I don't remember when I first heard Fats Waller sing and play piano. I was probably a freshman or sophomore in high school. So that was '45 or 46. When I heard the music, I'm sure I never knew the man was dead. All I knew was that this guy was a lot of fun. He was never moaning about a lost girl or some other stuff. This guy sounded like he enjoyed life. Who wouldn't want to be around a man like that? Great humor, and a fine stride piano. What's better than that for a kid?

When he sang, the good times rolled except for a couple of tunes when he got sad or lonesome, and even then there was a smoothness like a balm that made things better. Fats used his voice like a side man in a dixieland band, improvising around a melody. Sometimes he just said a line rather than sing it, or he'd put another meaning in it or add emphasis like when he says LULU's back in town. Just the way he said it, she had to be some kind of woman to get all that excitement out of that man. He said the kind of things you'd say, if you were that smart.

I guess now that I look back Fats was a strong influence in my life. I kind of adopted the philosophy in his music. When I first started teaching English, I loved it. It was fun because Fats had taught me that LIFE WAS fun. Teaching is about trying to explain life so I had a great tutor.

Later when I was teaching television and other communications stuff, I never had a problem coming up with fresh explanations for students. I think that it was partly because Fats and his style taught me to relax with life, enjoy it, work with it. I think that's how you get ideas. He and his band taught me to "gun the gunboats" and to "turn it loose". I'm really glad he was around for me. If you never heard him, you need to. You missed a lot.