Each year nearby Plant City, the Strawberry Capital of the South, hosts the Florida Strawberry Festival.

It is a fun event, and students in eastern Hillsborough County are given a day off to attend the fair, which has a midway, numerous food and beverage vendors, an amphitheater that daily offers shows with groups such as the Oakridge Boys and Alabama, and numerous judging events such as with livestock and crafts.

One of the judged events is Horticulture, and this year Joyce decided not to compete, as her friend Lu Thompson was sumbitting entries and Joyce did not want to be competing against her. (And, yes, Lu's entry won Best of Show! Congratulations!!!)

Though Joyce was not competing in Horticulture, Jay and Joyce did the Florida Strawberry Festival. They went on a day when the Beach Boys were the featured attraction in the amphitheater. We're not saying that Joyce is a big Beach Boys fan, but she did buy third row seats in the front center section.

Needless to say, the performance was excellent. Jay had not really appreciated just how many very popular songs that the Beach Boys had published and sung. being at the Beach Boys show brough up a memory of Joyce's that went back overv 40 years. Here it is:

It turns out that Joyce had a very interesting experience with the Beach Boys in 1981. At the time she was the clinical manager/head nurse of 3 Main at what was then University Community Hospital. Her unit was the step down from intensive care, and it was formally called the MICU, Modified Intensive Care Unit. At this time the unit had a 17 year old sweet girl, Shelly, who had a birth defect, which kept the bronchials in her lungs from properly exchanging air, and so Shelly was on a perpetual ventilator. She was in the MICU to see if the expertise of the surgeons and other doctors there could somehow find a way to get her to the point where she could be extubated (removed from the ventilator). As indicated above, the year was 1981. It became known that the Beach Boys would be at the Lakeland Civic Center (now known as the Jenkins Arena RP Funding Center) on May 7. Shelly, who was completely lucid and had just earned her high school diploma, let it be known that she was an ardent fan of the Beach Boys. Joyce decided to do something about this. She first contacted the Lakeland Civic Center and explained the situation, including Shelly's great desire to see the Beach Boys. The response of the Lakeland authorities was just amazing. They immediately said that they would do whatever would be required to accommodate this young lady and the necessary UCH medical staff that would have to accompany her. They also said that paramedics or other Lakeland medical resources that might need to be employed would be at no charge. Then Joyce approached the UCH Administration. Taking a patient who is intubated away from the hospital and into a large venue was no small task. Thankfully, Joyce did not lack for volunteers from her nursing staff, nor from a number of doctors and surgeons, who were attending to this young lady. UCH gave its approval. On the day of the performance, they found that the Lakeland Civic Center had built a special elevated platform in the front center that held about 20 people; the young lady and the medical staff that needed to attend to her. This was a truly God blessed and amazing event, and one that Shelly's family certainly cherished, and one that Shelly also cherished up until her passing about seven months later.

Jay and Joyce also had to partake of the mandatory fries, corn dogs, and sodas. Somehow they "passed" on the famous strawberry shortcake offered by many vendors at the fair; maybe next time.