I returned to the park after Independence Day; it was brutally hot. Strawberry Fields, however, was in deep shade. At either end of the mosaic area, men were doing a brisk business selling cold water, while the guitarist played \u201cNorwegian Wood,\u201d a song I always associate with saunas. Across the road, sprinklers cooled the feet of Daniel Webster. There were pods on the catalpa.<\/p>\n
I walked across the plaza, taking little note of the amplification at one end and the blues ensemble at the other. Under the shade of the maple tree, with a light breeze off the lake, I set up shop. Right off the bat I spied a YMCA group from Chinatown. The counselor went to the hukilau, but none of the kids joined in. Instead, a lei passed from one kid to the next until a girl wouldn\u2019t touch it, and it fell to the ground. We quit after one verse and the counselor gave me a dollar. The girl gave me 2 quarters.<\/p>\n
A jazz trio, consisting of bass, guitar and sax, set up near the boathouse. Four men lined up in front of them, while a fifth, in a white homburg, tap-danced on the path. The men sang in close doo-wop-style harmony. I watched as they worked the crowd; there was hand-clapping and foot-stomping. Two little girls dressed in colorful skirts twirled with the music. I worried I\u2019d lost my target audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you got time for a hula today?\u201d I expected they were danced out, but the 2 little girls in the colorful skirts wanted nothing more than to hula. Their patient parents reached into their wallets again.<\/p>\n
A young man with an English accent gave me a dollar. \u201cYou made me smile,\u201d he said. A woman told me I had a good voice. It was her first time in New York; she asked for a New York song, so I faked my way through \u201cThe Sidewalks of New York.\u201d I asked a photographer to hula for his picture. He did, and we were both happy. A teenager wished he could give me more than a quarter.<\/p>\n
I looked around to see that I\u2019d outlasted the jazz dancers. It must be tough to split the take 8 ways. I ended my set with \u201cMy Little Grass Shack.\u201d Counting my money afterward, I was delighted to find a fiver someone had slipped by me. That brought the total to a perfectly respectable $12.75. Then came the cherry on the Sundae: two people, who had been sitting on the rock behind me, walked up while I was zipping my case and each handed me a dollar. Aloha, New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"