My mom had a ukulele that sat in a shelf the headboard of my parent’s bed. The headboard had the shelf and two sliding doors on either side of this shelf for storage. I thought of it as a little guitar decoration for their bedroom and not a legitimate musical instrument. At some point when I was in elementary school, I found out what it was. Mom showed me how to play the C, F and G7 chords and how to play Little Brown Jug. Soon she would buy me a song book that had chords and lyrics for over 100 simple songs.
Soon my parents would get me a baritone ukulele. It was larger than the standard ukulele and was tuned like the 4 highest pitched strings on a guitar. I continued to learn more songs, picking out most by ear. Even when I used ukulele tabs to learn songs, I only paid attention to the chord forms. I was not learning the names of the chords. I didn’t really pay any attention the names of the chords until much later when I would start playing guitar and began playing with other people.
Later I would discover another story about my mom’s ukulele. She had this instrument when my parents started dating. Sometimes she would bring it on dates and she would accompany them as they sang together.