My good friend Richard and his lovely bride, Rose, were fantastic hosts! The guitar pull was a huge success with a lot of songwriters singing original songs for us – music that everyone will be able to hear on the radio months or even years from now. I was so very honored to be invited.

The food on the buffet was wonderfully diverse – everything from baked spaghetti to baked beans. My mashed potatoes and gravy were a big hit – not a bit of it was leftover.

My favorite song out of all the wonderful music shared that night was an original song by Larry Alderman, called, “Dixie Down.” It was a lovely ballad about a boy who gets a dog and names her Dixie. As they grow up together they share all the milestones, graduation, new job, marriage, etc. And then Dixie dies, as dogs do. OMG! There was not a dry eye in the house! We all cried when he sang the last couple of lines about burying his dog and that special spot where his Dixie went down.