In her left hand she held a small, red and yellow toy.

Clutched in her right, a dollar bill, crinkled and riddled with folds — the same dollar that’s been carelessly thrust into pants’ pockets and passed, hand to hand, from one person to another.

She walked hesitantly toward the case of a violin. Staring up at David McKnight, she tossed in the bill and hurried back up to the car.

“Thank you so much,” McKnight called after her, his hand pausing momentarily over the violin, his voice carrying up Hillsborough Street.

But this dollar won’t be pocket change for McKnight, an “out of work newspaperman,” recording artist and musician. It’ll be fare for the TTA or a night’s dinner.

For eight years, McKnight and his violin were staples on Hillsborough Street. The consideration he received from passersby, he said, was what fueled his work and final recorded product.

“It helped me to have a place to play in between band gigs,” he said. “What I played on the street was laboratory music, they were lunchtime gigs. Different people would come out to play with me — we’d have the saxophone and the guitar. It was part of the scene.”

“Playing music out there,” he said, pointing outside, “is something people do to help tie things together. It’s not as much a social thing as it is sharing music, seeing what’s happening on the street, hearing what people are saying.”

Now, he said he can be seen on the sidewalks near campus less frequently, only stopping by on his way through the Triad to play impromptu shows outside and twice-weekly sets at Global Village Coffee House.

“Nothing ever developed from [playing on Hillsborough Street],” he said. “It’s a very simple life I have now.”

That life, he said, entails traveling, recording new CDs, submitting freelance opinion columns and completing independent doctorate degrees in history and journalism.

McKnight said he has recorded four CDs since 1999, including one with Bruce Emery, with whom McKnight plays at one of Global Village’s tables — marked with a post-it reading “Reserved for musicians” — on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

And he said he’s hoping to come out with a four-CD jazz set at the end of this month.

However, McKnight said it’s hard to find local support for either his music or opinions. He said he’s having to pull his CDs off the shelves of Schoolkids and almost every newspaper except the News & Observer — which he said has published two of his columns since the first of the century — has rejected his opinion columns, of which he said he’s collected “hundreds upon hundreds.”

His voice, he said, has been stifled by local papers that are “always one step behind in politics” and by a government that would rather support industry than its own citizens.

“I find stories every week that express how we won’t look out for what’s coming around the bend,” he said. “There’s a gap between the North Carolina school system and higher education. There’s not enough support for keeping [high school] kids interested in their subjects… We’ve got to get students to graduation and beyond.”

And for a man who has spent 10 years working in news and been involved in two congressional races, his position in society now, he said, doesn’t allow him any leeway for abetting the situations he craves to fix.

“There’s nothing I can do about it as long as I’m a freelance writer,” he said. “And I’m not happy if I’m not involved, some way, in the community.”

But N.C. State students — who McKnight said have supported both himself and his goals more than anyone he’s met in his lifetime — have proven themselves interested in what he brings to Hillsborough Street.

People such as Stephanie He, a graduate student in economics, who stopped and listened to McKnight before asking if she could play his violin for a moment. And there on Hillsborough Street, at about 12:30 p.m., McKnight caught the attention of the “one in 25 people” he said classified a remarkable amount of student awareness.

“Students will be interested in music if they think you’re really trying,” McKnight said. “And music can lead to something.”

The columns that were never published

Though McKnight writes opinion columns, most go unpublished. Here are a few topics upon which he expounds.

Schools

“There’s a divide between the University community and high schools. There’s not enough support for keeping [high school] kids interested in their subjects. They do have it in university campuses, though. I don’t think we’re getting enough encouragement for the students. We’ve got to get students to graduation and beyond, but schools put the emphasis on companies. It needs to be on the students. And education needs to be in the spirit of learning. We’ve got so training-oriented that no one’s focused on teaching.”

Roads

“Our roads aren’t made well — they’re not made to last and they’re not made to be safe. There’s not enough traction on them, not enough grip. And there are accidents every day because of that. When it rains, cars just slide because there’s nothing to hold the tires in place. It’s not safe.”

Government

“I used to think Raleigh was ahead of the curve. That was about 20 years ago. I don’t know exactly what’s changed between that time and now, but I don’t believe that now we’re progressing at all. We’re one step behind. We won’t look out for what’s coming around the corner. The government will look out for the industries, it’ll give them money and tax breaks, but it won’t help its own people.”