By MARK VICARS
Owner, I-81 Sports
In August I accomplished a lot of things that I’m proud of, but as I watched my 7 month old son play yesterday, Just hours after we got the news that Dolly Parton had passed, I realized the book my son was wrangling on the floor, the one he was so happy with, came from Dolly and her Imagination Library.
Dolly invested in people, not faceless companies, but she did more than that. She invested in people like me, who lived and grew up in East Tennessee like she did. Strangers to her, but still familiar. While Dolly was as close to universally beloved as anyone can be in our society, in Appalachia, she’s a borderline saint. Because she cared about her community. Invested in it. She didn’t make her money and run off to Hollywood. She stuck around, made the world a better place, and made us better people.
When I heard the news yesterday, a line from her song “Hard Candy Christmas” instantly sprang into my mind.
“I’ll be fine and dandy,
Lord, it’s like a hard candy Christmas
I’m barely gettin’ through tomorrow
But still I won’t let sorrow bring me way down”
Because of the impact of Dolly I’ll be fine and dandy, it truly is a hard candy August. I’m barely gettin’ through tomorrow.. But still I won’t let the sorrow bring me way down…
We have truly lost our matriarch of Appalachia.
The closing verse of the song gives us something to remember, and lean on, on days like today.
“But still I won’t let sorrow bring me way down,
Because I’ll be fine.
I’ll be fine, oh I’ll be fine”