We saw most of the Governor's speech Thursday evening at the fair, but the parade had run a little late, and I could see we were in danger of not getting a seat in the grandstand, to see Charlie Daniels. And in fact, we did end up pretty high and far away; but with the big screens on each side of the stage, we got to see the show anyhow.
A little way behind us were some guys in a real party mood, buying those $5 beers from the vender like they were going out of style. They cheered and whistled for the canned music that was playing before the concert. One man had an ear-splitting whistle that Monica wasn't too fond of, and she kept giving him dirty looks. I wondered if they'd ruin the whole thing for us, but really, they didn't. The noisiest one must have been a real hard-core Charlie Daniels fan, because when the show started, he seemed to be familiar with every word of every song. And every once in a while, we'd get that loud whistle! I kid you not, he was buying beers (did I mention they were $5 apiece?) four at a time, setting them on the bench in front of him, and chugging them down.
Old redneck Charlie is OK, although he never was a favorite of mine; I do like "Long-haired Country Boy", from thirty years ago. He leaned a bit toward rock music on the instrumentals, and the girls got bored at times. But then he did a number where he dueled each instrument in the band with his fiddle, and that got us all perked up. It was great fun, and went on quite a while.
Charlie announced that he was going to sing "a song of praise to my Lord and my God" and led into "How Great Thou Art". This brought a new wave of whistles and shouting from my inebriated friend, and I looked back to see him standing, hat off, head bowed... and at one point, hands raised. And suddenly I stopped judging, and realized that God most likely accepted that man's heartfelt worship just as surely as He accepts mine in church.
After the concert there was quite a delay, so we headed back to the campground; but we hadn't gotten too far from the grandstand before the fireworks started, so we stopped and watched awhile before ending our amazing first day at the Missouri State Fair.
ooo charlie daniels, I bet that was one great show! Glad you had a great time!
ReplyDeleteJan