In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening

After we decided to play this holiday market, we kept an eye on the weather forecast for days.  It had been so nice and moderate for weeks.  But the weekend forecast kept looking colder and colder.  What were we thinking?  A bunch of old folks sitting outdoors in the cold for hours?   But we had agreed to play, so we bundled up, loaded our gear and set up by the fountain for a couple of hours of music.

The Hub City Thanksgiving Market turned out to be great fun.  The mood was festive.  The shoppers loved the music.  One man who stopped to listen who knew more about the songs we played than we did. He was an encyclopdia of trivia about our old songs.  And there was the college-age young woman who sat down to listen and then bought our CD so she could "listen to happy music at home." So many others gathered, all smiles, around the fountain to hear our ukuleles.

We did our best to keep warm.  We learned that you can cut the finger tips off a $1 pair of gloves and play right on.  We also discovered that the colder we got, the faster we played.  As the temperature dropped, we kept getting faster and faster--until we reached our limit.  We couldn't play any faster or stand the cold any longer!!!  It was time to call it a night and head home.  It was fun but we're glad our next gig is indoors!

In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening, Hoagy Carmichael & Johnny Mercer, 1951