And a lot more work. “You would have to go pick up the keys from the different companies, and you would have to return the keys to the different companies all over Shreveport- Bossier.” Mills remembered. “They would fuss at you – the ones who had the listings – when they didn’t have their key right back.

Then Daddy called her home. “He told me he needed a telephone operator because he had just let one go,” Moffitt said of her father, Fred, who owned Moffitt Volkswagen in Bossier City. “I said, sure, I would come back to work for him. He put me through college.

He even has butter. And you can have what he has. Randy owns Morell Dairy Farm on Highway 169 between Greenwood and Mooringsport in Caddo Parish. He is selling the farm’s home-milked items and is confident all of them are better than what you buy at the grocery store.

“It is important to recognize small business owners who take a chance on their dreams and employ many people within our community,” said Chamber president and CEO Lisa Johnson. “It is equally as important to recognize the accomplishments of our larger businesses, which employ large amounts of our workforce and make a large impact on our economy.

“When I was a kid, religiously on Saturday nights, we would gather around the radio and listen to the Louisiana Hayride until it went off,” Harris remembers. “Then, my parents would turn over to the Grand Ole Opry. We sat around and listened to that like you sit around and watch TV.

“I’m a constant worrier. I worry about everything,” said Prize Fest founder Gregory Kallenberg. “We stay up at night thinking how to make this bigger, bolder, bawdier, louder and more fun. It is a constant process with us to keep tinkering and tweaking to make this even more than it.

“These are artists who are not in galleries – not famous – that may think they are not good enough or strong enough to be in the Revel as a regular artist. We are offering for them to come here and display their art and test the waters of the market.”.

“This event is, to us, the most important one we are going to have this year,” Lewis said. “It was always something I wanted to do. The legacy of the people who have played there, and the level of talent that will be there this year – it’s certainly a great honor for us to be included in that lineup.