In summer of 1963, following the 1962 Century 21 World's Fair in Seattle, I took part in the "Seattle Center Hootenannies," held in front of the Horiuchi Mural at the brand new Seattle Center (legacy of the fair, along with a brand new opera house, several smaller theaters, and the Pacific Science Center, among many other amenities). The hootenannies drew as many as 15,000 people (police crowd estimate).

Some 15,000 people applauding sounds a lot like surf….   Pretty heady stuff!

A regular singing job of mine that spanned several years was singing three nights a week at a coffeehouse called "The Place Next Door." It was owned by the man who owned the Guild 45th theater (art films and foreign films) next door, hence, the name. He paid regularly and reasonably well.

After singing to a packed house most of the evening, when I did my last set, there were only four or five couples left. I sang a set of mostly love songs (no sea chanties or chain-gang songs). I had one song to go, but I decided to end on a very quiet note, so I played a classic guitar piece, Romance de Amor, arranged by Vincente Gomez. People listened quietly, then after I brushed by thumb across the concluding E minor chord, there as a long silence. The couples got up, and as they filed out, they quietly thank me for the evening of music.

Applause is great, but quiet expressions of appreciation can be just as heady, and in some ways, moreso.

Don Firth