Hello, Dolly!

On a crisp Friday morning in early October, before the first frost, mom and I set out for the Dollywood theme park in East Tennessee. We’d been there once before, years ago, when I was five or six years old. Dolly’s Eagle When She Flies album had just come out, and my parents bought me the cassette tape for Christmas. I loved Dolly on the cover, in her flowy white blouse and tight denim. I loved the tune “Silver and Gold” even more. Mom sang it to me as a lullaby: “Time can’t be brought back with silver and gold.” When I think of it now, I hear it in mom’s voice.