Great Smokey Mountains … Ahhhh. How marvelous!

Ann and Donna

After all the hustle and rushing and constant movement that has gone on with the entire Crumly family since the hip replacement on April 29, 2014, and now we are in October a long weekend to the mountains seemed to be a most refreshing respite to hectic life.  I cannot put my finger on just why life is so hectic anymore.  I remember being a child and even a teenager in the Crumly household and it seemed that life was more relaxed.  I remember sitting under the big oak tree that John and Billie Crumly planted in the backyard of the little three (3) bedroom house in Smyrna, Georgia.  There was time for friends and family to visit and we would sit in lawn chairs under that tree, oft times with someone, primarily daddy, turning a freezer of ice cream.  Ah, the homemade ice cream and the laughter and talking and problem-solving that was handled under that old tree.  But I have moved away from the travel, so let’s go back to the mountains and the Smyrna home will wait for later.

Ronnie (in yellow) and Brad

For the South, the Great Smokey Mountains and Tennessee are a pleasant change to the norms of life.  For this weekend we were going to Townsend, Tennessee, for an outing called Old Timers’ Days.  My sweetheart loves Bluegrass music and I just like all kinds of music.  We like to go with our friends Anne and Ronnie, who first introduced us to the festival.  We go up usually on Thursday and carry our portable chairs.  I do not know who came up with those foldable chairs that fit in a nice bag and have a comfortable strap that let’s them be carried over the shoulder but hallelujah for the creator.  Normally we will place the chairs in the viewing area which is nicely paved.  Oh how I would like to be able to be on the front row but I always ask to go over on Thursday and get negatives from all the others, so we go over on Friday on our way out to breakfast to place our chairs.  This year we were able to get on the third row which is near the front.  Why does it matter when you are listening to Bluegrass music, you ask?  Oh my, there is so much to see.  When there is a nice song that makes peoples feet start moving the floor will fill up with buck dancers.  No partner is required and age does not matter.  I am of medium height for a female these nice chairs I described have a large dip in the bottom when I am sitting it mine.  I laugh at our chairs because they were purchased the first year we went to Old Timer’s with Anne and Ronnie.  Can you guess the color chairs that were the only ones we could find in Tennessee?  Oh yes, you were right the first guess, bright orange for the University of Tennessee.  You did know that Tennessee fans are die hard Big Orange folks.  Now funny that this year, University of Georgia and University of Tennessee will be playing their annual football game on Saturday we are in Townsend.  Brad made the statement that I could not wear anything red that day and he was very glad that we did not have University of Georgia chairs.  He is still not quite up to holding his own after the pneumonectomy just five weeks past.  He is doing wonderfully.  We stay at a motel within walking distance to the arena (I use this word loosely as you can see from the pictures).  There is a nice sidewalk to the site of the fun which is about one-half mile.  I was very worried about sweetie walking that distance even with his oxygen so I got the wheeled walked from Aunt Bill’s that has a seat and he would be able to sit when he felt it was necessary to catch up a little.  Before the surgery, he was instructed to walk 2 miles a day and he was doing 2.5 miles in less than 40 minutes, so you know he is a walker but he had two lungs at that time even with the cancer.  He did great and I had even told him I would walk back and get the truck to pick him up when he was ready to leave.  He would have none of that and walked back but there was one little problem with a large hill that was no problem coming down but going uphill is something different.  So we walked a longer way and up a smaller hill that had less of an incline but it was across the grass.  He was certainly ready to sit down when he got to top of the hill.  He also put the oxygen tank on the walker and did not have to carry it.  The thing weighs about 10 lbs.  We made it back and he was ready to lie down in bed.  Funny that what he has complained about since the surgery has been his back.  He says that is feels like his muscle between his shoulder blade and backbone is in a knot.  But he made it through the bluegrass.

On Friday night after we ate an early supper, we went to the seating area and took our seats.  There were jammers all around the grounds who had just brought their fiddles, banjos, bass fiddles, mandolins, guitars and even a dulcimer to join in the jam sessions.  No need for an invitation to join a jam session, just a desire to play the music and these people have grown to love.  I am totally amazed at how the young and old play both the mandolin and the banjo.  I heard an old man say he just strummed the banjo but these folks are using about 3 fingers as best I can tell to play the individual strings on the banjo and I cannot tell how many fingers are picking the strings on the mandolin but I have heard that both are rather difficult to learn to play.

I have to tell about the one young man that truly impressed me so much, I did not even have sense enough to make a picture.  The group was from North Carolina and had come to play.  The older gentleman with white hair said that he had been teaching these two boys for three years.  The banjo player was 16 years old and what a clean cut young man.   But oh that 12 year old young man that was playing the mandolin and making that instrument talk for such.  He cut really cut a rusty on that little mandolin.  Then he put it down and on a different song he was playing the fiddle and making that little instrument sing a different song.  We all talked about how marvelous the young  were.  To really steal the show, when a different group was on stage the young 12 year old got out on the dance floor and was buck dancing.  He had on tennis shoes and was doing a great job when one of the older men (yes white hair) took off his shoes and gave them to the 12 year old and he put those dancing shoes on what a show he did put on.  All the older women were groups around that young man and they were all dancing.  We had hoped he would come back on Saturday night but they must have gone home.

We went back on Saturday after a trip to Pigeon Forge to begin our Christmas shopping at the outlet mall in Pigeon Forge.  Brad had told both his sweet granddaughters to give him a list of what they wanted for Christmas and a list they did come up with.  A 17 year old and 14 year old certainly know how to make lists of things that they would like to have that they believe granddaddy and grandmother could pick out okay ones.  They were to give sizes and colors and they even had brands listed.  You too may know how that works but we always would rather know and give something that will be used rather than put in a drawer and given to Goodwill.  This gal certainly hates to waste money.  I prefer to know what gifts would be welcome.

You know as I think back, we did not even make a stop at the Krispy Kreme in Pigeon Forge, nor did we make it to the Apple Barn (oh the wonderful food) nor to Huck Finn’s or to my favorite needle shop Dixie Darlin’s.  When Brad’s back started hurting and he said it was time for him to lie down and rest, all bets were off.  I have tried like the dickens to take care of my man.  Have asked him to stay with me another 40 years.  Now at our age, that is probably pushing it but the love-of-my-life is certainly worth it.  So you see a trip to the mountains to hear Bluegrass music is yet another facet of country living.