More than a Memory

A couple of days before Christmas, Fred asked me what cd's I might like to have in my stocking. I told him that I would make him a list. Well, I never got around to it. Christmas morning, I found a couple of cd's in my stocking. One of them was Garth Brooks' Ultimate Hits cd.

Yesterday morning, as I was driving into work, I was listening to this cd. As I listened to Garth's voice singing "More than a Memory," I had my own memories that began to surface. I talked it over with my friend at work and we decided that we are ready to go public with our very humiliating story. Initially, we kept it pretty much to ourselves. I don't think he told anyone at all and I only told a handful of people.

Cody and I attended a Wal-Mart Doctor's meeting in Nashville. After we had spent several days manning Nouveau's booth, we were rewarded by getting to attend a bbq, dance, cocktail function. As we sat down to eat, our Account Director, Greg, came by and told us that he saw Garth Brooks. I think I replied something like "Shut Up!" He assured me that he was very serious and had me follow him.

To my amazement I saw Garth and Trisha Yearwood mingling with the Wal-Mart and Sam's doctors. Just mingling - not at a booth - not at a table. Just walking around talking to people. There were several people that called their spouses and Garth talked with them over the phone. Here is the crazy part of this story. I am not a big Garth Brooks fan. I like a lot of his songs. I also dislike a lot of his songs. And, when I say dislike, I mean that I would rather pull my hair out than listen to it. For instance, the song "Shameless" is like nails on a chalkboard for me. There are some of his songs that I absolutely love, though. I also hate his stage mannerisms. I always thought it was obnoxious when he would smash the guitars on stage.

All of that being said, Cody and I started to stalk the man. I discovered that I didn't have my camera in my purse. I gave Cody all of my cash and sent him out into the Gaylord Opryland hotel to buy a completely overpriced disposable camera. Cody and I lined up to get our picture made with Garth and Trisha. I just giggled and thanked them for letting me get my picture made. I think Cody must have been all of 2 years old when Garth Brooks first hit it big. He spend an extended amount of time telling Garth about how he remembered the first time that he heard one of his songs.

Cody & I are now excited and have that feeling of euphoria because we just met someone famous. Greg had found someone high up at Wal-Mart and asked if our Garth and Trisha were the real deal. Sadly, the answer was no. They were impersonators. I felt deflated and robbed of my wonderful evening. Then I realized that there were tons of people that truly thought that they had met Garth and Trisha. Maybe that was better. They were still feeling the euphoria of having met someone famous.

Cody and I waited anxiously to look at the pictures that we took with "Garth and Trisha." It stood to reason that once people saw how close they looked to the real deal that we wouldn't look so stupid. The pictures came back and Garth and Trisha looked as fake as the day is long. In "the moment," they looked so real. The flash on the camera definitely highlighted the fact that they weren't real. So now you know why I've never talked about meeting Garth and Trisha.