Weekend In Orlando: Part 2

Paula's Color Street Conference Tour 

In part 2 of this post series I'm going to do my best to share with you the very busy and exciting experience my wife, Paula, had over the 3 days of the 2nd Color Street Conference in Orlando, FL in mid August. 

As I mentioned in part 1, she worked while sitting the passenger's seat of the car for the majority of the two days we were on the road so she was already productive before she even arrived in Florida. 

For her, it was a working weekend that kept her on the go for most of the 2 1/2 days we were there. I only attended two of the conference events so most of this post will be told from a 2nd hand view. I will also be adding my perspective on some things. So keep that in mind as you read. Let me start by setting the scene. 

We arrived at our hotel on International Drive about 3 o'clock on Friday. The Rosen Centre Hotel is a 4 star hotel that's across the street from the Orange County Convention Center. They are connected by way of a 2nd floor walkway. This is a top tier hotel in the Orlando area. Just minutes away from both Universal Studios Orlando and Sea World. 

Our room was really nice. One of the nicest rooms we've stayed in. 

The first conference session Paula was eligible to attend didn't start until 7. But she had find where to get on the shuttle to go from the Rosen Centre on International Drive to the Rosen Shingle Creek on Universal Blvd. That's where the conference activities were taking place. Also, she was supposed go to a meet-up with her Color Street mentor and others in her online group. 

After some minimal unpacking and a change of clothes my wife kissed me "good-bye" and headed out the door on her Color Street Conference adventure. 

She boarded the shuttle at the back of the hotel. As it turned out there were enough conference attendees staying at the Centre it warranted the shuttle vehicles were full size tour buses. The Rosen Shingle Creek hotel was only about 5 minutes away. 

When I saw my wife again it was close to midnight. She was back in our hotel room working on her phone. She was busy trying to get some the women in her FB group to book a Color Street party, aka a Nail Bar.

She wanted to do her part for a party booking challenge set for the stylists at the conference, by the leadership. If the goal was met there would be an exclusive reward. She even went live on Facebook to promote it. 

Despite being very tired from a long day, Paula was very excited about the first session. She told me some of the past year's growth stats the company executives had shared with all 4000 attendees. This is definitely a company on the move. 

It was after 1AM when she finally turned out the lights to get some rest. 

The 2nd day of the conference was another long one for Paula. This is the one day that I would be a part the conference; but not until later. She was up, dressed, and out of the room by 8 o'clock, Saturday morning. 

She made a quick stop at the "grab & go" market in the hotel, found a spot to do yet another quick "Facebook Live" and then headed for the shuttle. 

Let me just take a few lines to fill you in on an important fact. This was only the company's 3rd conference in the two years Color Street has been in business. The 4000 attendees at this year's convention was double the number who were at the Las Vegas event in 2018. 

Based on what I would witness at the pair of events I attended on Saturday night, it was almost too large a crowd for the hotel where it took place. More on that later. 

The first group session started at 9AM. After that came the Breakout sessions. These were training classes focusing on  growing as a Color Street stylist. 

About noon time, she sent me a text telling me that the room where lunch was being served was "a mad house and very hot". She ended up finding a place outside the main lunch room to sit and eat. 

After her afternoon Breakout session she went back to our hotel room. I was already there after my day's activities. I needed to rest a bit. I'll tell about my adventures later in this post series. 

By about 4:30 we had left the International Drive hotel and headed over to Shingle Creek for the evenings events. I would be Paula's "plus one"for the night. We were both dressed to the 9s. I was in a shirt and tie and Paula had on a very nice dress.

Unfortunately, caught up in the business of the night we never got anyone to take a picture of us. But Paula did manage to get a selfie while we were in the car.

Saturday night was the big night for the conference. There were 3 events planned. The first was a formal dinner. Imagine a room with over 4000 people, mostly women, sitting at round tables in groups of 10 all being served while socializing with each other. 

The small group Paula had connected with saved us a spot at one of the tables. It was at the back of the room near the doors and close to the hallway that led to the kitchen. 

I met a few of Paula's Color Street friends and associates. One of them was a young woman named Monica, wearing a sash with "Louisiana" printed on it. This was to recognize her as the top selling stylist in that state.
Here's a picture of her later in the evening on stage being recognized for her success by the company founder.

Paula was greeted by several other Color Street ladies that she knew. She also was invited to pose for a group picture with some of them. It was cool to see her be accepted into the group. Earlier in the day, she even got in on the group selfie.

Dinner was a "fine dinning" experience.  Each of the place settings on the table consisted of: a salad bowl, 3 drink glasses, 4 forks, a plate with a desert and a bread plate and a napkin.  

I almost never feel comfortable in this type of social situation. I just don't think I fit in. But this night was not about me. It was about Paula and celebrating her success. 

There were two things about this dinner that I found interesting to watch. First the mingling of Fa Park, Color Street's founder and CEO. He walked into the hall shortly after we sat down. In this crowd he is a rock star. The women went crazy trying to get a selfie with him. They just loved him. He tried to be as accommodating as he could be while still trying to get to be where he needed to be. 

The other thing was watching the constant movement and precision of the wait staff as they served the various courses and tended to the needs of the people at their table. I joked with the young lady that served our group about how much she had to do and how it kept her hopping. 

As I mentioned our table was the one closest to the kitchen. It was fun watching the wait staff parade in and out of the walkway with full and empty trays as they served each course. There was both chaos and precision at the same time throughout the dinner.  

After about 45 minutes to an hour it was time for everyone to leave the dinning room and head to the other side of the hotel for the evening group session. 

This, in and of itself, was an event. I'd call it a mass migration of close to 4000 elegantly dressed women, and a few men, moving as one big group. They walked up a set of stairs, crossing over to another set of stairs, after descending they walked another 200 to 300 yards to a ballroom. 

Being part of this transition was almost overwhelming. The best way I can describe it was that I felt like Mufasa in Disney's The Lion King when he was caught up in the wildebeest stampede. Because I had to walk so slow, Paula and I, had to stay to the side as much as possible to let the current of conference attendees pass us by. 

I'd never seen so many woman together in small groups traveling as one big progressive wave. The conclave consisted of women of every height, shape, size, age, and ethnicity you could imagine. I'd never seen so many types of people in one place at one time.

Perhaps it was the fact that they were all doing their best to be at their best that made it so remarkable. There was also a buzz of anticipation throughout the group as the evening session promised to be full the excitement of recognition of accomplishments and surprise announcements.

The session was scheduled to start about 7 o'clock but at 7:20 the doors to the hotel's largest meeting room were still closed. 

Eventually the doors opened and everyone filed in. By the time we found our way into the hall, we could only find seats on the end of a row of chairs that was as far from the main stage as possible. But there was a large screen set up in front of us so we would be able to see everything that went on. 

If our distance from the stage was the bad news the good news was that we were right beside the door where Fa Park entered the hall. Once again the stylists lost their minds. They crowded around to get selfies with him. You could tell that he was in his element and he did all he could to accommodate all the requests. But once again, he had business to take care of. 

Once the session started it lasted for over 2 hours. It was basically a combination of two things.

The theme of the conference was "Color Your World". In each session, women stood on stage or appeared on screen telling how Color Street had helped them improve their lives.
This evening session, was that way too. There were several video taped testimonials by stylists who made major changes in their lives with the help of Color Street.
A woman got up on stage and talked about her battle with her health and how the people she has met through Color Street have helped her deal with it. The other major order of the night was the recognition of the various levels of stylists based on their sales and success. 

This took up the majority of the time. I'm not exactly sure how many levels there were but each and every one of the women being recognized got to go up on stage and say their name and home state on camera and into the microphone. They would often be cheered loudly by those in the audience.

Now I totally understand that the people who were recognized worked really really hard to achieve the level for which they were being recognized. But from my perspective, I have to say for about 90 minutes it was watching the opening segment of the Miss America pageant. 

But looking at it through my wife's eyes, I could see the recognition parades as motivation to become more successful so that at next year's conference she could be up there. That would make me very proud too. 

The culmination of the recognition portion of the session was a special Color Street award. It was presented to C J Summers, a Color Street Executive Director.

But the moment every stylist in the session was waiting for came at the end of the night. The guy who is the top executive in charge of product development came on screen in a very clever and funny video. It was a parody of the song "Monster Mash" and it introduced the 2019 Color Street Halloween sets. 

This was one of the things, Paula was excited about. She was smiling and applauding when the video came on the screen. 

What made her even more excited was when it was announced that everyone was getting a gift bag with all the Halloween sets. I even got one. Of course, I gave it to my wife to use for promoting them to her nail bar members. 

After the Halloween set reveal the session was over. But the evening was to continue. There was a dance party back down in the room where dinner was served.

But at that point Paula and I were too tired to stay. We headed back to the hotel, picking up a snack at the "Grab N Go" in the lobby. My wife ended her 2nd day at the Color Street conference posting the news about the next day release of the Halloween sets to her Facebook group page. 

The final day for Paula at the 2nd annual Color Street conference really made her happy. 

The final session started at 9AM. Paula left our hotel room at 8. I stayed behind to check out. By 11:30, I was parked in the Shingle Creek hotel parking lot waiting for the session to be over, so we could start our journey home.

About noon, the mass exodus of conference attendees began pouring out of the hotel. I got into the pick-up lane to meet up with Paula.

She was very excited because as a result of the attending stylists collectively meeting the goal for the party booking challenge given them on Friday, she got another set of different nail strips. But what really made her smile was the pair of special gifts she found inside her swag bag: two really nice pieces of Color Street jewelry.

As my wife was admiring her new bling, she asked me a question. "Guess where we're going next year?" Before I could answer, she also told me. It was announced that the 2020 conference would be returning to the one in 2018, Las Vegas.

She was excited about getting to go to another conference. I was excited about going to a place that's only 4 hours away from Disneyland. The idea that getting to go to there is even a possibility makes me more excited than I could ever tell you. But more on that as the next conference gets closer.

We stopped at a really nice WaWa convenient store on International Drive to get some lunch before we got on FL 528 to head north.

Paula continued to work on her Color Street stuff all the way to our stop for the night, Macon, GA. She was tired. It had been a whirlwind weekend for her. But when I asked her she told me she was very very glad she decided to come to Orlando.

So there you have my take on what was Paula's experience at the 2019 Color Street Conference.

I will be continuing this post series next time. I have yet to share the details of my time in Orlando as well as our journey back to Kentucky. Thanks for reading this post. Be sure to come back again because, like the winner of the Superbowl, I'm going to Disney World.

  

  

Weekend In Orlando: Part 1

Planning and On The Road

The story of this post series begins back in June. Paula was in the initial stages of starting out as a nail stylist for Color Street.

One day she shares with me that the company is having a national conference and that she would be really interested in going. Then she told me it was in Orlando in August.

After considering all the factors involved and waiting for other a few other things to unfold, we made the final decision. We would to drive to Florida so Paula could attend the conference and I could have a couple of days to do whatever I wanted to in Orlando.

In past trips to the Sunshine State, we have traveled the 750+ miles in a single day to get the most out of our vacation time. But this time we decided that we would make the drive in two days.

We left about 9:45AM on Thursday morning. We had planned on leaving a bit earlier but both of us had some trouble sleeping the night before. It was important that we be as rested as possible before getting on the road.

Because of the conference session schedule, we had to make sure we were at our Orlando hotel by 3 o'clock on Friday. This meant we had to travel a little over 500 miles the first day.

We went through Nashville with almost no traffic issues. Soon we were heading toward Chattanooga.

I love driving 1-24 between Nashville and Chattanooga because of the drive through the steep hills near Monteagle. It's also the section where you leave go from Tennessee to Georgia and back to Tennessee. You also change time zones along this stretch.

Soon we were heading down I-75 toward Atlanta.

The only issue our late than expected departure caused in our trip was that we found ourselves in downtown Atlanta in the middle of rush hour.

It took us about 90 minutes to get through but once we did we headed down I-75 toward Macon on our way to Valdosta. 

Along the way my wife, was busy on her phone working on her Color Street Facebook group page, setting up the nail bars some of her customer's agreed to host, and watching training videos.

I was driving down the highway with Paula right next to me working in what was usually just a passenger seat but was now her mobile office space.

We pulled off I-75 and found the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Valdosta about 9PM. After checking in, making a quick run to Walmart for some necessary supplies, and getting something to eat at a Wendy's drive thru it was after 10:30 before we closed the door of room 505 for the night.

This day turned out to be a lot longer than we anticipated but stopping for the night 2/3 of the way to Orlando made the drive a lot easier.

We got up the next day and headed down I-75 once again. It was about 9 when we left. Our day got off to a bit of a rocky start. A la We locked ourselves out of our room while checking out. I had to go down to the lobby and get a spare key so we could get the rest of our stuff out of the room. We still ended up leaving a fan that we had just bought the night before.

Once back on the road we had about 260 miles to get to Orlando. It took us about 4 hours. It was not a bad drive at all despite a light to moderate rain most of the way.

This is where I'll stop for part 1 of this series. In the next post I will share with you the busy weekend my wife had attending the conference. It was a bit exhausting but if you ask her it was well worth it. Come back for the details I'll share in "Weekend In Orland: Part 2". 

Comedy & Construction

Hey everyone. Thanks for coming by the first Yankee Near Nashville blog post for this week. 

After a long weekend in Florida, I have a lot of things to share with you in an upcoming post series. But before I do that I want to share an experience and an observation from the first half last week. 

On the night of Tuesday, August 13, I went to Zanies comedy club in Nashville. I went to see some of the students from from the Rik Roberts' School Of Laughs, graduate from the performance class by doing their stand-up on stage. 

Now I've been to almost half a dozen of these types of performances over the last several years but this one was different. For the first time I knew one of the students who would be performing. 

June Colson, has been pursuing a stand-up comedy for the past 3 years. She is a member of the Christian Comics Association. Her comedy is actually more of a ministry than it is a career. She is a very dedicated and funny writer and performer. 

I have known June for long time. She and I went to the same church for quite a while. When I found out she was taking Rik's classes, I promised her that when she graduated, I'd come see her perform. 

She was very glad to see me and insisted on taking a selfie to mark the occasion.

 She told me she was a little nervous because it was the first time she'd performed in a comedy club. Most of her appearances are church engagements where she combines comedy with motivational speaking. 

But she had no reason to be nervous. She was very funny. Telling jokes about everything from having teenage sons to the perils of being a kindergarten teacher. 

The other members of the class were funny too. The stand outs for me were a couple of older guys who showed me that it's never too late to try stand-up. The stand out performance was the last. A woman sang the 12 days of Christmas impersonating the styles of a dozen different singers. She was really good. But overall it was a very good group of first timers. 

 Congratulations to all of them. I wish them luck in whatever way they use their comedy training. 

I don't really like to mention the name of the small town where I live on this blog but I have to share with you what's happening around here these days. 

The town's population is between 700 & 800 residence. It is about 2 miles from end to end. But for such a small community, over the last year or so there has been a lot of building and construction going on. 

On Main Street across from the town's only hotel (although there is a bed and breakfast) and next to the truck stop, is this building. It's been under construction for close to a year or more. Not sure what it's going to be or when it will be done. But at least there has been considerable progress lately. 

Across the street from this one with a rather large footprint, is the site of what will be the new Speedway Cafe convenience store. 

Paula and I stopped at a Speedway Cafe on our way to Florida last weekend. If this one is going to be like it, that will be a great addition to our town.

Off Main Street on the same road that the Speedway is being built is a couple of construction projects right next to each other.  You can see that the set of buildings in the back are apartments. The one in the foreground appears to be two buildings. One an office and the other some kind of warehouse or garage. I'll probably only find out after it's finished.   

The most recent project I have seen is closer to where I live, at the other end of Main Street. It appears that a home moving company is getting a house ready to be relocated. 

Now I've come to my neighborhood. Over the last 18 months or so, a local contractor has built 2 houses on the empty lot directly next to where I live. 
In addition, behind my house, a home has been demolished and there are two new ones being built. 

The area directly behind our backyard has been cleared of trees and brush and a stone driveway has been laid down to allow access to the houses being built back there. 

 Also, at the end of our block, there's another new house being built. 

So once these houses are completed it looks like our once quiet and roomy neighborhood will be quite full. Not exactly something we're thrilled with. But who knows it might be nice to have some new neighbors. Maybe there will be some kids for my grandchildren to play with. You never know. 

So there you have a couple of things I wanted to share with you. 

I'd like to hear what you think about these things. Do you like going to comedy clubs or do you stream comedy specials at home? 
Who do you find funny? 

How do you feel about the building of new places or homes in your area? 

Feel free to leave a comment or message me on Facebook. 

For my next post I will be starting my series sharing with y'all what we did on our trip to Florida this past weekend. 

Also remember that the finals of the SOKY's Got Talent competition is this Saturday, August 24 at 7PM. It will be at the SKYPAC building in Bowling Green, KY. 

I would love to see any and all of you there. You can get tickets at TheSKYPAC.com. 

If you can't be there any and all prayers and crossed fingers would be appreciated. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I'll get back to you again soon. 

The Saddest Call

On Friday, August 20, 1999, exactly 20 years ago today, I was working at my job in Bowling Green, KY.

I had moved there in March to be closer to Paula, who is now my wife, and start the next chapter in my life. 

A month earlier in July, I had been home to visit my father at our family home. He was under hospice care after battling brain and lung cancer for almost a year and a half. 

About 10 o'clock that morning, I got a call from home. I picked up the phone and heard the grieving sobs of my mother. "Ronnie, He's gone" she sobbed. 

Although I had known he was in his final days hearing those words from mom was devastating. 

Trying to hold back the tears and do my best to comfort her, I assured mom that Dad was now in heaven and we would all see him again some day. 

I also assured her that I would be home to be with her and the rest of the family as soon as I could get there. 

After I hung up the phone, I tried as best as I could to have a private moment at my desk. I let out the emotion I was feeling when a song came on the radio on my desk. 

I was listening to the local country station and the song was by Collin Raye. It was about a grandson seeing his grandfather grieve at the loss of the love of his life. 

The song was so fitting for that moment it time that even 2 decades later when I hear it, I well up with grief and my heart aches again as I miss both my dad and my mom. 

Over the last 20 years I have missed my dad more times than I can count. He and my mom were "reunited" in 2003. Now they share the reward of living a life together in which they served their savior, Jesus Christ, in the best way they could.  

To this day, hearing that song makes me tear up with sadness. I miss them both very much. 

As a way of remembering both my parents today, on the 20th anniversary of the death of my dad below is the link to the video of that song.  

Love Me by Collin Raye

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and allowing me the opportunity to remember the saddest call. 

In-Between Days

I'm gonna start this blog post with a little bit of trivia about the calendar that you may or may not already know. 

If you look at the names of two of the last few months of the year you'll notice there's some issue with their names. The 10th month begins with "Oct", which means "eight" as in octopus or octagon.  The 12th month starts with "Dec" with means ten as in decade. 

Why are the numbers in these month 2 off? Well, thank the Romans. They took the Greek calendar and added two months in honor of their most popular emperors, Julius Cesar and August Cesar. That's why we have July and August. Now you know. On with today's post.  

The month of August is a transitional month for us near Nashville. Here in the south the school year starts in the first week of August.

Then there are all the residual community changes that go along with the return to class as well. Public pools and amusement parks only open on weekends or close all together. Libraries change their hours and businesses near the college campus come back to life. Of course, the biggest factor is slower traffic due to school buses and speed zones. 

Several members of my family both here in Kentucky, and in Pennsylvania, celebrate birthdays in August. Also, sadly, there are days that we honor the memory of some family members we said "good-bye" in years past.

Where I grew up, August was always the month that the weather began to change. Fall weather previews would come through during the last half of the month. Not so here in Kentucky, summer continues well into October. 

But the 8th month of 2019 has just started so I'm going to share with you what the first week was like for me.

Not a very note worthy week around here. I spent most of the time at home. When I did go out it was to do your "normal" everyday things like: grocery shopping, dropping off mail at the USPS, returning something to Sam's Club, you know stuff like that. 

I did take Monday afternoon to go to Nashville to buy a new jacket to wear in the Soky's Got Talent finals. I'll be showing you that soon. Other than the clothes shopping and a stop at Target store it was an relatively uneventful trip. 

Here at home, my days were filled with mostly everyday tasks: putting the house back in order after the grand children's weekend visit, loading the dishwasher, laundry, filing and shredding bills, statements and other paperwork, ect.  

The residual happiness from advancing in the talent show over the weekend was also part of my week. I got plenty of "congrats" and encouraging words on social media. I thank everyone for those. I have already prepared a couple of new jokes for the final round coming up in about 2 weeks. 

Right now, and until then, I find myself looking back at my best public performance in 5 years and looking forward to giving even better example of what Cecil and I do, in the finals. 

In the middle of that waiting is a long weekend trip for my wife's business. It has the potential to, not only help her grow and succeed as a Color Street stylist, but could effect the way we travel far distances in the future. 

I know that last part is a little cryptic but I promise to share the details once we get back. 

My point in mentioning all of that is this. It's difficult for me do anything but look ahead. I'm kind of like a kid at Christmas time. I'm counting the number of "sleeps" until we leave for our trip and the night of the SOKY's GT finals.  

Because we are all encouraged, especially on social media, to make the most of each day, I must assure you, I am not just sitting around watching the calendar. 

In addition to the things I listed earlier, I am working on some of my hobbies: building Lego sets, organizing and cataloging my music library, getting back to recording my "Rewind" shows. 

Also, I've been enjoying the latest season of NBC's America's Got Talent and the amazing season the New York Yankees are having. At this point I don't have any idea just what the results of either are going to be. But its really fun going along for the ride. 

Now I know, just like an episode of "Seinfeld" this post has mostly been about "nothing". But it really does paint an accurate picture of what these first few days of August have been like for this "Yankee". 

Thanks for being a faithful reader of my blog. While life for me is in a bit of a holding pattern in just a few days I'll have plenty to write about and share with you. Till then I'll just get through the "in-between" days. 

Capitol Success

Hey everyone. By now a lot of you have read the results of the story I'm about to share. I'm referring to the night I spent as a participant in the Semi-Finals of the SOKY's Got Talent competition. The event was held at the Capitol Arts Theater on the square in Bowling Green, KY. 

As you may already know, almost no one can tell a longer story than me. There are so many details about that night I will always remember.  

But for the sake of keeping your attention I'm only going to share those that directly relate to my time on stage. 

After attending the mid afternoon sound check, I returned to the theater at 6 PM, an hour before the show started.

Most of the evening was spent waiting in the the Capitol's "green room". It was about a 10x30 ft room painted a shade of yellow that reminded me of a 1950s kitchen. 

There were chairs set up along one side and about a dozen around two 6 ft long tables in the center. Off the left side of the room was a small dressing room and the men's bathroom. The ladies room was on the other side. 

Although I was calm and quiet most of that time (I calmed my nerves by listening to the broadcast of Yankees/Red Sox game on my phone) the room was a beehive of activity. The 19 other acts were either quietly rehearsing, talking to each other or being ushered up onto the stage. 

My wife had come to the show by herself and I text with her a bit before it all started. 

I was lucky enough to be the 5th act to go on stage. There were only 7 entries in my age group of 36 or older, which made up the majority of the first half of the show. 

When I got to the wings of the stage I was a little nervous but very focused. 

The first advantage I had was that the lady before me wasn't not one of the best singers in the competition. 

Once out on stage, because of the lights I couldn't see beyond the first couple of rows. 

I got the audience involved, right away, by having them help me call Cecil out of his shell. I started with a joke that's always gotten a laugh. It worked. Those two things helped me realize that the audience was with me. 
Here's a pic of me on stage. Because of the lighting, the quality is not that great but it is me. 

That first laugh helped me relax and really get into the "Just have fun" mode. 

A new joke got another laugh and soon it was time to start singing. By then I really was having fun. 

As Cecil had requested, the crowd clapped along for most of the song. By the time I was done with that last long note they were all with me. As applause accompanied my exit, I realized that I had made an impression. 

Pleased with my performance, I soon realized that the uniqueness of my act would help me stand out in the judges' minds. 

It was upbeat and light hearted. Compared to most of the others in my group who sang relatively slow songs, I was memorable.  

While waiting for the rest of the acts to do their thing on stage, I posted this picture on Facebook. 

After a little more than another 90 minutes in the green room, it was time to return to the wings for the announcement of the acts who would make the finals. 

Without knowing for sure just how many acts would advance, I was very nervous while waiting. When the names of two other acts were announced, I was sure I'd missed out. But then I heard my name called. I proudly walked out on the stage. I was a SOKY's GT finalist. 

I'm not a very demonstrative person so I didn't jump for joy or anything but all the while I stood there on stage I couldn't help but smile proudly. 

There were 7 other finalists announced after me bringing the total act advancing from the night, to 10. It was a lot more than I thought there would be. But that didn't matter. I had made it to the next level. I was going to get to perform on the SKYPAC stage. 

After the finalists and all the other contestants posed for pictures, the show was over. 

I retrieved Cecil from the wings and stepped off the stage. I met up with Paula who was still standing near her seat. She congratulated me with a hug. As we walked up the aisle, several other exiting audience members told me how much they enjoyed my performance as well. 
It was a very special moment for me. I was on top of the world.

We picked up a pizza for supper and headed home. 

Paula posted the news of my success on Facebook and I got a lot of congratulations. Thanks to all those who sent kind words.

So now, I am one of 20 finalist and will perform once again on Saturday August 24th, 7PM at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center. 

I've got 3 weeks to come up with a couple new jokes and get better at singing my song.  

For those who live in the area, I invite all my family and friends to come support me in the finals.
Tickets will be on sale soon. Check here to get yours. 
SOKY's Got Talent Website

I'm not sure if I'm going to win but I'll do my best. See you there. 

  

  






Thank you for all your congratulations and best wishes. 

BINGO & Me

Welcome back to Yankee Near Nashville blog everybody.
It's been an exciting week with getting ready for SOKY's Got Talent semi-finals and going to the open house at my granddaughter's school being among the highlights. But I'll have more on the talent competition next week. 

Let's start out this post with a song. 
𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮The was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o. 
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o𝅘𝅥𝅮

At one time or another during childhood, everyone has had fun clapping along to that one. 

I've used it to introduce the subject of this post, how BINGO has part of my life and soon will be again.

While I was growing up, going out to play Bingo was something my parents did for fun; especially my mom. She would go with her friends and family members an average of 2 to 3 nights a week. There was a Bingo game, somewhere in the Easton/Phillipsburg area, where I grew up, almost every night. The "circuit" included: The Harmony Township fire house, St. Peter & Paul's Catholic church, The Castel Club, The Elks Club, The Eagles Club and a few more I can't remember. 

Mom loved going to Bingo. She had her own "kit" that she took with her each night. It included a plastic bowl that once held a pound of margarine; but was now filled with colored plastic translucent circular Bingo chips. She also had several bottles filled with colored ink used to daub on cards to mark the numbers.   

As a kid under 10 years old I often asked to go along with my mom. But of course I was too young. I spent a good portion of my childhood determined to "go to Bingo" the day I turned 16. 

For years I could only imagine what it was like at Bingo nights until the magic world of television changed that. In the early 70s our local cable company started a public access channel on a closed circuit. 

One of the programs they offered was a play-at-home Bingo game. Viewers could play by going to one or all of the show's sponsors once a week to get playing cards. Twice a week from 4 to 6 in the afternoon,  the host, a local radio personality named Charlie Weaver, would get on the air and call numbers. If a viewer got a BINGO they called in to the studio, had their card verified and were declared the winner. Of course, in between calling numbers, there were commercials featuring the sponsors who furnished the prizes. 

My mom was a "super fan" of this Bingo show. On the weekends, she would have my dad drive her around to the sponsors to get her cards. She collected as many as she could and would play them all. 
At times she had enough cards to cover the tops of two 4x4 card tables. This was way too many for her to play herself.  

Being anxious to be a part of my mom's passion for Bingo, at 11 years old, I jumped at the chance to be her partner in the game. I remember having so much fun playing together. Occasionally, she won a smaller prize by getting a simple straight line BINGO but I don't remember her ever winning the big cash prize for getting cover all.  

I was obsessed with the TV broadcast. Every time I helped mom play I would imagine myself as the host of the show. I thought calling BINGO numbers on TV was even cooler than being a radio DJ.

I started asking for my own Bingo game set. In December for Christmas, I got a small kid sized version. Once I got it, I spent quite a bit of time in my bedroom playing as host of my own imaginary Bingo TV show.  

I know that might sound kind of strange but it came right in between the days I spent in my room"announcing" the roller derby games I played with my Hot Wheels cars and talking over the intro of records using my DJ record player/sound system. The best Christmas gift my parents ever gave me. I got it when I was 15. So you see there was a pattern.  

By the time I was well into my teens, the cable channel Bingo game was history and I wasn't the least bit interested in hanging out with my parents on their BINGO nights. 

Besides that, they had replaced going out to BINGO with weekend nights hosting or going to relative's homes to play Pokeno. 

It's a game like BINGO but the numbered balls are replaced by a deck of cards. Also an element of small time gambling was part of it. 
Players would ante up a penny in each of about half a dozen cups. They would win those pennies when they covered the same poker hands on their cards (four of a kind, full house, four corners, middle space, ect.) that were written on the cups. A straight line Pokeno on the card ended the game. 

My Parents kept their stash of Pokeno pennies in a small plastic bank shaped like a jug with a cute little poem on it. 

Here's a sample Pokeno card. 

Getting together on Pokeno nights became an important activity for our extended family, friends and neighbors. While the adults and older kids played the game, the younger kids got to just hang out and have fun together. This family tradition quickly became a multi-generational activity that still happens from time to time, today. 

Okay, now we make a time jump over several decades. It is now 2001 and I am 40 years old, living in south central Kentucky. 

Paula, then my fiance, won a prize from a local radio station for a free package at a Midnight BINGO game in a hall set up in the old mall in Bowling Green.  

On Saturday, February 23, we decided to make our weekly date night one to play all night BINGO. 

The session started at midnight. We played for 4 hours but didn't call "BINGO" once. I did answer a trivia question that won us a free pizza from Godfather's pizza. 

On our way home at 5 in the morning we went through the drive-thru at Krystal to get some burgers. 

It was a very memorable night. I preserved the memories of that BINGO experience in my 2001 yearbook. Here's the page I created with reminders of that night. 

BINGO came back into my life again a few years later in 2005 when Paula and I helped out with a fund raiser for James' high school football booster club. 

The event was a country fair set up with booths that had various activities and games to play. One of the games was BINGO. I was asked to be the caller. Given my history, you know I jumped at the chance. 

I called the numbers and gave away a variety of prizes along the way. The final big prize (I don't remember what it was) was to be awarded when someone got "Cover All".   

When the game finally ended there were only 2 numbers left in the wire cage. I took them out to make sure that all the numbers were there before I put the set back in the box. 

That's when I saw a ball in the grass just under the table. I quickly realized that I had played the entire game with one number missing. 
As I quickly picked it so hoping no one would notice, I realized something ironic. The number I had dropped was the same as James' uniform number, 51. 

Let's jump forward again to just last year. My wife, Paula, was building up her wardrobe with clothes from a line by LuLaRoe. 

One of the sales reps that she bought from on a regular basis, rewarded customers by sending them a BINGO card with each purchase. 
Then once a month she would go on Facebook live and play a game of BINGO with all her customers. 

Paula usually had quite a few cards. So many in fact that she needed my help to play. Over the course of 2018, we spent several nights playing BINGO with a LuLaRoe dealer out in San Diego, CA. In these games, Paula actually won a couple of pretty nice prizes. 

I've written all of this to show you how much BINGO has been a part of my life so far. Now its coming back once again. 

This Sunday night as part of her Color Street Facebook group, Paula's Nail Haven, I will be helping my wife play a live game of BINGO. 

We have purchased a very nice game set to use. 

  I am excited about this. The game will begin at 7:30 PM Central Daylight Time this Sunday night. 

If you would like to play, you can do so by requesting to join Paula's Facebook Group. Here's the link: Paula's Nail Haven

Request to join, answer the 3 questions to complete your invite, and then request a BINGO card. I will send you one through PM. You have up until an hour before the game starts to do so. 

So there you have a brief personal history and stories when it comes to BINGO. Hope you enjoyed at least some of them. 

Have a great weekend and I will be back on Monday with the next Yankee Near Nashville blog post.  





LuLaroe Bingo
Color Street Bingo Game