Our Visit to the Big Apple (1)

For some time we had anticipated a trip to New York City.   A couple we had known in Houston had moved to Long Island and invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them.  They had moved to West Islip, Long Island as a part of the “Exodus Bay Shore” project, which was an effort to encourage people from various areas of the South to move to the New York City area and plant a church.

To get to Long Island, we had to go through New York City.  We passed the old Polo Grounds, where the Giants used to play.  The stadium was in the process of demolition.  Then we passed Yankee Stadium. I was wishing I could go inside and see “the house that Ruth built.”   We shared Thanksgiving with the West Islip church, and then spent a couple of days with our friends.   Somehow, Ann developed an ulcer on her tongue.  The lady of the house was into “alternative medicine,” so she gave Ann some yeast and apple cider vinegar.  It made Ann sick, but we had all planned to take a trip into Manhattan that evening.   So she was a good trooper and went along. 

She finally persuaded us to stop at a drug store, where she bought some alka seltzer, and asked for a glass of water.  The pharmacist probably thought she was inebriated, but he cooperated.  We drove into the Queens and parked our car near the subway station.   Thing were much safer in New York during those days.

We rode the subway, and Ann nearly panicked when she was told that we were riding underneath the Hudson River.   In time we reached 42^nd Street.   It was about eleven o’clock in the evening, but you would have thought it was the middle of the day.  As we came out of the subway station, we saw an old man with a blood spurting from the top of his head.  He was a street preacher.  Some thugs didn’t like his message, so they beaned him on the head with a rock.  That was our introduction to Manhattan.  The lights were dazzling even though many of the buildings were darkened, and the windows were draped in black.   The national was mourning the loss of the president.   

We saw Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, and several other well known Manhattan landmarks.   Ann was disappointed with Times Square.  It was nothing more than a marker in the middle of the street.  When people think of Times Square as the crossroads of the world, they are actually thinking about the buildings at that intersection.  We stopped in a little Pizza place, and we enjoyed it very much.  The guy who made the pizza did it with a flair.  He apparently considered himself and entertainer.  We applauded and he bowed when he got through.   By this time it was past midnight.  We then rode the subway back to the Queens, and drove to back Long Island.