The gomphrena has grown tall, the button-like flowers towering over the celosia, the pink conic flowers of which have turned into gray cones, like bottle brushes. The wood anemones along the path have grown up in 2 locations, both as tall as me and bursting with buds.

At Bethesda Fountain, Lady Liberty, in shades, has wrapped a flag around a tourist for a photo op.  Snake man is there, as is the big bubble man.  Looking good for me, I thought, until I spotted the cowboy.  “Are you coming back?” he asked as I walked by.

“Probably not.  Once I set up, I don’t like to move.”

Under the maple, I laid out my paraphernalia and started my set.  A woman with her daughter walked by.  “Have you got time for a hula today?”  She laughed, then stopped a few steps past me.  “Change your mind?”

“No,” she said.  “Just listening.”

I was playing “Fit as a Fiddle.”  When I finished, she dropped 65 cents in my case.

A Muslim couple walked by with their young daughter.  Mom wore a hijab, dad pushed an empty stroller, and the little girl toddled up to me and started dancing.  Her dance consisted of bending her knees and bobbing her head.  Since I was already playing a song in G, “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” it was an easy transition into “The Hukilau Song,” also in G.

A man of 35 or so was enchanted with the scene.  During the dance, he dug a dollar out of his wallet and placed it in my case.  “You’re terrific,” he said.  At the end, mom gave me a dollar too.

Two moms and 3 daughters walked by.  “Have you got time for a hula today?”

One mom answered, “We might.”  She polled the girls, 2 of whom were up for it, 1 was too shy.  Once more, we went to the hukilau.  “I’ve got it,” one mom told the other.  At the end of the dance, she gave each girl a single to put in my case.

“You guys from New York?”

“Chicago, the other big city.”

My set complete, I pocketed $4.65.  In the cool shade of the maple, I’d hardly broken a sweat.