It was \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d for the platoon guitarist. \u00a0It was hot; the park was relatively uncrowded.\u00a0 I set up in the blazing sun at Bethesda Fountain and sang to the sky.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A dark-eyed little girl came back from the benches, where her mother sat in the shade, with permission to hula.\u00a0 After the first verse of \u201cThe Hukilau Song,\u201d she walked away.\u00a0 Another girl of 7-8, from Georgia, with her mom, was eager to hula, and she too walked away.\u00a0 Finally, a teenaged girl, from Newport Beach, who would not hula, gave me a dollar.\u00a0 \u201cI like your music,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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A woman from San Francisco said she didn\u2019t have time to hula, but she couldn\u2019t pull herself away, so she put on a lei and danced, gracefully and expressively.\u00a0 \u201cThat was great fun,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cI feel really great.\u00a0 I wish my family were here to record it.\u201d\u00a0 She returned the lei and walked away.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBring them back, we\u2019ll do it again.\u201d \u00a0As if that would ever happen. \u00a0A walk-away doesn’t grasp the concept of paying the piper.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A young couple from Flagstaff happened by.\u00a0 \u201cNot much hula in Arizona, I\u2019ll bet.\u201d\u00a0 The girl danced a sweet, simple hula, while the boy, after snapping a few pictures, pulled out his wallet.\u00a0 Tossing a dollar into my case, he said, \u201cI\u2019m originally from Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a hula hotspot either,\u201d I supposed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An 80-something woman came by with a dollar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two tall, self-possessed young black women allowed themselves a hula.\u00a0 They fell into a synchronized display of hula moves, including twirls and shimmies, attracting a crowd.\u00a0 They’d grown up together in California, now one lived in New York and the other in Chicago.\u00a0 We had a good talk, then they walked away.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A man tossed in a couple of quarters and gave me a thumbs-up.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An older dad, with 2 barely walking babies, decked out in white lace dresses, encouraged them to hula.\u00a0 The smaller baby, despite the dress, may have been a boy.\u00a0 They barely moved; I brought \u201cThe Hukilau Song\u201d to an end after one verse.\u00a0 Dad kept pulling change out of his pocket.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It appeared to be 12-15 pennies, but when I counted it at the end of my set, there was a dime mixed in.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"