Leaving little-kid family performances aside, when I was in college, in about '50 or so, I was a new recruit to the (approximate name) Minneapolis-St.Paul Hiking Club, a large organization, which was holding a membership campaign, with the membership divided into two teams, the Cowboys and the Indians. The idea was to see which team brought in the most new members. The losers had to pay for the refreshments at a party, and give a talent show. I'd just been brought in by the Cowboys. We lost.

There was the BIG party at the end of the membership contest period, and I (a budding folksinger and neophyte guitarist) was asked to sing on the Cowboys' behalf as part of the program. I'm pretty sure there were at least a hundred people there. I sang two or three songs; don't remember all of them, but one was The Cute Little Window (Bonnie Wee Lassie). From stagefright I hung up stone cold with blank-mind-itis in the middle of one of them, but passed it off with some alleged witticism and proceeded to The Cute Little Window. Everyone was kind, I'm glad to say. All I can say is, I lived through it, continued singing, and fifty years later I'm still at it!

Dave Oesterreich