Loretta Lynn & Cookies

Here it is Opie, I hope you enjoy this little story. I sure do remember it fondly.

I grew up in a small farming community of about 2500 people. We always had a huge Independence Day celebration for such a small town. There was always a carnival downtown, it covered almost 2 blocks in every direction. We had the 4th of July Queen contest, the local VFW hold a cookout, there was always a big parade & a fantastic fireworks show to top off the day.

The summer before my 8th grade year, our little town got an extra treat - Loretta Lynn was putting on a concert down at the high school football field on July 3rd. The whole town, all 2500 of us, were so excited we couldn't wait. My sister & I, although not huge country fans, were Loretta Lynn fans without a doubt.

The big day arrived & my parents were thrilled because we were driving them nuts with talk of the concert. Sissy & I had ridden our bikes down by the school & had seen all the trailers & such with the equipment. It was fun to watch some of the set-up from the street but then we had a fantastic idea - we were going to meet Loretta Lynn in person.

We thought it would be cool to bake some cookies & take them down to her, Mom insisted that they wouldn't let us anywhere close to Loretta Lynn with those cookies. "There are weirdos out there you know that try to poison celebrities you know!" We ignored Mom & went about baking a big batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. When we were finished, we packed up our warm, fresh cookies, hopped on our bikes & took off for the football field with Mom shaking her head as we rode off.

The stage was set up and various people were running around doing set-up for the evening concert. Bravely, Sissy & I walked up to the stage. The only person on stage by the time we got up there was a really big man. Meekly we asked if we could please see "Miss Lynn". He eyed us for a minute and grunted "I dunno - be back".

Not two minutes later, the beautiful "Miss Lynn" floated across the stage in a cloud of frilly, pale yellow, country-style lace & ruffles. We stood in awe. Sissy and I spent the next hour sitting on the edge of the stage, eating cookies with Loretta Lynn.

I couldn't even tell you now exactly what we talked about. She was very warm, honest, and friendly. I vividly remember, however, sitting on the edge of stage, all three of us swinging our legs back and forth and eating chocolate chip cookies with Loretta Lynn.