since mt childhood days,roy acuff has always been one of my favorite heros of the grand ole opry...as a boy of 12 years old(1948/49)i sold papers on the the street corner in downtown winston-salem,n.c..roy acuff and the smokey mtn.,boys were appearing at the old state theater one day,just a block east of my street corner where i sold my papers...he was also staying at the old robert e.lee hotel there,one block west of my corner...he walked past my corner several time between shows and during one of those walks,he stopped and bought a newspaper from me...he gave me two buffalo nickels(yes,newspapers were a nickel a piece then!)i was so tickled that i put those nickels in a separate pocket and took them home and gave them to my mom to keep for me...
today i wear those nickels soldered on either side of my watch band to remind me of how lucky i was as a twelve year old kid to sell a newspaper to my then idol,roy acuff...