Save the Last Dance #6.
Say Hello to Chubby Gerard

Kitchen seranade by a young accordionist with absolutely no musical aptitude

When I was about 11, and pudgy as a pig, mom suggested I learn to play the accordion.
“Every child should learn to play a musical instrument like the accordion,” she said. “You’ll never forget the experience.”

I was skeptical; I’d never even seen someone play the big clunky thing. Next thing I know I’m taking lessons from a five-foot-tall lady with giant black horned-rimmed glasses named Carmen Alcaro. She makes me play accordion classics like Buffalo Gals and Lady of Spain. UGGH! As my concrete hands destroyed every stanza, her eyes said it all, “kid, you suck.”

Mom ignored Alcaro’s suggestion not to “waste her money,” but Mom persisted. Next thing I know I’m dragging my Excelsior accordion to the world-famous NBC Studios on Sixth Avenue to play for some handsome, debonaire dark-haired guy named Charlie. He looked like actor Andy Garcia, only more attractive.

As Chubby Gerard (me) navigated the next few years of this strange fruit, I realized Charlie was more than just “some guy.” But it was until 40 years later, I put the pieces together with the help of my Mom and the memorabilia she had quietly collected and kept till the day she died.

So…if you’re not afraid to shed a tear or two and can handle a proper love story that’s absent of tantalizing sex scenes and hip, cool innuendos, you might enjoy my ode to love entitled SAVE THE LAST DANCE. A Bittersweet Love Story about Broken Promises and Shattered Dreams.

“Superbly Crafted Ode to Love.”
– San Francisco Literary Review

“Pure and Simple. A Proper Love Story. They don’t make them like this anymore.”
– Kayla@ Good Reads