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BURLEY, Idaho (AP) — At a small burger and brews joint west of Burley, 89-year-old Wally Christensen nurses a beer before slipping a harmonica out of his shirt pocket and cradling it in his hands.
As he puts it to his lips, the notes seemed to wail out his life's song.
When Christensen first came into Duck Ugly's on Idaho 30 about two years ago and started impromptu playing, he was afraid customers may not take kindly to someone whipping out an instrument for a little jam session.
"I came in because I heard they had a boat in here, and I was just curious," he said.
He plays old tunes, mostly. Ones that tend to stir memories from his nearly nine decades of living about the people he's loved and many he's outlived.
"I don't know why I'm still here. I guess there's a reason," he says.
When he was a child, his family lived near Milner Dam in a tent. They didn't have refrigeration or indoor toilets for many years.
"I remember everything, and I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse," he said. "There's a lot of memories I'd like to forget, but they stay with you."
As a teen, he owned a 1929 Model A, which, he says, made him "pretty popular."
"Those were my training wheels."
He started playing at 15, when his harmonica cost 50 cents and a worker earned $1 a day.
As a young man, he worked for a farmer, 10 hours a day, six days a week.
"Nobody complained, though. Everyone was in the same shoes," he said.
Christensen married his first wife, Margaret, at 25, after she proposed to him.
He's now a Burley resident, but he lived for many years in Murtaugh, where he worked for the city and school district and even served as mayor for a year.
He loved the little town and built a park with his own money. It now bears his name, Wally's Park.
When his second wife, Ethel, passed away in 2003, he became very lonely. For solace, he picked up his harmonica, which had sat idle for 20 years.
"I've never had lessons," he said. "I just seemed to pick it up. I don't know how I do it."
Although he's been put up on the stage a couple of times, Christensen prefers to stay at his table.
"When I first starting playing, the owner came over and started taking pictures and video of me," Christensen said.
Co-owners of the establishment, Nancy Brower and Doug Herbert, sort of took him under their wing.
"If I don't show up, they'll call to see if I'm OK."
Many people leave him tips, which at first he tried to leave on the bar for the owners.
"Nancy chased me out of the bar and put it back in my pocket," said Christensen.
Many people just buy him a beer and ask him to keep playing.
"I don't play for the money," he says.
Christensen stops by the restaurant four or five times a week, usually between 2 and 5 p.m., after the lunch crowd thins out a bit.
"I don't have anything else to do but come in and socialize," he said. "I refuse to just sit around twiddling my thumbs. You have to have something to get up for in the morning. And everywhere I go, I seem to make friends."
"When he pulls his harmonica out, we just turn the radio down," Herbert said.
Children who have never seen a harmonica played will stand and stare or sit as closely to him as possible, he said.
"We've pretty much adopted him," Herbert said.
They've even given the new duck on their logo his name, Wally.
"He has a great big piece of my heart," said Brower. "He's one of the sweetest people I know. He really draws on my heartstrings."
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Information from: The Times-News, http://www.magicvalley.com
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