Keith at Senior Daycare -- Wednesday, 06Apr2016

Another of my now twice-a-month gigs for the old folks. I tried to play some different songs, and learned "Crazy" by Patsy Kline (written by Willie Nelson) just for this place, since they seem to really like my other (to them) Patsy Kline song, "South of the Border".

And this time I brought the ukulele, just to mix it up some. I played "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Five Foot Two" on it, to great response. These folks remember ukulele music from back before Tiny Tim made it impossible to be seen with one in public. Fortunately, that stigma has finally worn off.

Since this is a "memory issues" daycare, some of the people exhibit some strange behavior. One or another of them will frequently just get up and walk away, and one of the workers there will leap up and follow them out to see what they're up to, if anything, and bring them back. It reminds me of a litter of puppies on the kitchen floor -- you have to keep rounding them up.

This time one lady got up six or seven times, heading straight for the door. The worker would bring her back and sit with her, but pretty soon she was up again. One time she was clever enough to wait until some other person wandered off so the worker was already occupied, so some of the lesser-impaired people made sure to keep an eye on her so she wouldn't get too far. And here's me, just singing along like nothing's happening. Maybe she just can't stand James Taylor...

The guy from Tennessee who's been there visiting his sister for the last few gigs was there again one last time. After the last song he jumped up for a one-man standing ovation, and then he came up to slip me forty bucks and say, "Git yeself a nice dinner someplace", and some other nice things. It's nice to have a fan.