A few days back, Lani and I received an invitation from Hawaii Kai Independent & Assisted Living. It's nice to be invited to those places for senior living but I'm pretty sure that my main squeeze and me are not ready to move in there yet. Most of the time those invitations from other establishments goes into the circle file but this time this invitation caught my eye. It was colorful with a picture of a little bird saying "Spring Fling" to a bunch of colorful flowers. On the other side of the card in bold letters read, "Join us with a loved one for our Spring Fling Dance on Thursday March 10 at 6:30 PM. Jump, jive, wail or foxtrot your way to fun. Shag on over to our shenanigans. However you prefer to shake a leg, just make your way to Hawaii Kai as we celebrate the changing seasons with a Spring Fling Dance!" Boy! Dat's da kine language they used in the 40's and dat got my happy feet tingling.
Long story short, Lani and I headed for the Hawaii Kai I & A Living last night. It's been a long time since we last visited the place when we held a class on Chinese Pakua exercises. Lani had responded a few days earlier to the invite with RSVP and they were expecting us, what with our names posted on the bill board along with two other couples.
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Entrance to the makai Hawaii Kai Independent & Assisted Living
Lani and I were there for the dance but we were lead to a reserved table on the 2nd floor and served with a free dinner. Boy that was a treat unexpected....a delicious one at that...Chinese style Char Sui Chicken over noodles with steamed veggies and topped with a peach cobbler for dessert.
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The reserved section for guests was at the mauka side of the dining room while the facility residents were dined at the makai side. After dinner, Lani and I headed down to the first floor where the Spring Fling Dance took place. This was another big treat because it was gonna be live band music to dance to. The Thursday Night Jazz Band played music from the 1930s and 1940s that I'm sure brought many memories to the senior residents.......music and songs made popular by Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Perry Como and other big bands and singers of that era.
The Thursday Night Jazz Band according to their Website, are comprised of 25 or so music players from all walks of life and a lovely song vocalist Jaime Hope who also serves as spokeswoman for the band. If you want to know more about the Thursday Night Jazz Band, you can google their Website at ThursdayNightJazzBand.org.
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| Photo of the band taken from the 2nd floor |
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| Lovely Song Vocalist Jaime Hope |
Just like in the old movies, when a solo instrument is called upon, the player highlights the music by standing above the other players. And that went on during the one hour performance.
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| Highlighting the music by a trombone player |
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Band leader plays the clarinet
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| There were a lot of residents on one side of the room enjoying the Big Band music. |
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| This is the other side of the room. |
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| I'm glad to had taken this photo of the piano player and guitar player. They were behind one of the posts and was not visible to the audience. |
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| Highlighting the music by a saxophone player |
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| There were some seniors living at the Facility who Lani and I knew during our younger days. One of them was Ruth (pictured with Lani). Ruth and I used to work for Piggly Wiggly Stores way back when..... |
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| Highlighting the music by a trumpet player |
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| This couple was really hep to the music. They were only a few that got off their chairs to cut the rug. |
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| Highlighting the music by a saxophone player |
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| Vocalist Jaime got into the mood with "Hey Big Spender!" |
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| Thursday Night Jazz Band Leader |
Yep! The Big Band sounds and vocals were reminiscence of the 30s and 40s and the band surely took everyone there on a roller coaster ride to yester-years.
Did Lani and I dance at the Spring Fling? Such popular songs like "Papa Loves Mambo" and "The Last Waltz" were too good to keep us from being idle. It was an enjoyable event for my main squeeze and me listening to some of the memoriable tunes that has rhythm for dancing the Foxtrot, Waltz, Mambo, and Swing and are still popular today, watching some of the residents reliving those music by dancing, and chatting with old friends. Hasta la vista for now.
