Desert Messenger

18 www.DesertMessenger.com January 1, 2020 Diary of a reluctant ukulele student Quartzsite Show Grounds Vendors on Main St. Hi Ally Swap Meet Greasewood Swap Meet PO Tyson Wells Showgrounds Prospectors Panorama Tyson Wells Centre Desert Gardens Quartzsite Marketplace Rice Ranch N. Rice Ranch QIA POW WOW EXIT 17 EXIT 19 BIG TENT N Quartzsite Shows & Swap Meets 2019 Copyright Desert Messenger CANADIAN POTLUCK FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020 Q. I. A. Building, 235 E. Ironwood St., Quartzsite TIME: 1:00 pm Pleae bring a potluck dish for 8. Meat, potatoes, gravy and buns supplied. Please bring your own place settings. $3 donation at the door. TELL YOUR CANADIAN FRIENDS ABOUT THIS EVENT!!! SEE ALL YOU CANADIANS THERE!!! DEADLINE : WED. JAN. 8 TH for the Jan. 15 th edition Desert Messenger News Email: editor@DesertMessenger.com 928-916-4235 www.DesertMessenger.com Quilters updates This is a wonderful time for our quilt club. Our old members are return- ing with the beautiful quilts they have worked on during the summer and new members are sharing their sewing skills or just loving their new found quilting experience. If you would like to join us we meet in the large room at the Senior Cen- ter every Tuesday from 9 AM until 3 PM. Annual dues are $10 for the Club and $5 for the Senior Center membership. One of our members is teaching a Beginners Quilting Class on Thurs- day's. Information is available at our meeting. Jan. 7 Bonnie's Fabric on Wheels for your fabric and notion needs. Jan 10 & 11 Desert Lilies Quilt Show in Yuma from 9 AM until 4 PM. No club trip planned Jan. 14. Club Meeting Fran will be teaching paper piecing Members only yard sale Jan. 20 Monday: Trip to Copper Canyon Quilt's Shop. We will be Car Pooling. Jan. 21 Open Sewing 6:30 PM Judy Halvorson will be speaking at the Community Bible Church on The History of Civil War Quilt's. Jan. 23 - 26. Road to California Quilt Show. No club trip planned. Jan. 28. Open Sewing Jan 30- Feb 1. Phoenix Craft and Sewing Expo; bus trip is being planned. Please don't forget our Quilt Show will be on February 7 and 8, 2020. By Jackie Deal NO, No, No! Never! Never! I don't wanna play a stringed instrument. All those teeny strings. And the music. It looks like a patch-work quilt that some seagulls fl ew over. Nope. Not me. Here's how it happened: I heard funny noises coming out of the clubhouse and I opened the door to investigate. Just to peek. "Come on in. Have a chair." No, uh uh. "AW, come on, sit down." So I sat down. Gingerly. There was a semi-circle of about 8 folks with little toy guitars and a couple teachers, helpers, who knows. "Here, hold one." Uh uh. I re- coiled but she thrust one of those baby guitars into my hands. I held the baby far away from me. What if it was wet? It wasn't. But I was afraid I'd break the neck and its lit- tle head would fall off. I supported both its little bottom and its neck. This must be how a man feels when he holds his fi rst baby. If he doesn't support the neck its head might fall off. And what if the bottom is wet?? Or worse? The guy sitting next to me said, "Try it." Uh uh. I don't know how. "Okay, just cover all the strings with your fi ngers and strum. It won't make any sound. You can strum, can't you?" Well, okay, I can keep time to music. I guess I could strum. How should I do it? "Just do it any way you like." Hmm, okay. The class played on and I strummed. Strum. Strum. Hey, this isn't bad. Strum, strumity, strum. "Put your fi nger on that string right there. That's C. Now strum." I did. Strum, strumity, strum. That's the last thing that made sense. I know a wee bit about piano keys and pia- no music. Whenever you have two black keys the white keys are C, D, E. And the notes on the paper run up the scale just like the keys. But those seagull splotches made no sense at all. "Two chords, that's all you need to play a song. Look, that's C and that's G7". C was simple but G7 was impossible. My fi ngers thinks they're a unit. They all move and grasp together. Now I'm trying to tell them to fi nd those itty bitty strings in a weird confi guration. They don't move independently and the little fi nger pops upright just like a socialite at tea. "Take it home and practice." Uh uh. No.No. Never. The baby has now resided with me for two days. I've tried repeatedly to teach the fi ngers of my left hand to cover -hey, Fellows, one string at a time- and slurp around from C to G7. Is it getting any easier? Maybe. At least I'm not afraid the head will fall off. But music? Hardly. Two more days have passed; once in a while I can move from C to G7 but then my fi ngers rebel. Does it sound like music? In between the squawking and scrapping it might— someday. Oh joy! I've discovered one more key: C7 only takes one fi n- ger. The Beatles talked of writing a song with only one note; did they ever write a song with only C and C7? If so, I might be in luck. 800-656-HOPE

• Cover