Eventually Aunt Olga turned up several blocks from the auditorium, in front of a coffee shop on College Avenue. She was singing.
Her accompanist for the occasion was a sophomore political science major from Holcomb, Nebraska named Karl. It was the first time Karl had played since he abandoned guitar lessons in the 8th grade. The guitar actually belonged to his Karl's roommate Josh, who had agreed to loan it to Karl's sister Rhonda, who was late meeting Karl at the coffee shop.
By the time we got there, Aunt Olga was barging energetically through "Open Up Your Heart (and Let the Sunshine In)" while clapping and stomping and calling out the chord changes: "Smilers never lose -- now E! -- and frowners never win…" Karl sat on the bench, shoulders slumped, dutifully strumming.
Almost three dollars in change had accumulated in the open guitar case. Karl told us to take it all, but Aunt Olga insisted on splitting it.
Image above Bench in My Dog Joe Cafe by talented flickr user wmacphail, used under a Creative Commons license.
3 comments:
Which was funny, because Karl was on scholarship over to the college in Grand Island. Smart boy, Karl.
It was too bad about that Dairy Queen franchise...
; ' )
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