http://www.billanderson.com/journal.php?p=83&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more83 July 5, 2006 Hi Gang: I had quite a surprise awaiting me when I arrived for our tenth annual City Lights Festival in my adopted hometown of Commerce, Georgia, back in late June. I knew my invited guests, Mark Wills, James Gregory, and George Hamilton IV, would all be there and would delight the crowds, and they were and they did. But I had no idea that the members of the very first band I formed when I was in the tenth grade in high school would show up as well. But they did. [More:] I went to Avondale High School outside Atlanta, and my first band was known as the Avondale Playboys. It's hard to believe it now, but we were billed as "Georgia's Youngest Hillbilly Band." It had been over fifty years since I had seen some of them. But all the ones in this picture were there: Jerry Jones, me, and Charles Wynn from the front row and Billy Moore and Jimmy "Meatball" Bell from the back. Two others who joined the band at various times, Bobby Snipes and Lamar Worthy, were there as well. None of them have continued with music other than as a hobby. When I asked them if they would like to play a song, Lamar said, "Sure, as long as it's in G. I never learned to play in any other key!" I can't tell you what a thrill it was to have them there. We laughed, told old war stories about the nights when we would play for tips, the days when we got fired from radio and television stations (once because Meatball told the manager of a radio station that he had a light bulb at home more powerful than the station...and once because our loud rehearsals drowned out the six o'clock news on TV!), and all the fun we had in between. I find it amazing that we're all still alive and in reasonably good health all these years later. Nothing in life is more important than strong, lasting friendships. And nothing is more precious than warm, happy memories. Thanks to these guys, my cup today is overflowing with both.