“In country music the greatest sins are pretense and snobbery, getting above your raisin’”

– Danny Duncan Collum, American author, editor and teacher

“It was so exciting,” I said. “I even had to wear makeup!”

I had been regaling my mother with my experience as participant in a local telethon. It was 1978 and the radio station where I worked had volunteered me as one of the local personalities. While the back row’s staffers took calls and wrote donations on sheets, we (of the local media) got to read names and numbers on camera and be interviewed by celebrities.

 “I got interviewed by Lloyd Robertson!” I told Mother.

“I know,” she said. “What is he like in person?”

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