

Over the past week, I sliced two states off my "never been to list" as a result of air travel. Granted, I spent much of a forty-minute layover in Denver hoping I could find a bathroom quick enough to find my connecting flight. I got to spend some time in Nevada, however, and I've got to say that I enjoyed the experience. I even had time to cross into that great state known as California. The pace is such that I don't know if I could ever live there, but visiting for a week at a time...that's not bad at all. The Chicago Midway Airport is truly a city within itself, one that has about as many food choices as a shopping mall.

In preparing for the flight, I was surprised that it had been that long since my last one. Suffice to say, I'm ready to go again. You know, I would love a job where I was on the road quite a bit....Maybe that's something to consider. Any ideas? Let me know.....I just hope that next time, I get to see a little more than Denver....I know there's more there than a crowded men's restroom, and a snack bar that sells bottled water....But, I'm just saying!

A SPECIAL THANK-YOU

One of the two radio stations I work at right now is WNKX Radio in Centerville. I have been doing quite a bit of fill-in work lately, and I am glad for the air time. One of the programs the station airs is a five minute daily program called "How To Plan Your Life." A gentleman named Dave McRee hosts the show, and more than usual...I find myself listening and taking note of his words. On one of the shows last week, he talked about thanking people who gave you a break. After doing some contemplating on that subject, I realized that quite a few people who have made an impact on me have been teachers. I thought I would collectively thank a few of them. I went in chronological order, but to each of these people, I say "Thank You."

LAVERNE FISHER---My very first teacher. I remember my mother dropping me off at Burns Elementary School for my first day of school in August 1980. Mama's boy that I was, and continued to be for 25 more years, I cried like a....child on his first day of school. I will always remember her trying to calm me down by saying "If you cry, I think I will too." You never want to see a person cry, do you?

JOAN ATKEISON----My second grade teacher was and is special to me for a lot of reasons. Going to school when and where I did was unique because a lot of things were different. Imagine saying the Lord's Prayer in school nowadays. I remember that she did....but what I remember and treasure most is the fact that she was the first teacher to encourage what made me different. For a second grader to want to skip recess to watch filmstrips of presidential history, or to bring his Kenny Rogers' GREATEST HITS album to class for show and tell, you're probably something just shy of normal. Thank you for encouraging that. Since then, I have been privileged to call her friend....though despite her asking me to, I never have been able to call her "Joan." "Ms. Joan," maybe!

RANDY TIDWELL-----I have called Randy by his first name for about twenty years. I had to. I was the board operator for DCHS Football games for the first four years of my radio career, and saying "Now back to Mr. Tidwell" didn't have a radio ring to it. Since 1996, I have been in the booth doing those games with him, and it's one of the things I love doing most. Only the call letters have changed over the years. One of these days, I am going to ask him to sing Waylon Jennings' "Amanda" on the air. It was something he did every now and then in Gym Class!....Speaking of class, he's the definition!

BARBARA EASLEY-----I had Ms. Easley my third and fifth grade year, and I'd like to think I was one of her favorites. I remember when I started in radio, she was one of the first callers I ever had at the station. She's the one out of these ten that I haven't kept up with as much as others, but still she made quite the impact.

RHONDA MADDEN------I was in her first class when I was in the fourth grade. She's someone that I have kept up with over the years due to my work with Dickson County High School. On any Friday night in the fall, Ms. Madden will be the first Cougar fan in the stands---home or away. She's always been very supportive of the work I've done---whether in class or on the air!

DAVID GREENE-----As I said earlier in describing my feelings about Ms. Atkeison, times have changed. David Greene was not what you would call politically correct. Nor would he wanted to have been. There was a little bit of Gabe Kotter, a dash of Lewis Grizzard, and even a huge helping of Robin Hood in my seventh grade Tennessee History teacher, and I can tell you I enjoyed nobody else's class any more than his.

GEORGE DUFTY-----It might shock many of you who know me well that I took Shop in 8th grade. I thought it taught you how to find records in record stores, as the concept of hammer and nails confuses me. Mr. Dufty overlooked my error, and was a great teacher, but he's been even nicer to me post-school. One thing's for certain...he'll never forget the day one of his students sanded off his fingernail on the sander....though, I'm probably not the first or the last.

RANDY SULLIVAN----Just like others on this list, Randy Sullivan must have known that something wasn't quite right inside a tenth graders head when he spoke on such topics in speech class as the Grand Ole Opry, the CMA Awards, and George Jones. However, he encouraged me quite a bit, and off-kilter characters were many on Cougar Hill around this time. In addition to whatever I have become, he also taught a million-selling singer / songwriter and a popular movie actor who had a love scene with Britney Spears...It takes all kinds of us!

BOB BEAUBIEN-----One of my favorite people on this list. He was one of the assistant football coaches for the Cougars, and you could tell it from his classroom. If you didn't have your homework, or were cutting up....well, as Mr. T would say, "I pity the fool." As scary as that might sound, I have as much respect for him as anybody on this list because he didn't have to pass an Algebra student who was barely cutting it--or maybe wasn't....However, I was not going to be accused of not trying, and I busted my Burns backside trying to figure out why 2x + y = 14 matters. To be honest, I haven't. But just like he coached many young men on the field about hard work, the idea of giving it your all is something I will always connect with Bob Beaubien!

EMMA HALL---I had Mrs. Hall for two classes at DCHS--English and Psychology. Whatever writer I am, and that may be debatable, I credit to her. Keeping a journal was one of the best assignments anyone could have ever given me. I might have been too honest about certain things....but she was always encouraging of everything I did. A few years ago, she fought a battle with cancer, and came out a winner. She's got a lot of courage, and she doesn't have a bigger fan out there than me!

At the same time, there are two people that, while I never had them for a teacher, I can't write this post without talking about them....

SHELBY RYE----While I never had Coach Rye as a teacher, he's one of the best all-around people there is. In all my years being associated with DCHS, there is nobody up there who has represented the orange and blue with as much class as Shelby Rye. When people from other schools find out that I have covered DCHS for close to fifteen years, they always have good words to say about him. Simply put, he's the best. To illustrate this point, let me point out that nobody has had a field named after him at DCHS....and there have been some great men associated with the school. If you take a left at the top of Cougar Hill, you will see Shelby Rye Field. As Eddie Stubbs would say, "Are there any questions?"

KENNETH FUSSELL----I was blessed to have some great principals during my school years....Reed Evans and Ralph Overton among them, but Kenneth Fussell was a different breed, to say the least. For over twenty years, he was the boss at Burns, but I doubt anyone--student or teacher--looked at him as anything other than a friend. Go to Co-Op in Dickson on the day he works, and you'll find one line to buy stuff, and one line to talk to Kenny Fussell...and can he talk!....But we all would do good to listen!

To all of these people, and others that I failed to mention, I thank you. Being a parent makes me more appreciative of how you dealt with thirty students a day from August-May. Thanks again!

THE "NEW" OPRY HOUSE

A few weeks ago, I was talking about the Grand Ole Opry with someone at the Country Radio Seminar. I don't really remember the context of the conversation, but the other person said 'You know, the Opry hasn't been the same since they moved to the "New" Opry House.' I didn't think much about that comment until I was looking at the Country Calendar this week, and saw that the Opry moved into its' new digs 36 years ago this week. I bring that up, because the Ryman was only home for the show for 31 years. It's interesting to note that the current home of the Opry is actually the longest running.

Moreover, in thinking about that fact, I thought of what the "New" Opry House has meant to me over the years. The night that I knew for sure what I wanted to do with my career was in February 1986. I had won tickets to see Hank Williams, Jr. at the "New" Opry House, and went there with my father and my brother. We walked around the Opryland Hotel for a while that evening, and I still remember walking by the Music Country Radio Network booth inside the lobby of the hotel. I was mesmerized, and though a lot has changed at WSM over the years, I still have to admit that whenever I am there...I look a little longer at that studio than anything else at the hotel.

Before that night, I went to the Opry for the first time back in 1983. Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Hank Snow, and Bill Monroe were all still alive at that time and performing at the "New" Opry House. I also remember concerts there during the summer featuring people like Loretta Lynn and Ricky Skaggs, back in the days of Opryland. Remember that place? One of the best musical memories I have of those shows was Ricky, with just a guitar, debuting a song he had written about his parents---"Thanks Again."

One of the first major interviews I ever did took place back in February 1995 at the "New" Opry House. I went backstage and talked to Bill Anderson in Dressing Room Number One. For historians, that was the room assigned to Roy Acuff until his death in 1992. I didn't have a tape recorder at the time, so I borrowed one from my friend Mickey Bunn, who programs one of the two stations I now work at. If you want to hear a twenty-one year old who was so nervous that his voice was as high as Donald Duck on acid....it would be me.

For many years, I was very honored to be able to go backstage and meet many of the people who I have long admired. Grandpa Jones, Lee Ann Womack, Tony Brown, Faith Hill...they are all in the picture book. One night, I got to meet "Dashing" Doyle Holly, one of the former members of Buck Owens' Buckaroos. I even met Gomer Pyle, Jim Nabors himself, one night there.

I wasn't even a month old when the Opry moved from the Ryman to the "New" Opry House, so I don't have any memories of Saturday nights on Fifth Avenue. I don't doubt they were classic nights, though...How could they not have been? But, for a generation like mine, don't discount the allure of the current home for the Grand Ole Opry.

Last September, my wife and I took the kids to see the Opry for the first time. For a few minutes, I walked around the hallway of the "New" Opry House, and felt just as many ghosts and spirits as people say they do at the Ryman. As a radio guy, the picture and tribute to Grant Turner is probably one of the more meaningful tributes in the whole place.

Trust me, I love the past and the heritage of Country Music as much as anyone. I often have remarked to people that I wish I could have started my career in 1961 instead of 1991, but with that said.....the "New" isn't always a bad thing, and to some of us....it's as "Classic" as can be!