Ann Smith is one of the newest DJs at WDVR. She hosts "Songs from the Attic" every Thursday from noon until 2:00 p.m. When you listen to her show, you'll hear the best of the Big Band orchestras along with some of your old time favorites. She'll bring you back in time with songs by Doris Day, Nat King Cole, Kate Starr, Perry Como, and many of those legendary crooners you used to hear in the 40s and 50s. You might even hear some Doo Wop.
Ann grew up in the Ironbound section of Newark and attended the same high school as Ginny Lee and Frank Napp - good old East Side High School. She fondly remembers the summer dances at Independence Park just across the street from the school. Ann said she no doubt has a soft spot in her heart for the songs she now plays because she grew up listening to "The Make Believe Ballroom" with William B. Williams and watching "Your Hit Parade" on TV. Her mother always had their Dumont TV radio tuned to Williams' show so it's quite natural for her to love the songs of that era.
Since retiring from working as the Director of the Standardized Patient Program and Clinical Skills Center at the New Jersey Medical School five years ago, Ann and her husband Jim have driven cross-country several times revisiting many places they traveled to in the 1970s and 1980s. One such trip brought them to the Grand Tetons with it's dramatic views. While there they took a float trip down the Snake River. In Yellowstone they stood in awe at the mighty geysers and the bold bison and elk that crossed the road right in front of their car. On their way to Jasper/Banff park in Canada, they stopped at the Columbia Icefields where they boarded a Snowcoach that took them to the glacier. Ann said it was really special since they were told the glaciers are melting and may disappear within the next thirty-five years.
Ann and Jim share their home with their eighteen-year-old cat, Mikey. He enjoys watching the birds that stop to feed at the many bird feeders in their yard. Ann said she buys two-hundred pounds of seed a month to feed the flocks of birds that keep Mikey entertained. It's reported that nineteen species of birds visit the Smith sanctuary.
Enjoy some the pictures Ann shared with us. You'll see Mikey the cat, and even a shot of Ann at the Elizabeth Morton Wildlife Refuge in Sag Harbor where the birds eagerly eat from your hand. That's a Northern Cardinal and Chickadee feasting from her hand.
You can contact Ann at songsfrtheattic@aol.com
"It's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln
