{"id":1020,"date":"2018-05-06T14:59:54","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T18:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2018-05-06T14:59:54","modified_gmt":"2018-05-06T18:59:54","slug":"in-the-shade-of-the-old-maple-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/?p=1020","title":{"rendered":"In the Shade of the Old Maple Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

As predicted, the temperature in Central Park topped 90 on Thursday.\u00a0 I stopped at the water fountain, and glanced up at the wisteria vine, green and tendrilled.\u00a0 Off to the left, however, I was surprised by a glimpse of purple.\u00a0 A clump of blooming wisteria poked out of the underbrush and draped itself over the wall, hanging down over the old bridle path that parallels Central Park West at 72nd<\/sup> St.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another surprise was an early-blooming lilac, about chest high.\u00a0 I stepped over a low fence to get a whiff.\u00a0 The jazz combo had moved to other side of the road, into the shade.\u00a0 To the south, towering above the greening trees, 3 construction cranes erect 3 more sky castles, to join the 2 already there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At Bethesda Fountain, an English soprano belted out \u201cO Sole Mio\u201d to a recorded accompaniment.\u00a0 I sat on the bench, waiting for her finish, then approached her and said, \u201cThere are rules for busking in the park, and one of them is no amplification.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a cop,\u201d I added, \u201cwe\u2019re a self-regulating bunch, but there are higher authorities, and you could ruin it for all of us \u2013 it\u2019s happened before \u2013 so please consider a cappella, or something other than that.\u201d\u00a0 Pointing to the offending appliance, I turned and walked away.\u00a0 On a day like today, I preferred to play under the maple.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My first dollar came from an aging hipster, along with a wink and a thumbs-up.\u00a0 A dad gave his young son a handful of change, then pushed him toward me.\u00a0 A 20-something couple coasted by on bicycles.\u00a0 \u201cHave you got time for a hula today?\u201d\u00a0 She, from DC, was all in; he, from Jerusalem, watched.\u00a0 After dancing gracefully to \u201cThe Hukilau Song,\u201d she gave me a dollar and they rode off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To the east, I watched a group of kids emerge from the tunnel under the drive.\u00a0 It was a large group of 50 or more highschoolers.\u00a0 I said to the leader as they passed, \u201cHas this group got time for a hula dance today?\u201d\u00a0 He stopped to consider, but by then the kids had taken the decision out of his hands.\u00a0 I distributed all my leis, got the dancers lined up on one side of the path and the spectators on the other, allowing people to walk by.\u00a0 The kids spoke French, but understood my instructions, so after one verse the dancers passed the leis to the next troupe of dancers.\u00a0 After 3 verses, everyone who wanted to had hula-ed.\u00a0 I collected the leis and the money poured in; there was no telling how much until the end of the set.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cViva la France,\u201d I shouted to the kids.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are Quebecois,\u201d the leader informed me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A 40-something woman opened her purse and dumped change into my case.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A little blonde girl and her tall blonde mother walked by.\u00a0 In a few minutes they came back.\u00a0 The little girl clutched 5 quarters in her hand.\u00a0 \u201cShe made me come back,\u201d mom explained.\u00a0 They were from Norway, and the little girl understood Norwegian, English and Dutch.\u00a0 She danced a charming hula and I could see, as I sang, that mom was dancing too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cDo you speak Hawaiian?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 \u201cNo?\u00a0 In Hawaiian, the word for thank you is mahalo.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMahalo,\u201d said the girl.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMahalo,\u201d said mom.\u00a0 \u201cNow you speak 4 languages.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My set was over.\u00a0 I counted $19.06.\u00a0 Merci beaucoup, Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As predicted, the temperature in Central Park topped 90 on Thursday.\u00a0 I stopped at the water fountain, and glanced up …
keep reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[118,12],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-o-sole-mio","tag-the-hukilau-song"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1022,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/1022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}