A bagpiper greeted me at the entrance to the park.  He marched in and out among the pedicabs, probably because a moving target is harder to hit.

A very blond Norwegian woman stopped to dance the first hula of the day.  Some time later, 2 women collected their lunch trash, and, on their way to the bins, placed 2 neatly folded singles in my case.

Three college girls stopped to listen.  One of them, Amelia from Australia, was eager to hula and convinced her friends, from Canada and Pennsylvania, to join her.  As soon as I started singing “The Hukilau Song,” however, she said, “I’m shy,” and reached out to hold her friends’ hands.  It was the first circular hula of the season.  One of the girls gave me a dollar, then the other 2 did also.

A young man with a pack back dropped a handful of change.

A Polish boy of 9 or 10 wanted to dance.  I gave instructions in English while his mother translated.  When we started to dance, she stood behind him, sometimes taking his arms to wave them.  “If you’re going to dance with him, you need this,” I said, putting a lei around her neck.  When they had finished and given me a dollar, a girl of about the same age as the Polish boy ran up to me and told me she wanted to dance too.

Bethesda Fountain, on occasion, can be a freak show.  In addition to the regulars, like the big bubble man, the caricaturist, and the Boyd Family Singers, who colonize the arcade daily, today saw the snake charmers on segways, the Italian accordionist, and a Chinese man in a clown mask and red wig.  The clown had a selfie-stick and was on video chat with friends halfway around the world for my entire 90-minute set.

Two well-dressed women listened intently to “Fit as a Fiddle.”  “I love this song,” said one to the other, then dug out a dollar for me.

At the end of my session, I struck up a conversation with Mandy from California.  She regaled me with stories about her wife and children.  I sang my finale, “Little Grass Shack,” then sat down to pack up my gear and count out $13.72, to which Mandy, still talking, added another buck.