We just booked a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains for our summer vacation.

Taking a vacation is a major deal for us and we are not only grateful to be able to do it but also pretty careful about the planning.

There have only been a few lengthy vacations for us in the past 20 years. A few trips to Florida, a couple of trips here and there to places only a few hours away. But as I said, we are always grateful for the opportunity. On our way to Florida, we’ve always talked about going someplace in those mountains we drive through some day. This is the year.

Going down Tennessee way means being in Dolly Parton country. Indeed, we plan on staying close to there and seeing how much we can do without putting ourselves in the poor house. We chose a neat little cabin to rent and have started researching things to do.

I’ve been thinking about the trip since we booked the lodging, and for some reason, my mind keeps going back to some of my earliest memories of my childhood: Saturday nights and The Porter Wagoner Show.  Dolly started her career on that show. I can vaguely remember seeing her on that show.

On Saturday nights, we were usually headed to the homes of friends or hosting a get-together ourselves. Mom was in the kitchen rustling up dinner. Dad was usually “cleaning up” in the bathroom after a day of work. My brother and I would run around, checking the window for our friends to show up, and basically trying to stay out of Mom’s way.

While we waited for our friends to arrive, we would watch the Saturday late afternoon-early evening shows that were usually on TV back then.  There would be “Hee Haw” and “Pop Goes the Country” and “The Porter Wagoner Show.” I don’t know how much attention we paid to the shows, but I can recall seeing the big country stars of the day.

Mom was always a fan of Merle Haggard and everybody liked George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Dottie West and many others. We’d pay close attention if there was somebody on those shows singing the latest chart topper. Back in those days, our music around the house was mostly country. The stacks of albums and later, the large collection of eight-track tapes featured an array of folks from Loretta Lynn to Johnny Paycheck to Donna Fargo.

Porter’s show was different than the others. I remember it always started out with a shot of him walking down the hallway of the studio in his trademark flashy boots and sequined leisure suit. He’d sing a little tune with Dolly. The Wagon Masters would play some tunes. Speck Rhodes would do some comedy. All the while, Porter would converse in a laid-back manner or have some friendly banter with Dolly and the band members. Then, the guest star of the week would do a couple of numbers. All the shows back then had some type of gospel number on every episode too.

I YouTubed a few of Porter’s old shows and saw some things I had forgotten about. There were Porter and Dolly again, both with very tall hairdos, doing the Duz laundry detergent commercials. The novelty of buying Duz was getting a free flower-designed washcloth in every box. There’d be an offer to order matching towels through the mail, and every time she opened a box of Duz, Dolly would say “Looky here, Porter!”  When Porter pulled up one of the towels, she’d say “Why, Porter, you brought me flowers!”

It was all a bit hokey, but we were glued to the set.

It’s funny how certain things will spur memories from the past. Porter Wagoner has passed away and Dolly is, of course, a mega-superstar now. It’s been a long time since those Duz commercials were on TV. I wonder if you can still buy it.

I doubt we will see Dolly when we visit her neck of the woods. If I do, I’ll probably holler “Looky there! There’s Dolly Parton!”