Christmas in Alabama Dec. 10

Every tour has its ups and downs, and this day was a challenge in many ways.  First of all, it was a ten hour drive in the rain.  All rain...not one bit of sunshine.  I left Tennessee early in the morning and made my way south, going through Georgia for about five minutes before I hit

and then there was still a lot more driving to do as I was headed for Grand Bay, in the very southwest corner of the state.
A few weeks ago my host, Michael, contacted me and said he had decided to move the concert location from his house to a small strip mall in town where his friend had an insurance office.  He was concerned about traffic on his small street and thought this would be a better location.  He did his best to publicize the concert and when I arrived he and six members of his extended family had been busy decorating the performance area. But alas, the best laid plans......well, as I said, every tour has its challenges. It continued to drizzle lightly throughout the show and no one came to the concert except the seven people who were there at the start.  Still, I put on the best show I could, although (and I didn't tell them this!) every time I touched the mic with my lips I got a shock! I thought I was gonna buy it right there!  But there were two kids among the family members, and everyone seemed to be having fun so I gave it my all.  I did feel bad for Michael, though, because he kept apologizing for the lack of turnout.
But you know what?  Michael did all that he could, and sometimes these things happen. And because of him and his efforts, I ended up on the ten o'clock news in Mobile!

http://video.wkrg.com/v/67878948/concert-for-toys.htm?q=Judy+Pancoast 

So there's sunshine behind the clouds after all. That was a wonderful piece which is still up on their website and even though I look sort of like a drowned weasel. 

After the show we all went back to Michael's home, where he and his mom put up the display together.  Ironically, there were a lot of cars there watching his show!!  So we went from car to car as "The House on Christmas Street" was playing and I talked to the folks and gave out autographed photos.  Most of them seemed surprised and delighted to meet "The girl on the radio" and that was really nice.  

Once we'd talked to everyone we all went inside and had pizza and chatted.  They are a very nice family and they love working together to put up the display, especially Michael's Mom, who evidently gets a real charge out of doing it every year.  Here are some of the photos.  Thank you, everybody, for a great time in "Sweet Home Alabama!"

This is an animated feature. The snowman on the left picks up a snowball, throws it in the tube, where it comes out as a teddy bear that you can see falling into the box, and then the second snowman throws it into the train. Michael and his Mom built this!