The first meeting of The GROUP (Grand Rapids Organization of Ukulele Players took place at The Fleetwood Diner on Wednesday night, September 5.
Fleetwood Diner? Didn’t the invitation say The Village Inn Pizza Parlor? Yeah, it did. But on the Tuesday night before the scheduled meeting I called the manager of the Village Inn to confirm some details and he told me that the owner absolutely did not want a bunch of ukulele players in his restaurant. We would have to cancel. Well, there was no way I could get hold of everybody to cancel, so some fancy footwork was required.
On Wednesday morning I went to the area to find out what else we might be able to do. Right across the street is The Fleetwood Diner, and the owner said he would be glad to host our GROUP. There was no way to inform anybody, as the scheduled time was just about 6 hours away. So, at 6:30 I had my wife, Karol go into The Fleetwood Diner to receive people and I took up a post outside The Village Inn. As people began to arrive with ukulele cases in their hands, I intercepted them and directed them across the street.
Fortunately, it all worked out. I don’t think anybody wound up at the Village Inn wondering where the ukes were. Everybody enjoyed the evening playing music and visiting. We played Tin Pan Alley, hapa haole, country, and more, and Karol danced a hula. At the very short business meeting we decided to do it again on the first Wednesday of each month at The Fleetwood Diner. The next meeting will be October 3.
The scheduled start time for the first meeting was 7:00 PM. I am going to suggest that people try to arrive at 6:30 PM in October because that will give them a time to order food and get it consumed before we start to play. Nobody wants to get mashed potatoes on their uke. Also, waiting until 7 PM is a little long to wait for dinner for some people. Of course, you might want to eat dinner before coming to the meeting. That’s fine.
I feel like this is getting a little long for a first post. There will be more to come, however. Pete and I will continue to work on this web site to make it more useful to the members of The GROUP.
Next GROUP meeting is 6:30 PM, Wednesday, October 3 at The Fleetwood Diner at 2222 44th St SE, Grand Rapids.