Remember When: The Osmonds

I switched on Oprah this afternoon and found an all Osmond hour. It seems that they are celebrating 50 years in show business. There was an audience full of their families.

Regardless of what you think of the Osmonds it really is amazing that they have all turned out to be as normal as they are. They all have beautiful families and seem to all get along.

Earlier this week their father passed away and they buried him today.

All this brought back memories for me of the 70's. I was an Osmond fan and I got to meet them in 1975. All the news about them made me look through my old pictures until I found pics from those days and thought I would share a few.

Mrs. Osmond was a truly kind person. She treated me and my friend like we were her own kids. She reminded us not to stay up too late, to eat well and to call our moms.

One of the highlights of meeting them was having Alan sing "Carrie, Carry me Through" to me in an elevator. It is so sad that he has MS now. He seems to be handling it well and has a great deal of support from his wife and kids.

Merrill was married by then and missing his wife Mary. They collected Tea cups and he bought some in a local antique store to take back to her.

Donny was much shorter than I expected. I am 6 ft and I was disappointed he was such a little guy. He was warming up his voice at the hotel, I guess it was before the concert, and I was shocked how strong his voice was. I had never heard a professional singer up close with no microphone. It was amazing.

Jay was my favorite and I was pretty nervous around him. He was a cutie back then and a great drummer.

I have some pictures with Marie and Wayne somewhere. I just can't find them right now.

The Osmonds were the first celebrities that I ever met and I have to say some of the nicest. They set a good example for young people unlike many of the popular singers today.

Their father was very much in charge of things and really took care of business and his family. He was a no nonsense kind of guy but you could tell he really loved them, especially Mrs. Osmond. May they both rest in peace.

Dreaming Of The Open Road

It is so hot. I am so tired of it. It makes me think about the camping trip through New England that my girls, my sister and I took after my oldest daughter graduated from HS.

When we left Tennessee in August the temperatures were in the nineties and very humid. We spent almost 2 weeks traveling and camping in the much cooler New England weather.

One night it even got down in the upper thirties and for the first time I truly understood the mentality of the "Snow birders" that you hear about, the people who travel up north during the summer and winter down south.

Actually, ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to travel.

I remember in elementary school, back in the day, long before I had ever heard of a travel trailer much less an RV, around 3rd grade I think. I used to draw pictures of the double decker bus that I was going to turn into a house. I was going to drive my house all over America and see all the things I saw pictures of in my geography book.

I don't remember much about my design, except I remember a full size bathroom and kitchen and there was a pool on the roof! LOL. Couldn't you just see me sloshing down the road? With all the stuff I was taking I'm sure I would be moving about 2 miles an hour.

Yep, living in an RV is something I still want to try. I'm not so sure with gas being such an uncertainty these days that I'll ever have the chance, but I'd love to try it.

When I found this blog I was intrigued, and thought maybe some of you who secretly share my love of the road might enjoy it as well. Maybe I can get some of my travel fantasies satisfied vicariously without having to pack.

Home

When I was growing up I was surrounded by quiet. It wasn't the absence of sound. Sound was always there. It was locust heating up in mid day sun, cows lowing in the field, chickens cackling in the hen house, my grandmother's sewing machine clacking as she pushed the peddle while she sewed a quilt top or if I was lucky, a new dress for me.

Maybe it was my sister chattering to herself as she played, or the fan in the window stirring the hot, moist air. There are sounds that will stay with me always. The sounds I heard while lying in the bed in the winter, waiting for the house to get warm, listening to my grandmother make breakfast. Hearing my grandfather come in from gathering eggs, or milking and talk over the day's plans with my grandmother. It was my grandmother pulling out her church hymnal, sitting in her rocker and singing the Shaped Note hymns she had sung all her life. Our home wasn't always quite so these memories mean even more to me.

Quiet wasn't the absence of sound. It was peaceful contentment, something you felt clear down to the soul, and these sounds were part of that. They belonged. They were part of what made life warm and good. These sounds were comfort, they were home.

I think that is why I love the mountains so much. They feel like home. Their sounds surround you and they become part of you. When you leave them the quiet you feel stays with you for awhile. I can't stay away too long because I need that peace.

I've never really liked living in the city. It never has felt right. I guess that is why the time I can spend away is so important to me. When I can't close my eyes and find that peace, when I can't find quiet, I know it is time to go home.

Picture: Cades Cove, my very favorite picnic spot.

My First Crush

I was surfing around the Internet and found a picture of my first crush, the guy that I thought was the most handsome man I had ever seen. I think I was 6, watching television at my grandparents, the first time I saw him.

It was love at first sight. He was tall, I could tell, and all the men in my life that I loved were tall. My grandfather and his sons were over 6 ft. My dad had been around 6 ft tall. Yes, tall men were where it was at. Here he is. Yep, Jimmy Stewart. Wasn't he gorgeous? My grandparents had a black and white TV and I had no idea the movie I was watching was from almost 30 years earlier. Can you tell I lived a sheltered life? Everyone else at the time was crazy for Elvis or I guess, The Beatles by this time and I'm in love with Jimmy Stewart.

I was in love with Mr. Jimmy Stewart for several years actually. I was around 9 before I found out that he was actually my grandmother's age! I was so heartbroken! Why, oh why wasn't I born just 30, well....actually about 50 years earlier? I was destined to live my life with an unrequited love, and Jimmy, poor thing, he never knew what he missed.