No, we didn’t buy another camper. The other day when we drove through town, we saw a sign in the park.
“Music Saturday Night 7-9PM”
Cool! We love live music. So we made a note to go. But then it started raining and more was predicted through the evening. Mr. FixIt said that would be the end of the music so I took it we weren’t going to go. We went to the farm yesterday to mow before we leave on our trip. Beans texted me early to say the kids were there and there was no water. That pump has seen its better days and try as we might…repeatedly priming it isn’t a long term solution. The problem is, that meant the pump in the cellar house had been running for gosh know how long. It took us quite a bit of time to get the tractor to start this time, but she finally fired up and I got the lawn mowed while Mr. FixIt unplugged the pump and turned off the water heater again. Frank and Beans will get a new tank for the pump and hopefully that will take care of the problem.
When we got home, I decided to take a short nap. We had hamburger for the grill. When I got up it was 6:00 and started cleaning up the kitchen to fix supper. Mr. FixIt came in and said, “We’re going to have to leave right now if we’re going to make it to the concert!” What??? I had no food ready and not much to throw together. I don’t handle quick changes to plans as well as I did when I was younger and I may have been a bit snippy to this nice man of mine. I made him a PB&J and threw some grapes, cold chicken, and pretzels in a bag with a couple of cans of Diet Coke and bottle of water. I was done and out the door in five minutes.
We got to the park and….no one was there. There were a couple of birthday parties at the shelters, but no music. We went around the side where the sign was and someone had added a note saying the music had been moved into…
THE SENIOR CENTER!
I’ve never been there. I mean…senior centers are where old people go to play bingo and solve jigsaw puzzles, right??? I entered with great trepidation. I took my knitting. I figured I’d fit right in! The band was setting up and the room was pretty crowded. We found seats and I nibbled on the cold chicken and grapes and before long, the music started.
The three piece band included drums, a bass guitar, and the lead singer who played keyboards, electric and acoustic guitars, the fiddle, and harmonica. The couple next to us smile. The man leaned over and whispered conspiratorially, “He used to play cruise ships.”
Great. My inner two-year-old was grumpy from her nap, and she didn’t have her corn-on-the-cob and burgers on the grill like she wanted, and now she was being FORCED to sit in a room with OLD people and listen to a guy sing karaoke. I was positively a stink pot! I picked up my knitting and the music started.
Then, the magic happened.
The lead singer opened his mouth and started singing. His range was remarkable. He easily went from deep, deep bass to falsetto and back again. He had a clever set up with a background vocals track he skillfully played because the other two musicians didn’t sing. He was a one man band with backup.
He had an impressive repertoire and sang everything from rock and roll to country and gospel. Elvis, Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffet. He had us singing the sha-la-las in Brown Eyed Girl. I looked around. Women were dancing in a conga line up the aisle and back around down the sides. Everyone was laughing and singing along.
Suddenly, it hit me. In my parent’s older years, the music that was played in nursing homes was likely to be songs of longing for the boys who went off to war, or Glenn Miller’s rendition of Pennsylvania Six Five Thousand. They knew all the words. Nowadays, we’ll be in the senior centers and nursing homes singing Neil Young and the Grateful Dead and the Eagles. We’ll know all the words, too.
That’s when I knew. I’ll be back to the Senior Center. They have live music the third Saturday of every month. They serve a great pulled pork sandwich and there’s vendors with handmade goods like birdhouses and peanut butter fudge. They sell tickets for a 50/50 drawing. I was humbled. Maybe there’s something I can do to help there. When we left I gave Mr. FixIt my profoundest apologies for being a pistol and he smiled and hugged me. He gets me.
Hmmmmm…I wonder if they have yoga classes or a knitting group?
?
“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”
Philippians 2:3-5 NLT
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Life is like the ocean…it goes up and down.
