1. A Whimsically Happy Payday

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    October 20, 2016 by admin

    It was another record hot day in October, so once again I sallied forth.  A young woman with a video camera gave me a fiver to record me.  “You’re so happy, in this beautiful setting, on this beautiful day.”  She said she’d send me the link, but so far I haven’t got it.

     

    A small boy dumped some change in my case.

     

    A group of high-schoolers from the Grace Church School came by.  They had been assigned to film something whimsical.  “You think I’m whimsical enough?”

     

    “You’re the whimsicalest,” said the girl with the camera.  The kids donned leis, lined up, and danced to “The Hukilau Song” while the camera rolled.

     

    “Your church is famous,” I told a boy as I took back his lei.  “Edith Wharton was married there.”

     

    He turned a blank face to me.  It’s possible that I too had never heard of Edith Wharton until college – who remembers?  “Look it up.”

     

    Glancing into my case, I spotted 2 more fivers and then some.  I’d been playing for barely 30 minutes and it was already a very good day.

     

    People walked up to me with money in their hands at a regular clip.  A Brazilian woman did a credible hula for $2.  A Chinese woman dropped a fiver for a photo.  It turned out she was an ABC, Australian-born Chinese.  “What do you call Argentine-born Chinese, or Armenian or Austrian?  You need to start using subscripts.”

     

    A pear-shaped man walked up from the bench near the water and gave me 3 tightly folded singles.  “I do believe you are the happiest man in New York today,” he told me.  I had to agree.  Later I saw him sitting with his pear-shaped wife.  At the end of “That’s My Weakness Now,” they applauded enthusiastically.

     

    With $27.83 cents to show for it, it had been a superlatively whimsical, and happy day.

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  2. Record High Temps

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    October 20, 2016 by admin

    The temperature in Central Park hovered above 80.  The hearty dog roses are still going strong, and the more delicate pink variety, like the gay divorcee, was enjoy a second spring.  Little fuzzy fingers of magnolia pointed to the sun.

     

    The cowboy nodded me to my spot; he was playing “Crackling Rosie.”

     

    To my right a half dozen teenagers were crowded around the one who held the cardboard sign for Jesus.  Another kid walked by me with a soprano ukulele in a cloth case.  “Whatcha got there?” said I.

     

    We talked uke.  He told me he was a beginner, and that he played “worship” music.

     

    “That’s great,” I said, “just not here, not while I’m here.”

     

    “Aloha.”

     

    An early teen made the first donation of the day, a pocketful of change, mostly dimes.  A mom with her own early teen daughters did the hula while the girls pretended they didn’t know her.  There was a Spaniard who talked about movies, and reminisced about his village cinema.  An Englishman gave me a dollar for a photo.

     

    A long, ragged line of school girls, dressed in plaid jumpers and white shirts with round collars, had earlier made their way down the path from the boathouse and around the fountain.  They returned just as I finished my set.  “Has this group got time for a hula today?”

     

    The woman at the head of the line turned to a teacher behind her.  The teacher assented and I was rushed by the uniformed mob.  They kicked over my solar girls and grabbed the leis out of my hand.  I organized them as well as possible; soon the 1st graders of the Hewitt School were dancing their way to the hukilau.  I had to sing the song 3 times before every girl got a chance to wear a lei.  Afterward, I discovered 2 of the leis had been torn to shreds.  Some of the girls picked up the loose paper petals, stuffed them into a Coca Cola bottle cap and sent them sailing over the fountain waters.  If any of the adults made a contribution, I missed it.

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  3. Aloha, Minnesota

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    October 16, 2016 by admin

    The clouds rolled over head, a gray scale of threat; it would certainly rain. There I was, nevertheless, bending down to examine a second, lone wood anemone flower. There were several anemone plants, but the backmost ones were being strangled by encroaching boneset. The deciduous trees showed more yellow than last time out, but nowhere did I see peak red. Even the maple, under which I started my set today, was still mostly green, although the baby mulberry was resplendent in autumnal berries.

    A 7-year-old girl stepped up and gave me a dollar. “Have you got time for a hula today?” She nodded shyly, donned the lei and rocked rhythmically back and forth. On cue, she threw her net out into the sea and hauled in all the ama-ama. Her delighted father chipped in another $2.

    By this time, I figured the cowboy was gone, so I piled everything into my case and carried it back to the fountain. A couple from Hawaii came laughing down the path. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw you,” said the woman, dropping a single. With very little coaxing, she danced to “The Hukilau Song.”

    A tall, distinguished gentleman, with a large camera, checked me out from one angle, then another. Finally, he approached and asked if he could take video of me for his daughter in Argentina, who was a fan of the uke. “Of course,” I said, laying the 2 singles he proffered in my case.

    An Englishman came off the bench with a buck. “Thank you,” he said.

    Two women from Minnesota seemed happy to see me. We chatted for a while, then they did a languorous hula and walked off to get some pop – soda to us. “We’ll be back.”

    A bicycle pack of Israelis rode in and dismounted across from me. A 20-something woman came forward with a thumbs up and a buck.

    An Italian couple passed by to get to the water; they were memorable because he was dressed in workman’s clothes and she was all dolled up, with a blond wig, evening makeup, cocktail dress and high heels. On their way back, I called out, “Have you got time for a hula today?”

    She did, while her boyfriend/husband peeled off 3 singles, waiting until we were done before tossing it in my case.

    The women from Minnesota, Lisa and Lynn, came back with their pop and a fiver for me. Later, they sent me this video.

     

     

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