Count yours truly among those who like to see the official entertainment lineup released by the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival for its annual event. This year, the first festival since 2019 due to COVID-19, was no exception.

 

The Italian Festival, which does great work to provide free entertainment for a three-day period of the Labor Day Weekend for 40-plus years now, does have one error. They fail to list one of the biggest entertainers who annually graces the streets of downtown Clarksburg.

 

The entertainer in question? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ed “Spike” Aman.

 

Understand, I jest about the folks running the event not including Aman’s name on the entertainment venue. He is not under contract to entertain, does not have an official time slot, nor does he have to be there.

 

What I am not joking about is Spike Aman is entertainment. Often times, he is THE entertainment.

 

The long-time Bridgeport resident does not sing. There are no juggling of items, magic tricks, or comedy routines.

 

Spike Aman is on hand to do one key thing that anyone who is a regular knows very much about. He is there to dance. And dance he will.

 

At 75 years of age, and another birthday right around the corner in October, Spike Aman has the energy of someone in their teens. Even better, he outdances everyone year in and year out and if you are in his vicinity, you cannot help but notice an absolute flurry arms and feet that are parts Fred Astaire, Gregory Hines, John Travolta, and maybe just a little bit of M.C. Hammer.

 

After a two-year hiatus, will Spike be back with a large gathering of the Aman, Kerr, and Brunetti families all there as well? You better believe it.

 

“It is my favorite thing,” said Aman.

 

Here is the amazing thing – and it is not that he has never missed an Italian Festival. Rather, it is that he almost never went to the first one if not for the love of his life, school-girl sweetheart, and wife Sara.

 

“That first year, my wife was in Clarksburg on Friday afternoon, and I told her I wasn’t going up,” said Aman. “She called and said if you don’t come up soon, you’re not going to find a place to park.”

 

At 2 p.m., Spike Aman was there with a parking space secured.

 

“It was unreal, and I look forward to it now every year,” said Aman.

 

Occasionally, he attends the spring gala as well. Get this, for 42 years he has teamed with Jake Frederick in the Italian Festival Golf Tournament.

 

“That’s a lot of fun too,” he said. “I keep doing it because, other than a couple of issues, I’m fairly healthy so if you want to do things and you can, do them.”

 

Spike Aman has carried the same mantra back to his boyhood days. In fact, he wanted to dance while in high school, so he danced. It may not surprise folks that know Ed and Sara that they were not too shabby.

 

“Going back to when we were at Notre Dame High School, we would win dance contests,” said Aman, who started dating Sara at NDHS when he was a junior and she was a sophomore.

 

The dancing and dating worked. They have been married 52 years and Spike says their relationship goes back to 1962.

 

Aman grew up in Lewis County. It was there he got his love for dancing.

 

“My parents were old town square dancers and I strung along with them and enjoyed it,” said Aman. “What really got me going was when American Bandstand with Dick Clark came on every afternoon.”

 

Aman did what so many used to do when the show was on. He ran home to watch it and was hooked by what he saw.

 

“It was on TV out of Philadelphia. Those young guys and girls could dance, and I watched and learned,” said Aman.

 

Aman moved to Clarksburg in 1957 and he started 6^th grade at St. Mary’s. He was in Clarksburg as a resident for years until the State of West Virginia’s Route 50 expansion project forced him to move away from Joyce Street and he ended up in Bridgeport.

 

“We moved here in 1972 and have been here ever since,” said Aman.

 

When he moved, he took his dancing skills with him. Dancing, however, was not what he was only known for. Although recently retired, he ran a vending company, Mister Vend, Inc., for 43 years. It grew from three machines to 500 today, and his son Jeff – one of three siblings along with Brian and Eddie – has taken it over.

 

Despite being retired, Spike Aman has not slowed down. He plans on being full throttle at this year’s festival, and he is looking forward to hearing Amici and the group’s lead singer Stefano Pishner.

 

“Stephen Pishner makes things happen,” said Spike. “If it doesn’t fire you up a bit, there’s something wrong. He’s a first-class musician who gets the crowd going because the music is so upbeat; just about every song for all three days.”

 

Amici will play at 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2; 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3; and at 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4. Aman will be there dancing for all three and might throw down a few steps when Amici plays in the Saturday morning parade from a float.

 

“We get our money’s worth, and we bring the whole family. We also go to Mass on Sunday, then go to Minard’s on Sunday and come back and finish out the festival Sunday afternoon,” said Spike, who also plays each year in the Morra tournament with family members. “My brother-in-law Bill (Brunetti) is coming for what may be his 40^th festival and his children are coming so we’ll have a houseful.

 

“It’s always good to have a crowd at our house and see the crowd at the festival, particularly Sunday afternoon,” said Aman. “I’m pretty fond of the tarantella because anyone, little kids to grandmothers, can dance to it. You better believe I’ll be dancing to it.”

 

You also better believe Spike will be dancing to a whole lot of other songs as well. After all, he is the unofficial entertainment leader of the Italian Heritage Festival and has plenty of juice after the COVID hiatus.

 

“I can’t wait. The two years have been a long wait for me and I’m ready to go,” said Spike.

 

I, and countless others, will be ready to watch.

 

Editor's Note: Most of the photos show Ed "Spike" Aman throwing it down when the music hits, while in the second photo he is shown with his wife Sara and in the bottom photo, which is a few years old, he is shown with a large part of his family.