We had such a good time in Smyrna, TN in 1982 that they wanted us back for Vacation Bible School in 1983. They also wanted us to bring some people to do some construction work on the church, so more people came with us. The girl I had working with us with the puppets couldn't go this year, so I asked for a volunteer who could do puppets.
A woman came to me and said she could do that job. She taught Drama and Speech at a local university. I gave her the scripts to look over and to become familiar with. She had them a week before we left. I added a script to the group, because we were supposed to do a show for the children's Sunday School the day before VBS started. It was just one page, and it was to get the kids excited about VBS. It was part of the package.
As we were going up to TN in the van, I wanted to get some sleep. There were some girls in the seat behind me who had a boom box. They wanted to listen to contemporary Christian music. They set it up on the back of my seat and played it full blast. I told them I wanted to sleep. They said they wanted to listen to the music. They won, and the trip went downhill after that.
When we got to the church, we found out that we would be sleeping there instead of the campers from the year before. That was a good call. No more bothering from mosquitoes or deputies. The church had a kitchen, and we had people from our group who could cook. Another blessing.
On Sunday, just before going in the Sunday School class to do our show, our puppeteer woman told me that she didn't like the words she was going to say. One thing that I don't like is criticizing my writing, especially when I put a lot of thought and research into it. She especially objected to my use the word "lucky". The line she was to say was about how lucky we were to be back at the church. She said she didn't believe in "luck", so she wasn't going to say it. So, I changed it to "fortunate", although the kids would understand "lucky" more than "fortunate". I was pretty mad, because she had the scripts for a week and didn't bring up any complaints until right before the show. It was obvious to me that she hadn't read them.
When Monday came around, she brought up more issues with my scripts. These were the same scripts we had used for two summers in Philadelphia and the year before in Smyrna. No complaints from anyone before now. She took every line and wanted to change it. I tried to be nice, but I told her that she was not speaking those lines. Her character was. She still was uncomfortable, but she did it as written. Tuesday was a different situation. She had rewritten her entire part. I was livid. My other puppeteer and I were scrambling to keep up with her, as she was changing her part as she went on stage. It was a disaster. I went to our tour leader to complain about her. She couldn't change my scripts without telling me. The tour leader said he would talk with her. She told him that she found my scripts not to be Biblical. The problem was that she knew we had to have her to do the part. No one could step in. I was about to change the scripts to a two-person show, or I would play both parts--male and female. I sat down with her and told her that I had to have her do it the way it was written. She said okay. However, when we got on stage, she would change a word which would throw the rest of us off. It was almost like we improvised the last three days of our shows. We never knew what would come out of her mouth. I am a perfectionist in my work. She didn't help.
One nice thing about being there was the construction aspect. I was given the job of helping our carpenter install sheet rock. How hard could that be? It was very hard. I had no idea sheet rock would be so heavy. I got my frustration out from the puppets by working on construction.
We went into Nashville one afternoon and stayed into the evening. We went downtown and toured the Ryman Auditorium. We also went to Ernest Tubb's place and Music Row. I found a cool movie poster shop, but the posters were way overpriced. It was a good day despite all the hassles.
On Saturday morning, we left Smyrna to go home. Someone suggested we take I-75 back. Anyone having gone that way will know it is quite scary. Most of it is downhill with winding curves. We got to Chattanooga at 11:11 that morning. My ex-puppeteer noted that is a sign from God. I just thought we got there at 11:11. We had lunch at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Restaurant. Overpriced and very touristy. I was very glad to get back home. I guess the kids liked it. Not so much for me.
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