My wonderful wife Pat wants me to join her at the gym. And while we're there she would like me to go in the pool, which is great exercise for an amputee. But in the past I've come up with every excuse imaginable why I can't go. But now, I have a water leg, and I've run out of excuses. So it looks like I'll be going to the gym soon. Stay tuned, because maybe I can come up with another excuse! (It would be great if I did go to the gym and lost 20 pounds, and that way I wouldn't dislike every photo taken of me!)
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It's that time of the year that I celebrate February 3rd. I was 17, and the person who influenced me the most, singer-songwriter, Melanie, personally took me into Carnegie Hall, when she learned that I didn't have any money or tickets for her sold-out show. I'm 67 now and still so grateful that she gave a teenager one of the greatest evenings of his life. It was a dream come true. She meant so much to me that she's ended up in all three of my books. Today we stay in touch via email; and back in 2017, at a Salinas concert, she invited me onstage to tell the story of when she was 26, and at the height of her fame, walked arm-in-arm with me into Carnegie Hall. Another great evening with Melanie!
(Remember, you can order my books directly from me by emailing me at tonyabano1969@icloud.com.) This month we've had more rain and storms than I have seen in 35 years of living in California. And a funny thing happened, I kept telling my wife Pat, "God, my foot is soaked."
She naively said, "Well, take off your tennis shoes." I had to remind her that it's not the foot I have, rather the foot I don't have from my amputation. She had long ago forgotten that when you're amputated your brain sends signals to your nerves to protect you. So, for three weeks I walked around with a soaked foot that I didn't have, while the real foot was dry. Years ago a doctor had told me that that would happen, for unlike in other injuries, your nerves will calm down or die out over time; but when you're amputated, your brain is still sending signals to your nerves to kind of protect you. As he explained, they send "reinforcements." Before I step into the shower, my foot is already soaked, and right now I'm in the house alone, looking out the window at this morning's rain, and my foot is soaked again! It's got me wondering about my little three-legged companion Brie . . . Does she go through the same thing and have phantom pain and a wet paw when it rains? Unfortunately, I haven't been on my blog since I came down with Covid a couple weeks ago. But now I'm ready to tackle something I never thought I would do. The people who are the closest to me think the next step for me to take is to write a children's book. And the more think about about it, now that Brie is officially my dog because of Lois' passing, I'm ready to write a book titled, The Adventures of Brie and Me. Stay tuned from the two amputees!
It seems like that this year is off to a very good start, for I've been invited to be a guest on my first podcast. The topic is "People with disabilities, and what they can do, rather than what they can't do." The name of the podcast is CanDo Chronicles, which is run by a gentlemen named Adam Bremen. He has cerebral palsy and has spent his whole life in a wheelchair. Someone who works for him picked up my book A Leg to Stand on, and thought I would be a perfect guest . . . of course, with Brie. We're filming on January 11th, and I'll let you know when it will be aired.
Of course, Brie will be with me because she has also shown what she can do with three legs, which is amazing. Soon I will post a video of Brie running full tilt, gracefully as a dog with four legs. It's quite amazing the speed she can pick up with my coaching. She really gets into it and seems proud of herself. I know, of course, that I'm partial because I love her, but I still am in awe of her fluid motion, making running seem natural. I can't wait to share the video with everyone. Last summer this delightful young woman, Jamie, and her girlfriends were dining at il Fornaio, where I work two days a week as a host. We struck up a conversation, and they kept asking me more and more questions, and I didn't have enough time to say more, but I said, "If you really want to know more about my life, it's in a book I wrote, and it's for sale in downtown Carmel." Then in early December, Jamie walked into the restaurant and told me how much she enjoyed the book, and now her girlfriends were reading it. It was an early Christmas surprise! I never know how my books are going to touch people, for sometimes it may take a full year before I hear anything. It's very gratifying, and Jamie certainly made my day.
Since I've had my right leg amputated below the knee, of course, there are always funny episodes or nicknames people give you. But one of my favorites happened in 2019.
One day while sitting with my friend Phil, he asked, "Do you want to have a little fun?" I replied that I did, and he told me that our mutual friend, singer Maria Muldaur was doing a bus tour back east to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. Phil said, "Let's give her a call and see how it's going." Phil put his phone on speaker so I could hear the whole conversation. To my surprise, Maria said, “Oh, Tony Five Toes is with you?” I chimed in, asking how the tour was going, and she said, “It’s funny to hear from you because just last night your name came up while I was talking to Melanie.” Melanie is my favorite singer-songwriter, whom I’ve met several times. She had performed at Woodstock in 1969 and was celebrating the reunion of that great festival with Maria and other musicians of the era. Melanie said to Maria, “You know Tony in California?” Maria said that she did, and then it occurred to them that they both had signed my prosthetic leg. (The leg I wrote about in my last blog post.) Well, the fact that Maria was talking to Melanie at the reunion in New York while I was sitting on my couch in California made me feel like I was the celebrity. Phil continued his conversation with Maria while I was listening in and before they hung up, she said, “Tell Tony Five Toes goodbye.” After they hung up, I asked Phil, “What’s this Tony Five Toes?” He replied, “Well, I was afraid it might hurt your feelings, but that’s how we’ve been referring to you.” I said, “I’m okay with it, because, actually, it was pretty clever. So now that time’s gone by and I’m okay with it, they just call me Toes! (It sounds like I have a Mafia name, Tony the Toes Albano!) Being an amputee, I ended up with an old prototype leg that was just standing in my living room for a long time . . . I turned to my dear friend Don Hobbs and asked, "What do you do with an old leg? Should I throw it out?" He said no, and suggested that I ask all the performers in the music industry that I admire to sign it. I replied that I'd never ask anyone for their autograph. He said,, "You know, a leg is different."
Well, one of the songwriters I most admired was John Prine, and when he came to town to perform at Carmel's Sunset Theater, I had to give it a try. So, after his sound check, I met him coming out and said, "John, would you sign my leg?" He said he would be happy to. Wow! It was so easy that I started really liking the idea, and when any performer came to the area that I admired, I would meet them after the sound checks. Soon the employees at the Sunset Theater got to know me, and I didn't have to explain why I was there. They'd say to the artists, "You've got to sign the 'leg man's' leg!' So, after their sound checks, that's what they did. Artists who've signed the leg are Graham Nash; David Crosby; Merle Haggard; and Art Garfunkel. Jackson Browne also signed it, but I was also told by the staff that he wouldn't be too happy if he saw my plastic water bottle, so I ditched it in the recycle bin before he came out. Maria Muldaur started singing "Midnight at the Oasis, while she signed the leg. Others were Timothy B. Schmit, from the Eagles; Arlo Guthrie, and his daughter Sarah. Funny things happen when people sign your leg. For instance, before meeting Arlo Guthrie outside his tour bus he wanted to look at the leg before he signed it, so he could see in whose company he was in. After signing it, he said, I don't want to see it on ebay." He also told me to have Sarah sign it, "Because she's the real star of the family." Melanie, the great singer/songwriter who influenced me the most in my teenage years, unbelievably signed her name right in the middle of the leg, as if it was waiting for her to sign it there. 35 years later I met Melanie again at her hotel in Salinas prior to a concert. She had read the story in my book, "Life is a Bumpy Road," about how she took me into Carnegie Hall when I was 18, and didn't have tickets to her concert. The night of the concert in Salinas when I was sitting in the audience, she asked me to come up and tell the story to the people who came to hear her. It was a thrilling night for me to be reunited with my biggest inspiration. (An interesting thing I've observed after all the people have signed the leg is that the women always signed it with colored markers, while men use black.) As I mentioned, John Prine was the first one to sign the leg, and several years later, I happened to run into him at Walgreens. I told him how much his music meant to me, then added, "By the way, John, I want to thank you for signing my leg a couple years ago. You know, you were the first one. Do you remember signing my leg?" He answered, "Of course." I was shocked that he even remembered me, and said, "Really?" And he said, "It's the only leg I've ever signed." And that's how I got known around town as "the leg man." Recently my three-legged buddy, Brie, and I met a lovely young woman named Kait. And like the two of us, Kait also has leg problems. She's had many operations that have tested her resilience and outlook on life, but she handles her challenges beautifully. As a physical therapist, I'm sure she brings a special kind of understanding and caring to those with whom she works. And what a smile! I'm glad to have become the recipient of Kait's friendship, not only because of what we have in common, but because I sense that she has so much to offer the world. What she's experienced gives her a unique perspective, making her the type of person to whom others in like situations will naturally turn. Yes, she's definitely a breath of fresh air! |
Tony AlbanoStoryteller Archives
April 2024
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