Posts Tagged ‘Horse with No Name’

  1. The Evening Show

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    August 10, 2016 by admin

    The cowboy looked at his watch. “One more number,” he told me. I set up, tuned softly and waited by the fountain through an interminable “Horse with No Name.” Finally, with a fade-out, the cowboy said to the passing crowd, “That’s it for the morning show. The evening show is about to begin.” It was a few minutes after noon.

    A lady, who had been listening from the benches, gave me the first dollar of the day. Shortly after, 2 college-age girls from Taiwan found time to hula. They were bright and energetic, and quite impressed that not only had I heard of Taiwan, I used to know it as Formosa.

    A 40-something Mexican woman caught my eye. “Have you got time for a hula today?” Reluctantly, she accepted the lei I put around her neck. “Do you know how to hula?”

    “Like this?” she said, waving her arms hip-high and waggling her fingers.

    “Perfect,” I said, throwing myself into “The Hukilau Song.” With a wry smile, the woman raised her arms higher, quieted her fingers, swayed her hips, and danced a beautifully restrained hula. “You’ve done this before,” I said. She winked. I picked up the tempo for the second verse.

    A thin blonde, in a ponytail and baseball cap, threw a crumpled fiver into my case as she strode by. “You made me smile,” she said.

    It was a hot day. As the sun rose higher, people who had sought the benches for the shade moved on. A few of them came by to show their appreciation.

    A family of 4 from Florida toddled by, mom pushing an empty stroller. Dad had given each child a quarter, with instructions. I stepped back and let the kids complete their task. “Now how about a hula dance?”

    “How about it?” said mom, taking a lei from me. I put leis on the little girls, perhaps 3 and 6 years old, and picked up a lei for dad. “How about it?” mom repeated. They danced joyfully en famille.

    After exactly 90 minutes, I packed up quickly, counted my money and got out of the sun. I made $15.60; the quarters came from the little girls, and the dime I missed from yesterday.

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