Author: elvisgumby

Categories
Christmas

Obscure Music from My Christmas Playlist – The Good

I listen to a lot of Christmas music between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I have an iPod Classic that I load with my holiday music playlist.  There are a handful of albums in my collection that should be a requirement for anyone serious about Christmas music.  What Christmas playlist would be complete without Elvis and The Chipmunks?  I have a few Christmas albums in my collection that may not be in yours that I think you should at least know about.  I have put them into 3 categories: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  This week I focus on The Good.

Continue reading “Obscure Music from My Christmas Playlist – The Good”
Categories
Funeral True Stories

More Funeral Stories

When my grandmother passed away, our family held a funeral service at our church.  She was to be buried at the cemetery at our church immediately after the service.  Visitation had been at the funeral home earlier that day, so this was where our family gathered.  The family followed the hearse to the church.  When we arrived at the church, the family and pall bearers gathered at the rear of the hearse.  The pall bearers were already in formation before the back door of the hearse was open, standing in two lines so an even number of men would be on each side. About the time the back door of the hearse opened, a friend of the family arriving late pulled into the parking lot of the church. As he rolled into the parking lot, he missed the drive slightly with the back passenger-side tire of the car fell into the ditch.  The pall bears moved from behind the hearse, in formation, and lifted the car out of the ditch. As the family friend parked. The pall bearers returned to their posts at the back of the hearse. Now the funeral procession into the church could begin.

Categories
Restaurants Thanksgiving

Krystal Dressing

One evening early in November of 2014, my kids had some guests at the house, so my wife sent me to get a 24 steamer pack of Krystal burgers. Krystal is a restaurant that sells small hamburgers with thin patties that are sometimes called sliders.  If you are familiar with White Castle burgers, Krystal burgers are almost identical with a thin patty and small bun dressed with pickles, onions and mustard.  You can also get them with cheese and on this night, our order was half and half. 

Continue reading “Krystal Dressing”
Categories
True Stories

Lost Keys

I was on my way to work one morning several years ago.  I needed some gas in my Jeep. I stopped at a convenience store on the way to work.  When I stopped at the store, I took the keys out of the ignition like I always do when I get out of the car.  I went into the store to pay for the gas because the pay-at-the-pump feature was not working.  When I got back to my Jeep, I found the door was locked.  I reached into the pocket of my jacket where I always put my keys, but they were not there.  I usually carry two sets of keys. One has the key to my vehicle and the other has the keys to my office.  I found the office keychain but could not find the one for my car.  I must have locked my keys in the car.  I tried looking through the windows of the car, but I couldn’t tell if the keys were in the ignition. If they weren’t there, they must be in the floor, maybe between the console and the seat.   My wife carries a set of keys for my vehicle so I decided to call her as see if she could let me in my car.  She said she was at Walmart, but it shouldn’t take her that long. She would come to let me in my car as soon as she was done.

Continue reading “Lost Keys”
Categories
Elvis Week Graceland Video

2019 Elvis Week Video

Earlier this fall, I posted about this year’s trip to Graceland for the Candlelight Vigil.  I had several pictures and videos that I wanted to share along with telling some of the stories from the blog post.  Here is a video that I put together from this year’s trip.

Categories
Recording

Recording Studio

People have often asked me about where I record my music. I have a portable recording studio that I have used in my home.  My wife and I recently moved from the house where I did all of my recording.  As we were moving, I decided to create a video of the different “studios” in the house.  This video was made in the middle of preparing for the move and some packing had already taken place. I hope you enjoy this “studio tour”.

Categories
Halloween Scary Stories

Why Slim Pickens Scares Me

The horror film The Howling is considered one of the better horror films of the 1980’s.  When it first came out, I went to see it on the first weekend it was showing.  My wife and I weren’t married yet and we went to see this on a date.  Just outside of the theater while we were waiting to get in, we saw some friends who had just watched it.  They didn’t like it and warned us that it was bad.  They had walked out early on the film. I didn’t trust our friends taste in horror movies. This was the same person that didn’t like Night of the Living Dead. Either way, I enjoy watching bad movies too, so their warning didn’t discourage us.  We were convinced that we would have a fun time that night.

Continue reading “Why Slim Pickens Scares Me”
Categories
Halloween Scary Stories

Why Olivia de Havilland Scares Me

In 1964, Olivia de Havilland made a movie called Lady in a Cage.  It’s considered a “psychological thriller”.  Her character has a broken hip and in order to get up and down the stairs in her mansion, she has a small elevator installed.  While she is home alone, the power goes out at the house, trapping her between floors on the elevator.  Ringing the alarm on the elevator only attracts the attention of teenage hoodlums who come into her house to rob it and terrorize her.  This film features James Caan in his first credited role.  It also features some gruesome scenes of violence that were controversial for 1964. 

Continue reading “Why Olivia de Havilland Scares Me”
Categories
Halloween Scary Stories

Why Joe Spinell Scares Me

In the early 1980’s there were horror films being released nearly every week.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, my college friends and I went to see almost all these films.  We even formed a loosely defined group who regularly went together to see these films.  This group was called the Bad Cinema Club.  The name of the group doesn’t always reflect the quality of the films we were seeing.  We were mainly dedicated to watching horror films and enough of them we were seeing were bad enough for us to take on this name.  One of the films that turned out to be not so bad was called Maniac.  

Continue reading “Why Joe Spinell Scares Me”
Categories
Halloween Scary Stories

Why Night of the Living Dead Scares Me

Night of the Living Dead is one of my favorite horror movies.  I have watched it at times with audiences that laughed all the way through it.  Other times, the audiences have been more likely to scream.  One of the most memorable times watching was when I was in high school and my friend Ricky invited me and several friends over for movie night.  

Continue reading “Why Night of the Living Dead Scares Me”