After rain and cool weather, the forecasters called Thursday an ideal spring day.\u00a0 Although the temperature hovered below 70, I had to agree.\u00a0 The trees in the park were starting to green.\u00a0 Spring bulbs made a nice showing:\u00a0 white and yellow daffodils; red, white and pink tulips, purple wood hyacinth, yellow fritillaria.\u00a0 Waves of pheasant\u2019s eye narcissi lined the path to Strawberry Fields, punctuated by more wood hyacinth, solomon\u2019s seal and hellebore.\u00a0 Violets bloomed under the fences; set back in the dappled shade, were pansies, violas and trillium.\u00a0 In the lawn surrounding Daniel Webster, the first dandelions had popped up.<\/p>\n
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Overhead, the magnolias were magnificent.\u00a0 Cherry Hill earned its name; pink petals floated, the souls of the samurai, to the pink carpet below.<\/p>\n
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Bethesda Fountain was packed, and I was not the first busker there.\u00a0 The player of a one-stringed Chinese instrument bowed his squeaky tunes from the bench opposite center stage.\u00a0 I kept walking to my second stage, beneath the Norway maple overlooking the rowboat rental operation.<\/p>\n
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A woman started me off with a dollar, then a man, followed by 2 young women.\u00a0 \u201cHave you got time for a hula today?\u201d I asked them.\u00a0 They did not.<\/p>\n
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A high school group from Manassas, Virginia, stopped to hula.\u00a0 Ten kids, lined up against the fence, waved their arms and wiggled their hips through both verses of \u201cThe Hukilau Song.\u201d\u00a0 Three of them dropped singles into my case.<\/p>\n
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A man from Oakland, California, gave me a thumbs-up and a buck.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSay hi to my dad,\u201d a girl said, shoving a phone in my face as she walked by.\u00a0 \u201cHi, Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
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On my way into the park, I\u2019d chatted with a chaperone of a middle school group from Boston.\u00a0 Now here they were again, on their way out of the park.\u00a0 \u201cHas this group got time for a hula today?\u201d\u00a0 The lead teacher hesitated, the kids reached for the leis, and very soon I had another large group lined up for the hukilau.\u00a0 \u201cDoes anyone know how to hula?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI do,\u201d one of the girls said.\u00a0 Her name was Estelle.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEstelle is the kahuna,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cFollow her lead.\u201d\u00a0 At the end of the dance, the chaperone laid a fiver in my case, and took $2 change.<\/p>\n
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Two young teens asked their parents if they could dance.\u00a0 They were from Rochester, NY, and one of them was having a birthday.\u00a0 They giggled through their hula, after which dad tossed me a fiver, no change required.<\/p>\n
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I closed my set with \u201cLittle Grass Shack.\u201d\u00a0 With $15 in my pocket, I made my way back to Central Park West, to the subway and home.\u00a0 Forecasts for an ideal spring day had been accurate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"