Another beautiful fall day brought large crowds to the\npark. At Bethesda Fountain, the Chinese\nerhu player had beat me to center stage again. \nLooking more closely, I saw a second string on his instrument, demonstrating\nthat 2 strings are no better than 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I set up under the Norway Maple, a group of middle-schoolers\nwalked by. One boy, seeing my\nsolar-powered hula girls still in their cases, asked, \u201cWhy aren\u2019t the ladies\ndancing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A young man in his 20\u2019s put a dollar in my case. A little later, another school group came by;\none of the kids at the end of the line dropped a dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the birthday of the high school girl from\nArmonk. Her 2 friends encouraged her to\ndance, then each dug out a dollar for me. \n\u201cDo you do this for fun?\u201d one of the girls asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWouldn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet another school group walked by, this one producing 2 hula\ndancers and 1 dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A dad pushed a stroller next to his wife, who held a young boy\u2019s hand.\u00a0 They stopped to listen, then sent the boy to me with a buck.\u00a0 Moments later, a young man in a hurry slowed enough to toss a crumbled bill into my case.\u00a0 It bounced out, but I said, \u201cThanks, I\u2019ve got it,\u201d so he could continue his dash eastward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I ended my set singing to myself and enjoying this gorgeous day.\u00a0 Green, yellow and orange leaves from the far side of the lake were reflected in the water, where boaters rippled the surface into prismatic colors.\u00a0 Above it all, the 2 towers of the San Remo on Central Park West, arguably the most beautiful building on that posh avenue, reached into the crisp blue sky.\u00a0 Seven dollars was a fine take, yet a day like today was its own reward. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"