At the USO Center

GinnyT11

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I volunteer at the USO Center at the airport near us. It's a big lounge for traveling military personnel that offers snacks, sandwiches, recliner chairs for sleeping, internet access and reading material. I serve chili dogs and make sandwiches and just try to make traveling troops (and sometimes their families) feel comfortable.

I've taken an old soprano uke with me for my shifts and left it out in the hope that someone waiting a long time for a flight would find it interesting. Sometimes they do.
Today I had a great experience. A middle-aged army man came in and spied it right away. I told him I'd brought it for anyone to fool around with. He said, "I've wanted to know what a ukulele's like." I showed him C, F & G7 and pulled out a folder of simple songs I'd brought (e.g., You Are My Sunshine, Jamaica Farewell, When Irish Eyes are Smiling). Though he'd never played a uke before, he jumped right into it, strumming while reading the page, not looking at the fretboard. His big fingers often missed the chord placement, but he was having fun, putting a cool, bluesy rhythm on I Can't Stop Loving You and Your Cheating Heart, even when he missed the chords. "I'm going to have to get one of these," he said.

He thanked me for showing him how to play, but I enjoyed the experience MUCH more than he did.

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I volunteer at the USO Center at the airport near us. It's a big lounge for traveling military personnel that offers snacks, sandwiches, recliner chairs for sleeping, internet access and reading material. I serve chili dogs and make sandwiches and just try to make traveling troops (and sometimes their families) feel comfortable.

I've taken an old soprano uke with me for my shifts and left it out in the hope that someone waiting a long time for a flight would find it interesting. Sometimes they do.
Today I had a great experience. A middle-aged army man came in and spied it right away. I told him I'd brought it for anyone to fool around with. He said, "I've wanted to know what a ukulele's like." I showed him C, F & G7 and pulled out a folder of simple songs I'd brought (e.g., You Are My Sunshine, Jamaica Farewell, When Irish Eyes are Smiling). Though he'd never played a uke before, he jumped right into it, strumming while reading the page, not looking at the fretboard. His big fingers often missed the chord placement, but he was having fun, putting a cool, bluesy rhythm on I Can't Stop Loving You and Your Cheating Heart, even when he missed the chords. "I'm going to have to get one of these," he said.

He thanked me for showing him how to play, but I enjoyed the experience MUCH more than he did.

View attachment 27520

Great story and thanks for supporting the troops. We have been stuck more than once in an airport and it's been nice to have a place to rest especially the times we had the kids with us...
 
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