Capron boy has a future tickling the ivories, funny bone

By Tricia Goecks

Editor

CAPRON – A steady stream of approximately 300 friends and neighbors stopped at the Lion’s Community Building on Jan. 10 for the club’s 60th anniversary.

The chapter, which was started on Mar. 30, 1955 purchased its new home in February 2014 and club members have been toiling to remodel the building. “We have been working hard to make it available for more community events and as an opportunity for people to use it,” Capron Lions Club president Barb Sager said.

In addition to the pancake breakfast, the Capron Lions Club has several activities planned for the next few months. The Easter egg hunt will be held on Apr. 4 at Lions Park.  The group will host free diabetic and macular degeneration vision screenings at Lions Park from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Apr. 11. Club members are selling pre-orders of roses for $18 per dozen. The roses, which will be delivered on Apr. 18 help fund the club’s activities in the community.

“We would like to thank everyone who came out today to support the Lion’s Club,” Sager said. “Events like today help us support the community and we appreciate everyone who came out.”

During the pancake breakfast, guests were treated to the musical talent of piano prodigy Matt White.  The 11 year old started playing the piano when he was four years old. The tike found a keyboard in the storage room at his older sister’s Ame Trowbridge’s apartment and took an instant liking to the instrument. He quickly learned some chords and other notes.

When Matt was 11, the son of Will and Mary White, he started to take began to take piano lessons from Mr. Forbish and he plays a wide variety of music from classics to songs that Matt has composed himself. “I like to play whatever pops into my head,” Matt said.

When asked if he considered himself to be a classically trained pianist, Matt pondered “How old will I be when that happens…..15? 16?”

In addition to his musical talent, Matt is proving himself to be a comedian with a steady supply of jokes in his repertoire. Matt’s specialty are corny jokes that make you think. “A man walks into a bar….and loses the international limbo championship contest,” Matt quipped. “A skeleton walks into a bar and orders a beer and a mop.”

“What do you call a man with no arms and no legs laying on the floor?  Matt!”

Not to be undone, I shared with Matt one of the jokes that from my childhood in the days before ethnic jokes were considered to be politically incorrect and taboo. The same ethnic jokes seem to have endured the passage of time having been converted into dumb blonde jokes.

Question: why did the dumb blonde bring sandpaper with her into the dessert?

Answer: because she thought it was a map.

It’s ok to groan. It’s bad.  And yet, it is still one of my favorite jokes.

Well, it was until I heard Matt’s skeleton joke. He has a career as the next Victor Borge.

And with Matt’s repertoire of what do you call a man with no arms and no legs jokes, I offer up one of Borge’s. “”Did you know that Mozart had no arms and no legs? I’ve seen statues of him on people’s pianos.”

Insert the sound of a rim shot here.