October has become my favorite month.\u00a0 A day like Wednesday holds the record for perfection, the temp, the sky, the crowds, the works.\u00a0 Center stage was all mine.\u00a0 As soon as I started, a small band of Argentinians stopped to hula.\u00a0 It was a ragged dance by a fun-loving group.\u00a0 In addition to \u201cThe Hukilau Song,\u201d they danced to \u201cMy Little Grass Shack,\u201d at the end of which I retrieved the leis before they asked for another song.\u00a0 The leader, a polite 50-something man who spoke English, thanked me profusely and put a fiver in my case.<\/p>\n
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A family from Tennessee, mom, dad, junior and sis, slowed as they got close to me.\u00a0 \u201cHave you got time for a hula today?\u201d\u00a0 No, they did not, yet they didn\u2019t move on.\u00a0 I cajoled junior, \u201cDo you know anybody here?\u00a0 No?\u00a0 Then what are you afraid of?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dad said, \u201cLet \u2018er rip.\u201d\u00a0 He took a lei and put it on.\u00a0 \u201cCome join me,\u201d he said to his family, but instead they moved away, so he danced his hula alone, and did a fine job of it, returned the lei and pulled a single from his wallet.<\/p>\n
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A young man walked up to me and said, \u201cYou are really cool.\u00a0 Keep it up.\u201d\u00a0 He was from Germany, a Jehovah\u2019s Witness, although why he felt the need to mention that I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 He put a bright new quarter in my case.<\/p>\n
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A half-dozen or so Chinese tourists walked by.\u00a0 One of them, an old lady, stopped in front of me and gave me the once-over.\u00a0 Scowling, she gave me a dollar.\u00a0 I asked her if she\u2019d like to hula, but she didn\u2019t seem to understand.<\/p>\n
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A young woman had been listening from the benches; I watched her toes tapping.\u00a0 When I smiled at her, she smiled back.\u00a0 Later, she walked up with $2 in her hand, and told me she was from Colombia.<\/p>\n
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A woman poured a purseful of coins into my case.\u00a0 She was from Manchester (\u201cright in the middle of the UK\u201d).\u00a0 A late teen with his parents gave me dollar, followed by a 20-something who\u2019d been listening from the bench.<\/p>\n
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\u201cDo you like ukulele music?\u201d I asked him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really, but I like to support local musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More listeners, more dollars.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A woman approached and identified herself as a pediatric nurse at Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles.\u00a0 She wondered if I\u2019d sing a song to her friend, Phyllis, who was celebrating her 30th<\/sup> year of employment there.\u00a0 I readily agreed, singing \u201cHappy Anniversary to You,\u201d for which I received a 10-spot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A woman stepped forward from a family of Koreans.\u00a0 I put a lei around her neck.\u00a0 She danced while her family took pictures.\u00a0 She may have put money in my case.\u00a0 Money was coming my way so fast, I lost track of who gave what.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A man asked if I\u2019d sing a song for his girlfriend with the lyrics, \u201cTony misses you.\u201d\u00a0 Adapting a simple chord pattern to simple lyrics, \u201cTony misses you, Tony misses you, you must believe it\u2019s true that Tony misses you,\u201d Tony was delighted.\u00a0 He tossed a fiver in my case, then sat down on the bench and sent off the video.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My set ended after 90 minutes, with a pile of bills in my case, $29, plus another $2.54 in change.\u00a0 I love October; it\u2019s become my favorite month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"