Velvet Sam
Those of us who live in Duluth have been following a young snowboarder with Duluth roots during the Olympics. Mason Aguirre just missed a bronze medal on Sunday in the halfpipe snowboard competition.
There was a little article in our newspaper that brought back a fun memory from about 25 years ago. Mason Aguirre's father, Michael, at the time was known as Velvet Sam. He was a minstrel who spent a number of years writing songs and playing them on his guitar. At Valentine's Day he was especially busy singing songs to lovers. He personalized his songs to fit individuals and/or situations. He also did occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and I suppose he might have been used to break up relationships!
I don't remember what his charge was but one of my nursing colleagues was having a 40th birthday and our group decided that we should pool our funds. We wrote up a number of things that we thought should be included in Sam's song, paid our money and arranged what we thought would be a good time for him to serenade Jan. We were pretty silly and ribbed Jan about being single, etc. That was nothing new! When Sam sang he always left a print copy of the song he sang--that way the "victim" had a remembrance. Sam came to the nursing station about 2 p.m. and did his thing. We had good time, Jan blushed but also doubled up in laughter! I hadn't thought about that day for years.
We are going to have our coldest days this year. A thought that warms me up: Spring training camps for major league baseball start today. Oh, to be in Florida (hasn't so warm of late!) or Arizona!
Keep warm! Tonight may be a three dog night! Too bad I only have one cat.
Lois
There was a little article in our newspaper that brought back a fun memory from about 25 years ago. Mason Aguirre's father, Michael, at the time was known as Velvet Sam. He was a minstrel who spent a number of years writing songs and playing them on his guitar. At Valentine's Day he was especially busy singing songs to lovers. He personalized his songs to fit individuals and/or situations. He also did occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and I suppose he might have been used to break up relationships!
I don't remember what his charge was but one of my nursing colleagues was having a 40th birthday and our group decided that we should pool our funds. We wrote up a number of things that we thought should be included in Sam's song, paid our money and arranged what we thought would be a good time for him to serenade Jan. We were pretty silly and ribbed Jan about being single, etc. That was nothing new! When Sam sang he always left a print copy of the song he sang--that way the "victim" had a remembrance. Sam came to the nursing station about 2 p.m. and did his thing. We had good time, Jan blushed but also doubled up in laughter! I hadn't thought about that day for years.
We are going to have our coldest days this year. A thought that warms me up: Spring training camps for major league baseball start today. Oh, to be in Florida (hasn't so warm of late!) or Arizona!
Keep warm! Tonight may be a three dog night! Too bad I only have one cat.
Lois
posted by Lois at 3:55 AM
1 Comments:
I remember Velvet Sam! I remember that he entertained many
women like your friend. I never saw or heard him but heard good things about him. - Linda
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