A Celebrity Encounter With Tommy Lee Jones

     Have I ever told you all about the time I met Tommy Lee Jones? No? Well, have I got a tale for you. First, you should know that we are all big TLJ fans in my house; he is one of my most favorite personalities. The man can act and I would not even think twice about paying money to watch him play a deaf-mute who stuffs envelopes for a living. Ren even has a friend who reminds us of a young Tommy Lee and we have often said if a movie is ever made about him, this friend should play him.


     One Sunday, my friend Kim and I attended church at a Church of Christ in a town through which we were passing on vacation. At the close of services we all rose to be dismissed with a benedictory prayer. Immediately, I recognized the voice of the person offering the blessing and rather disrespectfully for the time and place, I elbowed my friend and softly asked if she, too, recognized it. She shook her head to indicate she did not while shooting me a look that said be quiet.

     “Look at your program!” I said in an exaggerated whisper, as she was the one who had picked it up and tucked it into her Bible upon arriving in the sanctuary. Another negative headshake.

     “Just look at it, Kim!” Finally, she did and, lo and behold, whose name do you think was listed? Why, just my favorite actor’s.

     When church ended we made a beeline to follow him to his car. Well, I made a beeline and my friend was being dragged along for the fun of it. My brain was working overtime as we followed him and another male (who turned out to be his attorney) toward the car, which happened to be parked at the very end of the lot next to a beautiful creek. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to meet him, but I had to be careful and not seem too much like some psycho in doing so. The last thing I would want would be to wind up on an episode of E! as the latest celebrity stalker.

     My initial and quite ill-conceived plan was for my friend to “accidentally” push me in the water. Surely, TLJ would lend a hand to help fish me out and Voila! I would get to meet him.

     Luckily, he stuck up a conversation with us first and I was able to stay dry. He was most pleasant and polite and it was beginning to feel very much like a dream come true. There we were - my friend and I - having a regular conversation with Mr. Tommy Lee Jones. Who would have thought it?

     It was at this point things took a turn for the strange.

     A woman (turns out it was a soon-to-be ex) walked up and began her own conversation, which was very heated on her part. My friend and I found ourselves on opposite sides of the arguing couple looking very much like two people watching a tennis match. With nowhere to go and not wanting to walk between them or stand there so close to the action, I gently backed up a bit into the opened door of Mr. Jones’ car and sat down on the edge of the back seat.

     After only a minute or so, and sitting a little farther into the interior of the car than I meant, Mrs. Jones made a comment that absolutely froze me with fear. Just to paint you a mental picture…do you remember the scene in the movie Jurassic Park when the owner’s grandchildren have finally made it back to the main building and are wolfing down food at a table when the granddaughter realizes a dinosaur has come inside the building, too - her hand tightly clasping a spoon of green Jello? Well, when the words ...and I bet you’re still riding around with those snakes in your car left Mrs. Jones’ mouth, I became that petrified little girl holding that spoon of Jello. Have I ever told you how much I hate snakes?

     All I could do was quietly whimper for my friend. “Ohhh, Kim.” “Help me.” “No, don’t leave.” “Kim?” “Come back.”

     My last recollection of my one and only encounter with Tommy Lee Jones was sitting there in the back seat of his car while he removed snake after snake after snake from all around me.

     Dreams are a funny thing, you know. I don’t know if TLJ attends church and, if so, if it’s a Church of Christ, nor do I know whether he keeps snakes as pets (if he does I might have to rethink the high regard I have for him), and I still don’t know where my friend went.

     What I do know is…
     One, outside a state of REM, I would never be so forward with a stranger, even a celebrity, and I have proof…I have eaten across the aisle from Reba McEntire on two different occasions at the local O’Charley’s and I merely gave her a polite nod and smile as I sat down in my booth.

     Two, the late Ms. Marguerite Law, a beloved English teacher in my hometown, was spot on about dreams being possible sources of ideas for writing. Just look at the cash cow that was born from Stephenie Meyer’s dream about a vampire and a girl named Bella!

     Three (and most importantly), what likely lasted mere seconds deprived me of hours of sleep. Did I mention I don’t like snakes?



P.S.  Just in case there be confusion among some...the above story about TLJ is, alas, only a dream.

Meeting "Erin Walton"

Growing up as a child in the seventies and teen in the eighties some of my favorite shows were Gilligan’s Island, Little House on the Prairie, Good Times, Magnum P.I., Growing Pains, Dallas, and The Waltons.  What can I say, I have an eclectic taste when it comes to entertainment.

Last night, Ren and I took a couple friends and headed to a church in Warren County, Kentucky to hear Mary McDonough speak about her new book Lessons from the Mountain: What I learned from Erin Walton. I am well on my way into reading the book and so far, so good.

It was a very pleasurable evening and it was fun to listen to Ms. McDonough give a lot of behind the scenes details on what it was like to work on one of my favorite shows as a child.  Ren, who has dreamed since she was four or five to one day be an actress, really soaked in this part of the evening, too, even though she has only seen part of an episode or two of the show (she being much more a LHOTP fan).  I think she was more enamored by the fact she was able to meet a celebrity.  

 

Ren with her signed book.

   

Describing what it was like growing up Walton.

 Mary with some of her fans.  This one woman brought her husband and three daughters and EACH of them had their own copy of the book.  Now that's a fan!  The girl seated in the blue dress to the left is Ms. McDonough's daughter, who is the spitting image of her mom.

  

Ren watching as her book was signed.

 Ren was thrilled..."She ripped my book.  That's so cool!"

So sorry Ren, My Bad!! Mary McDonough "Erin"

So, given last night’s fun, let me list here a few of my favorites connected to the show.

1.

My two favorite episodes were “The Burnout” (which Mary said last night was her  favorite episode to film) and “The Ghost Story” (you know me, I love anything scary).

2.

My favorite characters on the show were the grandparents.  

3.

I love the performance Ellen Corby gave on an episode of The Andy Griffith Show entitled “Barney’s First Car”...totally opposite from her role as Grandma Esther Walton.

4.

My favorite of the Walton children was Jason.

5.

With only one sister myself, I always thought it would be great to grow up with a bunch of brothers and sisters.  My mother and father would probably disagree.

6.

John Walton always reminds me of my own father just a little when he is shown sitting at the Walton kitchen table in a work shirt and wearing his glasses while figuring out a lumber project.  I have seen Daddy do this many times at our kitchen table when working up a bid for some construction project.

7.

The real Walton’s Mountain is a little place called Schuyler, Virginia (pronounced “Skyler”) and was the childhood home to the show’s writer and narrator Earl Hamner, Jr.  John, Ren, and I took a little side trip there in 2003 on the way home from D.C.

 

 Ren and I with "Erin"

The Passing of a Legend

What’s small potatoes to some folks can be mighty important to others.  - Sheriff Andy Taylor

With Andy Griffith’s passing Tuesday morning America lost a hero, not one simply fashioned in the image of Hollywood but rather created in the hearts of people, especially those who share a small town kinship with the beloved actor. 

With No Time for Sergeants, Murder in Texas, Matlock and a whole slew of other memorable roles in between, Andy Griffith transported us through a bevy of emotion...laughter, heartbreak, even disgust (I’m thinking Murder in Coweta County here...the one role I did not like seeing him play).  But it was his Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show that cemented his place in television history and in the hearts of people everywhere, including the members of my family.

On the days immediately following his death my Facebook feed was inundated with tributes to this fine man and his work.  I found posts comparing contrasting him with the likes of the “Kartrashians” (not my word, so just chill if you happen to like them) and others in this new generation of reality television to be quite humorous and, sadly, quite true. 

If I may, allow me to bird walk here for just a moment on the subject of this relatively new type of entertainment.  In the most simple of terms...Gag. Me. Now.  I’m sorry, but if I want to watch a show about a woman trying to find a husband I’ll just watch Suzanne give Mary Jo advice in an old episode of Designing Women ("Mary Jo, men do not come up and talk to a woman who's wheelin' around a 25 pound bag of dog food and a big box of Kotex!") and if I’m ever in the mood to watch a group of people survive on a deserted island the show better begin with a catchy theme song about an old millionaire couple, a professor, a movie star, and a farm girl from Kansas going on a three hour boat ride.  

Now back to Andy (hmmm...does anyone even use his last name when speaking of him?).  Of all the memorials floating around out there I think the one I like best, the one that tugs at my heartstrings the most, is this...Mayberry is a state of mind.  Maybe it’s because I’m Southern and grew up in my own version of the fictional town that I am a such a fan of the show and the actors behind its success, the reason they feel like old family friends.  

In these days where uncertainty abounds, family schedules can be chaotic at best, crime seems rampant, respect and manners become a little more rare with each passing year, and even small towns like mine grow up who doesn’t on occasion, in their most inner core, yearn for something more simple, more safe. 


When the weight of living in 2012 grows tiresome I can, with the simple push of the button, exile myself to a more gentle time, where integrity was valued, time slowed to a crawl after work and on Sundays, and pleasure could be found in the most innocent of entertainment, like peeling an apple in one long piece.


With a society that far too often seems headed straight to hell in a handbasket, I’m glad there have been people like Andy and his Sheriff Taylor, and towns like Mayberry and the people in them, to slow the trip a bit.

Though I never had the chance to meet him, he’s brought much joy to my family and me over the years and the influence of his life and his show will forever be fondly remembered.  So, don’t be too surprised should you ever call our house and are greeted with John-Heath’s favorite way to answer the phone... “Sheriff’s office.” 

Six Degrees of Davy Jones

First Whitney Houston, now Davy Jones. I know they weren’t the same age or popular during the same era but I was a fan of both. I especially loved Davy and watching him and the rest of the Monkees in reruns. That’s RERUNS, folks. I’m just shy of being old enough to have been around for the originals. Many Saturday mornings were spent watching them and often the theme song would become stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Hey, hey we’re the Monkees and people think we monkey around…

So in memory of “the cute one”, I thought I would share a connection I have to him. You know what they say about six degrees of separation, right?

In the mid-eighties (1986, I think), my husband John attended a Monkees concert at the Starwood Amphitheater in Nashville. He went with his girlfriend at the time, which was not me. I shan’t reveal her name, which was actually quite an unfortunate one. Anyway, their seats were close to the stage and when they arrived their friends, who were already there, pointed to the stage and said, “Look!”

John looks and sees Mike Nesmith (it was publicized that Nesmith would not be joining his band mates on tour) and says something really hip like, “Cool. He came!” His friend shouts back (apparently John and his girlfriend had arrived late enough that the concert was already in session), “No! Look again.”

And that’s when John notices that it is actually NOT Nesmith on stage, but instead one of his own best friends who would later serve as a groomsman in our wedding. John, again very hippily I’m sure, says, “Oh my gosh! That’s Chris O----!” You see, his friend, Chris O., could have passed for Mike’s twin, so much so that he won some contest that allowed him to take the stage with the band for a while. Which I do think is kind of cool.

And there you have it. I was practically friends with the Monkees.

RIP, Davy.


P.S. Wanna hear something else that ranks in the really cool category...Even though the 1986 tour for the Monkees was a huge financial success for Davy, Peter, and Micky you shouldn't feel sorry for Mike. It seems that Mr. Nesmith had recently inherited about a gazillion dollars from his mother's estate. His mom was a typist. Oh, and she INVENTED LIQUID PAPER!!! IN HER KITCHEN!!! IN HER BLENDER!!! Told you it was cool.

In Memory of a Fellow G.R.I.T.S (Girl Raised in the South)

Goodbye, Julia Sugarbaker. We'll miss you.

Dixie Carter

May 25, 1939 - April 10, 2010

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Watch a classic Julia moment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZHw7XWky_A