They Give ‘Fun in the Kitchen’ a New Twist

At 81 years old, Theresa Esposito can still play the “gut bucket.”

It’s made from an aluminum trash can, tipped upside down with a handle and a bass D-string. When plucked, it makes a bass sound and rhythm.

“When I get out there, I really feel like I’m playing a real instrument--and I put my heart and soul into it,” Esposito said.

For the past 26 years, she has played her homemade bass fiddle with Anaheim’s Rancho La Paz Kitchen Band. “I’ve never quit because I love it,” said Esposito, the band’s longest-tenured member.

The band--an all female group until two male singers joined--is made up of 18 senior citizens from the Rancho La Paz Mobile Home Park.

They are called a kitchen band because many of the instruments are kitchen utensils--like a washboard, an antique cheese grater, a Tupperware salad bowl “drum” and kazoos decorated with spatulas or wooden spoons.

Ray Pollard, 83, who sings and plays guitar, said that people enjoy seeing the kitchen instruments and are amazed that they really do make music.

“You could call it wacky and unusual, but they get a kick out of it,” said Pollard, whose wife, Irene, 73, plays the kazoo.

The band, which plays everything from Latin tunes to waltzes, entertains during the year at rest homes, retirement homes and convalescent facilities as well as at special events. During the holiday season, they get more requests to perform.

Band director Terry Giardino, 64, who plays piano, said the group was formed in the 1950s under the direction of mobile-home park resident Claude Killion, a retired musician. Since then, the band has had several directors and a turnover of musicians.

To be a member takes no special musical skill, Giardino said, except for the “love of music” and entertaining that brings band members together.

Esposito said that playing in the band is a “great outlet for seniors” and promotes friendships. “It gives you a lift in life, and at the same time, it makes other people happy,” Irene Pollard said.

Band members said their reward is playing for their peers, especially seniors who are ill.

“We enjoy seeing their faces and seeing them sing along with us and clap their hands,” Giardino said. “Sometimes the places we go, the people are ill or old, and the music lights up their faces because they enjoy it so much.”