It started pretty all right, we had secured tickets prior to the Grand Ole Opry, at 7:00. They did it at the Ryman in the winter, because of it being a not so busy season. They usually do it at the new one, in a big mall. Two years ago, that's where we went to see it, but we saw the Ryman too, touring it. We wouldn't be doing that this year, but it was cool to go to the Ryman and see them play. The Ryman was the Opry's 5th home, not the first, but it held the singers for the longest time. 31 years. It probably has some stories to tell.
But anyway, we were without an occupation, with nothing to do besides stay home perhaps, reading, doing laundry, we might've even gone to the office now and then. But, to everyone's joy, we didn't not have to twiddle our thumbs and stand idly! Dad had seen on a brochure some exhibit or such going on in the Gaylord Opryland Events Center, called ICE,where they made sculptures out of frozen water, one of the simplest and most common of materials turned into something beautiful. Out of Ice. We drove to the address, out of downtown Nashville, close to where the 1974-2011 (0r current) Opry stage is. It happens to be very modern, and very big, but that's not the point. We're not talking about that. We're talking about what we're doing on THIS trip. Right. Now, where was I?... Oh right. The Events Center was a large white cream building with rock. It had a big parking lot. We parked, and then walked up on a sidewalk, seeing on one side facing some forest a ticket booth with several windows and people inside of them, talking to you with a speaker. Cowards. They do it so no one tries to take tickets by force, or with a knife or firearm. Well, I can understand why they have bullet proof glass and are secluded. I mean, who wants to fight a holder-upper? Anyway, we got tickets, and surprisingly they make you pay MORE to be able to skip all three of the movies. Which I think is backwards as a moonwalk. We didn't do that. I mean, why pay ten dollars more to not watch movies. There just 5-6 minute movies. How bad could they be? We would see, reader, we would see.
We walked into a lobby area with leather couches on the left and a line for the ICE exhibit.There was an overly dramatic arch with fake plastic ice and words ICE in blue. On the right to us was a gift shop. We walked into a non crowded line with those ropes that you have to go through to get to the front, have to go walking through all of it even though you COULD go to the front a lot easier. A man with a uniform and short buzz cut hair and blue eyes told us to wait until the movie was done, that the first one was still four minutes to go. Impatiently, we waited, and I counted to 90 to 113 to 156. "Okay, go on in. Pick a T.V." There's more than one? But if it's a theater...
It was a simple room, dark with blue rough carpet, with three T.V.'s right by each other. They were flat screen, about as big as a microwave,each. The movie was about the history of ice, how people saw ice sculptures in northeastern china and wanted it to go in America. Then they hired Chinese ice artists to sculpt them, and they did, making it a great hit. They made it about Christmas traditions. Year by year they changed it, like in '07 they made it Charlie Brown Christmas and in the next year the Grinch. This year was Merry Madagascar, about that movie DreamsWorks made about those animals getting shipped to the island, but this time it was a Christmas Special. The animals see Santa come down and then Santa crash lands and makes his head hurt and loses his memory. Next the animals(their talking animated by the way) save Christmas by delivering all the presents. It's pretty expected. But anyway, that was turned into ice and that was what we were about to see.
The second movie was previews from the special, which was displayed on a four sided big box with four screens on each side. It was fake wooden box stuff, and fake sand beneath it. Pretty good.
Third and final was about how they made it, getting ice manufactures to make water into ice chunks and how they measured and used designs to make them. That was cool to see. It was on a HUGE screen.
Well, we were ready to walk in. We got to a room where they put on huge blue jackets on us, and then we took a picture. We were about to walk in, and I understood that we needed these jackets because the temperature has to be very cold for the ice not to melt. I felt a rush of cool, freezing air as we walked in. The whole thing was amazing and really detailed, when Santa crashes and has a bumped bed to when the penguins and reindeer fight. They were all different colors, just like the film. I couldn't believe they were actually made of ice. They looked so real, so genuine, that I just wanted to wait til they moved or talked. We saw where Santa was doing the "I like to move it move it" song, him dancing with his but and all the lemurs in front. I saw when the animals(lion, zebra, giraffe, hippo) got their own presents for all their work and how they crashed into a girls living room. I was crazed it was ice. We came into a room, big with a large slanting piece of ice cut into sections with walls separating, and a sleigh with the animals in it and the penguins leading it over one of the ice sections. There were ice sculptures all around, Big Ben, The Squinx, The Eiffel Tower, and some others. This was a slide. I walked up ice steps, freezing and cold, and got to a slide. Mom and Rebecca went down to. It was slippery and fast, and kind of uncomfortable, but it was fun and I went like three times. We then walked out of that room. That was awesome.
The last part was the best. There was a Nativity Scene with the shepherds, kings, farm animals, and the manger with Immanuel and Mary and Joseph. They were lifelike and transparent, and all in the traditional positions. Behind me was a ten foot angel with a robe, wings, and open arms. It was amazing, and unreal. It reminded me that Christmas really isn't about Santa Claus, gingerbread cookies or getting or giving presents, it's about The Baby Jesus, the Saviors Birth, and the coming of the Messiah. And that's what it's going to stay being about. Forever. I liked seeing that as the ending. It was amazing and great how un-politically correct Nashville was, that they weren't thinking about what to say, that they gave thanks to God and didn't think about if they shouldn't do it because not everyone doesn't celebrate Christmas. I know what I'm saying is bold, but people shouldn't have to not say Merry Christmas. Now, I don't want to offend anyone, because I don't want to, but I do believe that people should express their beliefs and be allowed to put up Christian things like crosses or manger scenes without people telling them to take them down. Nashville people don't take them down. And I think that's cool.
We went back to Two Rivers after ICE. We walked the dogs, and I went in the office and gave them books to put in their exchange. I met a nice lady named Elizabeth who likes books. We talked about them for a while. Then I got back in the jeep and the Bourne Family left. We drove to Downtown Nashville, where the Ryman is. We parked our car across from the Ryman, that red brick big building that looks kind of like a church. We still had at least two hours left, and so we walked to a restaurant in the city. It was loud with live music, smelled like beer, and had many loud people. The food was all right though. And we had a good time listening to the band. We then loitered around a bit, we went to three gifts shops and saw all kinds of different gifts and t shirts and stuff. We went to a record shop, and did some other things. I even took a picture with a Elvis Statue, the exact one I had taken a picture with two years ago. At 6:30, we walked to the Ryman. In front was a statue of a guy with a riverboat wheel and stranded up hair. This was Mr. Ryman, who used the building and built it before the Opry got it. I remembered seeing it two years ago, how I tried to read about it but Dad ushered me on, saying we had a lot to see and too little time. I finished reading it right where I left off, two years later. That's probably the longest time I've taken to read something. I read it over again, of course, to get what it said better. We saw the doors inside were locked, so we waited on stone ledges. Other people were there. I read for a while, and someone prank called me. They said they were Mario and Luigi. Stupid.
Then as I was talking to Dad, a lady in stockings, a straw hat with a $1 sign on it and purple dress came out with a man with a cowboy outfit that was white. Minnie Pearl and Hank Williams. We said hello to them, and Pearl said, "HOOOWWWDDDIE!" Then they went back inside after a while. The line moved, we showed our tickets and they let us go in. We went to the restroom, checked out some displays, and then walked into the auditorium. It was pretty big, and had a balcony above us. We went on the first floor and got seats a little to the right of the beige curtained stage, and I read until the show started, Minnie Pearl coming out, saying welcome, a few jokes, and then going over some rules. Then she talked about the groups that were here, and the sponsors of the night, and that The Grand Ole Opry was a radio station and that they had a magazine picture book about the history of the Opry, and finally about backstage tours they were having if you signed up, seeing the Opry during the show. Then she said to enjoy the show, and left. She's so funny and nice and quirky. Ole Minnie Pearl from The Ole Opry. Well, the curtain went up, the lights went on, and an old man with a banjo, skinny, kind of tall and a red cap came on and did some bluegrass music with some other guys. It was pretty good, even though I'm not a fan of bluegrass, as my first readers know.(Rapids Jam Part 1, I like Country Posts.) Mike Snyder opened up, saying welcome and all the other things like that. He said a man named Ed Stubbs was going to do a sponsor ad, and that their was going to be A LOT of them. Ed Stubbs, a bald headed brown haired guy with a big suit and deep voice, told about Humana. He was very... well, very commercial guy e, if you know what I'm talking about. He talked about Humana Life Insurance, how their a "proud sponsor of the Grand Ole Opry" and a lot of other boring things. I could go into details, but I don't want to. "Well thank you, Mr. Exciting," Snyder said. I kind of felt bad for Stubbs, who people would later call "A walking Encyclopedia," "The Librarian" and the "Bald Eagle." Whispering Bill called him "Kenneth Goldsmith." I never really got that one. Oh well.
Next, Connie Smith came on, a blonde headed kind of old lady that sang a great "Amazing Grace" that shook the house. She was very good. Del McCoury and sons was a white headed tall guy with a guitar and three sons with a fiddle, 2nd fiddle, and base. They were bluegrass again. I didn't exactly like them, but you know. All through this time Stubbs went over and over with his Humana thing, saying the same things OVER AND OVER. It was exhausting. Snyder came on again and did an encore of his bluegrass. This isn't country! It's redneck music! Mountain too! Please stop...
Little Jimmy Dickens, a short, old, blue sparkly jacketed man came on. He had a guitar. He's 91 years old. He joked around, making some good ones, some bad. Then he reached for the micro phone, but it was about 6 ft high, him being like 4. That was funny as she said, "Hm hmmmm!" A stage hand came and made it shorter. "Thank you, Steve. I'm a little short," he said, everyone knowing it. He sang a few good songs, but I don't remember the words. Then Jimmy C. Newman and band sung, an old man with a weird unnatural drawl. I couldn't understand a word he was saying I'm so lonely tonight became 'm bo lonl tneght. I'm sorry, but I couldn't make out any of the words. Then came Diamond Rio. They were really awesome. The lead singer looked like Rascal Flatts guy, and they had country, real country. Awesome songs. Awesome musicians. Stubbs was advertising Cracker Barrel during all this time. I was glad to listen to THEM. I like them. They talked about having an Oakridge Boys CD there.
Intermission came. It was for fifteen minutes and people went to the restroom, got more drinks and food, and just stretched their legs. I got money and made my way out, rather difficulty, but I still got out. It was very crowded, and I got in a concession stand line and got behind a guy who got like seven glasses of all different beers. I got potato chips for Rebecca and a water for me. Parched, I drank it gratefully. Then I went back and sat until the third quarter began. Bill Anderson was on there, that pretty tall suited man with pushed back grey hair and that soft voice, Whispering Bill. He sung a good song, it being about his dads boots or something. He is a really good singer. Then Stubbs did ads for Bass Pro Shops. Anderson introduced Steve Wariner, and the latter did a sad song about a guy who's sad his crush is marrying another man even though she's as happy as someone who's happy. He did another song too. He was younger and had blonde hair. Then came a screamer. Wanda Jackson. She was jacked up with something you could only cure with a wand, she was crazy. I thought she would be young as metal rock music came on, blasting my eardrums, but she turned out to be a little fat women with long braided hair and a stocky appearance. She screamed and screamed out notes, I can't believe it's proclaimed music. Nevertheless, people were clapping and saying "Yeah, go Wanda!" Weird. Life is so weird. Well, the fourth quarter came around after Kiss(not really, calling Jackson Kiss.) and John Conlee, a bearded cool guy who was kind of big and looked like Jeff Bridges sang some songs, and he was the host of that segment, just how Anderson was on the 3rd, Dickens was of the 2nd, and Snyder was of the 1st. The Whites, a musical group of three old ladies, played only one song. After that, Brandi Carlile, a 30 year old brown haired girl with some lady suit, came on, and sang a honky-tonk and then two good songs, one about staying young(I liked that one) and one about having scars on your face. Her cousin had talked with us prior, saying he was from Washington(state) and that this was her first time on the Opry stage. She might become a really big star some day. And if she does, I'll be able to say I saw her debut.
Conlee wrapped it up with a song about Friday Night Blues, and that was a nice song. I had a great time at the Opry, all in all. It means country music, and whether your true, bluegrass, old timey, mountain, or even honky-tonk, there's a place for you at the Grand Ole Opry. They are informal, kind, and genuine at the Opry. It's really a special place, and I had a great time at the Ryman, seeing the Grand Ole Opry.
It was Ten when we got into the parking garage and pulled out. I went straight to sleep in the back. I was exhausted. But sometimes, it's good to end a day exhausted. It means you had a wonderful and full day. And that's the end of this blog post. Goodbye for now.
My favorite country song is "Life on the Highway." What's yours?,
Andrew.
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