Last Monday night..

at the Senior's Home

Last Monday. February 19 was the first time I conducted the sing-along night after 2 Mondays of no show..The seniors appeared quite happy..15 minutes before the start time, some are already inside the room..wanting to get a good seat near the piano..The good news is that the ladies adore me..But most of them are ages 75 up..

Some would come  only to listen, others come to sing. We use Music song books printed with large type..Most of the songs are from the 50's, a mixture of folk songs, ballads, westerns all geared to the ability of the Seniors to read and remember whatever oldies they sang during their prime...My days of listening frequently to the radio (TV was not around then ) paid off..During those days, I listened everyday to Manila's top ten records..circa 1955.

And coupled with my gift of playing by ear ( for sing-along you have to play by ear..or oido ) because sometimes you have to transpose keys to suit the singing abilities of your crowd..So I play to the nth time songs like LILI MARLENE, ITS A LONG WAY TO TIPERARRY, WALTZING MATILDA, HARBOUR LIGHTS ( do these ones ring a bell? No? I do not blame you ) and the seniors still love to sing them...

Sometimes I make some quips based on the song..Sometimes they laugh..Sometimes they don't..When I expect them to laugh, they don't and when I dont expect them to laugh, they chuckle..Funny it is working with them..Its like playing with children...You have to deal with what comes..expectedly or unexpectedly..

One time I told a joke about a grandma and grandpa visitng their 20 year old grandson. He is still unmarried. The grandpa wandered unexpectedly into his room and found a bottle of viagra. The grandson came in and the grandpa asked: "Are these expensive?'

The grandson said "Yes, 15 $ a tablet .."

"okay," said Grandpa.."Tommorow, I will leave 15$ under your pillow. I know you leave for work early and we will be leaving at about 10:00 am.."

You don't have to.." said the grandson..

But the elderly couple left some money anyway.

That night, the grandson phoned them.."Grandpa," he said.."I said 15$" Why did you leave 115$ ..Thats too much!"

The grandpa said.." The 15$ came from me..The 100$ came from Grandma.."

Some elderly Scottish ladies laughed heartily.

That is one lucky joke..The rest, well.. sometimes only one or two pretended to laugh and I can tell it was a laugh out of mercy..

--victorio costes