Mason B. Mason’s lovely deep voice and his wide smile are so much a part of my teenage and college memories of downtown Santa Barbara.
When I was a young teen I loved spending time downtown with my friends. Mason was a fixture on State Street, often bussing in front of the Fiesta 5 or Metro 4 theaters. He’d have conversations with passersby through his songs. He always had a big smile for us as we passed, and we often stopped to listen and drop a dollar or two in his guitar case. Mason was always kind and he never made us feel uncomfortable. He made us feel safer. Nobody was going to mess with us when this big kind man was right there.
Once, when I was a university student, he complimented the confidence of my walk. He said it in just the right way, and it made me feel absolutely wonderful. I’d grown up with what was probably gluten ataxia, and I saw myself as super clumsy, so this simple compliment actually made a huge difference in my self-perception. I still think of him when I see my own reflection whilst walking.
I moved away from Santa Barbara for a few years after college and I looked for him when I moved back. Sadly, he’d passed on in 2004 after a very short illness. Godspeed, Mason. You had a real and lasting impact on me.
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sanantonio/obituary.aspx?n=sonye-mason&pid=88848748
