Bo

  One of the perks of living in Greenville was running into celebrities.  I had already run into George Clooney and Renee Zellweger, and I ran into another one--Bo Hopkins.  The name may not be as familiar as the other two, but he has had a long career as a character actor.  In fact, he was in the first episode of "Charlie's Angels" in 1976.  

 He was born in Greenville and had come back to his hometown to try and raise money for a movie project he was writing on Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Shoeless Joe was a disgraced professional baseball player from the early 1900's involved in a betting scheme.  Most people think now that he was innocent of the charges, and that was what the movie was going to be about.  So, Bo threw a party at Fluor Field in Greenville to drive interest for his project.

 I went to the party, because it was free.  He had grown up with the members of "The Swinging Medallions" band, and he invited them to play.  They were great.  Bo even got up on stage and sang with them.  It was a raucous Saturday afternoon.  During a break, I went up to Bo and introduced myself.  I then used the line I use on famous people, so they will listen to me:  "You and I have something in common."  He was listening.  I told him that we had both acted in movies and TV, and that we had both worked with Burt Reynolds.  I told him he had worked with Burt in "White Lightning", and I had worked with him in "Semi-Tough".  Then Bo said something that startled me.  He said, "Oh, I remember you."  I was shocked.  

 The only way he could have remembered me was if he had a photographic memory; freeze-framed the video to the part of 20 of us sitting in the stands; and remembered my red sport coat.  If you haven't read my story about that movie, they took 20 of us and moved us around the Cotton Bowl to be behind the actors on the sidelines for tight shots to make it look like there were fans in the stands.  I hope Bo was just being polite, but it really startled me.  We talked a bit about his project, and I asked him to write a part for me.  He said he would.

 I left the party with hopes of being in another film, but his project never got off of the ground.  He couldn't raise the money he needed to do the film.  Too bad.  I would have liked to have talked with him further about what else he remembered about me.  And I didn't even think to get his autograph.

Sunshine

  Paris Mountain State Park would have free concerts from time to time.  There was a small stage and an amphitheater made of stone.  So, it was announced that the folk singer Jonathan Edwards was going to play for free.  He had a hit called "Sunshine" back in 1971.  A lot of radio stations didn't play it at the time, because the word "damned" was in it.  Some stations bleeped the word.  That was the environment back then.  I was excited to see him for free.

 The show was to start around 7pm.  I got there early to get a good seat.  I even played around on the stage for a few minutes.  It's the performer in me.  People started coming into the area for the show.  A few "roadies" showed up to set up the sound and lights.  A man was introduced as Jonathan Edwards, and he began to sing.  I noticed he seemed younger than I would have thought for a guy who had a hit in 1971, but maybe he looked young for his age.  His music was pretty good as acoustic folk.  I noticed that some in the audience started looking puzzled at his song selection.  None of the songs were familiar.  He had just about finished his first set, when someone from the audience yelled out for him to play "Sunshine".  He stopped and said he wasn't THAT Jonathan Edwards.  They just had the same name.  He said THAT Jonathan Edwards was from Minnesota.  He was from Atlanta.

 Even the newspaper had advertised this singer as the one who had the hit "Sunshine".  So, most of us got up and left.  I don't know how many stayed for his second set, but I don't think there were many.  I kind of felt sorry for this guy.  I am sure that audiences had been confused like that before.  As we headed toward the parking lot, there was a lot of grumbling.  At least it was free.

Reunion

  We are not much on family reunions.  It is usually when someone dies.  To have a reunion just to be having one is not something our family does.  So, when I got an email from some cousins in Richmond, Virginia to have a reunion, I said okay.  One thing I found was I didn't fit into my dress pants anymore and had to buy new clothes.  I was no longer the same size I was in the 8th grade.  That was a surprise.

 As I was living in Greenville and having a questionable car, they told me that they would pay for my plane ticket and motel in Richmond.  The last time that I flew out of the Greenville/Spartanburg airport was in 1973 on the start of our trip to Europe.  The airport had changed some by 2008.  I am not the best kind of airplane passenger.  I loaded up on stomach medication and gum to tolerate the flight.  The trick of chewing gum upon takeoff and landing was something I learned during our Europe trip.  The plane did not go directly to Richmond.  We flew from Greenville to Cleveland, Ohio before flying to Richmond.  That didn't make much sense to me, but you just deal with it.

 I had not flown after 9/11, so I knew there would be extra security.  I knew to wear loafers for shoes, but I didn't know they wanted me to take off my belt, too.  So, I emptied out my pockets and held up my pants to keep them up.  The security was tight, and then I was put in a holding area before the plane was ready to board.  We left Greenville and flew over some beautiful farmland.  I had never been to Ohio before.  The farms turned into an industrial city of Cleveland.  It was kind of dirty looking from the air.  Maybe it was nicer on the ground.  We landed at the airport there, and I had just a few minutes to make my connection to Richmond.  

 When we got to Richmond, one of my cousins picked me up and took me to the motel.  I had never met him before, and I found that I didn't know many there.  The motel was nice, and I went exploring.  He would pick me up the next day and take me to his house for the start of the reunion.  The next day was Saturday, and we all got acquainted.  We talked about our families.  This was the Merrill side, which was my Mother's side of the family, but most of my cousins came from a branch that was related through my Grandfather who was married before he married my Grandmother.  

 One of the things I learned was about a goldmine we owned in Alabama.  I was shocked.  No one had ever mentioned anything about a goldmine.  I saw aerial pictures of it.  One of my cousins mentioned that they had gone through some papers that my Uncle Carl had.  We was an attorney.  After he died, they had found the deed to the goldmine.  It seemed to still be valid, although the mine had been tapped out of gold, so they said.  It is neat to have a goldmine in the family, but it doesn't seem to be worth anything anymore.  If I'm ever down that way, I might take a pick and shovel just to see if they got it all.

 That Sunday, we went to the Jefferson Hotel for lunch.  It was really swanky.  They told me that the grand staircase in the hotel was the model for the Tara staircase in "Gone With the Wind".  The stairs were steep, so one had to be extra careful not to tumble down them.  After lunch, we took a bus tour of downtown Richmond.  We saw a lot of historical things, and went by the First Baptist Church.  My father had been on staff there around 1950, before they moved to New Orleans.  One of my older cousins bragged that my father built the educational building of that church.  I know he designed some churches, when he got to South Carolina, but I don't know how true my cousin's story was.  It was interesting.  As an editorial comment now, I would like to say that I oppose the taking down of the monuments in Richmond.  I'm sorry if that offends anyone.  We also got to see where Edgar Allan Poe lived.  That was cool.

 On Monday, it was time to fly back to Greenville by way of Cleveland.  I thanked my cousins for their hospitality.  When the plane got to Cleveland, there was a little layover.  I explored the terminal and then got back for boarding.  An announcement was made that the plane had some mechanical issues that needed to be fixed before leaving.  We watched them work on an engine.  It probably would have been better to just bring up another plane, but they didn't have any.  When it was time to board, we all got on kind of reluctantly.  We eventually took off for Greenville.  As we approached the airport, off to our left were some hot air balloons floating around.  They had a festival that day.  We landed at the airport, and I was very glad to get my feet back on the ground.  It was good to see some family I never knew existed before.