The events I’ve outlined in the
following blog post are true (sort of).
MAYBE I’ve added some embellishments, maybe some humor. Read and see
which is which. YOU be the judge.
Around the middle of May I got a phone
call from my son Tony, who (as you know) now lives in Nashville. He had some
news for me. “I entered a contest, and out of 2,700-plus entries, I placed in
the top 60.”
“What? You’re kidding! Who, what, where,
when, why?” Yes, my traditional game of 20 questions kicked in immediately.
“Well, it’s a contest for VH1 and
Republic Records – Make a Band Famous. The grand prize is a record deal with
Republic. I submitted a 15-second video of me playing “America to Go” filmed at
Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta. I was chosen from my video…”
“Wow, that is just great! So what
happens next?”
“Well, (long pause here) they want
people to vote… on Twitter…”
(Cue the crickets.) Dead silence echoed
from my end of the phone as I contemplated the meaning of his last sentence.
Finally I said, “But who tweets? I mean nobody in the family does – Grampa,
Aunt C… (I listed approximately eighteen more people here…)
“Yeah, I don’t know, but those are the
rules. I mean Molly tweets for the Lucky Fin Project, and Lesleigh and I
tweet…” Then he reminded me, “Mom, I helped you set up a Twitter account like
five years ago!” (Of course that was true – not that I’d used Twitter much to that
point, but still…)
So I said, “Okay, well we’ll see what
happens I guess…” We continued to talk of other things, but my mind kept drifting
back to that silly dormant Twitter account. I silently vowed to figure out exactly
how to tweet now that a record deal hung in my son’s balance.
I went to the “VH-1 Make a Band Famous” website
and saw the box with Tony’s picture. I watched the 15-second video. Sigh… how I
do love my kids… Hesitantly, I pressed the word “Vote” under his hashtag #tonymemmel name. I
thought that perhaps I could dodge the system - that I’d be able to vote in
this simple manner rather than via Twitter. Maybe they’d see I was his mom and I
wouldn’t require the whole “Twitter approach.” But nope - no cigar! A message
popped up prompting me that I needed my Twitter password and account
info. DRATS! Rats are bad, but in my opinion, Drats are much worse!
Later that day I slowly circled my
computer, and after staring at it for some time, finally sat down. I cracked my
knuckles and wiggled my fingers; cocked my neck first left and then right to
loosen my stiff upper back and shoulder muscles. As a warm-up, I checked my ‘laptop
usuals:’ two e-mail accounts, Facebook of course, my blog stats, Tony’s Youtube
hits, Linkedin, and my book’s Amazon numbers. Realizing it was time and that I’d
stalled long enough, I slowly typed in “T W I …” and my very intelligent laptop
prompted me with “Twitter.” Okay, yes, fine, I want Twitter! I pressed enter. I
thought back to 2009, when Tony first started the account with me. I took a
stab at my Account name and password based on what was happening back then. I
got IN! Triumph overtook me. I did it, I did it, now I can vote. So the first
thing I did was click back to the #MABF website and pressed vote. This time I
had success. I voted! I voted! I contributed to the cause!
I continued down this menial tweet path
for a few days. I learned that I needed to change a word or two each time I
voted so that the system recognized I wasn’t a robot. I began to feel creative:
“I just voted, WE just voted, Todd just voted, Millie (our cat) just voted,
Lillie (our other cat) just voted…” and so on. Though I was the only one home, I
glanced over my shoulder as if saying are
you seeing this? Can you see that I’m tweetin’ up a storm over here???
Next, to mix things up, Tony
informed me that he and the gang were hosting actual Twitter conversations. He
said I didn’t have to 'just' vote on the MABF site, but could join the group. I begged
off at first, but in the end I joined just to learn the routine through
re-tweets.
I’m not going to lie. Twitter moves
fast, my friends. It was not for amateurs, let me tell you. Between the new
comments, the re-tweets, the favorites and the replies, my head was spinning. But
before I knew it I was getting even more
creative, adding pictures from my brand new I-Phone, using phrases such as,
“This bird is tweeting for #tonymemmel #mabf,” and “This owl wants to know
whoooo you’re voting for #tonymemmel #mabf.” Todd and I went boating over
Memorial Day weekend, so I used this, “Can you tweet while you float? Yes, I’m
tweeting on my boat #tonymemmel #mabf.” The phrases were endless. I tweeted about
the baby robins in our yard who were learning to fly from their nest. I tweeted
about Tony’s albums, his song lyrics, and what they meant. I tweeted about my
book, why I wrote it, who I wrote it for… You name it, baby I tweeted it (well,
maybe not EVERY thing, but lots of things…
)
As the days and weeks (3 ½ to be
precise) picked up steam, so many people were on board with our cause. I met
people on Twitter from all over the country because when Tony announced the
contest to his Facebook and Twitter followers, telling them he needed their
help, they heard his tweeting call and flocked to their computers to help.
People he’d met through his work with the Lucky Fin Project, old friends from
high school, college, our home church, symphonies and choirs, Lesleigh’s parents
and her nurse friends. People tweeted from as far northwest as Washington
state, and as far southeast as Florida. And did I mention most points in
between? I’m afraid to list all of the states because I don’t want to leave one
out. Suffice to say that folks over the span of 3,000 American miles tweeted for
#tonymemmel #mabf. No lie!
Every day I thought, we’re probably okay
with tweets now. I can probably stop. I can probably stop any time I want. But
then I’d think why? Who’d want to
miss out on all of the action? As it turned out, not me!
Stay tuned for Part II - The #MABF Competition
Katie Kolberg Memmel is the author of "Five Fingers, Ten Toes - A Mother's Story of Raising a Child Born with a Limb Difference." For more information, visit her website at www.katiekolbergmemmel.com
