The Deer Hunter and Tipper early 90s at Pap and Granny’s
Country music was the soundtrack to mine and The Deer Hunter’s courtship. He drove a brown 1983 Custom Deluxe Chevrolet pickup and I had a 1989 Ford EXP. No matter who’s vehicle we were in you could bet the radio was blaring some Merle Haggard, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, or Hank Williams Jr.
We were huge fans of classic country before we ever met, and once we started courting the music was something we enjoyed together.
In addition to the established country heroes we liked some of the country music of the day. Alan Jackson was just becoming really popular. In fact one of my younger cousins thought The Deer Hunter might just be Alan Jackson 🙂 Other performers of the day that we were fans of were Travis Tritt, Mark Chestnut, and Brooks & Dunn.
Sometimes I feel like those days of keeping the roads hot and listening to tunes was someone else’s life. Other times I feel like it was just last week even though many years have passed. Later this month will mark 28 years of marriage for us. We were together for about 4 years before that.
Although we don’t care for today’s country music in the least, the music of our courting days is something we still love.
Along with the traditional music of Appalachia the girls were often exposed to real country music and over the years they’ve tried their hand at emulating some of those performers who were coming through the speakers when their mother and father decided to spend the rest of their lives together.
Here’s Chatter doing a cover of Mark Chestnut’s classic song “Too Cold at Home.”
I hope you enjoyed the video. Every once in a while we’ll hear one of our old courting songs and The Deer Hunter will look at me and ask if I remember it. Sometimes we look at each other and then look around us and I know we’re both wondering what happened to the young people we were when we fell in love to the sound of classic country music.
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Chitter, thanks for posting your rendition of this song!
Look at that precious couple!! Deer Hunter is better lookin’ today, IMO!! Tipper is still a beautiful woman. Love your YT channel as well as the girl’s.
OMG, the look in Matt’s eyes. He knows he got lucky. Thank you both for keeping us in touch with our Appalachian roots. I live in the Philippines now, but enjoy your videos and every time I see you eat a purple cherokee or any other old-time tomatoes , I attest that I can taste them just as well.
Tipper, You were Smokin’!!!! Yes, my hubby & I used to drive around listening to music (not country, tho) until all hours of the night. he worked 2nd shift when we started dating & didn’t get out of work until 11pm. My parents were fit to be tied that he would pick me up at 11:30 and we would hit the road. Usually, we’d go to Denny’s & drink coffee & just ride around. In my little town, everyone closed up shop @ 9pm – so there wasn’t much else to do. They thought we were out at the bars, but little did they know that he had quit his bad boy attitude & gave up drinking, so we were not going to bars. He’s been sober for 20 years now. Sometimes, I wonder why we don’t still ride around together doing nothing but listening to music. Tipper, you are lucky that you guys can still look at each other with love in your eyes when you hear a special song. (I can tell that you know you’re lucky, so that’s not a scold!)
There is no way that I can describe to you what this post has meant to me. I’m 75 years old so my husband and I were very much into the old country singers just like you and the deer hunter were. That’s been many years ago. He’s been gone for a long time but at night and in the deep recesses of my sleep , I dream of him. Those dreams are so sweet to me. And although I remarried. he was my first and he was the father of my two precious boys. And I don’t ever think you get past that first love, not taking away anything from my second marriage. Because he was a good ,God-fearing man and we enjoyed several years , especially singing together in church. But now as I sit here scribing this post my eyes filled with tears and my heart aches for times past. And yet I know that I cannot live in the past , but as the years wear on you can’t help but remember all the good times, the bad times, and even sometimes you wish you could forget. We buried our youngest child in 1992 because of a motorcycle accident. It was a horrible time but God was faithful and gave strength to endure. Didn’t mean to rant but sometimes you feel like a close friend. Thank you for sharing those beautiful memories of you and the deer hunter. And like someone else said on a post, no wonder Corey and Katie are so beautiful! Just look at you too! A beautiful couple. And I love the way the deer hunter looks at you. Last night I was watching you two on the front porch swing with Corey. Y’all were eating popsicles in the swing. I know I’m just an old hillbilly from Tennessee Mountains but I just absolutely enjoy your videos. And the Friday night story book reading! Every Friday I think oh great it’s time for Tipper to read again! Thank you Tipper for all the work you put into these videos sharing your garden with us, your mom, the girls, The Deer Hunter etc etc etc and oh how I enjoy Paul and your dad! One of the most precious memories I have of my dad is him sitting beside me at the piano at church singing. One of the last songs he sang before he passed away was ” No Burdens Allowed to Pass Through”. One of the parishioners taped it and I’m so glad she did! You sound like you might have been a daddy’s girl. Still at my age he called me sugar and every day I miss him so drastically, and Mama. She was 90 and died in 2018 , dad was 94 and died in 2020. They were married 72 years. Thank you so much again for sharing your life with us God bless you.❤
“Keepin the roads hot” is something I haven’t heard since it came from my grandmother back when I was a teen and she told me to “cut out all that rippin and runnin and keepin the roads hot”. Haha! Your blog and your videos are like coming home. I love you to pieces!!
Well, Tipper! What a mighty fine lookin’ couple! No wonder those girls are so pretty!
I’m about the same age as Granny and Pap; so I was first a fan of country music in the ’50s with the likes of Bob Wills, Hank Sr, Roy Acuff, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, and even Eddy Arnold and Vaughn Monroe (Ghost Riders in the Sky) and others whose names are lost to me now. I transitioned into what we called ‘new country’ with Porter Waggoner, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Loretta Lynn down to George Jones and Tammy Wynette. When country turned rock-a-billy, I kinda lost interest. We moved to Texas just in time for that new, old country sound from the likes of Alan Jackson, George Strait, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt, Clint Black, and others in the mid ’90s Compared to the worst song any of those I mentioned ever made, today’s bunch of whining, non-musicians are just warts on a croaking frog.
I have 2 favorite eras of country music: the ’50s and the ’90s and anything Merle Haggard did.
The bride and I have put in 61 years so far. We used to burn up the roads in a 1950 Ford V-8 that made all of 90 horsepower.
Thanks for the memories.
As Barbara Mandrell sang, I was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool. My husband and I married in 1969 and I would play country and he would play the contemporary rock at that time. One day in his 60’s he discovered Don Williams, and he loved his music because his songs were about his wife and how much he loved her and that fit my husbands thoughts perfectly. He passed three years ago last month. We had 50 wonderful loving years together, and the final 5 years had him totally into country. Classic country, not this counterfeit junk they call country. I listen to just the quality stuff. You and the Deer Hunter look so precious, Tipper! I can’t say enough how much I enjoy your blog. I give my sister full credit and a big THANK YOU for introducing me to you!
I didn’t begin listening to country music until the early 80s. I’d been a 70s rock-n-roll kid, growing up listening to Eagles, America, Boston, and Fleetwood Mac. But my life had hit a brick wall, part of which included losing my father, and I needed to make some significant changes. Country music was one of those changes. A very dear friend, having re-entered my life, brought it with him. There is power in music. While driving about in a 77 Ford F250 long-bed, with a 460 engine, I was now listening to Eddy Rabbit, Crystal Gayle, Alabama, and George Strait. Those old songs will take me straight back to the summer of bucking bales and riding fences. However, my husband of 39 years, is not a fan. Today, I still listen to country music, and do appreciate some of the new(er) artists and what they have. I also still drive Ford trucks. Sometimes I find myself where I need one of those nights where he slides me close, and the music is turned up. Thank you for your inspiring writing! And also congrats on your upcoming anniversary!
We dated for 4 years and married in 1976. There is nothing in the world like classic country music. We were lucky enough to see George Jones in concert just a few years before he died. We also enjoyed Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Waylon and Willie, Merele and the list goes on. I wish I could have seen Lorette Lynn in concert but bless her, she’s in her 90’s now. What talent. Alan Jackson also wanted to “keep it country.” Country doesn’t sound like country anymore. Great job Corie! Tipper, you and Matt look precious in the picture. Thanks for sharing.
I love Alabama and Jim Reeves and Don Williams and the first Hank Williams. So many more I can’t believe the music they set in my head and it still is in there floating around.
Chatter’s song was SWEEEEET! Sure enjoyed it.
I grew up quite a few years earlier than you and the Deer Hunter but I 100% agree the so-called “country” music of today doesn’t hold a flickering candle compared to the country music from the 1960’s.
Happy 28 anniversary to Tipper and Deer Hunter!!! You’re both very young and fetching in the 90’s photo! It’s an oldie but a Goldie!!! You’re right about country music. It’s gone down the proverbial tubes as have many things. I saw the ALAN JACKSON FAMILY shopping in a Walmart in TN in Murfreesboro. Let’s just say Mrs. Jackson watches her man ever so closely. I’m pretty sure they had 3 sweet and precious little girls in tow. But Alan IS HANDSOME and a tall drink of cool water and doesn’t his Mrs. know it??? She’s hot on his trail for sure. I also went to AARON TIPPON’s outdoor shop but did not meet him. There were lots of pictures of him though.
Love the picture of you two. Charley and I courted during the 70s. I still love that music, and memories come back to me when we listen to it today. We went to our HS Reunion last night and we requested them to play “our song” — Precious and Few by Climax.
Although we’re celebrating our 52nd anniversary on Halloween our music tastes are sure the same as yours. Johnny and June’s If I Were a Carpenter, is one of our favorites. I have to travel back to the hills of my birth every year or so to keep from feeling “itchy.” The rest of the time when I hear them mountains calling, I go look through the old LPs and pull out a Waylon or George, sometimes a Patsy Cline, and that has to do. I now have added 2 new sweet voices who look a lot like their mama to that playing list. I’m so glad I had the gumption to find you, not that long ago.
I also like the old time music be it gospel, country, or 50 and 60’s rock and roll. When my wife and I were dating we listen to the songs of CCR, Beach Boys, Drifters and similar groups on a 8 track tape player either in a 64 Ford Galaxy (390 engine) that would hide the speedometer hand or my first car 1973 Plymouth Duster with the Twister package. I like the the old country music singers with Hank Williams Sr. being my favorite. Loretta Lynn was my wife’s favorite. Allan Jackson is one the few newer singers I like now. I very seldom turn on the radio in the car nowadays, but will listen to a satellite tv station that continuously plays the oldies music of the 50 or 60’s.
I share those same wonderful music memories. And, wow, Chatter nailed that song!!!!!
That is a good picture of you and Matt and a good song. Thank you for sharing it. The young people I work with have never heard of any of the songs I listened to when I was a teenager and in my twenties (and still listen to) but I try to educate them. They have never heard “He Stopped Loving Her Today” or “Hello Darling” and don’t know what they have missed! Dennis Morgan
Y’all were and still are a good looking couple. The girls sure do look as beautiful as you Tipper more so than Deer Hunter in that picture. Time does fly by way to fast the older we get. Today was a sweet love story you post and we still see that same love in your videos too.
P.S. I forgot to say how wonderful Corie’s music is!!! She does so fantastic! Katie and Corie are my favorite female singers!
Donna. : )
Have you ever noticed that couples that look good together, almost like they are from the same model, have the best relationships? They were obviously made to be together. You and Matt truly have that look. So do Corie and Austin. This was a really nice peek into your and Matt’s courtship. Thank you! I agree with you about how country music is not the same today. The mainstream music they feed us is not worth my time. Thirty years ago I loved to listen to the current tunes of the day. As I matured, I gradually began to turn away from it. Several years ago I came to the place I am at today – I only want to hear music from days gone by, mostly music from before I was even born. I do still have favorites I enjoy in many different genres, but all of them are more than twenty years old. I don’t even know who the current popular music artists are anymore, or even actors. I don’t watch tv or current movies hardly either. I buy complete DVD sets of older tv shows, and that’s what I like to watch. Those and documentaries and sports. I don’t really trust much of anything Hollywood puts out today – true facts are so misconstrued, and they have been feeding the population this false narrative long enough that many young people walk around thinking they are well educated, and they think the real truth is what’s wrong. I will get off my soapbox. I loved this post! I, too, get a shock when I realize that what I thought “just” happened a few months ago was actually several (as in many) years ago instead!
Donna. : )
The personal soundtracks of our lives. Funny how hearing a song can carry us back to a time, day or even minute of our lives in our memories.
I’m with you on the music. ‘70s country, especially Billy Sherrill productions, are my foundation. I listen to a lot of genres, but country is home to me.
You guys haven’t changed that much…hair style and no lip cover. My hubby and I love the old traditional music as well…according to him, if ‘it don’t have a steel guitar and fiddle, it ain’t country’. I am afraid I have to agree. Since we don’t know your anniversary date, Happy Anniversary early. Thanks for all your sharing blogs, I so look forward to them. God Bless.
I thought maybe I was the only one who looked back and thought their young life was a story about somebody else. Every time I do I think about Job saying we spend our years as a tale that is told. Lordy, the ideas I had about my life.
I had never heard Corie’s song before. My life has never had a music soundtrack except for hymns. And for about the first 30 years those were without music.
I had a copper and buck skin Ford pickup back when we were still just us two. It had an 8-track that promptly quit working. It still had it when I sold it about 30 years later.
You guys looked like young celebrities! What a wonderful time it was to be courting! It’s obvious that your love has matured and grown over the years. Still sparkin’! God bless!
Sweet, sweet picture of you two! Once you two met, that’s all there was. I couldn’t help noticing……when I came to your house for dinner on my birthday, yesterday, you two were just as loving and devoted to each other as you were the day that photo was taken on this post! Thirty-two years and your love has just grown stronger! That’s pretty amazing!
Music has a way of transporting us to another time. You both were so young and pretty/handsome! I was a huge fan of the Statler Bros. before Lew DeWitt left the group, Ronnie Milsap, Tanya Tucker, Alabama, and yes, today’s country music holds no charm for me.
What a good lookin young couple, THE TIME DOES PASS SO FAST…HARD TO BELIEVE YOU HAVE GROWN GIRLS ALREADY,