At long last, it was here!
Remember, I've had my three-day pass for this Christmas With The King festival since July -
that's a long time for me to wait for this birthday65 gift!
i thank You, God, that I bought the pass then, before the incident with the behemoth and the other struggle with Travelers about insurance.
Otherwise, I doubt I would have treated myself to this holiday vacation, birthday or no.
Again, i thank You, God!
No worries, though - I snagged a front row seat!!!
In fact, my chair was directly opposite the tech station.
That means I had frequent access to Taylor Rodriguez!!!
I well remembered him from that trip to Las Vegas in 2018 -
what a fabulous birthday trip that had been!!!
I doubt if he remembered me from five years ago, but I certainly recalled him as the young Elvis Presley.
Tonight, he was serving as emcee and sound guy as well as ETA.
That put a lot of pressure on the two singers!
So, this time, they had a third fellow in the mix.
That's him on the right, Jordan Poole, just 22 years old, being interviewed by Taylor.
The show tonight was titled "Reflections On The King" and this segment was designed to give us some insight into why this young ETA had chosen this path.
I expected him to say his mom loved Elvis.
What a surprise to find out that it was his dad who was the big Elvis fan, it was his dad that shared the Elvis movies and music with him.
How very cool!
Want to guess what his reply had been?
His dad was a big Elvis fan and they would watch the movies together and that's when Austin decided he wanted to be like Elvis.
As it turned out, that was Taylor's story, too!
Their fathers, not their mothers, had been the impetus behind them becoming ETAs.
That was such a wonder to me!
But then I thought about a friend of mine.
This had reminded me of how much Mister Willie had loved Elvis, of him singing Elvis' songs to me during slow moments at Grayson Stadium.
"Forever Young And Beautiful" had been one of those songs, as well as "Don't Be Cruel".
Good times!
No one sang those two songs, but they did plenty of others, either solo or together, accompanied by the "band" on Taylor's laptop!
James Taylor's "Steamroller" ran over the stage and we all got to sing along with Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline", though I have to admit to a special place in my heart for "A Little Less Conversation"!
They also covered some of Elvis' most well-known: "The Wonder Of You", "You Gave Me A Mountain", "He Touched Me".
The trio even finished up with "Viva Las Vegas"!!!
I took that to be especially for me, of course.
(smile!)
But what I really liked were the songs that I didn't know.
Each of them did one of those, and all three were sad songs about the girl that got away.
So very nice!
Plus, there was my knock-knock joke.
There was a technical glitch and Taylor said, "Does anyone know a joke?"
So of course I piped up... and poor Jordan got caught in the middle.
"Knock knock," I asked him.
"Who's there?" he responded correctly.
"Banana," I said, followed by his "Banana who?"
I then immediately said "Knock knock" and flustered him.
He got even more flustered when I again said, "Banana" in response to his "Who's there?"
It took a couple of tries before Taylor stepped in.
"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana." "Banana who?"
"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Orange."
"Orange who?"
"Orange you glad I didn't say banana again?"
Hahahaha!!! Hahaha!!!
That was great fun!
I made sure to talk with each one, too!
I told Austin how impressed I had been with him ever since the 2013 Georgia Elvis Festival and his leg movements in those black and white shoes!
He smiled that I remembered his shoes.
(smile!)
I spoke with Taylor about how much I had enjoyed him at the Las Vegas Elvis Festival in 2018 when he was just 20.
He'll be 26 in another two weeks.
(smile!)
And I joked around with Jordan, kidding him about not knowing that elementary school joke.
Maybe kids in Sylvester, GA, don't tell those?
Maybe!
(smile!)
What a wonderful evening I had with them!
No wonder I have such a big smile on my face, with Austin held by my right arm, Taylor by my left arm, and Jordan right there with us!
I'll have sweet dreams tonight at the Sleep Inn!
(smile!)
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