Before I made my plane reservations, I did two things. I forget the order. First, I logged onto the Blue World Bulletin Board (I really miss it!) to tell my great news to the only people in the world that I was absolutely sure would be excited about it. They did not disappoint me! My thread "I won the Raffle" provided exactly the response I was looking for and needed. And even better, I was joined by others who had won, or who were attending and who I could look forward to seeing. I was amazed by the gracious and warm comments from other fans. The next thing was to call my husband and tell him that I had won the raffle. And that it was a backstage pass for one. Not a happy thing! He was also gracious and warm, and only said "have a good time!" (OK, he did get a generator out of it. What, I'm not going to reward that kind of behaviour?)

So, I went alone in search of...what was I in search of? Music is best played at home, and I had seen the band several times, (perhaps many, I don't remember the 70s too awfully well) and was to see them near the end of the tour at Deer Creek. Of course, it was the chance to meet the band. I journeyed to Greenville to worship my god. (And I'm not saying who that is or who they are.) To touch them (hey, shaking a hand IS touching someone), to speak to them, to see them up close. The fan's dream, the greatest moment a fan might wish or hope for. That's what you want to know about. All this is in preparation for the moment of truth.

We were gathered in a hallway, 8 of us. Three gals I had quickly met that I had known of from the BWBB. Two men, two other women. I remember thinking how bizarre this is, we're standing in some kind of large hallway at its end. There was a curtain covering the end of the hallway.  I was wondering when they would take us to the meeting area, when Ray peeked out from behind the curtain.  What a thrill!  We seemed to be lined up like a reception line at a wedding.  Ray began with the people standing in line nearest him. I was near the other end, with Sue, Mavis and Paula. (I suppose that made me the mother of the groom)  Ray moved down the line and as he did, Graeme came out and HE started down the line.  It was surreal.  They didn't seem rushed and were quite relaxed and pleasant.  Unfortunately, I was trying to watch the curtain AND watch Ray and Graeme.  Very distracting!

Ray was finally in front of me, shook my hand and signed my ST program.  My special gift with the rich and talented finally came to the fore, I blurted out some completely inane comment, which I think was "My husband loves to hear you sing FML".  (Well, hey, it's not MY favorite song!) but he smiled and nodded and said something like "we'll be doing it tonight" as he gently moved down the line.  I came to, a bit, from my amazed stupor and remembered that I had a loaded camera in my hand and MUST get pictures. (Please note, this was not primarily to prove to others that I had met the Moody Blues. It was to prove it to me!)  Luckily, posing for pictures did not involve intelligent conversation on my part, which was obviously impossible for me.

They were VERY pleasant about pictures, which had worried me as possibly too much to ask. I'm ashamed to say that in addition to not requiring IC, posing for pictures does require standing quite close and slipping your arm around a very nice back or waist and having a very nice arm put around your shoulders or onto your arm. As I look back on this event, I'm surprised as heck that no one fainted. Of course, we wouldn't expect any of the BAND to faint, but I could have fainted, easily. A note on the picture taking session; I had brought a back up disposable camera in addition to my Elph. They always work. While this did not work, it did not give its life in vain. I believe Mavis was using it to take a picture of me with Mr Hayward and it didn't flash.  I had to stand there, just FOREVER, girls, with my arm around him as she looked at the camera.  Ummm.  I really feel I owe Kodak something for that one.