I came across a box of old day planners that I used for booking in Greetergrammers. There was about 20 years worth of names. It was fun to look through them to see if I remembered the person or the occasion. And it was intriguing to see some of the places we showed up at the time that don’t exist today. It dawned on me that this is kind of a bit of Lethbridge history. Over the years we probably sang to over 20,000 people. So I called the Galt Museum to see if they would be interested in keeping these books. They said yes. I was tickled that they wanted them.
It all started in the early 80s with me watching a news story about a couple of guys with guitars who would show up at a restaurant and sing happy birthday to an unsuspecting “victim.” It looked like a lot of fun. The guys singing were jovial and the gal being sung to had a big smile on her face. I don’t remember where the story took place (I think it was Toronto) but I recall thinking that while I don’t have a guitar I know a few people in Lethbridge who can carry a tune and have no problem making a fool of themselves in a public space. (Yes-theatre people.) I thought, this could be an enjoyable pastime for the upcoming summer and maybe we could make some beer money.
I was doing mornings for 1090 CHEC at the time and I asked management if I could promote my little side project on the air. The pitch was that we would go out into public and sing a personalized song, give the person a sheet with the song telling them to tune in to 1090 CHEC to hear their name on the radio the next morning. It’s an opportunity to force non-listeners to listen and perhaps persuade them to stay with us. Management agreed and The Greetergrammers were born.
Our very first Greetergram was at the YMCA for Stanella Bitango who was going to be in the middle of a fitness class in the big gym. I made up a song to the tune of La Cucaracha. Joining me were Larry Yelland who was an excellent piano-playing musician and Arla Burbank who I met while doing Once Upon A Mattress for Lethbridge Musical Theatre. I decided that my costume was always going to be a Mexican sombrero. And the only reason for that was because my parents brought one back from Mexico. I also had a sequined jacket that I resurrected from my Keep On Dancin Disco days. Arla had a set of maracas that she brought with her. We had no idea how this was going to be received. I was very nervous. But we barged in, halted the class, scared the hell out of everyone and sang the song. It went pretty good. It was a nice start.
I got another call to do another song out in Coaldale to a guy named Alf Sailer. This time my accomplices were long-time friends Mike Day and Mark Ward. Mike brought along a crazy wig and an Animal puppet. (Animal from The Muppets) As we approached the door to the house a kid came out, saw us and said, “He’s not going to like this.” Thanks for the reassurance kid! While the first one went well, there wasn’t a lot of evidence that would confirm that what we were doing was going to be accepted by everyone. With trepidation we entered the house and did the song. To our delight it was met with laughter and applause and they even asked us to stay for a beer. To calm our nerves, we did. We made that the exception of the many that were about to come.
The Greetergrammers started to catch on. The radio mentions and a subsequent story by Peter Scott in the Lethbridge Herald really got the word out. In our first year we probably did close to 1000. While our main venue was restaurants we also went to schools, clinics and many businesses some of which I never knew existed like out in the industrial park. Birthdays were the main request but we also did anniversaries, weddings and we even did a couple of marriage proposals.
I was fortunate to be available for almost all of the “grams” we did because I was off the air by 10am every day. There was a corps of singers that helped with the bulk of the work: Along with the aforementioned pioneers there was also Lyndon Bray, Lloyd Pollock, Mark Switzer, Stephen Graham, Roger Schultz, George Gallant, Dave Mikuliak, Arlie Langager, Thad Mandin, Ian Mandin, Romina Perman and there were others who did some and I’m forgetting who they all were.
We prided ourselves on trying to get good harmonies for every song although it didn’t always work out. There were certainly some disasters. We would spend about 5 minutes rehearsing in a car before going in to do the deed. Rehearsing for long periods of time was not our forte.
Not everyone was happy that we showed up. Fortunately that only happened twice in all the years where the person refused to stay and be sung to. In one instance the person looked at us and said, “I am not amused!!.” And walked right out of the building. I’m not going to judge what was going on that day that made this person react like that but I can honestly say that there were more smiles than frowns.
It was my great pleasure in life to totally embarrass my kids Jessica and Nyssa on their birthdays.
The best part of doing Greetergrammers all those years was the camaraderie. It was not unusual to do four or five grams in a night so we would hang together for the evening. The most we ever did was 19 one Saturday. That was a crazy day/night.
I can honestly say that I never got tired of doing them. Each one was different and there was always a new reaction from someone.
We did decide after four years to stop doing them because it was starting to interfere with our family lives. We decided to do a farewell fundraiser Cabaret with the local band The Late Show. All past Greetergrammers were invited to come on stage and sing a version of We Are The World. I wish we would have recorded it because it turned out amazing. Arlie Langager’s interpretation of Cindy Lauper was a show stopper. Money raised went to Rick Hansen’s Wheels In Motion. We raised $10,000 and we were able to present the cheque to Rick himself when he showed up in Lethbridge. That was an amazing moment when he wheeled into the rally at the Fritz Sick Centre. He was like a rock star and the crowd went nuts.
We stopped for a while but I missed it and decided to start up again. As members of the group left town I was finding it difficult to always get 3 people to show up for each event. I ended up doing a lot of solo Elvis bits. My mother-in-law made me a great Elvis jump suit that lasted for a few years. I’ve gone through about 4 different suits.
My greatest joy of doing Greetergrams for almost 36 years is having people come up to me time and time again to tell me that I sang for them on their special occasion and it was a special moment. And the friendships that were made over the years have been forever.
I could tell many stories about the exploits of singing telegrams but I’ll save that for another time. It was an important part of my life and I miss getting a group together to get out and sing and on occasion nail that harmonic chord. There’s nothing like it.
On the other hand, I don’t miss getting the Elvis suit out of my trunk and changing into it on the side of the road when it’s -30. Yes I’ve done that.
Mark Boogieman 