Mudpie Meowdels My Early Birthday Gift

We didn't do a mewsic post this week because I wanted to share a special addition to my Conway collection instead, and I enlisted Mudpie's assistance in helping to meowdel it. (She really just wanted to play with it.)

Anyone who has looked closely at a Conway video or photo may have noticed the ever present "CT" necklace he wore. It was given to him by a concert promoter in the late 70s and the intertwined letters became his symbol. (Thankfully it survived the estate sale that took place after his death and is now in the possession of his eldest son.)

Fans loved the necklace so much it was reproduced and sold at Twitty City. Many had jewelers make replicas too. It has become one of the most coveted of Conway collectibles because it's nearly impossible to find. My guess is there are two reasons: First, when someone today is cleaning out their mother's or grandmother's jewelry box and finds a "CT" necklace, more than likely they're not going to know it's significance or what it stands for. Second, try searching eBay for "CT" necklace...you get thousands and thousands of hits because obviously "CT" is the abbreviation for carat! It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Long story short, last week I found that needle in a haystack. I stumbled upon a seller who had bought a bunch of country music collectibles at an estate sale years ago, and she knew exactly what the necklace was. I was nearly in tears as I purchased it for a very reasonable price. She told me she has other Conway items to sell too because the lady she bought them from had also been a Conway fanatic.

It saddens me that so many of his original fans are passing away and their cherished collectibles sold, but that's what makes it all the more important for these things to end up in the hands of "younger" fans like myself that want to keep his legacy alive. 

Next Tuesday is my birthday, and this is my early birthday gift to myself. (Incidentally, today would've been Conway's 87th birthday. I will never understand why I couldn't have been born a week earlier so we could've shared the same day. I had to have been a fan from the womb, right???)