[hard candy christmas]

i heard this song for the first time a few days ago. i have no idea what it is about dolly parton and my odd fascination with her. she seems like the sweetest, honest, most sincere person in the world. and for some reason the way she talks, and her white blonde hair, has always reminded me of my aunt. anyway to me, in so many ways, she is christmas. i guess liking this song really shouldn’t be much of a surprise to me. this time of year always makes me think of watching dolly & kenny’s a christmas to remember. before she got all skinny, before he had so many face lifts that he had to start shaving behind his ears. my sister and i would sit in front of the tv and watch their special every christmas. scary elves and all. then came a smoky mountain christmas and i fell in love all over again. by this time however my sister was no longer a fan, she outgrew her in the same way other normal kids outgrow the idea of santa. i could accept losing faith in the jolly fat man, but outgrowing dolly was an act of treason. so this movie became a christmas tradition that i had to uphold on my very own. after that came one of the best designing women episodes ever. and yes, surprisingly enough, it was a christmas episode with very special guest star dolly parton. it was the one where charlene was having her baby. and dolly was her guardian movie star. and the sweet little old lady died down the hall. and bernice, my favorite, wasn’t about to miss out on any of it. so she called 911 and had the paramedics bring her in on a stretcher, wearing her christmas tree skirt around her waist. the funny thing was, watching that show as a teenager, no matter how over the top it was, everything that happened seemed perfectly normal to me. then again i'm not so sure a teenage boy who was fascinated with dolly parton really had a grasp on what normal was.