The Ukulele Club at the Library

Our library started a free ukulele club this year. They lend you a ukulele and teach you four chords. That's apparently all you need for about a thousand songs.

There are fifteen of us. The youngest is eight. The oldest is eighty-three and played banjo in the 1960s. We have a retired dentist, a mail carrier, two teenage sisters and a young mom with a baby in a sling who strums over his head while he sleeps.

We play badly and loudly. "You Are My Sunshine." "Riptide." "Here Comes the Sun," which we've played so often the librarian claims she hears it in her sleep.

In December, we gave a little concert in the children's section. Our audience was about thirty toddlers and their parents. The toddlers danced. The parents filmed. It was the most important concert of my life.