Marty has loved music all her life. She first learned to play the piano when she was 8 and has always taken every opportunity to sing! Her father loved to sing too, and they would sing together on road trips, songs like “Down by the Old Mill Stream.” In high school, Marty was the accompanist for H.M.S. Pinafore. She can still sing “I’m called Little Buttercup.” 

Jan and her dad used to watch a show called “The Hit Parade,” competing to be the first to identify a song from the first few bars of music. In high sc
hool, Jan participated in Glee Club, performing songs ranging from “Oklahoma” to Handel’s “Messiah.” She and a group of friends, several with guitars, also got together regularly to sing folk songs. She spent hours listening to records, writing down lyrics of favorite songs to memorize them. “I still remember a lot of those songs, something that I find astonishing after all these years,” she observed.

Bob started singing at family gatherings and in church choirs when he was three; in fact, he can’t remember a time when he didn’t love to sing. He got his first guitar and started guitar lessons at age 8. “I wanted to be Elvis,” he recalls. He started singing in Bay Area pubs and coffee houses in the 60’s and continued playing in Davis while in grad school. Later, when his son was small, he sang at his preschool, recording a collection of children’s songs with two of the preschool teachers. Now that he has a brand new granddaughter, he is reviving his repertoire of lullabies.

Jan, as a teacher of young children, “quickly learned the magical effect of song in calming and focusing a group’s attention.” After retirement, she took singing lessons for several months, and last year, joined the Renaissance Society singing group, Singing for Fun,” that Marty and Bob also belong to. The group “requires no prior experience or talent,” Jan noted. “And I got to learn to play spoons!” 

Marty is also delighted to be part of the choral group, which performs for seniors in assisted living twice a year. “Music feeds my soul,” Marty observes. She looks forward to “singing frequently with my future neighbors in Fair Oaks EcoHousing.” Jan concurs, “ If singing and/or spoons fit the bill, count me in.” And Bob is hoping to play and sing along with his cohousing neighbors to foster the spirit of our new community.