Men's Shed Jam

Our friend and neighbour, Al, has had much to do with beginning a Men's Shed group in our town.

Men's sheds or community sheds are non-profit local organisations that provide a space for craftwork and social interaction. The movement originated in Australia as a way to improve the health and wellbeing of older men. However some have expanded their remit to anyone regardless of age or gender, and have similar aims and functions to hackerspaces. There are over 900 located across Australia, with thousands of active members.[1] Men's sheds can also be found in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, United States, Canada, Finland, New Zealand and Greece. (Wikipedia)

Their main point of contact in this chapter, and I am guessing in most, is in a common workshop n which they can work on their own projects or even community projects. When we had a kitchen drawer completely fall apart they rebuilt it for us; they accept donations but don't charge as such. When my friend needed help setting up a big computer desk, I asked if they would help, and they did.

I don't do handyman stuff, so I haven't had anything to do with the group other than once attending a Christmas get-together.

But when Al mentioned that they were beginning a little jam and singsong, I thought of my friend, Bob, who plays the guitar.

For the first jam, Bob didn't take his instrument, preferring to get the feel of the situation.

Last week, they convened the second jam, to which Bob did take his guitar. I also took my instrument, the camera.

As they jammed, I wandered about and took a bunch of photos, But then I somehow formatted the memory card. That's a new example in what can go wrong in life if you try hard enough. I have never done that before at least like this when I didn't even know that I had done it at the time. However, I managed the to do it, my photos were gone.

I realized that I'd have to start over, but my battery was running low, so I went upstairs to get my spare. Guess what? It was spent.

Fortunately, I did have some juice remaining in the original battery, so I was able to get some shots before it completely expired.

While I took shots of all 7 musicians (or just a singer in one case), only three were in good acceptable light and background, so those are what I will show you now. I do plan to print a little photo of each, including the ones that I won't show here, for the next jam, which I expect will be the last that I attend since I don't play an instrument.

Al, our former neighbour and still friend, playing his dobro guitar. He's in his mid-eighties and keeps rolling along.

 My friend, Bob, looking intently at the music. Don't swallow that pick!

I think this was the picture of the day. Another jammer: having a good laugh while playing. Or maybe I do like Bob's photo (above) better. They are quite different.

Just one more in passing: I taught this fellow (below) in my very first year of teaching in a fairly distant city. Somehow, we both ended up in this not-so-big town. He was in grade 11 at the time, so there is probably a little less than a decade between us. He wasn't in as advantageous of a photo spot (light and background) as the others, so I don't think the photo, but I thought I should include it for interest. And really, the photo is still acceptable.