Hula Hoop

Anybody else notice the Hula Hoop revival of the Summer of 2010? This retro fad is no where more apparent than at Creative Grove, the weekly Friday flea market and community get together. For the last Friday in July, the DJ was augmented by some fine percussion, adding a human (not to mentioned Latin-tinged) element to the trippy beats. A mat of some kind was rolled out and the hula hoopers were moved out of the way and break dancers performed, which was interesting, also a revival I guess. The thing about the Hula Hoop, it’s not a performance, it’s just fun. I just like watching, the adults, usually women, and the kids. They shimmy. They undulate. They become one with the circle’s inner rim. Pure fun. After a stressful week or what have you, you ascend from the PATH and immediately feel a sense of home. A welcomed if temporary peace of mind fills you when you see this, and on Friday, it was a hula hoop festival, the percussion enabled beats pulsating in the afternoon sun. Children of all ages, some even attempting two hoops at once. The bodies, the hoops, the music, all unified, linked by sunlight and a sense of place.They let the weekend begin. Summer isn’t almost ending but now it is almost close to almost ending. The hula hoops added more moments to this afternoon, paused the fleeting of time with a burst of untainted amusement, shared.