Couple Strike Chord With Seniors

Like all performers, Dale and Nenita Ground have played their share of cold rooms. But in their case, the occasional chill is usually unintentional--the audience members are sometimes just too ill to clap.

The husband-and-wife team specializes in the senior circuit, playing pop standards from the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s at convalescent homes and senior citizen centers across Los Angeles County.

“People are sometimes pretty slow to respond but they appreciate it,” said Robert S. Dowse, an 88-year-old resident at the Center at Park West in Reseda. “Music penetrates their feelings and gives them a kind of lift and makes them forget some of their problems.”

Because Dale and Nenita are blind, there is an extra challenge or two when it comes to logistics. But audiences usually don’t know in advance that the married couple can’t see.

“It never comes up until they see us come out with our white canes,” Dale said.

Like rock stars who need security to protect them from unruly fans, the Grounds depend on staff members to keep senior citizens with dementia from interfering with them during performances.

One time, Dale recalled, an elderly woman gave him a bear hug and then tried putting her hands down the back of his pants while he played piano.

“I never stopped playing,” he remembered proudly. “They had to stand guard over her after a while.”

Another time, Dale had to pull his hands back just before someone shut the piano lid in the middle of a song. “I guess they didn’t like the music,” he quipped.

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The Tarzana couple arranges rides through a low-cost transportation program for the disabled. They earn about $50 per performance. When paid in cash, Nenita folds bills in different ways according to their worth to remember their value.

Playing some 30 to 40 gigs a month, the couple sometimes works three shows a day. Their show calendar is often filled two months in advance.

“They’re just a hit,” said Judy Lamb, activities director at Valley View Retirement North in Arleta. “You just tell them [patients] Nenita and Dale are coming and they’re like so excited. They are always clapping. You know they’re in the building.”

The couple plays mostly up-tempo tunes because they don’t want to depress the residents, Dale said.

As the Grounds recently played at the Center at Park West, many of the 20 or so residents smiled, mouthed the lyrics and moved their arms to the music. Several applauded after each song, but no one was healthy enough to get up and dance.

“If we can get them singing we’re doing our job,” Dale said. “I don’t really think we’re great artists, but our main job is giving people a little cheer.”

The Grounds live in a condominium with Nenita’s mom and her 21-year-old daughter Jacqueline, who dresses the couple for their shows. Nenita and Dale travel light to their gigs, bringing only microphones, an amplifier and water bottles. The couple doesn’t bring a song list: Nenita whispers suggestions, including instrumentals and sing-alongs, to her husband.

“I know if people are responding or not,” said Nenita, 43.

The Los Angeles chapter of the Braille Institute of America provides support, including tapes of new songs, allowing the duo to vary their material. Nenita listens to the tapes to learn the lyrics, while Institute teachers help Dale learn to play the music.

“I’m trying to get her to sing more and she’s always trying to get me to play piano more,” Dale said. “When she gets into a song I still can get the chills. I put the basics down and let her sing.”

Nenita usually sets up their gigs. Although audiences may not know in advance that they’re blind, the activity directors who book them often do--Nenita uses it as a selling point.

“I say we’re a blind husband and wife and can catch their attention. I never quit calling them,” Nenita said.

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Nenita and Dale met at the Braille Institute in 1988 and married four years later.

“I could see her at that point. I liked her legs,” Dale confided. “And I liked her voice too. I knew immediately she had a very pretty voice.”

Dale, who grew up in Burbank, was born with glaucoma in both eyes. His sight problems worsened about two decades ago, when he was working as an aerospace industry computer programmer.

“I got into [music] because I had to prove I could make a little money before she’d marry me,” Dale said with a laugh.

At first, Nenita was too ill to play with Dale. She has retinitis pigmentosa, which causes blindness and probably caused her kidney failure.

After she received a new kidney six years ago, her health improved, though she still takes anti-rejection drugs. After her operation, she joined her husband next to the piano.

Dale, who played piano as a child, reconnected with music at the Braille Institute at 37, he said. He had hit a low in his life: divorced, living at a YMCA and too blind to work with computers after his eye problems worsened. “I didn’t even have a piano,” he said.

“He was afraid to perform when he started,” said Fay Roberts, music director at Braille. “He was extremely shy, which he’s not anymore. Doing music gave him a kind of confidence.”

Nenita moved to California 12 years ago from the Philippines, where she taught massage to the blind. She started singing as a child and first heard the songs she now plays from her father, a former band leader.

She effortlessly hits her notes singing standards such as “All of Me,” “As Time Goes By” and “Besame Mucho,” shaking a tomato-shaped maraca.

Dale ties his microphone to his shirt collar with a rubber band, and his fingers strike like lightning across the keys.

“I try to play hard and put a lot of music and a lot of energy out,” he said.

Their dreams are simple: Dale says he wants his wife to record an album; Nenita says she hopes they’ll become more established and have their own house. In the meantime, they find it easy to lean on each other when others view them mainly as blind, Nenita said.

“As far as show business, it’s not a high profile position,” Dale added. “[But] I have more fun than I ever did as computer programmer, that’s for sure. We don’t have to put up with playing in the bars, and we’re doing some good too.”