Vernon's Puppet Balladeer - Gary Kruger

Seniors Choice Newsmagazine June 2004 - by Rudy Loeser - You start out with what Mother Nature gave you, and then you do the best you can with what you're given. In the case of one Senior of our acquaintance, this led to a unique occupation and a way to make a contribution to those who are less favoured. Meet Gary Kruger, cabinetmaker, inventor, jack-of-all-trades and stage manager for many concerts throughout the Okanagan. Gary has a nice voice, which had started out as a boy soprano and then morphed into a pleasant baritone in adulthood. Though, according to him, he did not sing as a boy, he made up for that in later life, wherever the winds blew him. It was not until he retired in Kelowna, however, and became a senior citizen without a nine-to-five routine, that he decided to get into some serious singing. He bought a Karaoke machine, along with a whole library of songs, and he sang in Karaoke pubs up and down the Okanagan Valley. At the time, he happened to be living in this writer's home, after having lost his wife of 30 years to cancer. The Karaoke machine was in his room so he could practice and the act of singing helped him overcome his loss. He sang day and night. This did not present any problems during the daytime when I was at my office and my 10-year old daughter was in school. The nights were a bit of a dilemma because, while my bedroom was in another wing of the house, isolating me from sound, there was the 10-year old, whose bedroom was situated directly above the music room. For her, this was too much. If she was to hear a rendition of 'If I were a Rich man' one more time she would leave home. In desperation one night, she tied a note to a string which read 'please stop' , attached a weight to it and swung it against the singer's window, one story below hers. Well, a girl has to get her beauty sleep, and a musician has to practice, and thus a schedule was devised that worked for awhile. Eventually, everybody moved on to different lives. Gary went to live in Vernon, the 10-year old is now 21, in England, and a living example that beauty sleep does work and I travelled for awhile. The next time I saw Gary Kruger, he had grown tired of the Karaoke pub scene and given in to the need to do something more purposeful with his music. He became a street performer, raising funds for underprivileged children through World Vision and the Christian Children's Fund. he has taken his act to such venues as Vernon's Creative Chaos, the Recreation Centres' Craft Show, the Children's Festival in Polson Park and the Vernon Farmers' Market, whose management will let him weave his magic in its premises this summer. He will e dressed in costume, complete with oversized top hat. He will sing, accompanying himself on a keyboard built into a mobile puppet theatre he designed and built himself and, while he plays, four puppets will dance to his music. The music selections range across a pretty eclectic spectrum, from Mozart to Fiddler on the Roof, Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' and all manner of popular songs from the past. To this accompaniment, four puppets, out of a troupe of 36, will dance to the tunes. The music selection determines which puppets will dance, as their costumes have different ethnic connotations. Gary Kruger, man of many talents, is a good-hearted human being who is using his talent for singing to make life easier for the two little girls and one boy in faraway lands whom he has adopted through the two charities. He writes to them in Palestine, Nicaragua and Mozambique and they write back to him. He credits the memory of his late wife, Elsie, for instilling in him the wish to do something meaningful, to make a difference. His daughter and his two grandchildren are proud of him. What else can a man ask for?

 

< Prev		Next >