The cool weather has arrived. People in the park were bundled up in sweaters and coats. At the fountain, the cowboy was back in the northwest corner; Meta was installed on the bench. I sat down to chat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you don\u2019t expect to make any money today,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m lucky if I can get anyone to give me a quarter.”<\/p>\n
“I have no expectations. They last few times I’ve been out have been dismal.”<\/p>\n
“Do you want to play here? I\u2019ve already been here 4 hours, I\u2019m going home. Maybe this is your kind of crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she packed up, I laid out my paraphernalia and started my set. Before pushing her harp up the hill to the east, Meta pulled her granny skirt above her knees and did a little hula. \u201cHere,\u201d she said, tossing a coin in my case. \u201cLet me get you going with 10 pesos.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny idea what\u2019s it\u2019s worth?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 50 cents, not nothing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A good thing, too, because once again it was a dismal day for buskers. After an hour of singing my heart out, after a Romanian walk-away, and a lunch crowd audience devoid of aloha, Meta\u2019s pathetic 10 peso coin still laid there all alone. It looked very like a zero dollar day; in fact, I perversely hoped that it would be, so I would no longer have to wait for its inevitable arrival.<\/p>\n
Mothers pulled their children closer when they saw me. Women clutched their purses; men patted their back pockets to make sure their wallets were still there. In the eyes of those who walked by, Mr. Ukulele must have seemed dangerous, menacing, a threat to persons and property.<\/p>\n
After 85 minutes, a woman in her 70s stopped a few steps from me and made a quarter turn away so I couldn’t see what she was doing. Clearly, she was digging in her handbag. Too often I\u2019ve seen this maneuver, and been disappointed when a cell phone or a camera emerged, rather than the money that an appreciative passerby might give me. This time, however, a dollar did appear and was laid carefully in my case.<\/p>\n
In the last 5 minutes of my set, 2 Polish girls danced a wild hula , full of arm-waving and high-stepping. Breathless, they returned the leis and walked off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"