Post by Stephanie on May 29, 2008 22:45:58 GMT -5
I've told my story over and over again, but I'll do it once more and try to condense..
Until I was 8 years old, honest to God, I refused to listen to anything but Patsy Cline if I could help it. I am not exactly sure how the whole thing started- I just know I've been listening to Patsy since before I could talk. 22 years!! My God, I feel old saying that.
My Grandpa Ron used to let me take his Patsy cassette tapes. I would stare at the cover artwork and to me, she was the prettiest lady I'd ever seen (besides my mom!)
Later on my dad would take me to K-Mart weekly (when we still had a K-Mart here) and let me pick out a new cassette tape every time. Then it was CDs. For my 12th Birthday he bought me The Patsy Cline Collection, which at that time was quit expensive- I think he paid $70 at a Camelot Music store. I begged him to get it for me months before my birthday- I was just CONVINCED it would be sold out by the time May 6th rolled around. He would not let me open the thing until my birthday, but I knew where it was hidden! When he was gone I'd grab it out of the top shelf of his closet and slowly pick away at the shrink wrap. By that time I had looong ago memorized every single lyric to every one of Patsy's songs, but the thought that there were songs in that box that I'd never heard before was too much for me to bear!
In the third grade I brought a copy of "Patsy Cline" by Ellis Nassour (the "movie" version) to school. I had talked the librarian into letting me buy that beat up copy for a quarter. I will never forget how crushed I was when the teacher took it away and told me that Patsy Cline, MY hero, was too "inappropriate" for me to be reading about.
I'll skip ahead a bit. Every time I go to Cracker Barrel, even if for only 10 minutes to shop, I hear a Patsy song. EVERY time, and this has been going on for years! I know it's a little gift from my Grandpa Ron up in Heaven. And speaking of which- a few years ago my grandma was cleaning out her drawers and found a shrinkwrapped Patsy CD. It has the Godfrey recordings but not "The Birth of a Star." It's called "Patsy Cline: Discovery!" It didn't have a price sticker on it or anything, it seemed to have just materialized. My grandma still has no idea where it came from.
I know that CD was a gift somehow from my Grandpa Ron, even though he died in 1991, when I was 5.
I have a large PC collection that I will never be able to part with. I have just about every record, every CD (even doubles), every cassette, every biography, every documentary, every DVD and VHS, framed posters, everything Patsy that I can get my hands on. My collection is one of my most cherished possessions. Even if most of it just sits in a box :\
People I haven't seen in over ten years will come up to me and say, "You were the little girl who just loved Patsy Cline. Do you still listen to her?" I have this urge within me to share Patsy with EVERYONE, always have.
A couple years ago for my 20th Birthday, my boyfriend bought me round-trip tickets to Nashville. Watching a Tanya Tucker concert in the Ryman, being in the back of Tootsie's, wandering around Ernest Tubb's Record Shop, walking down Lower Broad, it was completely surreal. I couldn't wrap my mind around how much of a big deal this was.. walking the same street that Patsy Cline had walked. It was overwhelming.
Patsy Cline reminds me of my childhood. I can put on her music now and it will take me back to those care-free days. She'll always be my hero!
Until I was 8 years old, honest to God, I refused to listen to anything but Patsy Cline if I could help it. I am not exactly sure how the whole thing started- I just know I've been listening to Patsy since before I could talk. 22 years!! My God, I feel old saying that.
My Grandpa Ron used to let me take his Patsy cassette tapes. I would stare at the cover artwork and to me, she was the prettiest lady I'd ever seen (besides my mom!)
Later on my dad would take me to K-Mart weekly (when we still had a K-Mart here) and let me pick out a new cassette tape every time. Then it was CDs. For my 12th Birthday he bought me The Patsy Cline Collection, which at that time was quit expensive- I think he paid $70 at a Camelot Music store. I begged him to get it for me months before my birthday- I was just CONVINCED it would be sold out by the time May 6th rolled around. He would not let me open the thing until my birthday, but I knew where it was hidden! When he was gone I'd grab it out of the top shelf of his closet and slowly pick away at the shrink wrap. By that time I had looong ago memorized every single lyric to every one of Patsy's songs, but the thought that there were songs in that box that I'd never heard before was too much for me to bear!
In the third grade I brought a copy of "Patsy Cline" by Ellis Nassour (the "movie" version) to school. I had talked the librarian into letting me buy that beat up copy for a quarter. I will never forget how crushed I was when the teacher took it away and told me that Patsy Cline, MY hero, was too "inappropriate" for me to be reading about.
I'll skip ahead a bit. Every time I go to Cracker Barrel, even if for only 10 minutes to shop, I hear a Patsy song. EVERY time, and this has been going on for years! I know it's a little gift from my Grandpa Ron up in Heaven. And speaking of which- a few years ago my grandma was cleaning out her drawers and found a shrinkwrapped Patsy CD. It has the Godfrey recordings but not "The Birth of a Star." It's called "Patsy Cline: Discovery!" It didn't have a price sticker on it or anything, it seemed to have just materialized. My grandma still has no idea where it came from.
I know that CD was a gift somehow from my Grandpa Ron, even though he died in 1991, when I was 5.
I have a large PC collection that I will never be able to part with. I have just about every record, every CD (even doubles), every cassette, every biography, every documentary, every DVD and VHS, framed posters, everything Patsy that I can get my hands on. My collection is one of my most cherished possessions. Even if most of it just sits in a box :\
People I haven't seen in over ten years will come up to me and say, "You were the little girl who just loved Patsy Cline. Do you still listen to her?" I have this urge within me to share Patsy with EVERYONE, always have.
A couple years ago for my 20th Birthday, my boyfriend bought me round-trip tickets to Nashville. Watching a Tanya Tucker concert in the Ryman, being in the back of Tootsie's, wandering around Ernest Tubb's Record Shop, walking down Lower Broad, it was completely surreal. I couldn't wrap my mind around how much of a big deal this was.. walking the same street that Patsy Cline had walked. It was overwhelming.
Patsy Cline reminds me of my childhood. I can put on her music now and it will take me back to those care-free days. She'll always be my hero!