When I was about 8 years old, my grandmother was the pianist of their church and my grandfather, "Poppy" was a deacon. They would go to church early for Sunday evening service for Poppy to get things set up and Grandma would practice her music selections. I loved to go with them and have the whole church to myself to run around and play. There was often special music scheduled and one group that used to come frequently was "The Keystones". I remember them pulling up in an old white van filled with their equipment. One of the members, Joe, was always so sweet to me. He would let me help carry things in from the van while we would chat away about things that were important to an 8 year old little girl. Joe went on to join another group and achieved some fame. Maybe you have heard of him? But I won't reveal that just yet. About 6 or 7 years ago I decided to try and get in touch with him. I found their website and sent an email to customer service with a message for Joe. I didn't even know if he would remember me after all these years. How excited I was to receive a personal email from him shortly after! A few months later they happened to be playing in my town so we not only got to go to their concert, but my whole family was able to go back stage and take pictures with the band.
Ok, my friend from all those years ago is <drum roll> .....
Joe Bonsall of the Oak Ridge Boys!!!
I gave him one of my afghans!
What a super, exciting honor!
My girls used to love playing "Elvira" on the juke box at our local Waffle House. They never believed me when I would say I "knew" Joe!
And Georgie!
You can visit their official site here: Oak Ridge Boys!!! And by the way, they were recently inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on August 6, 2011.
