Growing up, I always knew about the Grand Ole Opry and what it stood for in country music. I couldn’t tell you where or when I learned of it… its just something that I always knew and respected.
When I visited Nashville as a tourist and country music fan back in 1997, we made sure to visit the Ryman Auditorium and catch a showing of the Grand Ole Opry out at the Opry House before we left. It was a total highlight of the trip. We (my parents and I) went to see the OPRY.
Almost ten years later, my parents and I were back at the Opry… this time we were there to see my husband perform with the artist he was working for at the time. We all kept laughing and I was going, “Who knew it would be ten years before we came back… and that we’d be here to see my HUSBAND!” It was a total surreal, pinch yourself, evening.
I hoped deep down that some day I’d get to be backstage of the Opry, but none of the artists my husband played for ever had room on the guest list for me to get to go. And that was okay! I didn’t even ask after the first couple of tries. I finally got to see the backstage of the Opry when I took a tour with a friend visiting from out of town. As we walked around backstage, I marveled at it all. These were the halls where so many music greats had walked. There was so much history there!
A few years later, my husband went to work for an artist that suddenly DID have room on their guest list. I still remember pinching myself as I walked into the “Artist’s Entrance” of the Grand Ole Opry. I found great amusement in the fact that I was wearing the heels I had bought to wear to my Senior prom that night. Oh how far they had come!
I soaked it all in… every sight, smell and sound. There was my name on security’s list as an approved visitor. I found myself standing beside some of country’s greats, many smiling and nodding as you passed in the hallway. This couldn’t be real! I was dreaming, right? I was amazing! More than I could have ever asked for it to be.
The May 2010 flood broke my heart into a million pieces when photos of the Opry House underwater came out. I felt like someone has punched me in the stomach to see so much water covering such a special area.
When the remodeling was done, I was itching to see all that had been done. When the opportunity came to do so, I was ecstatic to find it warmer, a little bit “fancier” but still completely true to the Grand Ole Opry’s essence. Everyone was just so happy to be back. I found myself in a fabulous conversation with a long-time Opry member in the bathroom as we exclaimed over how pretty it all was. We laughed at how they switched the men’s and women’s restrooms in the remodel, and we both wondered how many people would go into the wrong room out of habit. (I’m STILL almost making this mistake!)
Any time I get the chance to visit the Opry, it feels like getting a great big hug. It’s a place I feel so lucky and honored to get to visit, but it’s also a place that’s come to feel like another family. I savor every second I am there, knowing that there is never REALLY a guarantee that the opportunity to come back will be there. Life is funny that way, and I never just assume there will be a “next time.” But, for as long as I get to go, it’s one of those really cool “perks” of being a Road Widow (at least in the country music genre). One of those moments where you go, “This life really is pretty darn cool.”
Road Widows
Chris B.
imacrewwife
Nise
lindsyr
