nyc

Missing NYC traditions this year

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I was supposed to be in NYC now, for Thanksgiving, but I canceled due to family issues.

I will miss being with my cousins for Thanksgiving and seeing and participating in all the holiday things the city has to offer – all decked out for Christmas already, the ice skating, the bazaars around the city, the parks, the big Christmas tree in the center of the MET museum, etc.

We usually go to Southampton for the Christmas parade, a couple of days after Thanksgiving. Last year we did the Montauk lighthouse instead, which I liked, but I prefer the Southampton thing. Above is the Christmas tree lighting at the Southampton parade and at the Montauk Lighthouse being lit last year.

I’ll be home with my family in Miami for Thanksgiving and of course Christmas.

My mother used to always say, “You are the only person who goes away for the holidays, everyone comes home for the holidays.”

I would say, “It’s only Thanksgiving, Mom. I’m here for everything else – Christmas, New Years, Easter, birthdays, etc.”

I am in NY for July 4th, though. July 4th, Independence Day was my mother’s favorite holiday. One year for her birthday, I bought her all sorts of 4th of July things – decorations and red, white and blue stuff. She loved it. She used them all for years, the stuff always came out every July.

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. It used to be Christmas and then Halloween, now it’s Thanksgiving.

Hopefully I’ll be back in NYC next year, which will be the 100th birthday of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I’d like to be back for that and all of the rest of the NYC things – and my cousins, of course.

The one good thing is that I don’t have to travel, which has not been fun these days or this past year. So that’s the good part.

Till next time . . .

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Urban cops

A funny thing happened the day before I left NY.

Since a Nor’easter was affecting things up north, I sat down on a bench to check my airline schedule, to be sure it was on time the next morning. This past summer I had my flight home canceled and then rescheduled and rerouted thorough Boston, due to bad weather, so I wanted to check this time.

All looked good. The app said all was on schedule.

I was sitting on a bench across from Lincoln Center looking at my phone when two NYC cops came up to me. They asked how long I was sitting there. “Oh, no, I thought, what was this about?”

I had just read an ad in the subway, which was in Spanish, which said something like, “Have your real ID on you, they are on the streets! Truth!” So I thought this was that.

I told the cops I was only there a short time, and I asked why they were asking. One said, “Well, we were told a guy was chasing another guy with a firearm and they ran right by here. And we wanted to know if you saw anything.”

“What?” I said? “If I saw a guy holding a gun up to another guy running by, I wouldn’t be sitting here so calmly,” and I held my hand out as if I was holding a gun.

The cops laughed and ran off, looking for the guys.

Oddly enough, a few days before, these two cops came up to me in Hoboken (I blurred their faces here).

Again, I was sitting on a bench, this time to tie my shoelace. I seem to do a lot of bench sitting it seems. Anyway, I was sitting right in front of City Hall, and they came across the street looking at me. It could be because I took this picture of them, but they came up to me and said, “Hello. how are you doing?” I said, “Ok, thanks.” And they were on their way.

A few minutes before I had taken some pictures of some bigwigs in suits in front of City Hall, although I don’t think the cops saw that. I took the picture because I thought it was funny. Hoboken is literally one square mile in size and they have their own city council, mayor, police department, etc.

It’s sort of a real life Mayberry, when you think about it. I always say if I was to move to New York, I would actually move to Hoboken, one train stop from NYC. It’s like being in Brooklyn, but on the other side of Manhattan, so it’s a quick ride in and out.

It’s autonomous, it rules and controls itself, as any city would. It isn’t part of a larger government, like Brooklyn is (which is part of NYC). So little Hoboken calls its own shots. There are really no tourists there, because who, except for me, goes to Hoboken? It’s easy access to and from the city (Manhattan), it’s right next to the larger Jersey City, which is its own city, too.

I’ve seen people pop over to Macy’s at Herald Square in Manhattan, it’s only a few train stops away. Very convenient, yet it’s a quiet little “village” right on the Hudson River, doing its own thing.

Till next time . . .

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Fall in NYC: Warm October Days

I’m back in New York. Perfect month – October. But it’s a bit hot – close to 80 degrees, and it may pass 80 over the weekend! Glad I didn’t pack heavy.

Did my usual and as you can see above, I had my first Mister Softee of the Fall. I actually ate my way through the city today.

I’m already noticing the polite way the city runs. People are holding doors for each other, smiling and saying hello in elevators, things like that. Unlike a lot of what I see at home in Miami.

Even at LaGuardia airport cars stopped so I could cross the street to get to my Uber.

But I did have one altercation, and maybe I was the rude one, but I don’t think so. It was with a Ramona Singer type at a deli, I’ll talk about that in another post, we had our own little reality show going on in front of everyone in the store! Stay tuned for a future post! Subscribe here so you don’t miss it.

I’ll be going to New York Comic Con on Thursday, so I’ll report back on that. I’ll also be going pumpkin picking with my cousins, I think that’s next weekend, when the weather will be cooler and perfect for pumpkins and apples.

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The best of summer

The Lake House was the best part of the whole trip. A dream realized.

I haven’t been writing here because it’s been a slow second half of the summer. I’m grateful for that.

Was all over New York State from late June into July – flew into Albany, then ended up at a wedding in Hudson, NY; was at a lake house across the Hudson River in Athens (on Tommy Trail!), which my brother obtained through Airbnb, then we all drove down to NYC and spent time in The Hamptons, too. Sort of a letter “L” shape for the early summer.

I felt sick at the wedding, not sure why, I think it was the heat – it was brutal from upstate all the way to the Hamptons – hot and humid.

One of my cousins feels that I was making it up because I didn’t want to be there – at the wedding – which makes no sense. I took two planes to get there, took an hour Uber ride to the house from the Albany airport, sent in two RSVPs (paper and online), made a special trip to get a gift card at Macy’s before I left home, had to lose a couple of pounds to fit into my suit pants, which was a joke with my friends and me for a month or so until I actually fit into the pants.

I bought a train ticket down to the city – arranged to be in the lake house with my family, originally I was going to get a hotel room and at the wedding, I did not touch any food or drink, until the end of the night when I had some ice cream, because who can pass u a big set-up of desserts anchored by a bar of ice cream sundaes?

I never ended up taking the train down the city, because I drove down with another couple of cousins, so that worked out well.

The wedding ceremony upstate in Hudson, was on the Hudson River and then across the street at the Basilica, an old factory that is an event venue now. I do regret not spending time on the river – I didn’t notice, but I am sure some of the guests grabbed a drink and took it across to the river and spent time there, where it looked like they had docks and boats – right there on the Hudson. Something I love.

I thought the Basilica was an old train station/depot, but I read that it was a factory in the late 1800s. Either way, a very impressive structure.

Just that should prove I was sick, for me to miss the Hudson River, which is right out my window, is a non-starter. That’s one of my favorite places.

Seeing Madame X, almost seeing Manhattanhenge (it was a bit cloudy), Mister Softee, MOMA, Brooklyn adventures and so much more. We did a lot.

Now I’m home, where it’s quiet – easing into autumn, which is my favorite season – where we will visit the Hudson Valley again, for pumpkin and apple picking! And ComicCon, can’t forget NY ComicCon!

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Striking a pose at MOMA

Taking pictures in front of Starry Night.

I’ve been in NYC awhile now, but I haven’t done my usual museum visits because the weather has been nice. It’s been brutally hot, but it hasn’t rained, and I’ve been saving museum visits for rainy days.

The news keeps saying there will be rain daily, but so far, so good. Nothing.

The New York City news shows the weather report what seems like every five minutes. Seriously. Every news report – early morning, mid-day, 6 pm and 11 pm. It’s all about the weather. Which is always wrong.

I did finally manage to stop by MOMA to visit my old friend, Starry Night. I noticed that people take a lot of photos in front of works of art, you know, with the person in the photo. They pose in front of the paintings; not usually sculptures, but in front of famous paintings.

I did notice a blind couple touching the sculptures, which I guess was allowed, but I found it strange that they were in most of the painted art galleries. Not sure how that worked.

I often find myself looking out the windows at the highrises, I don’t know why, but I do it. I did a cartoon about this a few years back, you can see it here.

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How my t-shirt created a buzz

Me, my shirt, and a melted Mister Softee.

I’ve worn a couple of my business t-shirt around NYC this summer. The business ones didn’t draw much attention, but my 10 With Tom shirt has.

I wore it the other day and went to get breakfast at this small coffee ship I’ve been going to. The place was very crowded. I went up to the counter and ordered and the lady asked my name for the order. I said, “Tom,” but she did hear me.

She asked, “What was it?” I pointed to my 10 With Tom shirt and said, “Tom.”

She smiled and asked about what it was. I explained that I interviewed people and other things and she asked to take a picture of it, I guess so she could remember to check it out later.

When I turned back around the whole place was looking at me – people had been standing around waiting for their orders.

Another lady asked about it and people were interested.

As the day went on, I noticed people looking at it and I noticed readers, likes, and subscriptions went up, so the shirt did what it was supposed to do.

I was all over the city and on and off the subway all day. So I got a lot of advertising in as I went about my daily business.

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The city, the Hamptons and the white feather

From the lake house last weekend, to NYC this weekend, also with The Hamptons, thrown in.

I didn’t see the NYC fireworks in person this year because they moved the location again. I found the perfect, easy-to-get-to spot on the east side a couple of years ago and the city moved the fireworks to the west side.

This year, they moved them back to the east side, just barely, having them south of the Brooklyn Bridge. I would have gone, but we were at Coney Island earlier in the day and I didn’t feel like trekking all the way back to Brooklyn and to go down to the City Hall area is a mess, with all the people trying to navigate the subway, I’ve done that before.

So it was Bryant Park, behind the NY Public Library for a nice concert in the park. The Empire State Building with lit up red, white and blue, and the moon shone right next to it. The weather was perfect, too.

The next day, the family all went to my cousins’ house in The Hamptons, which is always great. Some of us stay overnight, others go and come back to the city the same day.

There was lots of food, which didn’t stop coming out to the backyard picnic table. Non-stop food.

I did finally see my first white feather. I was walking down Lexington Avenue, early Sunday morning, and there it was, right on the sidewalk in front of me.

White feathers are supposed to signify a message from the spirit world – a loved one, trying to send you a message. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I have been hoping to see one for a long time, as I always see doves around my house.

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Ghosts of the L train

I just got off the L train. I met my cousins in Ridgewood, Queens, and took the L from Union Square to Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues. Ridgewood is the new up and coming neighborhood in New York. There was SoHo, then the Lower East Side, the Meat Packing District and Williamsburg and now it’s Ridgewood. The L train is the train into Hipsterland, but not so long ago, it was the link between Manhattan and a working class Brooklyn.

As I took the train this time and usually when I take the L train, I think of days past, days before my time, and I think of the ghosts of the subway and the Brooklyn neighborhoods that we pass through. Bedford, Graham Avenue, Lorimar Street, Montrose Avenue and so on. They are names from my past, you see my father and his sister and their mother (my grandmother) and a lot of our relatives lived here so many years ago. I picture them in Brooklyn 1945 and thinking of them on this same subway line. The trains of course, were different and they called it the BMT, (Brooklyn Manhattan Transfer), my aunt told me Saturday – they changed it later to the LL, rather than L, to differentiate it from the EL, which was the elevated train. But it was the same route, the same stops and even the same tiles on the wall that spell out the stations. Those same exact tiles were seen and perhaps touched by my father and grandmother 70 and 80 years ago.

I had an old aunt, who in the 1980s, told me about the first day the line opened in 1905 and how that first week the rides were free to the public; they were a nickle after that. She told me of her first hand experience, remembering it vividly, she must have been seven years old at the time. I read a book once called “When Brooklyn Was the World.” That’s the time period I think of as I ride the L train today. To me the train is “The footprint of a lost world,” a quote I got from Anthony Bourdain.

Now as I ride the line I see hipsters who have taken over the neighborhood. There they are with their ipods and iphones and skateboards and beards and manbuns and fedoras; acting all cool and as if they have discovered something new. Do they ever think about the people who were there before them? Probably not.

It’s the same with all the train lines in the city, there is so much history, but visiting Graham Avenue and Lorimar Street and Bedford, as a child and hearing so many stories of my father’s childhood, it makes me think of all those ghosts of times past. My mother grew up near Coney Island, so those train lines have meaning too, but I don’t take them as often as I take the L train. I think of my father taking the train to Ebbets Field, or my grandmother taking him to the doctor’s office or visiting relatives, in a time that was much simpler.

People have come and gone, but the subway lines are still running, on the same routes on the same tracks, among all those ghosts of happy times past.

Here is an old film of the 1905 subway in New York. It isn’t the L line, but you can get the idea of the time period.