Heywood Banks comes to Lowell, MI

On a freezing November day, I logged in 2,027 words in the 50k-word challenge for a total of 48, 472 words, after filing a story about comedian Heywood Banks aka Toastmaster General for The Lowell Ledger.

I love Banks’s “About” page on his website. Not only was Banks born on April Fool’s Day in 1950, but he didn’t apply himself (whatever that means), he sang on the street, and never had a “B” plan.

Then he came out with his famous “Toast”. The story of the song goes back to 1986 when he was browsing at a Salvation Army store for props for his act. He bought an old toaster, thinking he would make toast during his act. Later his wife said she was looking forward to having toast the next morning, and Banks started improvising about toast while playing a bongo.

History has a tendency to repeat itself

General Strike, Nov. 27, 1989

On this day, 34 years ago, I marched along with one million people on Wenceslas Square in protest of the socialist regime in former Czechoslovakia. The Velvet Revolution led by students and artists culminated with the General Strike that toppled socialism in the old country, and gave way to the formation Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

I feel privileged that I had written about it in “Greenwich Meridian Memoir” where East meets West. The book is available on my website at

https://wordpress.com/pages/emmapalova.com

Books make great Christmas gifts. Please check out my book page with the PayPal button.

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