Here we are

Well, we made it to Gatlinburg and have been here since Monday Evening.  It is not High Leaf season, the leaves  have about fifty percent fallen, but it is still beautiful.  Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge/Sevierville has been one of our favorite places for years.  We haven’t taken advantage of many of the evening activities because we just don’t have the energy to keep going all day, but we are having a good time shopping through the may craft and antique stores and trying not to overeat in the many really fine restaurants in the area.

Today (Thursday) we went to a Matinee performance of the Smoky Mountain Opry Christmas Spectacular.  It was vary entertaining.  A lot of folks with good voices, and some dancing talent bringing back memories of past Christmases  and songs that we knew (as well as a bunch that we didn’t know wrapped up in a finale that was the kind of live nativity scene set to music that was truly moving. (I will confess that the final number of Joy to the World reinforced my inner feeling that the glissando should be outlawed in most singing of popular or religious or patriotic music). 

As the show progressed I couldn’t help thinking that life is, in many ways, a lot better for singers dancers and actors and musicians than it was when I was younger.  Heaven only knows how many cruise ships are plying the seas, but every one of them has a band, and acting, dancing and or other performing group, resort areas like Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Branson Missouri, Hilton Head, Orlando, and even some of the smaill towns in Nevada , etc., are replete with similar performance activities.  As I was coming up most of the performance opportunities existed in summer theatres, and the performance cities, except for places like Disney Land and the California/Florida areas were in business mostly in the summer. It was a joy to see dancing and singing worthy of any ordinary bunch of Broadway Gypsies in Tennessee during the approach of winter.

It was a little sad looking around both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and seeing how many places had gone out of business.  Driving home this evening I was struck by the lack of cars on the road and people on the street and it was obvious that the economic situation in the land was affecting the tourist industry a lot.

Anyway, we are having a good time and are grateful that we have enough energy to, at least, get pleasure from some of the things we love to do.