savannah storytelling

I’m not sure when I fell in love with New York City. Maybe it was when I first saw the Statue of Liberty, many years ago, from the ship’s deck sailing into New York Harbor.    Maybe it was when Aunt Christina took my brother and me to see the amazing Empire State Building.  Or, it could have been when I attended my first Broadway show. Whenever the love affair began, it has endured to this day.  I still get a thrill when I visit and my senses come alive when I hit the noisy, busy streets of the city.

Manhattan was the last leg of the trip I took back in April.  My brother accompanied me on the train from New Jersey.  He didn’t think I could make it on my own, with two suitcases to carry and having a history of getting lost wherever I go.  Cousin Della had instructed us to come up from the train to the 36th Street and Broadway exit. Since finding a parking space in that area of Manhattan is a fantasy, she would drive around the block, and we were to stand on the corner until she could stop and pick us up. Miraculously, she was parked right across the street.

After visiting for a little while, Brother, Pete, went back underground and took the train to his lovely quiet and shady street in New Jersey.  He hates the city as much as I love it. Working there for thirty years can do that.

Della and I drove to Cousin Vivian’s studio apartment on 70th and Broadway where we stayed for a couple of days.  Again, my very resourceful cousin managed to find a parking place close to our building. We had to feed the meter, but it was less expensive than a garage.

The studio apartment was on the fifth floor, one large room with a bath and a small kitchen. A picture window looked out to taller, more impressive buildings, some with balconies. As I gazed out of the window, I wondered who lived there and what kind of lives they led.  This is where I wanted to live when I was young and ambitious, with dreams of writing for a paper or a magazine.

The next two days were magical. We walked around the neighborhood, and found we were three blocks from Lincoln Center and within walking distance to Central Park. We discovered two great restaurants, the Italian, “Pomodoro Sosso”  and the French,”Cassis” and took advantage of both.  Mmm!

The first evening, Friday, we went to see a new musical,” Wonderland” playing at the Marquise Theater. We found the play delightful and were especially charmed by the little girl in the play.  I thought she had the best voice in the entire cast. I was also impressed with the very inventive costumes. Unfortunately, the critics didn’t agree, because a few weeks after coming back to Savannah, I read that the show closed.
The next day, we took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we were fortunate to see two special exhibits.  One was an exhibit of paintings by French Impressionist, Cezanne, his “Card Player” series. The other exhibit was called “Rooms with a View”, a collection of paintings featuring an open window. The paintings were by nineteen century artists from Germany, France, Russia, and Denmark.

The weather turned ugly Saturday evening.  For that terrible stormy night, we had purchased the last two tickets available for another new play, “War Horse”.  It was raining so hard and the wind was so fierce that we tried to get a cab to Lincoln Center. That being impossible, we walked in the deluge and arrived at the theater soaking wet. Everyone there was in the same condition, so we forgot about being wet and joined in the excitement of the evening.

This was an entirely different type of production. It was a sad story about horses that were used during the Great War.  The horses on stage were huge, built of some kind of mesh that took three men to operate.  The horses moved so realistically that after a few minutes you forgot that they were not real. (Think “Lion King”) The acting was superb but the story was so intense I left the theater feeling sad and unsettled.  The critics were generous in their praise for “War Horse” and this play has received several Tony Award nominations.  I can brag I was there for the opening of a play that will be talked about for a long time, but personally, I’ll take a musical anytime. As Leonard Bernstein so aptly put it – and in music – “New York, New York, It’s a Wonderful Town”.

This article can also be found at Coastal Senior HERE