A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Florian Chmielewski and his Funtime Band played Cloquet's Hebert-Kennedy VFW Post 3979 on February 2, and celebrated Chmielewski's 95th birthday, which falls on February 10.
About 40 dancers showed up to the Hebert-Kennedy VFW post 3979 Wednesday, Feb. 2, to dance at Florian Chmielewski's 95th birthday party. Chmielewski, who turned 95 years old on Feb. 10, plays the VFW every other Wednesday.
Florian Chmielewski plays at the Cloquet VFW Post 3979 on Feb. 2.
Dancers form a circle with Florian Chmielewski at the center last week, once they could get the longtime musician to take a break.
Who needs a birthday party when you can work?
Florian Chmielewski celebrated his 95th birthday last week with friends, family and more than 40 fans in the finest of traditions - by playing the senior dance at the Cloquet VFW.
While last Wednesday's dance fell just over a week before his Feb. 10 birthday, this was definitely a birthday party, with great music, a big cake and lots of cards.
One dance attendee commented that Chmielewski was still a "chick magnet" at 95, with women - including his daughter and bandmate, Patty - lining up (and cutting in) for a chance to dance with Chmielewski before the afternoon wrapped up.
The patriarch of the Chmielewski family said music is in his blood. Four generations of Chmielewski orchestras have entertained the polka-loving people of northern Minnesota, traveling to gigs by horse and buggy before cars were common.
Florian and his family took the family's musical tradition to the next level, performing on television and in person as the Chmielewski Funtime Band, recording more than 1,800 shows by the end. Those shows are now being replayed on Channel 21.2 Antenna TV, 198 with Charter or Spectrum and channel 105 on Mediacom at 11 a.m. every Saturday and 8 a.m. on Sundays. Or one can just come to the VFW, the Cromwell Pavilion or one of Chmielewski's many other gigs and enjoy live music and dancing.
"I told someone that I have been doing that for 76 years, bringing my accordion into a place and setting the case down," he told the Pine Knot News last year at his 94th birthday party. "I have to do it. I am there to make people happy. I bring joy to their lives."
