Grand Ol Opry Hotel

Coming Soon for July 31

THE COUNCIL ON AGING OF ETOWAH COUNTY will present a free presentation, Health & Wellness: The Role Diet Plays in Staying Healthy. Schedule of times and places of meetings follows: 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Thursday, Attalla Recreation Center; 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., Aug. 9, George Wallace Senior Center; 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., Aug. 11, Elliott Community Center; 10:15 a.m,. to 11:15 a.m., Aug. 16, Hokes Bluff Senior Center; 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Aug. 18, Regency Point-A.L. Multipurpose Room; 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Aug. 22,Starnes Park; noon to 1 p.m., Aug. 24, Baptist Retirement Village; 10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., Aug. 25, Lookout Mountain Senior Center. Refreshments will be served.

HOKES BLUFF HIGH SCHOOL will have locker sales and parking spaces on Aug. 9 on the following schedule: seniors, 8 a.m.; juniors, 9:30 a.m.; sophomores, noon; and freshmen, 1:30 p.m. Lockers and parking spaces are $20 each. School starts Aug. 15.

Relay for Life will be from 6 p.m. Aug. 12 until 6 a.m. Aug. 13 at CrossPoint Community Church in Gadsden. Visit www.relayforlife.org/etowah for more information.

NORTHEAST ALABAMA COLLEGE OF THEOLOGY will have orientation and registration at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 15 at United Christian Church, 2818 Sansom Avenue, Gadsden. The first day of class is Sept. 12. All classes will be held on Monday nights.

NATIONAL HONEY BEE AWARENESS DAY will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 20 at Attalla City Park. For information, call David Kelton, 256-523-4767.

THE FAMILY SUCCESS CENTER will honor Judge Wayne Owen as the first recipient of the Spirit of Citizenship Award for Etowah County. A banquet and roast will be at 6 p.m. Aug. 23 at the Senior Activity Center, 623 Broad St. Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased at the Family Success Center, a United Way Agency, 821 East Broad St. Call Marie Johnson, 256-547-6888, ext. 111, for reservations. Tables of eight may be reserved.

ETOWAH GOLDEN CLUB (ETOWAH HIGH SCHOOL) has its annual reunion Aug. 20 at Gadsden Convention Center. Members of graduating classes from 1934 to this year's honoree class of 1961 will be present. Anyone who has not been contacted and has been out of school for 50 years or more can call Wayne Bynum, 205-237-4917, or mail contact information to him at 960 Alabama Ave., Oneonta, AL 35121.

GLENCOE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1981 30-YEAR REUNION will be from 7 p.m. to midnight Oct. 8, and will include dinner and music by a DJ at the Gadsden Country Club. If you are in this class and have not received a letter with information and questionnaire, it's because organizers don't know how to contact you. Organizers would like to include as many of our classmates as possible. Please call Linda Morris at 256-492-0456 and leave a message or email lindagmorris@hotmail.com . Also,If you have information about anyone from that year, please contact Morris.

Camerasutra » Nashville

After living in our tiny camper all summer, the upgrade to hotel rooms has been a luxury on this leg of the trip.  The addition of dogs and midwest summer heat would have made sleeping in the Westy very unpleasant.  Without air conditioning, we spend most of the day perspiring, so the shower and air conditioning feel amazing at night.

For our night in Nashville, we found some discounts through Hotels.com on a true luxury hotel.  So, tonight we’re movin’ on up from the Drury Inn to the very fancy Hutton Hotel.  We’re talking free espresso in the hallways, a completely clear sink and personalized doggy bags for all four legged guests.

Another reason we chose the Hutton is because it advertised itself as only a mile from the Grand Ole Opry.  Its always been a dream to see this historic country music venue and what better night to be there than a Saturday night.  So, after a delicious dinner at the very upscale 1808 Grill on the ground floor of our hotel, we grabbed a cab over to see the show.

Little did we know that the Grand Ole Opry we had purchased tickets for is not the Grand Ole Opry that we thought it was.  In fact, they should call it the Grand Ole Opry Ride cause it feels straight out of Disney World.  First off, it is about a $30 cab ride out to Opry Mills Mall.  We arrived for the late show as throngs of tourists moved past us on our way towards an enormous building with over-sized guitars and people from all walks of life.  Since the doors were not yet open for the show, we stopped in the gift shop and purchased a Grand Ole Opry ornament for our tree.  It seemed overpriced until I noticed the sticker advertising 100% brass.

The show itself is crazy.  Little Jimmy Dickens comes out to start things off.  At 90 years old, he can’t be anymore than about 4 feet tall.  There was something very circus-like about the fact that he is still performing there.  I got this creepy feeling that they keep him locked up backstage and only let him out on Saturday’s to perform.  I’m might start a Free Jimmy Dickens fund-raising campaign….please contribute whatever you can.

The should call the Grand Ole Opry the One Hit Wonder Hour.   It is composed of several acts of artists, some who have a current song on the radio and many more that had a song on the radio prior to the invention of television.  When Jon Conlee came out and sang Rose Colored Glasses (while wearing rose colored glasses), a woman four rows in front of us had to be resuscitated.  Every 10 minutes the announcer comes on and reads a commercial and then a US Bank commercial plays on the big screens.  I assumed at $40 per ticket, we could skip the commercials….guess not.  I felt bad for being bored until I noticed the 75 year old woman in front of us checking her Facebook…shame on her.

The Grand ole opry, the making of an American icon

Billboard

Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain, Tales of Romance and Tragedy

Billboard

Billboard