This is a lovely, wonderful moving account. Wow. I so enjoyed reading it. It seems so so true, and really resonates. I don't have much experience busking (only once, and it was with a group of people, so it really didn't count), but once, when I had only had my fiddle for about a month and a half, I was on a trip and was taking my kids to the Minneapolis Zoo, and since it was a hot day, I couldn't leave the fiddle in the car, so took it into the zoo with me. At one point, my mom, who was with the kids, got separated from me, and I had a long wait outside the Monkey House, and I settled down on a shady bench and played my fiddle for about a half an hour. I'm sure I was really terrible, but I knew a lot of tunes, and but what amazed me was how the children were all drawn to it. The parents for the most part wouldn't look at me, but their kids slowed, and stopped, and had to be practically dragged away.

Okay, I'm done yacking now, and I'm going to read your narrative again....