1. An Excellent Outing

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    August 23, 2018 by admin

    Colin, the singing cowboy, asked for 30 minutes more, so I moved to the maple and set up in the shade.  It was another very fine day.  Early on, a young woman gave me a dollar, but that was it for this location.  I managed to get a French family to hula, a boy and his two sisters, while mere and pere looked on, yet, at the end of the set, they walked away without so much as a merci.

     

    At the fountain again, Colin was packing up.  I quickly restored my case and all my paraphernalia, and started my set over again with “Making Love Ukulele Style.”  A Korean family sat on the bench and listened.  A little boy in what looked like a sailor suit and hat was fascinated.  After a few songs, mom and dad policed the area for litter, then sent their son to me with a dollar.

     

    The next half hour passed without a hula, let alone a donation, until a rowdy bunch of Costa Ricans and Colombians entered the fountain.  “Have you got time for a hula today?”

     

    “Of course,” said a young man enthusiastically.

     

    I handed out leis, even taking the one off my own neck to accommodate all the dancers.  They needed no instruction; they were dancing before I finished telling them about the hukilau.  The second verse kicked off a display of gyrations, dips and wiggles, encouraged by the photographer, who systematically took pictures with the different cameras everyone had handed him.  The end of the dance concluded with handshakes and air kisses, and a pair of fivers plus change in my case.

     

    “Costa Rica and Colombia,” I said, “are now my favorite countries.”

     

    A boy of 16-17 listened from afar.  When his family started moving away, he approached me with a crumpled dollar and a big grin.  He walked away backward while I sang “I Wonder Where My Little Hula Girl Has Gone,” trying to catch the words before turning to catch up with his family.

     

    Yielding $14.81, it turned out to be an excellent outing.

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  2. If Only I’d Been There Yesterday

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    August 22, 2018 by admin

    “Great day,” I said to Randy as I walked through Strawberry Fields.

     

    “You should have been here yesterday.”

     

    The combo played “Blue Moon” near Daniel Webster.  “Not to be confused with Noah Webster of dictionary fame,” I overheard a buggy driver say with an Irish lilt.

     

    Colin said he’d play for another 15 minutes, so I decided to sit down and wait for him.  The temperature was in the mid-70s, with a cool breeze blowing off the water  “No,” Colin corrected himself, “make that another 45 minutes.”

     

    So I set up under the maple.  Pushing his double bass ahead of him, Vasili, formerly of the Ukrainian Symphony Orchestra, now with the John Boyd players in the arcade, threw his hands up in delight to see me.  He danced a hula-like jig and said, “You are always so happy, how are you, my friend?”  It had been more than a year since I’d seen him.

     

    “Beautiful day,” I said.

     

    “You should have been here yesterday.”

     

    A preteen girl from the UK was keen to hula.  Her parents tried to whisk her away, but she prevailed and did a credible hula to the “Hukilau Song.”  Her name was Olivia.  Her dad gave her a dollar for me.  As she walked away, she waved “Aloha.”

     

    A man peeled off from his guided tour and sprinkled 77 cents into my case.  Two local girls hula-ed amid shouts (“hukilau!”) and giggles.  Pushing his instrument back down the path, Vasili returned from the fountain, where there was no work for him, and joined the girls in the hula, then both Vasili and the girls walked away.

     

    Two 20-something women walked by; one of them gave me a dollar, but would not dance.

     

    At the end of my set, with $3.77 in my pocket, the big bubble man came by with his bucket and netting.  “It’s beautiful in the fountain, you could go there now,” he said.  “The guitar guy is packing up.”

     

    “He said he’d be done at 1, it’s almost 2.  He must have had a good day.”

     

    “I don’t know about that,” said the big bubble man.  “Tuesdays aren’t so great.  You should have been here yesterday.”

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  3. The Heat Continues

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    August 18, 2018 by admin

    The temperature on Thursday hit 90 again.  Along Central Park West, the red begonias, protected by the dense overstory above and the stone wall to the west, continues to bloom in abundance.  Purple salvia adds its color to the ageratum and allium.  High above the button-seller’s head, dogwood berries fatten.  The dog roses reappear, red, pink and pale.

     

    Along the path, a hosta blooms next to the wood anemone and its countless buds.  No one has yanked out the jewelweed yet.  It withers in the sun, yellow-orange flowers peeking out from limp leaves.  The magnolia, covered in buds, is pushing out a flower.

     

    Once again, I went straight to the maple.  Soon a Brazilian woman from D.C. stopped to chat.  “I want to retire to Maui,” she told me.

     

    “I hear that a lot.”

     

    She is with a pair of teenaged girls.  They want to buy leis.  I set the price at $2, and put the leis around their necks.  “Now how about a hula?  No?  Ok, wear them proudly.”

     

    “Have a good day,” said the Brazilian woman, who gave me $3.

     

    A young woman ran up to me.  “How much for the CD?”

     

    “Ten bucks.”  After 30 minutes, of the $17 in my case, $14 was for merchandise.

     

    A tall young man with a group of Chinese tourists left the group and tossed me 77 cents.  Later, a 60-something woman put a dollar in my case and said, “That’s for putting a smile on my face.”.

     

    My end-of-day tally was $20.77.  Despite the heat, I barely broke a sweat.

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