Street Singer's HeyDay

During the summer months we would be playing on Delhi Street having all kinds of kid fun when a solitary figure of a man would appear walking up the street with a guitar slung over his shoulder. As he walked he would start playing his guitar and sing the popular songs of the day including, "Martha, Rambling Rose of the Wildwood."
As he approached, windows and doors would open and people would sit on their doorsteps or just lean out on their window sills to listen. As he finished a song, they would toss coins to the street and he would sing another, then another popular song of the day.
The kids would scramble to pick up the coins and, with a smile, hand them to the Street Singer.
This would go on for 15 to 30 minutes before the street singer would wave to everyone with a smile, thanking them for the coins, and continue his walk to another side street in the neighborhood to repeat his performance.
This was a great way to bring cheer and happiness to those who heard him in those Depression years of the 1930s.
This was such a popular event that their was a popular song written about the Street Singer which led to a popular radio program of the day: "Arthur Tracy, The Street Singer."