In Pigeon Forge last week, Floyd and I arranged to take in the Hatfields’ and McCoys’ Dinner Show with Jamie, Donnie, and the boys. Floyd originally scheduled it for Tuesday at 5:00, but they called back and said the show was filled, and we had to reschedule. We didn’t want to eat a complete meal at 8:00 p.m., so we opted for a different day. In order for all of us to sit at the same table, we re-booked our show for Thursday evening at 5:00.
We arrived by 4:15, picked up our tickets at the window, and were seated. Almost immediately, we were served. The food was delicious and the service was fabulous. The show started about 5:20, but only a few minutes later, the sound system died. The lights flickered off and on again before they died completely.
Meanwhile, the sound system people were scrambling to find out what caused the outage and how long they’d be without power. The poor performers were doing their best to be heard without microphones as they yelled at the top of their lungs and continued with their program. But when the power wasn’t restored within a few minutes, the show came to a halt and the main character in the performance addressed the crowd.
He said, “Folks, we don’t know what caused the power to go down, but we are attempting to find out how long we’ll be without power. The fire department said they should know something in about 15 minutes.” If everyone will remain in their seats, we’ll let you know as soon as we know anything.”
For about ten minutes, the performers attempted to entertain everyone by tap dancing, playing their instruments, and singing in a fairly dark auditorium. And the room was so large, it was hard to hear them without microphones, but they tried.
As it turned out, a severe thunderstorm had roared through the area. People talked about funnel clouds forming in the immediate area, but when we left the theater, everything was quiet and we saw no evidence of a tornado. In any case, the 5:00 show got cancelled. Donnie called first thing on Friday morning and rescheduled us for the 2:00 show. It was a great show, and we each got two dinners for the price of one because they fed us again.