When I was a teenager, and dating my now husband, he helped me buy my first car, a beautiful red 1967 Dodge Dart and that was in 1970. If I'd only known then that it would be a classic car today, I would never had sold it years later. Now many more years later, I never thought that a love for classic cars would spawn a love for wind chimes.

My husband and I have a favorite vacation spot in Tennessee. On the first weekend after Labor Day there is a huge, and I do mean huge, classic car show with 20,000 plus classic cars spreading out between the three towns of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. During a visit to Gatlinburg, we took time out to do some shopping. One of the many shops sold beautiful wind chimes. Big beautiful wind chimes, the likes that I had never seen before. I couldn't help myself and we bought one of those chimes. The different lengths of tubes that the chimes had made the most beautiful sounds I'd ever heard before and thus began my love of wind chimes.

That was several years ago that we bought those big wind chimes and now they hang on the east side of our front porch. Thank goodness I am a country girl because sounds tend to really travel far at night in the country and a city slicker may not appreciate the sounds of my wind chimes the same way that my country neighbors or I do. One of our neighbors has told me that she can hear the sounds of those chimes at night and she's not even upset about it! In fact she really enjoys hearing them and often falls asleep to the soft sounds of their chiming. But then again, even I like doing that because there's nothing quite like the sound of these wind chimes lightly chiming in the night breezes. There is just something soothing and serene about it. So there they hang on one side of the porch like a giant while teeny little dollar store horse wind chimes on one corner of the porch tinkle in their own pathetic little way while some cow wind chimes that were a gift from my daughter tinkles on the other corner. Oh I must mention a special wind chime given to me by my husband, a set of carousel horse wind chimes hanging right over the steps going up to the porch chiming a warm welcome to everyone who visits our home.

I guess it's just a matter of time before I have wind chimes hanging from every tree in the yard. I think that there's no turning back now. Something has taken a hold on me and I don't think I can let go. There's just so many beautiful different kinds that provide so many different sounds. I may eventually drive my neighbors bonkers thinking I'm some kind of crazy wind chime lady but I could be called a lot worse I guess. As I am writing this, I can hear those wonderful wind chimes of mine belting out their beautiful sounds to the crazy chime lady that is me, and I love it!