Mission Swiftly Accomplished

Want to reach a country star? Ask a country DJ.It’s an epic tale, but to make it short, when Taylor Swift was still a lanky pre-teen, she just happened to appear on stage at the 2004 New Hampshire Magazine’s Best of NH Party and we just happened to take a photo of her. If we’d tried a few years ago, it probably would have been a cinch to get it autographed, but now that she’s become a global mega-celebrity, it’s probably easier to get a bill through Congress than to get her personal attention.Turns out, when Taylor’s star was on the rise she dropped by just about every country radio station in the country, and her family forged a friendly relationship with New Hampshire’s own Mark Ericson of WOKQ (that’s him, in the second photo, posing with Swift). So when Mark read the Editor’s Note in the February issue of this magazine (“My Date With Taylor Swift”), he volunteered to assist. Faster than you can tune a 12-string guitar, we got the photo back with Taylor’s lovely name penned in silver (pictured here). Want it? Well, get in line. We’re going to auction off this one-of-a-kind collectible at our Best of NH Party this year, with proceeds going to the NH Food Bank.