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Almost every night for the last 25 years, Bob and Patti Vasconcellos (81 and 78, respectively) have gotten a little gussied up, thrown their walkers in the trunk of their Honda CRV, and headed to their favorite karaoke bar—Coasters.
On a Friday night in August, the bar is packed. Locals, tourists, and college students sit at tables that surround a wooden dance floor, where people take turns singing.
When Bob and Patti hit the floor with their walkers, the crowd goes wild.
Throughout the night, they each sing a few songs. Patti belts out “She Believes in Me” by Kenny Rogers. Bob croons John Denver’s “Country Roads.” At the end of the night, Bob puts up a special hand signal to let the host know they’re ready to perform their signature number.
“If I get his attention and he sees it, it’s in,” Bob said.
Once the dulcet tones of “My Humps” by The Black Eyed Peas start pumping through the speakers, they know it’s time.
For the next 4 minutes, shocked faces and gleeful screams fill the room.
“Whatcha gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside that trunk?” Bob sings.
“Imma get, get, get, get you drunk. Get you love drunk off my hump,” Patti responds.
After the cacophony of cheers died down and Bob and Patti were back in their seats, a man walked over.
“ You guys are one of a kind,” he said. “You can be making money, I think, with the online stuff these days, I really think you could.”
Bob and Patti thanked him, chuckling.
They first sang “My Humps” on a dare.
“The karaoke host said, ‘I want you to try this song,’” Bob said, “and so we learned it and we sang it. And then we have people wanting us to sing it all the time.”
It was, and continues to be, a big hit, somewhat to their dismay.
“We don’t even like that song! We don't like rap!” Patti said.
But they keep singing it because people love it. In fact, the duo has turned into a local celebrity couple. Melissa Gray, the bar manager at Coasters, said people ask about them all the time. She can also spot newcomers a mile away based on their reaction to a “My Humps” performance.
“All the reactions in the outta towners: ‘Have you ever seen this before?’ I'm like, yes, yes,” she laughed.
Bianca Grossi, another bartender, said if Bob and Patti aren’t there right when karaoke starts, “I tell Bob that I’m writing him up for being late for his shift.”
They’re not often late, though. Bob and Patti live just a few miles away from Coasters in a mobile home park. In a spare bedroom, the walls are adorned with puzzles they did during the pandemic, when they couldn’t go to karaoke.
“At one time we had done like 50 puzzles in a couple months,” Patti said.
In addition to puzzles, there are dozens of photographs on the walls in their house.
“This right here is my parents,” Patti said, pointing to an old photo in the hallway. “My mom was also a singer. She loved to sing.” Like her mom, Patti says, singing helps her forget her problems and have some fun.
“And at our age, there isn't too much that does that,” she said.
Patti didn’t fully discover her love of singing until she was in her late 40s. She got bored watching Bob knock over pins at the local bowling alley, so she went to the karaoke bar next door.
“I’d meander into the bar and listen to the singers,” she said. “And for the longest time, I wanted to be the one up there singing.”
The bar was Coasters. One day, a friend invited Patti to sing “Crazy” by Patsy Cline together. “After that, I got hooked,” she said.
Several years later, Bob did, too.
“The first song we sang was, ‘I Got You Babe,’ and that got me hooked on it,” he said.
Ever since, they haven’t been able to stay away. They’re at Coasters at least 350 nights a year, according to Patti. A big reason they go so often is the sense of community it gives them.
“It’s definitely home away from home for me,” Patti said.
“And we’ve made a ton of friends,” Bob said. “It’s funny, ‘cause when we leave, somebody will always put our walkers in the car for us.”
“Sometimes they even argue over who’s gonna help us,” Patti said.
They plan on singing at Coasters for as long as possible.
