Ukulele Club of Silicon Valley Anniversary!

Today we celebrated the second anniversary of the Ukulele Club of Silicon Valley -- my FAVORITE uke group ever -- and also the first one I encountered...stumbling upon these fabulous people literally changed my life in July 2010 and things would never be the same again. It began when my friend Mike gave me a ukulele...a baritone ukulele which he tuned like a tenor uke with special strings so that I could learn ukulele chords. At first I wasn't happy. I knew guitar chords, but I did not know ukulele chords, and, I argued, I am not a real musician. But I downloaded chords and figured out a few things. A couple of months later, when I happened to be at Dana St. Roasting, my long-time FAVORITE coffee shop, I saw a sign that said, "Ukulele Singalong Jam, Second Monday Night!" Wow, in all the years I'd been going to this coffee shop, I'd never seen a sign like that and what perfect timing. So I figured I'd bring my ukulele which was new to me...and play along with a few folks. Never in a million years did I expect to see well over 75 people crammed into my favorite coffee shop brandishing ukuleles! Is this for real, I thought? People stood outside with ukuleles...peered in through open windows on that warm July night -- and the place was packed. A big friendly guy named Dave passed out ukuleles to people walking by. "Do you need a loaner uke?" he shouted and just randomly handed someone a colorful ukulele.

I managed to squeeze into a spot next to a couple of uke playing chicks. They had printed out song sheets and said I could look on with them. This I was familiar with from all the guitar classes -- and I used to play folk guitar a lot back in the day in San Francisco. But this -- all these people playing ukuleles together and singing, over 75 of them -- brought me back to the days of growing up in San Francisco where music was all around and everywhere -- where it wasn't unusual to find people sitting around with guitars...everything singing and playing music together. This is what life is supposed to be about. We played for over two hours. Dave taught a beginning workshop where everyone learned four chords in 30 minutes and I was instantly HOOKED! I started helping out and I never miss the second Monday night gatherings at Dana St. Roasting where month after month, year after year, at least 75 people convene to play music together.

I didn't realize at the time that the whole ukulele "culture" had gone nuts -- that the Santa Cruz Ukulele Club was probably the largest group of ukulele players in the United States and that 100 people jam on the beach every Saturday morn rain or shine in Santa Cruz. I wanted to be there and I did show up... all this from finding the Ukulele Club of Silicon Valley. Now I play everywhere from Sacramento to San Francisco and Santa Cruz and beyond...

Today we celebrated the second anniversary of the Ukulele Club of Silicon Valley -- I was off work because of Martin Luther King day. I normally don't make it to the Monday morning jams Dave holds at his house because of work...but no way would I miss this special event! I love these people -- and all of our lives are forever altered...

Ukulele Playing into 2012!

Stu and the Gang leading the monthly Uke Jam on Jan. 7, 2012!!!

Just when I thought I'd been through enough changes in my life and things have really settled down, just when I feel that I've found my "home" at the Linden Arms Apartments in Sunnyvale, a trip to Sacramento to visit my son and his little family reminds me that nothing in life ever remains the same -- that change is inevitable. On Saturday, January 7th, 2012, I found my happy place with Stu Herreid and the fabulous Uke University gang near Sacramento -- whom I'd grown fond of. I had found them a year earlier because I found myself visiting Sacramento and the area often and my grandson arrived in July 2011 -- he was born in Sacramento. My whole family had spent Christmas there as well.

They also use the Santa Cruz Ukulele songbooks, the ones I was very familiar with and everyone was so warm and inviting.

In August 2011, we had an impromptu Beatles ukulele jam at Fair Oaks Park where the Uke University gang had a picnic the month before. 

So it seemed fitting to begin the year with the Sacramento Uke folks...they were about to embark on big changes too because a couple of months after this, Stu opened "The Strum Shop" in Roseville! I moved out of the Linden Arms Apts. in Sunnyvale and to the house on the hill in Union City with my son, my grandson Baby Jeremiah and Mama Jen -- and life was to change for all of us in major ways.

But on this day all we could think about was jamming and having fun -- strumming our ukuleles and singing our hearts out! I remember having lunch with Stu and his family -- his wife and daughter Dani and Gary -- and then there was a workshop with "The Dominator" that afternoon...and awesome day.

It was my first ukulele jam of 2012!!!