Lake Ridge Retirement Community’s Kitchen Band Gets Cooking

by Brian Ruberry

The Kitchen Band will be cooking up sweet sounds by banging on pots, pans and bowls during two performances of “Ask Uncle Abner” on Nov. 16 and 17 at Westminster at Lake Ridge, a continuing care retirement community.

During the 1-hour original production, the 34-member band also acts, sings, dances and drums on kitchen surfaces to perform old-time classics like “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” “Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey” and “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair.”

“We’re just a group of senior citizens making music and having fun,” says Betty Erickson, a Westminster resident who leads the band. “It’s hard to describe if you haven’t seen it, but beating on them (pots and pans) makes pretty good sounds.”

The Kitchen Band started around 1995 and now performs twice a year at Westminster at Lake Ridge, mostly for residents and their families. Band members, ranging in age from 61 to 96, practice once a week for 12 weeks to prepare to perform its original productions.

The Kitchen Band performs “Ask Uncle Abner” on Friday, Nov. 16 at 7:00pm and Saturday, Nov. 17 at 4:00pm.

Westminster at Lake Ridge is a Continuing Care Retirement Community located next to the historic, riverside Town of Occoquan, Virginia just across the river from Fairfax County and 30 minutes from Washington, D.C. Residents enjoy wellness and lifelong learning opportunities, the choice of maintenance-free cottage or apartment living, housekeeping, dining, parking, transportation and on-site amenities all in a beautiful, wooded campus environment featuring two ponds, gardens and trails to the Occoquan River.