and now a story from Nashville, that will explain the current picture caption on my flickr. Saturday afternoon, Trey and I took a ride over to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which btw, is awesome. I had been back in 2003 and Trey as a lifelong resident of the Nashville metro area, had never been. The current rotating exhibit was for Ray Charles and his connection with country music, which was a lot more than I had ever known. On the way into the HOF, we saw some tents set up where some food lines were being put together. I thought since the Titans were playing that night, that all of it had something to do with a company renting out some space and promoting stuff. How wrong we were. What awaited us outside will forever stay with us.
We emerged from the HOF (the building in the background of the picture), with our John Wayne coffee mugs to find the entire area blanketed with people dressed in country garb.
We had parked two blocks away on the other side of this giant crowd of people, so we calmly walked underneath the caution tape and through the crowd. We weren’t going to try to get any of the food or anything, because we didn’t know what exactly was going on. We asked one of the first event staff people we saw and the discussion went like this:
Trey: What is all this?
Event Staffer (looking for a badge on us then not seeing one): How’d you get back here?
Trey: We’re not trying to get food, we just want to know what’s going on?
Event Staffer: I can’t tell you. Keep walking.
Two seconds later as we walk away these two ladies and a guy come up to us. The first lady looks at us and whispers “I can tell you the secret.” I whispered back “What is it?” She told us the organization was what we thought at the time Shockley. I think she was expecting us to know what it was. When we looked at her like we didn’t, she said they were the biggest health product in the country. Again, blank stares. She then gave us her card with her info on it. Apparently whatever she was selling has been featured on Oprah. We told her we wouldn’t tell anyone, but she said “TELL EVERYONE!”
After they left, we continued walking still not knowing what the hell was going on. Trey still had to know, so he found a guy with a badge and several ribbons (apparently a successful employee). As Trey walked up, I saw the guy look for a badge on Trey. I stood in the street and took the above picture and I thought someone was going to come accost me for taking it. Anyway, the conversation with Trey and the guy goes as follows (if Trey is reading this, feel free to correct me buddy!)
Trey: Hey, what is all this?
Guy in Black Cowboy Shirt: Shockley….we’re having our convention in Nashville this year and it’s a country theme. Last year they rented out AT&T park in Frisco and it was a baseball theme.
Trey: So do you guys all work for Shockley?
Guy in BCS: Well, not exactly, we’re all our own independent contractors.
Trey: OH! So it’s like Avon!
Guy in BCS: uhh…well
Trey (walking away): Thanks! Bye!
He comes back and as we walk to the other side of the block tells me of the exchange. We get to the other side where there’s a policeman guarding the other side of the ‘convention chow wagon area’. He asks us where we came from, because obviously we didn’t have badges. We told him we just walked under the caution tape on the other side, and how we had been at the Country HOF. Trey recaps the exchange with the first lady. The cop laughs and says “Well, you’re really not supposed to be back here. Where are y’all from?” I said “here. We’re just walking back to the truck.” He laughed again and said “well, y’all have a nice day then”. We wished him the same and drove home.
I guess that’s what we get for not watching enough Oprah.
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