Transcription
Around the Cosmic Campfire by Tony Wright
Chapter 17: Some Really Short Shorts
Story Six: Randy Sparks
In the late 70s, I had the opportunity to work with Randy Sparks as a singer in his band. He had tutored and mentored many people who ultimately became famous in the music business—from Johnny Mathis, Steve Martin, John Denter, one of his greatest success stories, the New Christie Minstrels, with their array of hits from “Green and Green” and “Today While the Blossoms Still Cling to the Vine,” to the Mamas and Papas, and on and on. He had many years of successes under his belt, and to go to California and run his club, Lloyd’s of Linden, in Linden, and tour with him was quite an opportunity for this little Iowa girl. We worked together for some time, but eventually, my band and Randy parted ways, and we all went our separate directions and into other musical ventures.
One day, a few decades later, I got an email from the doctor who had been in the alternative medical practice with me near Nashville. We had a website that we did not do much with, but it was still lingering out there. Doc apparently had gotten an email from someone wondering if Tony Wright on that health website was the Tony Wright he knew many years ago in California. And yes, it was—from Randy Sparks. He wanted to meet with me when he took one of his tours across America, if I had the time. He was still an avid antique collector and was always shopping for oddities for his vast collection of antiques he had stored all over Calaveras County, California. I had never seen such a private collection of antiques in such giant buildings, which contained everything from antique cars to spiral staircases. He was quite a character.
We tried to figure out when we could get together, and we found that on his check through the Nashville area, he was able to come to the house, and he could even spend the night and have breakfast with us the next morning. My partner was delighted to be able to meet him and play a few songs together, sitting around with our guitars all evening. We shared stories of our lives since we had last seen each other. He left that day.
On another occasion, he called and asked if I could do a favor for him: Could I pick up something from an antique dealer and hold it for him till he came through? He had found it on eBay, and it was in my town of Franklin, just south of Nashville. And I was happy to do it. When I met the young man in the McDonald’s parking lot delivering the article for Randy, I found he was handing off to me four giraffe legs. “What?” I said. The guy astonished. They were giraffe legskins, and I think Randy was going to put them on the walls in his jungle room or something, if I remember correctly. They were owned by a deceased taxidermist, and his son was ready to let them go.
Once I had them, I had to figure out when we could get together to hand them off to Randy, as they were too big for mailing. I didn’t know when I would see him again, but didn’t concern myself too much with it either. I knew it would work out. I started thinking about seeing him again, how to see him again, how to see him again, and give him the legs from the giraffe. I tossed it out there, and my transmission antenna went about my life.
That same summer, I had traveled up to see my sister in Des Moines. I hadn’t been home for a while, and I got a phone call from Randy. He was just checking in with me to find out about the giraffe legs, and I was sorry to tell him I wasn’t in Nashville, that I was in Des Moines visiting. We couldn’t believe it—he said he was on Interstate 35 going west and was about to go through Des Moines. I, of course, was just off Interstate 35 at my sister’s house, about 10 minutes away. We met at a cafe there on the interstate and had a great conversation. It was fun meeting him there, that 50s diner, and what was interesting was to be meeting in the city where I first met him, as he was playing with the Back Porch Majority, where we first became friends in the 70s. Now, how did that happen?
I must admit I did not have the giraffe legs with me. It worked that out, and he came through Nashville again, and I handed them off to him. But what is the chance, in all of America, of being down the road for me, only 10 minutes or so, in a place I had not been back to for quite some time, and neither had he, and it was the city in which we first met? Seems to be the way my life works—dialing it all in, just dialing it in, and people too.
I’m wondering, however, with being so adept at dialing all the perfect things in, why can’t I dial in 10 million lottery? People always ask that, and I’m always laughing aloud. Perhaps I will. Perhaps I will. I have nothing but time. It gets clear to me all the time that, for the rest of my life, people and things will keep coming to me as I request to manifest them. I will continue to enrich my world with experiences and loving connections to keep teaching me to tune in, tune in, keep tuning myself in. As we put up our personal and powerful antennas, we can connect to and call forth the entire world. What if I keep manifesting things? What if I get more and more of everything? What happens when I become incredibly rich? It’ll be that amazing time when I have so much more than normal that I can share and give back to so many. The more we have, the more we have to share, and what an inexplicable delight that will be. Is it the God station I keep turning on? I do believe so. For this, I remain incredibly grateful, as I say thank you to you all and for all the players in my life’s play.