🎵 Story: that one time I DJed for an old-folks home

uh so I'm going to go ahead and record this so I I'm going to tell a quick story about uh we were just totally jamming out to a song um that I somebody brought up the DJ thing and I've always wanted to be a DJ um I have djed I djed a lot when I was younger but not not nearly like like the real DJs on Twitch that do it and I have all the kind of respect for them but I do have a story about this so uh and by the way if you have the inclination to do this I strongly encourage it's a really fun activity so um uh this is not a technical topic this is absolutely just fun so I got um a PA and a really big subwoofer um um sometime after the divorce um I was you know I was sad and you know I playing guitars and my dream was to you know just be able to live surfing on the beach and busking you know for my meals and thing like that um I mean obviously I didn't go with that with the tech job um but at the time uh um I you know I was really I I mean I've always really really love music and it's it's been it's always been there for me when everything else has up and music and of course my health and um so so here's here's how the story goes so uh I I made a lot of friends with a bunch of single people and we hung out together a lot and um you know I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be in life who I wanted to be in my philosophy on life and what I was going to yeah karaoke actually I actually I actually went to a karaoke bi with Randall Schwarz who wrote learning Pearl for example uh this is this is way before that that was that was before my that was actually shortly after my first marriage anyway so music has been a thing and so after the divorce I was like well the one thing I'm sure of his music and I started doing music I started hang out with singles um and um you know I would bring my guitar everywhere and do things and so one of the activities that we did and this is the story one of the activities that we ended up doing is um I think name was Cheryl but she put together an event where um we she goes you know you should DJ for the old folks home we should set up we were you know we were a bunch of singles that were just involved with doing it was actually a singles group that was dedicated to doing service and I know that that's a a you know a branded term so to speak um but that's what it was we we would go out and do nice things and and help others together and we were all single so it gave us something to do besides you know wondering if that person was going to be the one or something we just go have fun together and and um help people out so one of the activities so this the the Cheryl um who organized it she said you know it would be so cool if we could like DJ at an old person an old folks home and this was one of the most spectacular experiences in my entire life and I would give anything to have it recorded I have them the images of it burned in my brain and I'm telling you the story now because it was such a positive experience maybe somebody else can recreate this experience for themselves um it's such a simple thing but it is so powerful and I don't think there's a number of Lessons Learned here um as the power of music so let's get into it so I um I had my little you know we I I just remember driving there and pulling all the gear in and it was a pretty heavy subwoofer it had a pole on it and then it had you know the Top PA it was just a single PA system and they set us up in this little teeny tin itsy bitsy open door open uh Courtyard and there was like Ferns and you know some shade and some trees and stuff it wasn't inside of the senior center it was actually kind of this little um kind of you know pretty Garden space it wasn't very big but it was it was like in the middle of it and um and so they were they were putting all this stuff all around and it was a Cheryl Crono um I actually remember her last name and I'm not going to say it because us but um and so you know they had these like little folding chairs along the sides of this relatively small area but there was you know this Garden space and and because it was kind of enclosed I didn't realize it but it had really good Acoustics oh my God I mean it had really good AC Acoustics it had uh brick walls which would normally be really bright but they were um there was a bunch of trees and stuff uh and and vegetation so it ended up being this like absolutely perfect acoustic placed to even just have a mono signal it wasn't we just had the 1 paa um and if you know anything about Sound Engineering which I I've always dabbled in I've never been a real Pro but I you know I've run concerts and stuff um anyway so so I I just pulled out my phone with my iPod or whatever it was and they One By One The orderly people I don't know what to call them um brought out these you know very old people people who had lived through uh many of them lived through the war this was of course this was what was this back in 2009 I want to say 2010 um so I mean these you know these these people had seen a lot of life and many of the people that they wielded out I I remember one woman in particular she she was rather hunched over and she had a really hard time getting to her seat um and you know there's these these absolutely amazing human beings um that were helping them you know get to their seat and have a seat and everything sit down and and I just will never forget it because I was like at this little table and I was down on the same floor as them there was no stage or anything um and and all the other single people were like really busy they they they they had gotten them hoola I remember this now they gotten them grass skirts uh made out of hoola stuff and they they they you know had like different hats and thing and so all these all the singles are like helping these these these elderly kind of dress up and have fun for this party and I mean it was it was just one of the the most rewarding things I've ever seen and I was you know DJing back there and I was like what the hell do I play for these people and so I like we were putting all this you know hoola beachy stuff on and I was like well I'm going to take a stab in the dark here I bet they know Elvis so so I got my my my Spotify playlist and I punched up Elvis playlist um and you know I had to do the a the automatic thing and so it pulled all of this music from the Elvis era uh Beach Boys um I know it's horrible um and it and it it it brought I mean it wasn't just Elvis I remember there was Beach Boys and there was some Elvis and there was some other stuff that I didn't even know about and and I plugged it in and that music came through I mean the the the the the real powerful thing is is is bass if if you've got a a good Bas um system uh I don't need to tell you this anybody who's been around um any kind of party you know that if you've got really good sound and it's vibrating and it's piping right into your bones you can tell and so these these um absolutely beautiful wonderful people were just you could just see at first they at first they were like kind of you know tentative and they were smiling and they were happy and the because you know everybody's really happy getting them all dressed up to have this party and everything but once I plugged in that music music that group of seniors came alive I mean it was like I had taken electrodes and I just attached it to them and give them a they got up they got up they they they these are people that are having a hard time like walking to their chairs and they were standing up and they were like they were like doing their little thing and they could they were just I mean you know they were and it was so glorious I mean it was just the best thing ever and and they were like moving around and they were like thinking then the one would like touch the other one and they I mean they could barely move you could tell was taking everything in them and and then um and you know they were I I they probably I nobody got hurt thank God they could have there could have been an accident I mean there could have seriously been any kind of accidents or I mean they they let go and they weren't even drunk or anything and they but you know it's a testament to the power of music and and and you know uh and just you know a a joyous song you know of Life they the music from your era it it just speaks to you and there's just something absolutely phenomenal about being um a DJ or somebody who can facilitate that emotion in people through music by finding the music that they like or by writing it uh but in this case in a very simple way just connecting them with the music from their youth and it was such a simple thing but I cannot overly recommend that activity if you have any interest at all in in um you know helping out uh uh particular with the elderly or anything like that or you have access to sound equipment it is really really fun to do that and so the whole thing concluded and you know I was like all I had to do is really push stop on the playlist I didn't have to do anything I just had to have the equipment and and they they kind of shipped all these people out and they orderly I kid you not the orderly one of the orderlies came up to me and she said and I this does make me a little bit emotional she said that woman has never gotten out of her chair since she's been here and I would blew me away because she had been she had kind of resigned herself to this is my life and this woman had found the energy and the strength to actually leave her wheelchair one of them was in the wheelchair and she had got up and the orderly came to me and she made a point of telling me about it she said I want you to understand how valuable this was to these people um thank you so much and so do that shut up

Just a really good memory, and maybe an idea for something you can do. #life #stories #music