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A Hootenanny in The Hollow

There’s a hollow in a crooked old tree on the C&O Canal towpath off 31st Street in Georgetown that’s becoming a showcase for cute stuff purposely put there.

Just a few days ago, it was a hoot. A wide-eyed wooden owl peered out at passers-by.

The hollow has been the dwelling of tiny dolls, too.

Families, many of them tourists, stop to inspect the objects and take snaps.

Joggers swish past the hollow and miss the fun of it all.

Perhaps souvenir hunters eventually take the objects….Whooo knows?

But that’s okay, since it could be a fine Georgetown memory for a kid from another country.

On the other side of the canal languishes the pathetic wreck of a barge that once was pulled by mules. That historic tragedy seems to garner most of the attention from tourists. But the hollow is a much more cheerful amusement.

Whoever is tucking those little objects in the hollow, bravo.

Long-gone U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, the once savior of the tow path, also a Pacific Northwest outdoorsman and rather an oddball himself, surely would have tipped his walk stick.

To look for the tree, from M Street, walk down the left side 31st Street toward the river; after you pass il Canale restaurant, it’s a handful of steps on the left.