Charlie…say it ain’t so!

This is a follow-up post to my story about “My Super Bowl bet with Charlie Daniels.” 

If you haven’t read it, you can find it in the “Life At TOS” section of this website. 

Basically, I lost a bet with Country Music Legend Charlie Daniels over who would win the Super Bowl in this year of 2012.  I made the bet via Twitter, once I started following Charlie and his Twitter account. 

Charlie spent some of his earlier years in a little community just a few miles up the road from where I live.  My sister-in-law is also from that area and Charlie use to visit their house as he was friends with a couple of her brothers.  I told Charlie, via Twitter, that I’d send him a Nehi Grape Soda and a Moon Pie, if his team won the Super Bowl.  I said I’d send it from J.R. Moore & Son, a General Store from that same community that was around back in Charlies day…and still going strong.  If his team lost, Charlie had said he’d send me a Coca-Cola and a pack of nabs.  Nabs are a southern expression for crackers that are filled with peanut butter and sold about 6 to a pack.  So, with the bet on, we traded a few messages via Twitter and I wrote all about it in the other post.

Nehi Grape Soda as well as a Nehi Orange Soda, were very popular drinks around the South many years back.  Moon Pies were around back then and they still make them today.  Nowdays, you’ll pretty much only find the Nehi drinks in some specialty type shop that features retro candy and products like that….or….some place very special…..like our favorite General Store….J. R. Moore & Son in Gulf, North Carolina.

Having lost the bet, I had to follow through, and I made the journey up the road to J. R. Moore & Son to purchase the Nehi Grape Soda along with the Moon Pie.  I also purchased a RC Cola and sent that to Ms Hazel, Charlies wife…..with an extra Moon Pie of course.

I wrapped each of the bottled drinks (glass bottles) in bubble wrap and placed them in the bottom of the shipping box.  Then, I placed the two Moon Pies in a plastic food container so they wouldn’t get all smashed up along the way.  I also included one of my Taste Of Southern totebags for Ms Hazel, and I included a cap that was embroidered with our radio station logo for Charlie.  Charlies first radio appearance was on the radio station that I work at now.  I also sent him a postcard from J.R. Moore & Son.  I actually made those post cards for the store about 2 years ago but didn’t mention that. 

I never gave too much thought to the drinks actually getting damaged, because I thought they were wrapped very well.  Given my past history with shipping and receiving packages….I should have known better though.

I mailed the box to Charlie and it was scheduled to arrive on Valentines Day, February 14th.  I was eager to be sure he actually got it.  Only problem was….Charlie took off to Colorado for a couple of weeks vacation.  After that, he went to Las Vegas for his first concert of the year, all before he headed back home. 

Last night was the Daytona 500 NASCAR race and Charlie was back in full action, posting lots of tweets on his Twitter account about the race.  I couldn’t sit up that late so I headed off to bed.  I have to get up at 4am each morning for work.

When I got home this evening, I saw that I had 117 new Tweets in my account.  Most of them were Tweets that Charlie had posted throughout the race.  I started at the bottom and read the older one’s first, working my way up to the top of the list.  That’s when I saw this………….

Alright…..he got it!  This was cool.

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Then I read a couple of others he’d written about the race….and saw this one.

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Oh noooo…..it broke!   How could this be?  My excitement quickly sunk to the floor. 

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Since I wasn’t online when he originally sent out the message, I immediately sent him this one.

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Well…at least ONE of the sodas made the trip safely I guess.  Just don’t know which one.

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I was really curious about all the other stuff.  Did any of it make the trip?

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Very good….but what….no picture?   Let me see Charlie!

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I really did think it was wrapped pretty good.  Wonder how many times it got thrown around?

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He’s just too kind.

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At least I followed through….I tried.

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Thank You Charlie.  (Charlie Daniels just said I was a “man of honor.”  Cool huh?)

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And that was it.

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He really is such a very nice fellow.  Maybe I’ll venture back up to J.R. Moore & Son one day soon and buy him another Nehi Grape Soda and a couple more Moon Pies.  I’ll wrap them in a whole box of bubble wrap, fill a large box with thousands of those little styrofoam peanuts and see if I can get a Grape Soda from here to the top of a mountain in Tennessee.  I mean really, how hard can it be? 

Maybe I’ll just pretend that for two weeks or so, while he and his wife were on vaction, that box sat out on his front porch in the freezing temperatures of that night mountain air.  It IS winter after all, and I think they even had some snow at his house.  There was that picture he posted about some of his cattle and how cold they looked.

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Charlie said that he left Tennessee and this happened.  He said they looked “cold.”

So, don’t you think it’s possible that a Nehi Grape Soda left out in weather like this, even wrapped in bubble wrap – inside a box, might just have frozen up a little bit and popped its cap?  It could have happened I reckon.   Then today, Charlie posted this next picture.

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Now this looks mighty good to me.  Wonder if Charlie knows I’m a “Professional Fisherman.” 

Can’t you just see me and Charlie out there fishing together?

Wait….Hey Charlie…want to place a little friendly wager on who can catch the biggest fish?

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Tags: Charlie Daniels, life at tos

Category: Life at TOS