Yet another week has gone by before I made it to the park again. A week’s absence reveals great transformations. Golden stelladoro lilies dominate the beds at 72nd Street’s Women’s Gate. A huge lilac-colored spirea bush demarks the transition to small purple celosia, in front of tall, pale pink cleome, backed by dense, deep red roses, their thorny branches rising 8 feet in the air.

Shade engulfed the entrance to Strawberry Fields, where one of the guitarists sang “If I Fell.”

At center stage, under the hot sun, I tuned up and sang “Making Love Ukulele Style.” For almost 30 minutes no one seemed to notice me, then a girl rose from the bench where she was sitting with her parents and put a dollar in my case.

Three girls from Queens did a fine hula, then walked off. Moments later a family from Milwaukee stopped to dance to “The Hukilau Song.” A mom and her 3 daughters knew all the moves; dad took pictures. That was worth a fiver. It had also drawn a crowd.

Some young children got the idea for another few bucks. At a break in the action, a wise guy from Norway asked me, “Did you lose a bet?”

A lady taking video of “Honolulu Baby” dropped a fiver, and a young man, who was just walking by, added his dollar to my case. Walking up to me from the bench, a man in his forties asked if I could play “Tiny Bubbles.” He told me that his father, a Vietnam vet, had done R&R in Hawaii, and had seen Don Ho. “Tiny Bubbles” is not in my repertoire, but I faked it well enough to earn a buck.

A school group from PS 11 in Queens massed at the fountain for a photo. The left flank sat behind my case, so I moved out of the way and waited for them to finish. “How about a song,” one of the teachers shouted to me from the right flank.

I started singing “My Little Grass Shack” and before long another teacher stepped out of the pack and started to hula. I put a lei around her neck and kept singing. Soon some of the students grabbed leis and before long a riot of hulas broke out. I saw one of the parent-chaperones put a fiver in my case, but the kids put in money too, as did the dancing teacher. I quickly lost count, but upwards of $10 came from this group, lifting the day’s total to $28.61.

As the kids from PS 11 moved off, another parent/chaperone offered me a banana. I declined, but I did accept her offer to refill my water bottle. During these hot days on center stage, staying hydrated is vital.