NURSING HOME DANGER

What happens when we reach the age, and many of us have, when we are doing a nursing home job and when we are done and we were working the memory care section and the guard won't let us out because they think I live there. This really happened to me and that was 10 years ago. I was a little upset at the time but later I realized how funny that was.

MEL

I have joked about that, but it never happened....yet.

My immediate thought on NH gigs is how lucky I am to still be doin' the business. Plenty of folks younger than me living there.

Here's one for ya, I played a memory care unit 6 years ago. There was a man who looked as healthy as a horse offered to help me break down my equipment. I politely declined help but when the rock n' roller was loaded he said I'll help you at your car and he started following me out the door. With that said one of the attendants quickly came over and stopped him from following me out the door because he was a resident.

When coming through the door with gear, I always say "Hi, I'm the new resident". No one laughs, just welcome me

+1

“the guard won't let us out because they think I live there”

DID THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME?
NO, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER DID THAT HAPPENED TO ME!!!!!!!!

JOHN C. PRIDE

If that happens again accept it and get a free meal & a bed. You may get lucky with a nurse ?.

One of the saddest things I remember from my NH gigging days was a 35 year-old who had Lou Gehrig's Disease. Super nice guy who lasted just two years after he was admitted to the NH. When I performed at another location which specialized in Alzheimer's Disease, I was amazed at the number of individuals younger than myself that were afflicted with this horrendous disease. Fortunately, no one had ever mistaken me for one of the patients.

Gary

Got to chuckle. My sister in law, hubby and myself were booking mum into the nursing home. Hubby ( who is a parapalegic and confined to a wheelchair) and I were quietly chatting, when the tea lady wandered up and offered us a cup of coffee. “ Are you in for respite dear, we could certainly use some male company around here”. 6 little old ladies ( mums age) sitting opposite, heads popped up , eyes lit up and. grins on their faces.

Guess what, we got free cakes and coffee every time we visited after that. The poor tea lady was so embarrassed after she realised her faux par. Haha

A friend of mine never has to set up.....
on NH gigs he uses a rock-n-roller kart with a shelf set up with a battery powered amp Roland Ba330,on bottom....& battery powered KORG Micro arranger Keyboard on top, & headset mic, and he strolls & rolls thru the facilities hallways and in & out of rooms too singing & playing songs for an hour and they love it,....especially for residents who are bed ridden and can't leave their rooms to see a show in the recreation / dining room, etc,...........he's booked solid all year $$$$...
AD's love this concept he created for himself...

A friend of mine did something very similar, plus he installed a winch into a utility van and would hook the rig up and bring it in and out of the van using ramps ...

I remember well playing at these facilities. Most often an assigned "guard" would accompany me to the main door to prevent any residents from leaving the facility. What I remember more though were the "residents" who lived there. Many would just sit there with no expression on their face during the performance. I wondered whether my music was having any effect until I noticed some of them were taping their fingers keeping time to the music.
Now at age 82 I hope I will not become one of those "residents"!

Dick

or a light weight pullout ramp, ....IN & OUT....
as most every NH have no stairs....works well vs all that setup, breakdown, rush to he next gig scenario day after day...