HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE — When Fred Findlen moved from Maine to Hot Springs Village six weeks ago, he said the gated community had almost everything he wanted.
He liked the neighborhoods and the scenery, and family lived close by, but he said he thought about moving to a community in Florida. It seemed there were no ukulele clubs in Hot Springs Village.
“There were four clubs in the community in Florida,” Findlen said, “so I started one here in the second week I was here.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Findlen and eight other members of the Hot Springs Ukulele Club were in the Community Room upstairs at Cranford’s Village Pantry grocery store near the Village’s East Gate.
This was the club’s third meeting, said Amy Daniels of Hot Springs, who brought her baritone ukulele, which is a bigger version of the Hawaiian instrument but smaller than an acoustic guitar.
She said she has been playing for a while and just joined the ukulele band called the Spa City Strummers at Grand Avenue United Methodist Church in Hot Springs.
“I’ve told them about us,” Daniels told the members of the Hot Springs Ukelele Club. “Maybe some of them will come now that they know we are here.”
Findlen said there are about 16 people who have come to at least one meeting of his ukulele group, so he hopes the band will be larger.
The members were learning to play Christmas music such as “Silent Night” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Findlen has a plan.
“If we get going, we might get up a concert at a nursing home,” he said. “Two people have invited us to play already.”
There are all levels of players in the group, from veterans to first-timers.
“I have been playing for 60 years,” said Guy Veazey of Benton. “My daddy ordered me one from Sears when I was a kid. I heard about the meeting, and I started coming.”
Veazey was also playing a baritone ukulele and said he often plays for the members of the Benton Senior Center.
It was the first time Bill Taylor of Hot Springs Village has come to the meeting, having never played the ukulele before.
“I ordered one on Amazon, and it came Friday,” he said. “So, I’m here. I can’t play golf in the rain anyway.”
Taylor, who said he “dabbles” with the guitar, was struggling to keep up with the more-experienced players, as were some of the other members of the group. Findlen had said that there was no need for any musical experience.
Ann Flueckiger of the Village said this was her first time with the four-string instrument.
“I just wanted to play. I like music, and I thought it would be fun,” she said. “I just got my ukulele Saturday afternoon, and I have been practicing.”
The ukulele is a nylon-stringed instrument, first developed in Hawaii, based on a guitar-like instrument used by Portuguese immigrants from the Macaronesian Islands in the 19th century.
The ukulele became popular with young people and jazz performers in the U.S. in the 1920s, then spread around the world.
The Hot Springs group meets from 2-4 p.m. Tuesdays at Cranford’s on Arkansas 5, east of the East Gate to the Village.
For more information, call Findlen at (207) 844-1350.
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or at wbryan@arkansasonline.com.