Winds Howling

It’s Labor Day. Cam and I used the long weekend to visit Newaygo, a small city tucked into a quiet corner of northern Michigan. You can usually tell a city is in the middle of nowhere if the county is named after it, as it is here. It’s sort of between things, a dot of city in the forest between much bigger cities.

We first learned about Newaygo earlier this summer, when we passed through it on the way home from a camping trip at Silver Lake State Park. I used to live just north of here, so I was familiar with Newaygo as a place name and a word on signs, but had no idea there’s actually a pretty nice little town here. There was more to explore than we had time for that day, so we vowed to come back, and that day already came.

While we were in Newaygo, we:

…stumbled an ongoing lumberjack competition, part of the “Logging Festival.”

…admired some hydroelectric works by the township of Croton.

…camped at Happy Camper Campground and played with their chickens.

…got breakfast at the River Stop Cafe.

…browsed the arts and crafts on sale at the Logging Festival.

…got to explore the local history museum! Even though Google Maps said it would be closed, they opened it up because the Logging Festival brought so much foot traffic the previous day. I was fully expecting to have to come all the way back here on a day it would be open.

…walked up to the school overlooking the city.

…drank beer at Newaygo Brewing Company.

…watched a parade go by.

…met Gregor the Eagle.

…camped at Newaygo State Park.

I plan on doing at least a couple more posts going into some of these items in more detail. I’ve got to stop promising future posts, though — I’m not sure I’ve actually written any of the posts I’ve teased.

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The Strokes — Reality Awaits
Released July 24

This one really grew on me. I almost bounced off of it completely on the first listen but randomly gave it another shot as background music a few days later and was surprised to find myself liking it quite a bit more. My appreciation first blossomed with a couple of the upbeat, catchy tracks (‘Lonely in the Future,’ ‘Going Shopping’) and spread from there through the rest of the track list. I think I needed to adjust to the bizarre vocals on this album: constant autotune, the occasional accent, jokey exaggerated noises and awkward takes that made it to the final cut — it’s all part of the weird charm.

Jack White — Frozen Charlotte
Released July 10

The album’s tone is a bit oppressive and uninviting, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome and delivers a pretty satisfying dose of good, loud guitar. I appreciate it for constantly presenting me with new guitar sounds, but songs rarely stood out for reasons other than the particular way their guitars wailed. ‘Nobody Knows’ and ‘I Can’t Believe What I’m Hearing’ were songwriting highlights, but the rest of the songs were mostly about the interplay of harsh noise. It doesn’t stand strong in the memory.

Goose — BIG MODERN!
Released June 12

I enjoy this one whenever I put it on but struggle to remember the specifics once it’s over. It’s great background music that rewards closer attention in the moment, but somehow just doesn’t make a lasting impact on me. They’re synthesizing several strains of rock into something genuinely pretty appealing, but it’s still pretty comfortable and familiar; the extended instrumentals and guitar solos elicit some rhythmic head-nodding, but they come just when you expect them and feel like they’re ticking off boxes on a prog-rock jam-band checklist. I found it effective for zoning out in the shower once or twice but don’t think I’ll be returning to it.

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In my corner of Detroit’s suburban sprawl, I’m lucky to have a nice park close by, and a somewhat unusual one: Lakeside Island Park.

It’s a small island in a man-made lake next to Lakeside Mall, a mall that was once a local landmark but is now slated for demolition. They’re planning to transform the site into a walkable mixed-use thing, full of coffee shops and apartments and stuff, called Lakeside City Center. That could have significant implications for this little park, which until now has existed in relative obscurity, known mostly by the few who live on the lake or happen to have stared at Google Maps long enough to notice it. In my experience, nobody seems to realize there actually is a lake next to Lakeside Mall, let alone an island in it.

Access to the island is currently limited to one bridge, tucked into a corner of a quiet residential area. However, a second bridge has been proposed that would connect to Lakeside City Center, which itself will connect to the brand-new ITC Trail, at the other end of which begins another 16-mile sequence of trails I once mapped and followed all the way to downtown Rochester. The potential new bridge appears in Sterling Heights’ 2025 master plan and was mentioned at a City Council meeting back in May.

The councilor who mentioned it, Michael V. Radtke Jr., told me any new bridge is far on the horizon.

“As of right now, there are no funding sources identified nor plans to build the connecting pedestrian bridge,” Radtke said. “It’s something that we want in the future, but it’ll be expensive, and it isn’t a priority until parts of the Lakeside City Center are completed.”

Still, I wanted to start cataloguing the current state of Lakeside Island Park before the next chapter of its surrounding area got underway. So here’s a description of it as it stood in the summer of 2026.

The island covers 10.9 acres and is ringed by a path about 0.4 miles around. Here’s a satellite view of the island (dark green blob in the bottom right) and Lakeside Mall (large gray blob in the top left).

A small forest occupies the center of the island, with four entrances to trails that converge in the middle. Here’s a map of those trails.

People of all ages can commonly be seen fishing the lake, though I don’t know what they catch. We’ve seen great blue herons and great egrets on the shoreline and once watched cormorants diving underwater and re-emerging a while later to gulp down a fish.

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Around the same time I whipped through Weezer, I blasted through Blur’s discography, listening to all nine albums over the span of three or so days. I got inspired to listen to them after reading this blog post by All Over 2a, a blogger in London I like to read; if you scroll down, you can see my comment from the day I first shuffled Blur in the car.

I really like this band and am glad I listened through all their albums. I knew Damon Albarn, known to me as “the guy from Gorillaz,” had had an earlier chapter in his career, but wasn’t really aware of what it was, so it was a nice surprise to hear his voice in this different context. His voice is usually so mysterious and restrained, almost spoken, on Gorillaz songs, but here it’s unleashed with all the expression of a typical pop rock frontman. I think his voice is one of the more distinctive among singers active today, so it’s good to hear more of its history. Thanks to All Over 2a for writing that original post and getting me to listen to this.

Here are a few brief notes I took on each album, plus how many songs from each I saved to a playlist. In general, I really liked the peak Britpop albums, in particular “Modern Life is Rubbish,” and enjoyed the later albums, which have a more expansive style, but didn’t really like the middle couple of albums as much. These are all really just first impressions; I haven’t listened to any of these more than a couple of times yet.

“Leisure” — Most of the tracks blended together; only a couple were worth saving. Went down easy, but felt somewhat generic, with some fumes left from the ’80s. Saves: 3

“Modern Life is Rubbish” — A big step up. They’re coming through much more distinctly and seem to have sharper ideas. Saves: 4

“Parklife” — Had some highlights that were up to par with “Modern Life is Rubbish,” but the album didn’t catch me as much overall. Saves: 2

“The Great Escape” — Didn’t feel like a significant contribution over the previous two albums; I can see why they shifted styles after this. Across the albums so far Blur has had a lot of songs of a type I don’t usually like: Beatles-esque songs about named characters, like “Eleanor Rigby.” I’ve been tolerating them well enough so far, but “Ernold Same” was the last straw — this one was bad. Saves: 2

“Blur” — Liked a lot of tracks from this, but a lot of them also went by relatively unnoticed, and the overall mood was a bit bleh. Saves: 2

“13” — Most of this isn’t really catching my attention, a bit droney. “Tender” was an overall standout and the only Blur song so far to get stuck in my head. Saves: 2

“Think Tank” — From track 1 it feels like Blur woke back up. Variety is returning to the sound. Satisfying huge sounds, like the reverby bass blasts on ‘Jets’ and big jangly cascading guitar on ‘Battery in Your Leg.’ Saves: 4

“The Magic Whip” — has a sort of clean and gloopy sound, where previous albums were more jangly or rough. More observational writing returns, and some of the old poppiness too, but the music is still a bit more subdued and weirder sonically like the last couple albums. Maybe the least unique one so far. Saves: 4

“The Ballad of Darren” — Strong! Reminds me of David Bowie’s “Blackstar” in a lot of ways; generally subdued, reflective in tone, Albarn’s voice holding a ghostly gravitas. It’s not as necrotic as ‘Blackstar,’ though, and still has a good amount of energy holding it above the water. Not much to remember in terms of production, but it’s clean, classy sounding and had enough new noises to keep my ears entertained. Probably could have been sharpened by a couple of songs. Saves: 6

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I just listened to all sixteen Weezer albums, plus the four SZNZ EPs, in the span of four days. In the process I became a Weezer fan and bought tickets to their concert later this month in Detroit.

Previously I’d only listened to their album “Pinkerton,” which is sort of their black sheep cult classic that deep music heads love to say they love. When I was an 18-year-old aspiring deep music head, I listened to “Pinkerton” a few times and never really thought about Weezer again until I started reviewing new music for this blog. The stated purpose of doing so was to get outside my box and listen to stuff I wouldn’t otherwise, so I guess Weezer fandom counts as the first success story of that mission.

The sound of this music just gives me such a good feeling. Something inside me is going “hahaha, hell yeah” the whole time. It’s been great music to listen to on my walks, because a lot of their songs chug along at the perfect walking tempo.

Here are my first impressions of each release. Each also has a tally of how many of its songs I saved to a playlist; I saved a total of 62 songs, an average of 3.1 per album/EP.

Weezer (Blue Album) — This is one of those super good albums, like “Thriller,” where you go down the track list and every single song is a single-worthy highlight. Saves: 7

Pinkerton — Like the dark flip side of the Blue album. They complement each other perfectly. Saves: 7

Weezer (Green Album) — Similar to the Blue Album, but a little more flabby. Saves: 4

Maladroit — feels like it’s opening up a bit in complexity vs. Blue and Green, a little moodier like Pinkerton. Saves: 3

Make Believe — big, wide, heavy sound. Apple Music’s description aptly phrased it “a bit wearing" — felt this by track 9 of 12. Maybe the least interesting songwriting so far, most “spinning their wheels." Saves: 2

Weezer (Red Album) — first track is the best song in a while. Songs more distinctive, have clearer ideas behind them. Introducing more rhythmic, rap-like vocals, reminding me of Red Hot Chili Peppers. First one that impressed me like Blue did. Saves: 9

Raditude — Does not sound good; vocals buried, guitars indistinct. Starting to not be sure if the cringe is intentional. Saves: 2

Hurley — Different, more light and open sound; refreshing. “Memories” was one of my favorite Weezer songs so far. Saves: 3

Everything Will Be Alright in the End — Pretty solid overall, a couple somewhat redundant songs. This seemed like it was gonna be another good one, but the last half of it didn’t do much for me. Saves: 3

Weezer (White Album) — Production is overstuffed; by track 2 I already felt blasted by noise. Back to spinning wheels and rehashes of recurring ideas, worse versions of previous songs. Vocals sound bad, too wide, dominating the mix, and sometimes are just bad (‘Jacked Up’). Saves: 1

Pacific Daydream — Kind of nice to hear a different style but it’s not a good one. Full of sounds that I associate with the worst music of its era, like reverby group “whoa-oah” vocals. Too reverby; sounds like they walked into the studio after Imagine Dragons. Electronic, synthy tinge to it all that gives it a generic feel. Saves: 1

Weezer (Teal Album) — It was interesting to hear Weezer do faithful covers, but at the same time, it didn’t feel like they were adding any reason to listen to this version instead of the original. Amusing enough to listen to once. Saves: 0

Weezer (Black Album) — Songs are just stupid right off the bat, with hooks revolving around phrases like “hasta luego adios” and “zombie bastards,” and didn’t really improve from there. The album doesn’t sound particularly good either, a bit lifeless and too big sounding all the time. “Byzantine” was a nice change; a quieter moment with distinct lyrics and one of the more interesting and listenable synth arrangements I’ve heard from them so far. Saves: 1

OK Human — a really nice sound, nice to hear another genuine stab at orchestral-inflected rock, wish more people would do that. I couldn’t believe the song ‘Grapes of Wrath,’ about the pleasures of listening to audiobooks — felt almost written for me. Saves: 5

Van Weezer — These songs weren’t bad, but most of them seemed not up to par, called into service because the band needed songs for a Van Halen homage. The hair metal aesthetic doesn’t really feel like it’s additive here; there’s significant overlap with what Weezer already does, so it mostly comes across as an even more cartoonish and cheesy version of their usual style. Saves: 0

SZNZ: Spring — Loved the Shakespeare theme of “Opening Night” — one of the best songs so far. Enjoyed more acoustic and folky sonic aesthetic. Good overall; songs sometimes a bit light, but inoffensive. Saves: 1

SZNZ: Summer — a little harder rocking than Spring, but with a little less character. “Opposite of Me” was a pretty good song; the rest were generally just OK. Saves: 3

SZNZ: Autumn — only song that stuck out was “Should She Stay or Should She Go,” which had a smooth, subdued arrangement and somewhat eerie chord progression. Saves: 1

SZNZ: Winter — These songs seem stronger than the previous seasons, but they didn’t really bang, and I only saved two. Iambic Pentameter tried paying off on the classical theme more than any other song so far, but still felt a little cut short. Saves: 2

Weezer (Gold Album) — I already reviewed this one, but I listened to it again to hear it in the career-wide context. Now I can see this is their strongest album in 5 years and their best self-titled album in nearly 20. I’m buying Weezer at a peak, and if this exercise taught me anything, it’s to prepare for a bit of a dip or at least a zag. Saves: 7

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Since a few days ago I posted a list of the 158 movies I’ve seen from the 2003 edition of “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die,” I figured it made sense to also post a list of the 843 I haven’t seen yet.

I’ve been curious to start keeping track of this ever since I read a blog post several years ago from another guy who tried watching all of them. He said that if you’re the kind of person interested in doing this, it’s probably easier than you think, because you’ve probably already seen a large portion of the list. I have to say I was a little disappointed to find I’d only seen 15.8% of the list, but I guess I’m only 28. If I watched one of these a week, I’d finish the last one sometime around November 2042 at the age of 44.

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Recently while I was visiting my grandpa, I took down one of the biggest books on his bookshelf: the hardcover 2003 edition of “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die,” with the shower lady from “Psycho” screaming on the cover. I’ve always looked at this book and wondered, how many of these movies have I seen?

I took photos of the index and prompted Claude to make a checklist app so I can start keeping track. Consider this post #1 of the journey. By my count, I’ve seen 158 and have 843 to go.

Here’s what I’ve seen so far:

1. 12 Angry Men (1957)
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
3. Akira (1988)
4. Alien (1979)
5. Aliens (1986)
6. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
7. All the President’s Men (1976)
8. Amadeus (1984)
9. American Beauty (1999)
10. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
11. Amores Perros (2000)
12. Annie Hall (1977)
13. Apocalypse Now (1979)
14. Back to the Future (1985)
15. Barry Lyndon (1975)
16. Ben-Hur (1959)
17. Big (1988)
18. The Birds (1963)
19. Blade Runner (1982)
20. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
21. Boogie Nights (1997)
22. Boyz N the Hood (1991)
23. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
24. Braveheart (1995)
25. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
26. Breaking the Waves (1996)
27. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
28. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
29. Carrie (1976)
30. Casablanca (1942)
31. Casino (1995)
32. Chariots of Fire (1981)
33. Chicago (2002)
34. Chimes at Midnight (1965)
35. Chinatown (1974)
36. A Christmas Story (1983)
37. Citizen Kane (1941)
38. Clerks (1994)
39. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
40. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
41. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
42. Days of Heaven (1978)
43. Deliverance (1972)
44. Die Hard (1988)
45. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
46. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
47. Dracula (1931)
48. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
49. El Topo (1970)
50. The Elephant Man (1980)
51. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
52. Eraserhead (1977)
53. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
54. The Evil Dead (1981)
55. The Exorcist (1973)
56. Fantastic Planet (1973)
57. Fargo (1996)
58. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
59. Fight Club (1999)
60. The Fly (1986)
61. Forrest Gump (1994)
62. Frankenstein (1931)
63. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
64. Funny Games (1997)
65. Gangs of New York (2002)
66. Ghostbusters (1984)
67. Gladiator (2000)
68. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
69. The Godfather (1972)
70. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
71. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
72. Goodfellas (1990)
73. Grease (1978)
74. The Great Train Robbery (1903)
75. Groundhog Day (1993)
76. Halloween (1978)
77. Heat (1995)
78. The Idiots (1998)
79. Ikiru (1952)
80. Independence Day (1996)
81. It Happened One Night (1934)
82. Jaws (1975)
83. Jurassic Park (1993)
84. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
85. The Lion King (1994)
86. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
87. Mad Max (1979)
88. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
89. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
90. Manhunter (1986)
91. The Matrix (1999)
92. Memento (2000)
93. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
94. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
95. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
96. Moonstruck (1987)
97. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
98. Nosferatu (1922)
99. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
100. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
101. Paths of Glory (1957)
102. Patton (1970)
103. The Pianist (2002)
104. Platoon (1986)
105. Princess Mononoke (1997)
106. Psycho (1960)
107. Pulp Fiction (1994)
108. Raging Bull (1980)
109. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
110. Raising Arizona (1987)
111. Rashomon (1950)
112. Rear Window (1954)
113. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
114. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
115. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
116. Return of the Jedi (1983)
117. The Right Stuff (1983)
118. Ring (1998)
119. Rocky (1976)
120. Rope (1948)
121. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
122. Rushmore (1998)
123. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
124. Scarface (1983)
125. Schindler’s List (1993)
126. Scream (1996)
127. Se7en (1995)
128. Seven Samurai (1954)
129. Shane (1953)
130. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
131. The Shining (1980)
132. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
133. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
134. The Sixth Sense (1999)
135. Slacker (1990)
136. Stalker (1979)
137. Star Wars (1977)
138. The Sting (1973)
139. The Stranger (1946)
140. Suspiria (1977)
141. The Terminator (1984)
142. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
143. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
144. The Thing (1982)
145. Throne of Blood (1957)
146. Titanic (1997)
147. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
148. Top Gun (1986)
149. Touch of Evil (1958)
150. Toy Story (1995)
151. Unforgiven (1992)
152. The Usual Suspects (1995)
153. Vertigo (1958)
154. West Side Story (1961)
155. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
156. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
157. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
158. The Wolf Man (1941)

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I’ve listened to this one a few times now: on the way to dinner a few days ago, yesterday while poking around on the computer, and at least one other time I’ve now forgotten. I’ve gotten in the habit of not writing these up immediately, but listening to the symphony two or three times over the course of days.

The first couple of times I listened to this one, I listened to the version by Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood. That’s been my go-to move lately — I haven’t listened to any other version for the last several symphonies. But this one just wasn’t doing much for me, and I figured I’d been over-relying on those recordings, so I also checked out the version by Adam Fischer and Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra. They definitely felt different from each other; the Hogwood is lighter and more delicate sounding, while the Fischer is louder and punchier. I appreciated the change.

My favorite two movements were the first (‘Allegro molto’) and last (‘Presto’). The first kicked off energetically and featured a nifty little downward run as it slid into the minor key sections — an example of something I thought the Fischer recording rendered more clearly than the Hogwood. The ‘Presto’ had lots of festive trilling and some smooth dramatic turns that felt somewhat unique among the symphonies so far, only slightly brought down by a slow part in the middle that seems to get lost in thought before snapping back to attention.

The other two movements were inoffensive. The second movement (‘Andante cantabile’) was pleasantly tranquil, but by the third (‘Minuet & trio’) the symphony had become pretty dull, seemingly hesitant to do anything too interesting, and was partially rescued by a decent presto.

Length: 18:12
Next up: Symphony No. 25

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Last night we saw a partial lunar eclipse from our campsite at Sleepy Hollow State Park outside of Lansing, Michigan.

The eclipse was all but complete, covering 96.2% of the moon with the shadow of the Earth cast by the sun.

Here’s the first photo I got of it, when around 10:39 p.m. one of Camilla’s friends called her to remind her to look up. You can see a chunk getting taken out of it in the bottom left.

I took most of my photos from outside the campground bathrooms. They were really very nice bathrooms.

By 11:20 p.m. or so, the moon had been reduced to a fingernail clipping, and the Earth’s shadow deepened into red.

Here’s the picture I took closest to the point of maximum eclipse, which is supposed to have come a couple of minutes later.

Here’s the last photo I got of it before heading to bed.

For bonus points, here’s our campsite. Camilla set it up earlier in the day, then went to Grand Rapids for a friend’s surprise birthday party. I met her back here after I got off work.

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Dolly Parton died today. The news came to me at 2:08 p.m., with a message from a friend: “RIP DOLLY.”

It’s a bit more striking than the average celebrity passing, despite the facts that she was relatively quiet during my lifetime, I only overlapped with the last 35% of her life, and I’ve never been a particular fan of hers anyway. I think it’s because she was one of the last great pop culture characters of the last century, one of the oldest remaining mega-stars whose life stretched back almost as far as the modern music industry. There’s a sense of a link to the past being severed, like when one of the last veterans of a war dies. It’s also possibly because she’d turned herself into something a little more than human, both physically and as a brand. It’s like I just found out SpongeBob died. It almost seems impossible. Was he even real in the first place? And now he’s gone forever?

When I went to visit my parents for dinner tonight, my car was tuned to Willie’s Roadhouse, an old-school country station on Sirius XM backed by its own ancient star, Willie Nelson. By that time it had become a call-in vigil hosted by one of the station’s regular voices, Dallas Wayne. “My Tennessee Mountain Home” by Dolly Parton was playing as I started to drive. Here are a few of the stories people called in to tell.

Hilda:

I will never forget standing in my living room when she was on that award program, and they ended the program with her and a choir singing “He’s Alive.” I had the Don Francisco album of that for several years, and so I knew the song, and she touched many lives, because that was on nationwide, worldwide, and if you’re as old as I am you might remember the reaction the next day, that’s all they talked about was her singing “He’s Alive.” I stood there and cried because I knew that she was singing to so many people that had never heard the gospel in that way. … I don’t remember what network it was on, but the telephone lines got jammed. … It was unforgettable, and if you can play it, she can do it again.

Steve:

Several years ago, April of ‘71, I was a junior in high school, and Dolly was travelling with Porter. They did a show at the local high school gymnasium. Admission was $2 for students and $3 for adults. The dressing room, which was the boys basketball team locker room, was for Porter and Speck and the other guys. Dolly had to walk up a little set of steps into the band room, and that was her dressing room. I was walking around the backside of the gymnasium, and Dolly came out of the band room and down the steps. I encountered her there at the steps. She said, hi, how you doing? I turned around and looked behind me and had nobody behind me and I said dadgum, she’s talking to me! She is talking to me! And I will never ever forget that, Dallas. She was in a beautiful blue dress with white flowers on it. We stood and talked for, it seemed like forever, but it may have been 10 minutes or something. She was waiting to go on stage, and she just asked me how I was doing, and how I liked school, and everything about my community, and was just so down to earth, just so easy to talk to. Fifty-five years ago now, and I’ll never forget that conversation. … I have six grandbabies, and their Christmas gifts are passes to Dollywood. It’s about a three-hour drive from our home in eastern Kentucky, and we always try to go early April or May when Dolly usually goes for a little ride through the park when the park opens. We have been lucky enough to be there on some of those occasions, and my little grandkids’ faces just light up. They love Dolly, they love Dollywood, and they love papaw’s story about meeting Dolly at the local high school 55 years ago. It’s just a special, special, special memory for me.

Sherry:

I heard the news, and I was OK with it, you know, everybody’s gonna go. But when I heard Dallas’ announcement on the radio earlier, that’s when I lost it, because I heard the hurt in his voice, and that’s when it became really real. My favorite Dolly memory is one from years ago when I was younger. My uncle was fortunate enough to be able to set up concert venues for many, many artists, many that he met. One of them was Miss Dolly. I had tickets to her concert, and as a teenager, I was so excited. But two days before, my brother and I decided to go hiking and climbing rocks and things. Well, I jumped down, broke my ankle, then I went to the doctor, fell backwards through the doctor’s window, got stitches on my legs, stitches in my arms, so I was just not able to go anywhere. My uncle was there, and he was like, yeah, my niece was supposed to be here, she was supposed to come, but she can’t. Somehow, word got back to Miss Dolly about it. And she hunted down until she found my uncle. … She took pictures with him, she signed an autograph for me, gave him a hug and said give it to her. When he said, I got a picture with her for you, I didn’t believe him, of course, being doubtful, and sure enough, as soon as he got that camera back and the film developed, I was over the moon excited, and I keep it tucked away inside of a trunk, inside of a box, just for safe keeping, and tonight I’ll probably go home and look at it and realize how much I miss her already.

Sophia:

When I got married to a wonderful man 50 years ago, he told me shortly after we got married that he wanted me to know that there was only one woman in the whole wide world that he would ever leave me for. And he said Dolly Parton. He said, now, I’m not going looking for her, but if she ever calls me, I just want you to know that I’m gonna go. So I said, you know, I feel like I should start singing, “Dolly, Dolly, Dolly, please don’t take him just because you can.” She was my Jolene in a way. He is a preacher, by the way. We’re married 50 years. He was a pastor this whole time, but he loved, loved, loved, we all did, Dolly Parton, and our favorite Dolly Parton song, of course, my children, my grandchildren, all of us know every word to: “Daddy Was an Old Time Preacher Man.”

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