I\u2019d been keenly watching the weather reports, waiting for a day such as today: bright sunshine, temperatures approaching 60. Strapping my tenor uke, with low-G tuning ratcheted down to F#, to my back, I headed out to Central Park.<\/p>\n
Not much plant life yet, the holly, rhododendron and juniper providing the only show of green. Clumps of snowdrops bloomed under a towering ginkgo and swept out along the path to Strawberry Fields. A guitarist played \u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d from a bench. A big fat robin strutted his stuff on the lawn.<\/p>\n
The park, however, was teeming with human life. Tour groups clogged the paths as I wove my way down the hill toward the road, where the artists have set up a table to sell their wares. Nearby, a magnolia pushed up its fuzzy buds, and, at the road, yellow croci bloomed on an outcrop of Manhattan schist.<\/p>\n
Bethesda Fountain is still dry. I heard the wail of a saxophone. It\u2019s Rakeem, to whom I tipped my hat as I walked by. John Boyd and his choir were hard at work in the Arcade, taking full advantage of the acoustics. The Bubble Man worked the plaza; he\u2019d tied a grid of string on his dip-rope, so instead of one giant bubble, he makes clusters of bubbles that are lifted by the wind off the lake to the west.<\/p>\n
At my second location, a young woman played the viola, so I walked to location #3, where I hung my hoodie on the fence and set up in the sun for my 90 minute set. They are doing work at the Boat Rental behind an 8-foot fence hung with opaque green netting. It\u2019s ugly, so I keep my eyes focused on the bare upper limbs of trees and the blue sky.<\/p>\n
A male couple, walking their dog, gave me the first dollar of the season. A little later, another male couple with another dog chipped in 50 cents.<\/p>\n
\u201cHas this group got time for a hula today?\u201d Sadly, no, yet one of the teen-aged boys tossed a quarter into my case as he walked by.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt must be spring,\u201d announced a man to no one in particular, as if Mr. Ukulele, like robins and croci, were a vernal harbinger.<\/p>\n
Some chord patterns to the old songs took a while to recall. I kept repeating the songs until muscle memory kicked in. During \u201cAll of Me,\u201d a 60-something Spanish man stood next to me and sang along. We sang it twice while his female companion shot video, then off they went.<\/p>\n
An Australian dad with a toddler on his shoulders, in a deft move, pulled a dollar out of his pocket for me. A lady walking by gave me a dollar too.<\/p>\n
Three high-schoolers caught the aloha spirit. To the strains of the \u201cHukilau Song,\u201d they gracefully waved their arms and swiveled their hips. \u201cCan we do it again?\u201d This time I played \u201cMy Little Grass Shack.\u201d People stopped to enjoy the show.<\/p>\n
As the teens walked off, a man who had been watching emptied his pocket of change. \u201cYou sure know how to bring out the best in people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"