With a hat that looked like a birthday layer cake in hand, Marsie Hubbard stood in front of the audience at Heritage Woods retirement community Tuesday morning and asked those with November birthdays to raise their hands.
A few hands went up. From there, she worked her way through the rest of the months in the year until all 50 people present had a chance to go on record as having a birthday. Then Hubbard put on the candle-topped cake hat, and she and the other women in the Treble Makers sang "Happy Birthday" to everyone.
Before another song, the Treble Makers recognized all the veterans, spouses of veterans, and parents and grandparents of veterans. At another point in the program, the women walked through the audience giving hugs to everyone. By the time the 45-minute show was over, everyone had gotten personal attention at least once, and, more likely, two or three times.
Listening to such classics as "Everything's Coming up Roses," "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "Puttin' on the Ritz" -- plus getting personal attention from vivacious women -- was definitely a winning recipe.
"My spirits got lifted," said Marjorie Hedgepeth, 83.
"They were great," said Nita Lackey, 82.
On Tuesdays during the school year for 16 years now, the Treble Makers have been going to retirement communities and other places that serve seniors and putting on an energetic show for whomever shows up. Often, they put on two shows in a single morning.
However much the members of the audience get out of it, the Treble Makers say, they get even more.
"It certainly makes our days brighter," said Anne Gordon. "We come away feeling very happy."
Although group members joked about the quality of the singing -- saying that some members are talented and others are better described as enthusiastic -- the singing was excellent and the show came off as quite polished.
Working together for years certainly has something to do with that. The Treble Makers started as a group in the Junior League of Winston-Salem at a time when many of the members had young children;now many of those children are in college. The group has about 20 members, with many of them there since the beginning.
Before the show began, Edythe Hardin, 90, watched from a seat in the front row as the Treble Makers set up. She enjoyed the Treble Makers -- a name that punster member Kathy Zagoria came up with -- when they came last year so much, she said, that she showed up early this year to make sure she got a prime seat.
"They do all kinds of fancy things," Hardin said.
Those fancy things included choreographed dancing while sporting such props as canes, hats and pop-up roses, depending on the song.
A couple of rows back, Hedgepeth said, "You do like to see people who make you feel nice."
Yes, indeed.
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
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