In August we began planning a trip to the Grand Ole Opry for Tuesday, September 12, 2006 to celebrate a milestone birthday for my cousin, Jan. She had never been to the Opry and wanted to attend for her birthday. My mom, Irene and Aunt Josephine also had never attended the Opry. When I called to purchase the tickets, I found it was difficult to get our seats together and had to separate to get seats closer to the stage.

I was surprised at the demand for tickets on a Tuesday night so I knew something big was happening that night as George's birthday celebration hadn't been announced yet.

When we saw George Jones' 75th birthday celebration had been scheduled for the day we would be at the Opry, all of us became even more excited about our trip. You can imagine how excited we were each time an additional performer was added to the show schedule. It seemed the 12th would never get here.

The 12th was finally here and our little family group headed to Nashville. After we checked into our hotel and caught our breath, we head to the Opryland house. We wanted to get to the show early to get a close parking space. Even though we arrived 2 1/2 hours early there was no close parking, many people had the same idea.

In the Opry house, we found our seats through the large crowd and settled in as the Opry completely filled with fans all excited to see all the performers in this sold out show. Little Jimmy Dickens was the first performer opening the show.

He walked onto the stage wearing a white, rhinestone covered suit that's he's known to wear. He started the show singing "The Bird of Paradise." Then Little Jimmy broke into his stand up comic routine. I moved up to the center aisle just behind the chairs. The crowd went wild applauding, cheering and shouting! I was squatting down so I didn't know what was going on until George Jones and Nancy walked over to the first row center stage and sat down. George was on the end a couple feet away from where I was squatting across the aisle. It was so exciting to see him so close up.

Little Jimmy Dickens ended his set with a statement that George had recorded an album of all his songs and called it George Jones Sings Like the Dickens.

Next up Joe Diffe started his set with his hit "Pickup Man," then he dedicated, "Here's To The Soldiers" to all the firemen, policemen and our military on this night so close to the anniversary of 911. Sammy Kershaw moved around the stage, walking to each side as he sang his new single, "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On." In the middle of Sammy's set, he realized that George Jones was sitting in the first row. He chuckled and said that he just realized George was right up front so he's really starting to sweat now, which brought laughter from George and the audience.