Good tunes bringing the people out
June 05, 2008
When Shawn Hammonds opened the BamaJam Music Festival on a hot, hot Thursday afternoon, the crowd was sparse. Coulda been the heat. But by the time the guys wrapped it up, there were a few more folks milling around with their lawn chairs and beach umbrellas.
A few more folks came to hear Ashton Shepherd. The crowd grew a little bit larger for the next act, Heartland, and bigger still for Darryl Worley. We are 10 minutes away from Little Big Town’s act and from talking to folks today, the group has lots of local fans.
Today was a trial run for all the equipment, operations, etc., for the BamaJam folks and Billy Graham, Ronnie Gilley’s man on the right, said there had been no major problems.
But the heat!!!! OMG!
Photographer Max and I visited with campers for a story on the life out here on the plains, and we saw some, uh, unusual stuff like mattresses from home in the tailgate of the pickup truck and then there was the air conditioning unit mounted in the passenger side window of an SUV.
Max crawled atop a big motor home for a panoramic type view of everything .... thanks to Charles and Eric and Terry and David and Glenn and Terry from Midland City for the use of it. Eric kept insisting Max sign a release first, but then we kept bringing up the Miss BamaJam Bikini Contest and Eric kinda forgot about it.
We met some folks from North Georgia who drove five hours to get here and saw plenty of Wiregrass car tags.
Food and beverages are reasonably priced, by the way. An ear of corn or a cold Miller Lite is five tickets and a ticket translates into about 62.5 cents. I had the husband do the math. So that’s what… $3.13 for a beer and eight tickets or $5.03 for a mixed drink.
When I took off with Max, my instructions to the husband went this way: Find out about drink prices.
So when I find the husband much later, he says he “just didn’t feel right” asking the price and not buying anything. Turns out various mixed drinks are the same price! Imagine it. And Miller is the same price as Miller Lite. Did I mention the husband is from Newville.
Headin out to hear Little Big Town and Randy Owen.
One other thought: Some people need to keep their shirts on.
Cya
