Today, a tee shirt vendor has replaced the Sabrett hot dog man at the entrance to the park at W. 72nd St. Hot dogs had always been more expensive at this location, $3 compared to $2.50 inside the park. When I asked the hot dog man about it, he told me his monthly rent was $10,000 – that’s a lot of hot dogs. This year hot dogs are $3 everywhere.

It’s hotter than yesterday. A Japanese Katsura tree at the entrance to Strawberry Fields looks stressed, its heart-shaped leaves browning in the sun. The guitarist sings “Let It Be.” At Bethesda Fountain, an accordion has replaced John Boyd’s family singers. He had to have gotten up pretty early in the morning to do that.

Once again, I sought the shade. The doo-wop singers had already set up by the boathouse. I launched into “Making Love Ukulele Style,” and immediately got a dollar from a 60-something, like me.

It was a day for families and pleasant conversation. First a family with 4 girls, from 6 to 16. They got a line-dance hula going. The oldest guided her young sisters, while mom sat behind, on the rock, and dad took some photos. He was an optometrist from Sherman Oaks, CA. He too had a pension, he told me, and couldn’t wait to retire like me and have nothing to do all day but seek his bliss.

“Are these all yours? That must be quite a pension.”

He laughed. “Four daughters, how expensive can that be?”

A man from Norway stopped to tell me his son had just started to learn to play the ukulele. I handed the instrument to the pre-teen boy. “Let’s see what you can do.” He was indeed a beginner, laboring over D-G-A7-D. I helped him along, giving him tips his father translated.

The doo-wop dancers got chased away by the park rangers. According to the optometrist, who gathered his information on a trip to the bathrooms with a couple of daughters, the group had been blocking the path. More probably, the restaurant had complained; Meta and her inoffensive harp, after all, had also been rousted from that spot.

An Italian family replaced the California family, this one with 3 young children. While 2 daughters did the hula, a toddler boy kept picking up my watch from out of my case and slipping it on his wrist. Dad took it off, put it back, and the kid swiped it again. At the end of the “The Hukilau Song” I took a quick inventory; everything was there, including $6.15 in donations.