No School Saturday: Dreams of the Caribbean!

Mornin’ Ginchers,

Time once again for No School Saturday and … dreaming of the Caribbean!  As a boy growing up on the Northside of Pittsburgh I dreamed of Ocean voyages, the palm trees the Blue waters of the exotic Islands … I even listened to Martin Denny and his tropical paradise cool music.  So when I became a young man I couldn’t believe that our music (Johnny Angel and the Halos) would take us to these tropical paradises we only dreamed of.  The Cruises … along with our friends at MAC Travel and 3WS we began a yearly event that took us, our friends and guests to several different tropical paradises in the Caribbean, resorts, beautiful islands … we climbed Done’s River Falls (Spelling?), ate fresh cooked fish from the ocean at tableside village restaurants, drank exotic potions, danced in thatched hut clubs, swam with the dolphins, snorkeled in beautiful crystal waters with colored fish I had only scene in expensive fish tanks.  We performed in the main showrooms of the ship and even took some of our favorite friends with us to perform like the great Eddie Holman, Fred Johnson of the Marcels and Chuck Blasko of the Vogues.  We felt like some of the bands in the beach movies playing music on the beach and even sang a cappella DooWop under the brightest stars one had ever seen.  I had to pinch myself when we heard that the Captain of the ship wanted to meet us in person … since he caught one of our shows in the showroom.  Our troop was massive, hundreds of friends from the ‘Burgh traveling the Ocean with Johnny Angel and the Halos … we literally took over the ship.  We had a person from the crusie ship that was assigned to follow us (the band) wherever we went.  They knew that we would break out into song at any given minute and the crowds would gather.  They actually had portable bars that would spring up at their command when we started singing and it became an instant party!  We made so many lifelong friends while hosting the Cruisses and many still talk about the wonderful times we had.  With all of today’s troubles in the world I doubt that we will ever be able to do this again … but with all of the ugliness going on in this big world nothing can erase the memories we have from our voyages!  Till tomorrow, stay safe, stay healthy, help a neighbor when you can … and, GOD Bless!

Johnny

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