Busker street musician playing for tips

I do not reveal names of family members on this blog, nor friends names much either, unless they are somewhat of a celebrity, such as the artist Tom Bintz. Anyway, there is a young violin student in the family. This morning he had his mother drop him off at Musicology in Watertown. His mission was to play outside the store for tips. He is 12 years old. (or is he 13?) No matter. Anyway, he played the few melodies he knows off and on for about three hours and collected well over $10.00. I was teaching guitar inside the store today and when he hit the $10.00 mark he interrupted my lesson with the exclamation, "I hit $10.00. I am going to Burger King!" and he throws his arms out wide as he says it. Then he points a finger at me and asks,"Do you want anything?" I say no and he turns to my student (a woman that has teen age kids) and asks her the same thing. She smiles and says no. One of the guys that works at the store said to me, "That kid's got balls!"

My guitar student told me upon entering the store she gave him a dollar and said, "You can really tell he is into it." When I arrived at the store for my first lesson he had all ready been out there for 40 minutes. A woman with two little kids was passing by., stopped to talk to him. I gave a listen while pretending to be occupied with my cell phone as if ignoring them. She says, "You sound a little rusty but I knew what you are playing." The little girls asks what was he playing. The mom replied, "Amazing Grace." Then the violinist told her he hopes to teach violin at the store some time in the future. What a riot!