Another warm day, another opportunity to attain ukulele bliss.\u00a0 I got a late start and felt myself hurrying toward Bethesda Fountain, although I did stop long enough to record the anemone score:\u00a0 4-14.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An Israeli woman and her 3 daughters sat at the fountain near center stage.\u00a0 I was aware of the girls peeking at me while I set up my paraphernalia.\u00a0 As always, the solar-powered hula girls were, well, magnetic.\u00a0 When I stood to play and smiled at them, the younger ones, twins, turned away and hid behind their mother; the eldest smiled back.\u00a0 After a few songs — and hearing me ask, more than once, if someone had time for a hula \u2013 the sisters approached and asked to dance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At the end of the dance, collecting the leis, I said, \u201cTov meod,\u201d which I thought was Hebrew for \u201cvery good.\u201d\u00a0 The girls looked at me blankly.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t the kids say \u2018tov meod\u2019 anymore?\u201d I turned to the mother.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t heard Hebrew for a while,\u201d she explained.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve been here 3 weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Each kid put a dollar in my case.\u00a0 I sang \u201cI Wonder Where My Little Hula Girls Have Gone,\u201d revising the lyric to \u201cthey\u2019re no longer on the beach at Tel Aviv.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A photographer took a video of me singing.\u00a0 I gave him a big smile; he gave me a buck.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A family with a teenage son wandered past me to the lake.\u00a0 The kid slowed and looked me over.\u00a0 A moment later, he came back with a fiver.\u00a0 He was from Colorado and played the guitar.\u00a0 I offered him the uke, assuring him the chording was the same, and 33% easier, 4 strings instead of 6.\u00a0 In a soft voice he said no, and meant it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A family of 4 from Nashville stopped to hula.\u00a0 The elder daughter, age 8, put on a lei, ready to go, but the younger wouldn\u2019t dance unless Daddy danced.\u00a0 Daddy put on a lei and danced an expressive hula with his elder daughter, to the delight of the younger, who had immediately reneged on the bargain behind Mommy\u2019s legs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dad wanted to give me $5, but only had a 20.\u00a0 There was $11 in my case, 2 singles in my wallet, and a couple of bucks in my pants pocket.\u00a0 While assembling all these bills, I asked about business in Nashville.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s booming,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cCompanies are moving there like crazy.\u00a0 No income tax.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The next family was from Memphis.\u00a0 Two daughters danced to the hukilau, while mom and dad beamed.\u00a0 \u201cIs there a group here from Tennessee?\u201d I asked dad, who had laid his fiver carefully over the lone 20-dollar bill in my case.\u00a0 No, they were travelling on their own.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A quartet of 50-something Chinese men had been chatting on the bench in front of me.\u00a0 One of them came forward with a dollar, nodded to me, I to him, then returned to his friends.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Three Danish children, in the shade a few yards up the path to the Boathouse, were taking coins out their parents\u2019 hands until they had enough, $1.55, which they brought to me for a hula.\u00a0 The big brother, about 12, did a conscientious hula, while little brother and baby sister danced freely, if with less skill.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The last hula was danced by 3- or 4-year-old Elliot, who arrived at the fountain in a stroller with his sister and parents.\u00a0 \u201cWhere you from?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I heard an answer that sounded like \u201cNavia.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I looked up at his dad.\u00a0 \u201cLatvia?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cKnoxville.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re the third Tennessee family to hula today.\u201d\u00a0 Unlike the other 2, however, they only gave me a buck, bringing the day\u2019s earnings to $22.55.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"