Four 40-something women stopped me as I walked by and asked me to take their picture as they sat at the edge of the fountain. After two snaps, I invited them to do a hula. \u201cNot me.\u201d \u201cNot me.\u201d \u201cNot me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will,\u201d said one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew she would,\u201d the others said. I quickly unpacked my uke, and off we went to the hukilau. The women were from Texas, the dancer from the Houston area. She closed her eyes and undulated languorously, while her friends took photos. I got a fiver from a friend and a buck from the dancer, an excellent start to the day.<\/p>\n
There were several groups of elementary school kids assembling on the stairs or at the fountain for class pictures. They were young and hard to manage, so I wasn\u2019t surprised that the teachers did not want to stop for a hula. But a quartet of high school boys, on a trip to NYC from Atlanta, had wandered from their classmates and wanted to dance. I gave them a quick lesson, they lined up and danced a marvelous freestyle. When called back to their group, they dropped $2 into my case.<\/p>\n
A little girl of 4 or so walked up to me, wanting to dance. \u201cAre you here with your mom or dad?\u201d I asked. \u201cGo ask them if it\u2019s ok.\u201d She ran off and soon returned with permission. Two verses of \u201cThe Hukilau Song\u201d were not enough for her, so I played \u201cMy Little Grass Shack\u201d too. Off she ran again, this time returning with a dollar for me. Her mother, father and brother followed. She told me her name was Sienna. \u201cThe color or the town?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her brother answered, \u201cThe color, two n\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walking down the path toward me came the dog Maggie and her master. They\u2019ve been regulars over the years. Maggie loves my music; she happily sits in front of me to listen. A photographer thought the scene cute and started taking pictures. A toddler on a leash approached and bounced up and down on her chubby knees, grinning and clapping. Finally a 75-year-old man in a baseball cap stopped to listen. \u201cThis is my music,\u201d he said in a thick middle European accent, and as I sung out \u201cGet Out and Get Under the Moon\u201d he began to tap dance. Amid all this chaos, money piled high in my case.<\/p>\n
The tap dancer was Sam Katz, who after a career dancing in the city now lived in Parsippany. He had not lost his joie de vivre. The photographer was Ann Price. Here is one of the pictures she took.<\/p>\n
![\"image-23-04-15-09-40\"](\"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/image-23-04-15-09-40.jpeg\")
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