Calling all Geezers

As a kid I use to tag along with my Grandmother and Grandfather on trips down through the Kentucky and Tennessee mountains. Usually our destingation was Nashvill Tn. also any place that might have a sugar cured ham. My Grandfather loved them. We never used road maps, and almost always traveled on old dusty back roads because that is where the south lived. One day as we had just finished lunch by the side of the road under a big Oak tree, we saw an old wooden body school bus setting at an intersection about 1/4 mile away. They set there quite a while with out moving. We saw several men walking about. We drove our old Model A down where they were to see what was wrong. A tall man came up to our car and explained his bus quit running, he thought it needed a new fuel pump. Grandpa told him to jump in the back seat with me and we would take him to the nearest gas station to see if he could find a fuel pump. We talked and soon learned his name was Eddie Arnold. He was not the big star yet that he later became, but he had records out and was on the radio and Grand Ole Opry frequently. We were most happy to meet him. We got the fuel pump and took him back to the old bus setting way out in the hills. The installed the pump and after some primming the Ford roared to life. The whole Eddie Arnold Band was in the bus and what a great bunch of guys they were. They gave Grandpa a record they had in the bus. Later he became a huge star, and Grandpa kept that record until the day he died. We made it eventually to Nashvill, visited Ernest Tubbs record shop, the Ryman Auditorium, caught the Grand Ole Opry and then headed back to Indiana again by the old dusty back roads. On the way we would stop and talk to local folks, squirrel hunters, farmers in the fields, folks setting on their front porches, try that today. Vacations were fun and the journey was the best part of it.