Singing Valentines Stories 2005
The stories below are from FWD quartet's experiences while delivering Singing Valentines. If you have a story to share, please send it to webmaster@spebsqsafwd.org
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Tucson, AZOur Valentine's Day excursion has historically started off with one problem or another. This year, our bass, who shall remain nameless (OK, it's Rich Kates), showed up at our meeting place at our lead's house minus our Valentine costume red blazer. Fortunately, we had built in some extra travel time for our first gig at 8:15 on the far north side of town in Rancho Vistoso. We were able to back track, pick up the forgotten jacket and stil get to our first Valentine on time. A good thing too because the requestor, one of Rich's TPD Motor Officer buddies, was waiting there to watch us perform (and immediately reap the benefits afterwards). We also had a phoned-in request we took during the day from a man in Sierra Vista for a gal who worked in a Tucson office. We did a radio interview for KJLL 1330AM plugging our Valentines program and sang a couple of songs. The spot was aired during the 5:30pm drive time and we almost immediately got a call from a listener requesting a Valentine for his wife. Lots of smiles, some tears, and all joy during another successful day of singing Valentines.
Roy Ireland
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Sacramento, CA
We also sang "Valentine, Please Be Mine" to a young lady with her friends cheering us on in the CSI building of Sacramento. Our most memorable singing valentine was to a "marriage encounter" group. There were lots of nods and smiles when we sang, "It Had To Be You".
Jim Newlove |
Lakeside, AZOur story took place in Lakeside, Arizona, at the RTA Hospice building. The Pine Tones Quartet had booked a Singing Valentine at the Hospice facility for one of their directors. We arrived at the appointed time, and proceeded into the main lobby of the building. Our quartet was dressed in red striped vests with black bow tie and arm bands, the same uniform we have used for the five years we have provided Singing Valentines in the White Mountains area. Just as we entered the lobby, a lady entered from the opposite side of the room. We saw her look at us, and as she did so, we watched her break into tears, and head right for us. She looked familiar, but it wasn't until she told us her story that we made the connection. She asked us if we remembered her, and we admitted that we did, but couldn't remember where. She then proceeded to tell us that we had sung for her dying husband three years ago at the hospital, and seeing our uniforms brought back all the memories of that special Valentine's day. She followed us to the office of the recipient, and listened, and later we sang several songs just for her in the lobby. It was truly a heartfelt reunion with her, and made our day extra special.
Doc Dockendorf |
Marin County, CAFebruary 12th, 13th & 14th: Despite the weather, our quartets rose to the occasion to deliver twenty paid 'Singing Valentines' this weekend at a variety of venues from Petaluma to Mill Valley. From the eighteen chorus members who volunteered, eight quartets were assembled for duty. (With Relish, The Achy Brachy Heart Quintet, The Totally Lost Chordsmen, The Sunrise Sensations, The Redwood Ramblers, The Early Birds, The Blue House Brothers, The Birthday Boys) The Iron Man Award goes to Chuck Northup who sang at the very first gig on Monday at 9:30am as well as the very last around 8:00pm (along with numerous appearances in between). Performance venues included: preschool, elementary, high school and college offices and classrooms; retirement communities; flower and coffee shops, business offices and private homes. On Valentine's Day we delivered two songs, a card and a red rose to our County's Public Health nurses (singing as a trio when our baritone misplaced himself). Twenty minutes later our Early Bird Quartet was singing in the corporate headquarters of Il Fornio and crunching chocolate biscotti. By noon we were returning to Valentine Headquarters having sung to a biology teacher at Novato High, his wife, eight-month-old son and 30 captivated students. - Tim Garthwaite, Leader of the Early Birds For the analytically minded we offer the following stats:
Total Paid Gigs: 20
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Sutter Creek, CAThis is to report on the Gold Country Chorus' first venture with Singing Valentines. Jerry Fairman did most of the organizing. Herb S. printed beautiful posters which were distributed. Jerry and Carol bought 2 dozen silk roses, wrapped them and made gift cards. Ads were placed in the Ledger Dispatch and the Buy and Sell Press. One quartet appeared on TSPN television. The results were 26 contracts to sing, starting Feb 10 with the last on Feb 16. We had two quartets to cover this but the Bari for the second quartet got sick so Jerry sang all 26 times. The 2nd quartet benefitted from the services of our high school Junior, Matthew Long. With one possible exception, all the recipients were surprised, overwhelmed and overjoyed. It was a very moving experience for each in the quartets. I now understand why other Choruses stress the importance of Singing Valentines. We need to develop more quartets so more can participate. Mothers' Day is next. The money received, to be used for various projects, was more than we made with our Big Show last October. Thanks to all who supported this effort.
Ralph Harder |
Monterey, CAWe had a party and quartet contest at my house on Feb. 12, then sang Valentines for the next 3 days all over the Monterey Peninsula. Each of our six quartets averaged about 250 miles per day in their travels to deliver 120 Singing Valentines. My own favorite was our first delivery to our local hospital. We had been given a wrong room number and before retracing our steps to the Admissions Office, we sang our songs to a bunch of nurses at the nursing station. The husband, who had ordered the Valentine, heard us down the hall and came after us to guide us to the right room. His wife had just given birth 3 days ago to a new baby girl, who was in her little crib in the room with her mother. As we sang, the parents both cried, but the baby smiled! We had some great, free publicity - half of the front page in the Local Section of our newspaper, as well of some other smaller items about us. Brian Epps |
Placerville, CAThe Music Committee was walking down the sidewalk to deliver a valentine to a local merchant and some tourists stopped us and asked if we were going to be singing. We said "yes". Then they asked if they could follow. "Of course!" I knew the recipient and so she greeted me without the slightest clue of what was coming. When I told her she was totally flustered and didn't know what to do except smile and blush. Her young assistant was jumping up and down with the news and was really "up in the air" over it. Mary held her rose and kept going from big smiles to a question on her face of "oh my, is this really happening". Afterwards the tourists followed us out and wanted our picture. They had to tell the story at home in Hawaii. After the husband took our picture with his wife joining us, the wife decided she had to take a picture too. Isn't Barbershopping grand? Keith Eckhardt
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Monterey, CAWe had a wild and woolly time of it this year. The Cypressaires assigned me, a rookie in the chapter, to see if I could get some publicity in the local newspapers. I was lucky and got a 1/4 of the front page of the last section of the paper with a color photo, just one week before Valentine's Day, and a few more notices in various other outlying and specialty papers. The response was OVERWHELMING. Before the weekend was out, we had delivered nearly 120 Valentines (more than double the previous record for the chapter) plus several freebies, and were forced to turn down a dozen more for lack of quartets. We even asked our Santa Cruz brothers to take some of the load. The youngest recipient we sang to was 3 days old, with her Mom in the maternity ward of the local hospital, and the oldest, that same day, was 102 years old. (She claimed to only be 101, but you know how women lie about their age!) One woman celebrated her return home from Hospice Care by sending herself a Valentine. She was an old barbershopper herself, and had come to most of the Cypressaires performances for years. Several were delivered to nursing homes and elderly parents, to their great joy. There were many tears, lots of laughter and joy, and the average number of people we sang to at each location (many public), was about 10. With 120 Valentines, that means that we touched over 1,000 people. Restaurants full of people would go quiet, and give us unanimous applause at the end. Eyes filled with tears, hugs, joy filled the day and made the miles and miles of driving worth while, to say nothing of the tremendous boost to the chapter's finances. A couple of weird ones, too. One man sent Valentines to his two (female) housemates AND his ex-wife! HMmmm ... Another man sent one to his neighbor, 30 years his junior and engaged to someone else. There was one man who thought Valentine's Day was TUESDAY! In general, though, the emotions divided almost evenly between joyous appreciation and teary emotion. Sometimes it was the GUY who got teary! We have lots of ideas about making it even better next year. Howard Straus
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Santa Fe Springs, CAQuartets from the Masters Of Harmony Fuzzy Logic delivered Valentines..... we only had seven!!! They were all great though. We delivered one to what seemed to be a girls' dorm at the USC Campus. That one made up for the fact that we only had seven to deliver. We'll remember that one for a long time!!!! Wow!!!! (Les Weiser) Jim Sickles Sr., Martin Brown, Mark Feiner, and Doug Maddox delivered fifteen, starting at 9 and finishing at 6:30. 200 miles traveled. But about half of the recipients were men! (Doug Maddox) Yesterday the augmented Top-Notch (Larry, Dan Place, Kirt Thiesmeyer, and Cory Brendel) delivered ten Valentines, starting at 9:00 am, finishing nine hours later. Our recipients were located at several hospitals, including the City of Hope where we also took time out to sing for some patients, Glendale College, Bank of America, and Southern California Edison. Every single one went off without a hitch. The timing, routing and directions...perfect. The roses stayed fresh and we had just enough film. (Larry Goodfried) |
Chico, CAI have two stories to share, sort of at the ends of the spectrum. I sang from 8AM until 9PM representing the North Valley Chapter with 'Out Of Order', my quartet - with a sub here and there to fill the day. We were really non-stop for 13 hours and it was great. Two stand-outs: (1) At a large Chico hair styling salon, we interrupted our target while completing the shampooing of a customers hair. The quartet lined up and our rep presented our gift and card while the salon and its patrons - about 30 women of all ages - moved around to watch. An older gal, two stations in from our position, saw us in the mirror, turned around in her chair and exclaimed, "Honey, I hope you're taking those clothes off!!" After we recovered, we sang to great applause and made our exit, laughing all the way. (2) A little later, we walked into the Chico Cancer Center and sang for the staff in the Infusion Center. We were invited back to the main part of their building where about 15 patients were receiving chemotherapy while closely attended by the staff and many family members. This Valentine was ordered by the supervising physician, obviously one of the good guys. As we sang our songs, and an extra or two, the mental shift in the cancer patients was actually visible. For just a little while, I think we brought the real spirit of the day to these folks who had lots of other things on their minds. As we left, the nurse supervisor asked "Did you see their faces while you were singing?" We did. We also sang to a police officer at his morning briefing with 25 colleagues, a firecracker 93 year old Mom who directed us the whole way, a University administrator very upset at being interrupted until she saw the tuxedos, and a young Mom who was sung an apology from an out-of-town Dad. If there is better way to spread the love of music and enjoy this hobby to your bones, I can't imagine what it would be.
Pat Lynch |
Casa Grande, AZGreat fun was had in this our first year of bringing joy. Many tears were shed by wives, and friends of the recipients. We delivered to shutins, teachers and their students, workers in their office and our last two were delivered to men. These were ordered by ladies in the offices they worked in, perhaps to embarrass them a bit. (and they were quite successful) One of the men was a podiatrist. His entire staff was in on it. Both of the men handled the situation very graciously and were appreciative of the thought behind the fun. Our Singing Valentines chair has not completed the records, but this will most likely take place again next year since much fun was involved and the chapter treasury will benefit very much also. Richard Timmerman |
Mesa, AZWe not only hit the jackpot on Valentines Day but we also found the mother lode of Valentines and here is the story. We were contracted to sing a Valentine to the receptionist at one the local automobile dealerships in the Valley of the Sun. This lovely young lady just loved the songs and asked if we could possibly sing one more for her and some of her co-workers. The old BarberShop bug got us, we had an audience so what else could we do but sing one more. I am sure the fact that she was very attractive did not weigh into our decision. Not only did Amy find a few of her friends in the office to come and listen but she piped us out on the sound system that went all the way though the dealership. This brought a young man on a dead run to lobby area where we were singing. Out of breath, he told us that this afternoon he was proposing to his girl friend of several years and asked if we could possibly be there to sing a couple of love songs to his sweetheart. Oh my !!! What an opportunity this was so of course we moved our schedule and made room for him. We arrived right on time and sang Sweet and Lovely for her and at the end of the song he popped the question. Thank goodness the answer was yes or we all would have been wasting our time. We fulfilled or obligatory two songs with Let Me Call You Sweetheart, complete with the verse, then finished them off with one of our favorites, Fit As A Fiddle And Ready For Love. That was the jackpot but the mother lode was still waiting for us. A couple of Valentines later we were singing to an elderly couple at an assisted living center. The couple was waiting for us in the recreation area and several other residents were hanging around because they had heard a BarberShop Quartet was going to drop in and sing a couple of songs. As always we had to add a song or two as the folks that were there were a wonderful audience. One elderly lady seemed to take a bit more interest than most and it almost seemed as she should know us. That is enough to tweak any BarberShopper's curiosity so as we were on the way out we stopped to talk to her. As we spoke to this gracious lady we soon learned she had a wealth of BarberShop knowledge. When the conversation turned to names and she asked my name and her response was even more startling. She said "Well Charlie, I have not seen you in years. I am Helen Laurel" All four of us near hit the floor on that comment. Here we were singing BarberShop songs to the Helen Laurel, widow of Lou Laurel. How she could ever remember me I will never know but what a wonderful time the four of us had talking to her and remembering the past and the success that was had singing under the direction of Lou. I had that pleasure for 8 years and have the honor of singing in one of his Championship Choruses. What a wonderful treat to find Helen and be able to sing for her and share some memories with her. I remember Lou telling us that one of his favorite songs was Little Pal and how much he loved that song. Little Pal is firmly planted in our repertoire so we told Helen we would sing one of Lou's favorites for her. We will not know for sure who shed the first tear, a quartet member or Helen but when we sang the last chord there was not a dry eye in the room. This is a memory that I will hold dear forever and as a quartet we have already decided that we will visit Helen again very soon just to help repay some the wonderful things that she and Lou have done for all of us. That was striking the mother lode of Valentines. Many times I have been told always sing your best because you never know who you may be singing for. This time as so many times in the past it was for Lou. This pretty well defines that philosophy. Charlie Nardin |
Monterey, CA
Customer submitted story and photo I LOVED my Valengram. I think *I* had the very best quartet (apologies John, I know yours was good) and handsome to boot. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart, you were spot on in harmony! I know the scheduling was a killer! I am delighted that you got so many orders! I got the following note from the Shift Captain at the Aquarium:
Here's a picture taken today! Jane Olds Webmaster's note: I just have to point out that the singer on the far right is our son, Kirk Eckhardt, and he sings a mean tenor. |
Redwood City, CAI am sending this with permission from a member of my chapter who delivered Valentine's with his quartet yesterday. Max is an Italian national working in the US and has sung with our chapter for about two years. He had never heard of barbershop before he found us. Here is one of Max's stories from yesterday: Some time in the afternoon at Oracle Corp. We get into the Lobby and ask for our "victim" at the reception. After a good 10 minutes of multiple calls, the receptionist realizes that she is a new hire and gets her manager to send her down. After another 10 minutes or so... There she comes, all emotional, sits in the lobby where we deliver rose, card and songs and, of course, a small crowd gathers all around the lobby balcony to see what's going on. As soon as the applause at the end of the second song fade away, a voice from the balcony shouts: "Max, Max NON CI POSSO CREDERE!!!! (That's Italian for I CANNOT BELIEVE IT) I look up and there are five Italian former colleagues of mine of 15 years ago that I have not seen since then. They were at Oracle for a corporate meeting. Happened to walk thru the lobby at that very same time, glance down, figured that that guy in tuxedo was just like Max :-) :-) Got down, took a picture, hug and kisses the Italian way, "How, Why, WHen...." :-) :-) LOL!!! To make it clear... These guys still live and work in Italy in the same place I was working 15 years ago. Just happened to be at Oracle for a couple of days and were there at the exact moment just when we happened to be singing. If the receptionist would have found our Valentine in 5 minutes rather than 10, all this would have never happened. We are still debating whether to play Lotto with some numbers such as street address of my colleague, Oracle building #, Date and time of the Oracle valentine... Steve Sammonds for
Massimo "Max" Lanfranconi |
Redondo Beach, CAThe SOUTH BAY chapter has been delivering singing Valentines for most of the last twenty years. We had four quartets that sang on Saturday and Sunday this year and as usual, had a fantastic time doing it. In the SOUND UNION quartet, between the four of us in our quartet, we have done many more than 100 Valentines so we are not new to the game. However, this year we had a Valentine that we will enter into our record book. We were asked to be at the end of 3rd Street in Hermosa Beach and "on the beach" at 8:00PM. As you may suspect, at that time of night, it is dark, cold and and a strong breeze comes in off of the ocean. We arrived on time and looked around both buildings on the strand to no avail. We then noticed that away out on the sand almost to water's edge, there was a glow of light and a canopy with two people in it. As we became accustomed to the light, we also noticed that there were pink light sticks arranged to form a pathway out to the area and rose petals were sprinkled along the way. So, out we went into the night almost bending into the chilly breeze. As we approached, a young man unzipped the side of the canopy and asked us in. He was our host. Inside we viewed a very pretty young lady who was seated at a small candle and torch lit dining table. On the table were champagne, flowers and what appeared to be a fine Asian dinner. So we scooted around to get to the far side of the table, so as not to be singing into the wind and performed our hearts out. The young lady seemed to be impressed by our appearance and songs in spite of all of the amazing display that she had been provided before our arrival. We left her with a Polaroid photo and a rose. They left us with a unique memory. God bless this wonderful hobby Denny Lawrence |
Las Vegas, NVWhen you're in Las Vegas,there are always interesting "Singing Valentines" stories. Our quartet, "FROM THE EDGE", from the Las Vegas Gamble-Aires Barbershop Chorus, started the day at 6:30 AM, at the infamous "Little White Wedding Chapel" on the Las Vegas "Strip", singing "on-air" on KOOL 93.1-FM radio. Mayor Oscar Goodman presided over a ceremony in which 50 couples from around the country renewed their wedding vows. Where else but but Vegas can you get the "X" Girls, from a topless review, to act as bridesmaids (fully clothed), - the Chippendales guys to be your groomsmen, - and four old guys in tuxes and red vests singing "Let me call you Sweetheart" and "Heart of my Heart", while an Elvis, in a red, sequined jump suit mingled among the crowd. IT WAS A BLAST !!!! Hope everyone had as much fun as we did yesterday. Yours in Harmony,
John C. Thompson
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San Juan Capistrano, CAOur quartet, Key Ingredients (out of the San Juan Capistrano chapter, FWD) had our very first singing valentine experience yesterday. and it was one of the most rewarding days we've ever had. Watching people's eyes moisten with deep-felt emotion as we sang was so precious....watching an entire boardroom full of executives fall over laughing when we delivered to a man on behalf of his wife..watching the couple holding hands and looking into each other's eyes (the man had had a stroke recently) when we delivered on behalf of their daughter (despite some incorrect assumptions and negativity on the part of the sender, we almost didn't want to deliver the valentine, but we are so glad we did, because it turned out to be the most heart-wrenching one of the day)... Then there was the one where I locked my keys in the car, causing a string of events to occur which resulted in our running over the BORROWED Polaroid camera with the car...hoo BOY... But when all was said and done, our quartet ended the day determined to do it again next year, with a fresh perspective on the sincerity and nobility of the human spirit (and the knowledge that for a three-month-young quartet, we are really starting to hit our stride...). We even took a little time out to deliver to our three wives (the tenor, naturally, is a bachelor)... In all, 16 deliveries over the course of the day, setting over two dozen hearts a flutter, all kinds of spontaneous applause...so here's my recommendation to those of you who have never done it before: SIGN UP FOR NEXT YEAR!!!! By the way, thanks to Art Clayton and the Fullerton chapter, who got this article in the Orange County Register, and whose overflow spilled, quite happily, onto our quartet (we got four requests resulting in two last-minute bookings for the afternoon as a result of this article!) Cheers to all John McCallum |
San Juan Capistrano, CAWith the transfer of the Laguna Hills Quartet Chapter to San Juan Capistrano to become the San Juan Capistrano Chapter, we are starting the Laguna HIlls "Chorus" Chapter at Laguna Hills, CA. We did 9 visits in collaboration with the Dana Point Quartet Chapter, with one at Kaiser Permanente Hospital for a Nurse, "Sasha". Fortunately, this was not the ICU Department, because we almost shut down the entire department when we sang our two songs. There were about 30 employees that enjoyed Sasha's Valentine Greeting there. Then we proceeded to a location where people with blood disorder problems were connected to a machine for a short treatment for the purification of their blood disorder. Once again, we had a very large and noisy appreciation from everyone there. We made 9 visits that day, and when our Laguna Hills Chapter met later that Monday evening, I received a call just before I went to our Chapter Meeting. I advised the gentleman that if he would bring his lady to our Chapter meeting, we would all sing our Valentine greetings for her. He showed up at about 9:00 pm, advising "Lilly" that he wanted to see me for a minute as a friend, then we sprung the "surprise two songs, etc" to her with the entire Chorus participating. She was thrilled. Ours was a Chapter Pick Up Quartet, but we really rang those chords in Barbershop Style. Fred Eastman |
Customer in Folsom, CAThanks so MUCH, I really appreciated that! You guys were Great!!! There is something about four part that just breaks me up. When I was 14, I had 4 brain operations, and I am what I am today. THANKFUL FOR IT!! I have always loved close four part. I sang bass a child, and I must say, there was almost a note I could not hit. After my surgeries, and all the tubes, my vocal cords were re-arranged, I could no longer sing the low bass, that just broke my heart, because that was all I wanted to do. Now, through work, I sing Bass, not near as low as I used to, Baritone, lead and Tenor. So I guess things worked out, I mean I am alive, and I can still sing. (somewhat.) Tell the rest of the guy's that I really appreciated the chance to sing with them, IT WAS GREAT. Mary Loved it. I don't know who liked it more Me or Mary, but in any case, it will be a long lasting memory, Thank you all so much for being a part of it!! Submited by:
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Fresno, CAOur quartet was reminded to not let opportunities go by. As we arrived at a school site yesterday, we went to the office to check in, and the teacher/recipient was not directly available, but the office staff asked for a preview/audition. We were happy to oblige. And two of the male staff came out and asked where they could purchase a singing valentine for their wives. Sold two more on the spot!
Jim Warner |
Yuma, Arizona12 hours, a hundred songs, a hundred miles, many great experiences. An early-morning spot on Channel 11, the local NBC television station. A luncheon group of Red Hat ladies, exploding with applause. The wife of a senior Marine Corps officer serving in Iraq, squeezing the hand of her six-year-old grandson, both in tears. Two lunch-time elementary-school groups singing along to God Bless America. The retired foursome from Canada, whose favorite song is "When I'm Sixty-Four" (which we were happy to perform.) The nurse at the Marine Corps Air Station clinic. The Valentine's Day party at the rest home, bringing tears and cheers. The treasury is fatter, the quartet is thinner, but I'm safe in saying, we'd do it all again, for free, for the opportunity to brighten so many lives. Rob Bailey,
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Placerville, CAThe Music Committee delivered 26 paid valentines (and a few freebies) over 12 hours on Monday. We were tired, but happy with all the smiles, tears, and cheers we received. At a home where we delivered one the wife was very smiley and thoroughly enjoying it while the husband was very stoic, until the end when he said "That was better than I thought it would be" and he gave us a $5 tip.
Keith Eckhardt |
River City Music Company with Larry Larsson(tenor), Gib Hertler(lead) and Jim Newlove(bass) sang
with Kent Borrowdale of the Folsom chapter as baritone one day and Todd Troutman of BAM the next.
We sang to 19 different individuals, couples and groups of people over the two days
from a sweetheart in the El Dorado Hills Post Office to a couple on a farm in Clarksburg.
All comments and corrections to webmaster@spebsqsafwd.org