This time of year, every day above 60 degrees is a gift.\u00a0 Judging by the size of the crowds in Central Park on Thursday, I was not the only one who felt that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone at Bethesda Fountain has an amp turned way up.\u00a0 At the top of the stairs I see a dense throng across the plaza where Colin, the cowboy, likes to play.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t seen Colin for a month and assumed he\u2019d headed south, as he does, for the winter.\u00a0 But as I got closer, past the audience that had formed a neat semicircle around him, I saw it was Colin himself, his basket brimming with bills, belting out his repertoire from the 80\u2019s.\u00a0 He acknowledged my thumbs-up as I walked past.\u00a0 Even under the maple, he was audible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After 30 minutes, with no activity beyond the birds feasting on the bright red mulberries, I stopped playing and cocked an ear.\u00a0 Colin was still at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After another 30 minutes, thinking today might be the day I get\nschneidered (shut out), I turned to find a dollar in my case from an unseen\npasserby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the last 30 minutes, an Orthodox Jewish couple pushing\na carriage stopped when they noticed, as I did, that their son couldn\u2019t keep\nhis eyes off me. I was singing \u201cTiptoe\nthrough the Tulips,\u201d and finished the song, our eyes locked. The parents clapped, so the boy did too, then\ndad gave me a dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not long before I finished my set, a 40-something woman,\nsmartly dressed, walked by and smiled while I sang \u201cMy Baby Just Cares for Me.\u201d She stopped to listen about 10 yards past me,\nwhile I crooned my own second verse:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026My baby don\u2019t care for Frank Sinatra.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n She shows the exit to Jean Paul Sartre\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n She came back with a dollar, taking me from schneidered to a break-even day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the fountain, Colin, still amped to the max, raked it in well past his usual quitting time.\u00a0 The old accordion player, set up much closer to Colin than he needed to be, could barely be heard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"