Walter Cannon, Jr. Tribute

In 1987, my friend Cathy and I went to Club Med in Martinique. While walking around the grounds of the club, I had something to mail and asked a guy in passing if he knew where a mailbox was. With his tall stature and in a black shirt with teal-colored skeletons on it, the guy pointed to the nearest mailbox with long fingers and in a deep voice said, “Ovah theah” in his Long Island accent. Being from Bayonne New Jersey, I was familiar with that accent and I asked him where he was from. Well, not only did I learn he was from Massapequa, I soon learned that he was a Local 3 electrician, he played the harmonica, he had a voice like Rodney Dangerfield and an amusing personality to match. Before we all knew it, he had the whole place in stitches making up blues songs off the cuff on his harmonica and telling entertaining tales. For the next three years I would keep in touch with him. I’d call him and say, “make me laugh”. And laugh I did….
That was 22 years ago, but Martinique in 1987 was a place and time not to be forgotten and neither was a tall guy with a harmonica in his shirt pocket from Long Island named Walter Cannon.