Posts Tagged ‘Riptide’

  1. Now Playing Center Stage

    1

    July 17, 2014 by admin

    Overcast, with a cool breeze. Entering the park, I spot the thriving cosmos, as tall as the wall now, blooming pink, white and red. The rose bushes sport a few flowers, but are getting a bit hippy. The crowds seem thin; perhaps it’s the threat of rain, or maybe the Wednesday matinees. No one’s playing at the fountain, so today I dare to take center stage.

    Often at Bethesda Fountain I obverse a peculiar tourist behavior. Although Mr. Ukulele, that energetically appealing, if somewhat talent-challenged, old man crooning island-themed ditties, is standing right in front of them, they choose to throw their money in the water instead of in his case. Dad positions his little girl for the camera, keeping me out of frame, then in go a couple of coins, plop, plop. He hustles her away, ignoring my question: “Got time for a hula today?” Mom clutches her purse, as if I meant to snatch it. Yet Aloha is preserved, because later in the day, a homeless man will wade through the fountain pool, searching for the silvery glint of little girls’ wishes.

    A man proudly watched his daughter hula, then asked me how much for the lei. Ordinarily I will not sell them, answering, “Can’t do that, these are my means of production.” Today, however, I asked for a dollar. He was halfway up the path to the boathouse when he turned back, waving another dollar. “You want to pay me twice?” I asked. He grabbed another lei. “It is always the case,” he explained in a lilting accent, “when a man has two daughters.”

    A woman took my card. She was planning a family reunion at the Jersey shore and might want to hire me to be a roving minstrel among 50-60 relations of all ages. That’s twice this month someone’s asked about my availability as party entertainment; my career seems about to take off.

    Three young men from Montreal lingered. “My friend here plays the uke.”

    “Oh, yeah, let’s hear what you can do,” offering him the instrument.

    “Now?” he asked, then realizing there was no later, he took the uke, located a few chords, and smiled up at his friends. “Riptide,” he announced, and his friends joyfully joined in. Afterward, there were pictures, and a crisp ten-spot in my case.

    After an hour the sun broke through the clouds. I thought I should probably move to my shady spot on the path, but instead I soldiered on, with $20.19 for my efforts.

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