Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Valentine’s Day arrived and with it a show presented in our community center.

It was one heck of a show, too, that approximately 125 people got to see.

The evening started off with each woman receiving a ticket for a door prize. There also was a table that sold raffle tickets for a quilt made by the women of the quilters club. It was a beautiful, double-sided quilt and each square, 12 blocks in all, was made by a different member.

Those who worked on this project were Betty Ball, Bea Fronius, Carolyn Ray, Naomi Sisk, Joyce Billig, Margaret Castonguay, Denise Hauser, Pat Caswell and Pattie Molnar. The quilt was simply beautiful, and it would go to one lucky winner. But what we were here for was the Bobby Palermo show.

The show lasted well over two hours, with songs from Neil Diamond. Palermo did a great job of impersonating him, with all the facial expressions to boot. He wore a black sparkly jacket along with black slacks, and performed like he owned the crowd.

He performed such hits as “Lean on Me,” “Cherry Cherry,” “Holly Holy,” “Forever in Blue Jeans,” “Hello Again,” “Sweet Caroline” and so much more. He had the audience swaying, clapping their hands and singing from their seats. He then told a few jokes that had us in stitches, and then performed another song “Yesterday’s Gone.” He did a fine job on it.

During many of the songs, Palermo walked up and down the aisles shaking hands and sitting on laps. He then outdid himself when he performed the song “Desiree.” He did a fantastic job and there was even more audience participation during this song. Bobby sure knew how to get the best out of his audience.

Three lucky winners received a box of candy shaped like a heart. A winner for the quilt also was drawn, and Maureen Benson was the new proud owner of the quilt. She is the sister-in-law of Bob and Rita Benson, whom she and her husband were visiting.

In addition to these drawings, there were two more lucky winners who were presented roses and balloons. They were Chris Fulton and Barbara Ford. Congratulations to all the lucky winners.

After a short break, the show continued with songs like “I’m Just a Gigolo,” “I’ve Got Nobody,” and a song by Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson called “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.” He even had two people come on stage, Nancy Martin and Helen Hardardt, as background dancers, shaking tambourines.

A cute and funny part of the show was when Bobby Palermo was to perform the hit tune “Delilah,” a song performed by Tom Jones, when all of a sudden these huge red panties were thrown on the stage. This was such a riot, and Bobby eventually wore these large panties wrapped around him.

The song “That’s Amore,” plus other lively hits, was performed while the audience joined in on the singing. During one particular song, Marie Paolantonio danced and somehow made the show a little more attention-grabbing.

Bobby incorporated something new into the show which proved to be thrilling. He sang, while the audience clapped and sang along, songs like “Side by Side,” “When You’re Smiling, the Whole World Smiles With You,” and several more tunes. Did you ever see “YMCA” performed before? It was performed two ways, the regular way and an Italian version. This brought the house down.

Of course, no Neil Diamond tribute is complete without “Coming to America.” Bobby ended the production with “God Bless the U.S.A.,” originally performed by Lee Greenwood. This marked the end of the show, and people left the building talking about it, and will be for quite some time.

Our sincere thanks go to Terry Gardner for arranging this and other entertainment. Thanks, Terry.

In addition to all the activities at Grand Horizons like dominoes, shuffleboard, pay me, pinochle, euchre, art and more, we have the quilters who meet every Friday. Each month they have an instructor for something new and different. Recently, Carolyn Ray taught the AccuQuilt fabric cutting machine to the quilters. This is a tool that cuts squares and strips for a quilt and also appliqué products.

On Feb. 11, Rae Rice was the hostess to a class where Mary Smith-Stokes instructed on creating baskets. She had two classes. There were 12 women in the morning class, 10 women in the afternoon class. All women who attended completed their baskets and were delighted with them.

By Helene Rubenstein

Published March 5, 2014