On May 16, Thursday Night at the Olio Josh Goforth sang and played several different instruments.
He showed us a picture of his grandpa with a chew of tobacco bulging out of his left jaw, then he began telling stories about his grandpa.
He said his grandpa had lots of outbuildings or barns and he kept them all locked. He carried a large key ring with lots of keys. He said Grandson this barn you can never go in.
When he died we opened the barn and it was full of car and truck bumpers.
His grannie said when your Grandpa got mad at someone he would hop into his old truck, go to their house pull their bumper off their vehicle, and store it in the barn.
Delores Hydock talked about spending time with Dr Ruth.
She was doing a play about Dr Ruth but was afraid to call and tell her. She finally got up the nerve and Dr Ruth answered. During her performance one night, out in the audience sat DR Ruth sitting in the front row.
After the show, she came on stage signed books, and answered questions until midnight.
Said she had to catch a plane the next day.
She turned to Delores and said if you are ever in New York, look her up and they would go out to eat.
So Dolores decided to take her up on the offer. Dr Ruth’s manager made all the arrangements. Dolores bought airplane and theater tickets and hotel reversions, which were all non-refundable.
Dolores got a call that Dr Ruth was out of town and would not return in time for them to meet.
Dolores decided to go anyway. She had spent all that non-refundable money so why not?
She was there a few days when she got a call. The caller said Dr Ruth was back in town and was headed to the beauty salon could she meet her there?
Dolores had tickets for a Broadway show that night at 7 PM.
She met Dr Ruth at the beauty salon and made dinner reservations at a restaurant across the street from the theater. Dr Ruth made sure she got to see her show. Very generous woman.
Tim Lowery told a story about Mother Goat and her four kids, along the line of Little Red Riding Hood.
She left them all alone to go to the market and she told them not to open the door.
Along came the wolf knocking at the door. But the kids knew that voice was not their mother.
He came a second time but they said our mother’s paws were white.
So the wolf had his paw wrapped and flour put on them.
He came a third time and knocked on the door this time they let him in and he ate three of the kids but one hid inside the clock.
When their mother came home she discovered her kids were all gone except the one hiding. She went in search of the wolf and found the wolf asleep he was very full.
She cut the wolf open and out jumped the three kids, she then took several large stones placed them inside the wolf’s stomach, and sewed him up. The wolf was so full of rocks that when he went to the river to get a drink he fell in and drowned.
Tim also talks about his kindergarten class. One of his students had a very short attention span.
He also talked about his first-grade teacher who carried every on her person and she carried a spoon down there!
Bil Lipp told a story about his and Skeeters’ trip out west in a van.
A large RV got behind them when they were in a narrow gorge and a drop-off on both sides.
They kept honking their horn and hollering snide remarks until they finally passed.
Skeeter kept saying he was going to get even if he ever saw them again
Finally, they arrived at the campground and got settled in for the night when Bil noticed across the way the RV that had passed them.
Bill noticed that they were drinking heavily. The drunk 'RVs saw some cows behind a fence and decided to go cow tipping and they also decided to tip a bull.
Bil and Skeeter decided to get even with the guys in the RV. They walked up to the RV and they told the guys in the RV a story about the Godist of Cows and scarred the men. They went inside their RV very drunk.
Skeeter and Bill put a jack under the RV & tipped it over all the men came climbing out the windows of the RV.
Someone called to police and they came and wanted to know what was going on.
Bil and Skeeter rushed back to their camp.
Kevin Kline talked about his life and growing up in Minnesota. I could not hear him very well. He talked about going skiing and going up a lift. They were told not to wear long gloves or long scarves.
When they got to the top Kevin could not let go of the rope and it kept pulling him up.
Kevin has an artificial Limb on his left side and when he could not let go of the rope he loosened his artificial limb and it flew up in the air and he fell to the ground.
A woman was watching and she screamed he had lost his arm.
Kelvin also talked about wearing his mother’s ice skates and ice fishing.
Eric Kirkman opened the festival Friday morning. He talked about himself.
He said I am a school principal at Kilby, a musician, a parent, a husband, and a graduate.
He said you have to know Who you are, What you are, Where you are, and why.
He had to get back to school for he had kindergarteners graduating that morning.
Kelvin talked about getting a haircut from someone other than his regular barber. He mentioned this to the barber cutting his hair and the barber said now he knows how to do it.
Kevin talked about himself when he was a kid and his brother walking him home from school. They took a detour to the local store. Kevin said this was not the way home but his brother said that was okay. Kevin knew his brother would not lie. His brother said I will buy you a red and blue icy.
The icy machine broke and would not stop running and icy was everywhere. Every cup or anything that would hold an icy was filled to the brim.
His brother finally opened his mouth and let the ice flow inside. He got a brain freeze.
Dolores told a true story about taking a year trip with a roommate to Europe at age 19 and it did not turn out the way she expected it to.
They stay with a German family for several weeks before beginning their adventure across Europe.
When their time came to leave her roommate had fallen head over the hill in love with OLLIO.
They bought a Volkswagen and began their travels but along the way, they had an accident. The car was not worth fixing her roommate wanted to go back to OLLIO so she left Dolores on her own. They did correspond and Dolores hoped that her roommate was over OLLIO but no.
Finally, the letters stopped and Dolores continued her journey and took several jobs along the way. She spent the whole year alone without her friend. They did not speak for 40 years. One day after 40 years her friend found her on Facebook and contacted her. At first, Dolores was reluctant to respond. They finally met and took a 3-hour trip together. They talked everything out and were friends & Dolores forgave her friend.
Tim told a story about his adventures driving a carriage in Charleston. South Carolina.
He met and worked with two barn hands, Smokey and Stinky, who spoke the Crealo language.
Clyde who trained Clydesdale for Budweiser was their boss.
Clyde gave Smokey and Stinky a hard time but they would get even with Clyde.
The horse that pulled Tim’s carriage was very touchy about his ears.
One day Tim was late pulling into the barn and Smokey was in no hurry to clean the horse. So Clyde got inside with the horse to clean him, when Stinkey stuck his finger into his mouth and put that finger into Tim’s horse. The horse raised his foot and came down hard on Clyde’s foot. This happened several times.
After that Clyde resigned and went to work elsewhere.
Josh talked about his love for music and Musicals.
He talked about the Sound of Music, The Little Mermaid, The Wizard of OZ, and many others.
He talked about music notes and sang several songs listed in the Baptist Red Hymnal.
He talked about when he got to visit Austria where the Sound of Music was performed.
DO (liked dough), re (like Ray without the y), Mi (like me), fa (as in far), So (like it looks) LA (like it looks), ti (like tea) DO (like dough).
Josh sang several songs and played a variety of instruments.
Dolores told the story about Mrs Griffith “In her fashion”, Mrs Griffith a sales clerk, and more for Loveman’s Department Store in Birmingham.
Mrs. Griffith let Dolores record her talking about her life when she was In her 90s.
Mrs. Griffith talked about her husband going overseas during WWI. Her first position at Loveman’s Department Store was sewing on tags in the basement.
Tim talked about having free time with his family during the Storytelling. He took his family to the Florence Lauderdale Visitor Center to find interesting things to do with his family. At the visitor center were three volunteers who suggested places to visit, one said the Train Bridge.
A young college student said when you get to the end take off your underwear and throw it Into the tree below the bridge.
Tim said this is not suitable for children.
Next, the young man standing behind the counter said, go to the Rattlesnake Saloon,
Tim talked about their adventure to the saloon and said another place was not suitable for children. My girls wanted to go back to the hotel to swim so he took them back to the hotel and went back to the visitor center.
This time all the volunteers were gone and regular work was behind the desk.
This time she said take your family to Ivy Green the Home of Helen Keller.
So off Tim went by himself to check it out. Tim had read the life of Helen Keller her autobiography and knew the history. He hit the jackpot.
He went back to the hotel and got his family and they all enjoyed Ivy Green.
Later he called one of his friends who teaches deaf and dumb students and told him about Ivy Green.
He asked him if there was a way he could record and transmit the live video while walking around Ivy Green.
His friend said yes and the children would love it.
The local TV Station got wind of what Tim was doing and recorded Tim transmitting to the children.
A couple was visiting Ivy Green at the same time as Tim Recording and he asked them if they would like to learn sign language from the Zoom class watching and they said yes.
Tim talked about his train ride from the St Louis Airport to downtown St Louis for a festival.
The audience he met on the train ride was a woman singing into a banana. A young man wearing ear pods singing to himself out loud.
A young man with a boombox loud enough for everyone to hear and finally a group of kindergarten singing. Tim said I enjoyed that train ride more than the festival.
Kelvin talked about his three-day hobo train ride from Minnesota to Washington State for a seafood meal.
He said me and a friend jumped aboard a boxcar and began our journey.
They jumped off one train and then hopped onto another only to find themselves going in the wrong direction.
After three days of adventure, they finally arrived and enjoyed a nice seafood meal.
Kevin said my friend got a job in Washington so he had to hobo himself home.
Every time we saw Tim he had a fan in his hand and I asked him if he was hot. He said I am always hot. “I said I thought about buying one of those horns for my grandson but my granddaughter would kill me.
Bill talked about him and Skeeter borrowing almost a mile of waterholes from his neighbors so they could have water at their camp. They also borrowed a goat from one of their neighbors.
Bill said when we were not using the waterhole they would tie it off so the water would not run out.
One day while in town their neighbor saw his goat atop a water spout.
The goat got thirsty and chewed the hose into, water that came gushing out and blew the goat into the air.
The neighbors had reported the missing hoses and goat.
The sheriff asked the boys if they knew anything about the hoses and goat but they replied no!
We arrive early Thursday night.
Hubby and I ordered drinks and sat outside at Lost Pizza until Wanda arrived.
Wanda and I walked over to the Theater to purchase tickets.
We saw Dolores and she saw us.
She said two of my favorite people. She came over and hugged both of us.
I told her that I made sure not to miss the festival this year.
But I had a trip coming up in a couple of weeks.
The next day Dolores mistook me for Peggy. We talked about the story of her travels in Europe. Wanda said I could not see myself doing that because at that time I had not traveled far from home.
I said I could see myself at that age traveling to Europe on a whelm.
I said when I was 17 I traveled on a train from Decatur, AL. to Chicago, IL. by myself to live with relatives. I was a few months pregnant at the time but I did not mention that. This was in the late 60s and telephone books were loaded with information. I took the telephone book out and looked at the bus route across town to see a friend’s mother.
I talked about arriving at the Chicago Train depot and going to the restroom only to find out it cost 25 cents to use it. Of course, I was small enough to crawl under the door.
Dolores said In Sweden they did not use cash and to use the restroom you had to have a code to pay.
She said I was at a loss when this young man who could speak English paid for us to use the restrooms.
I saw a couple of ladies from CBS they were there all three days. Met a couple that I went to church with at New Beginnings.
Met a couple sitting out front of the Theater named Dave and Gayle they were from Iowa. They had come for the festival.
Dolores mistook me for Peggy a woman about my height and curly blond hair.
Peggy was a retired teacher who had traveled the world with her students and other people. We talked about traveling to Denmark. She was with a friend and they were from Centerville, TN.
I met a couple living in an RV they were staying in Red Bay and having work done on their RV at the Allegro Plant. They said they had traveled all 49 states in their RV. Her husband was retired Military.
Met the director for the Storytelling.
Met Wanda’s friends from Minnesota who had moved here a couple of years ago.
Thursday night was Olio, I wore my blue capris and a blue short-sleeve-checked shirt with a black sweatshirt.
Friday I wore white Capri’s with my pink and white pullover my pink sweatshirt from Victoria's Secret and multi-colored pink shoes. We ate lunch at Rigatoni’s where I ordered the soup of the day. (Consisted of Several cheeses with a tomato base) I had gotten cold in the theater and needed something to warm me up inside. I drank water with lemon.
We also had two bags of bread with spices and olive oil. We were a little early getting back so we walked to the General Store.
Saturday, I wore black pants with a Teal green sweatshirt and my white long-sleeve henley American Eagle white shirt. I also took my Little Mermaid teal blanket.
We ate lunch at Rosies Cantina where I ordered 2 tacos and a side order of guacamole
with glass water with lemon.
It came to a good rain while we were at Rosie's and was still sprinkling when we walked to the Salvation Army Store.
After the Storytelling hubby picked me up and we went to Texas Roadhouse he had been begging all week to go get a steak at Texas Roadhouse.
When we arrived the girl checking us in said it was going to be a 30-minute wait or longer but if we wanted to sit at the bar we could go right in so we did.
Hubby ordered his steak with baked potato and salad.
I ordered grilled chicken fingers with sweet potato and salad. I was not very hungry so I gave my salad to hubby. Ate part of my chicken and sweet potato.
Got a to-go box and ate chicken for breakfast and lunch the next day.
