Posts Tagged ‘Crackling Rosie’
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Record High Temps
0October 20, 2016 by admin
The temperature in Central Park hovered above 80. The hearty dog roses are still going strong, and the more delicate pink variety, like the gay divorcee, was enjoy a second spring. Little fuzzy fingers of magnolia pointed to the sun.
The cowboy nodded me to my spot; he was playing “Crackling Rosie.”
To my right a half dozen teenagers were crowded around the one who held the cardboard sign for Jesus. Another kid walked by me with a soprano ukulele in a cloth case. “Whatcha got there?” said I.
We talked uke. He told me he was a beginner, and that he played “worship” music.
“That’s great,” I said, “just not here, not while I’m here.”
“Aloha.”
An early teen made the first donation of the day, a pocketful of change, mostly dimes. A mom with her own early teen daughters did the hula while the girls pretended they didn’t know her. There was a Spaniard who talked about movies, and reminisced about his village cinema. An Englishman gave me a dollar for a photo.
A long, ragged line of school girls, dressed in plaid jumpers and white shirts with round collars, had earlier made their way down the path from the boathouse and around the fountain. They returned just as I finished my set. “Has this group got time for a hula today?”
The woman at the head of the line turned to a teacher behind her. The teacher assented and I was rushed by the uniformed mob. They kicked over my solar girls and grabbed the leis out of my hand. I organized them as well as possible; soon the 1st graders of the Hewitt School were dancing their way to the hukilau. I had to sing the song 3 times before every girl got a chance to wear a lei. Afterward, I discovered 2 of the leis had been torn to shreds. Some of the girls picked up the loose paper petals, stuffed them into a Coca Cola bottle cap and sent them sailing over the fountain waters. If any of the adults made a contribution, I missed it.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Crackling Rosie, Hewitt School, The Hukilau Song
