The Aerie
I'm back in New York City, on my way to the wedding of my friend Tim, the fellow who escorted me to Ground Zero the week after 9/11.
My Sun Country flight left at 6:30 a.m., right on time. I picked a very early flight and a very late return (6:30 p.m. out of JFK on Sunday) because I'm trying to turn one trip into three, visitin my friends on Staten Island, my college buddy in Albany, and my friend Tim's wedding all in one big blast. Sleep may be limited this weekend, but good times are plentiful.
I've never flown out of the Humphrey Terminal before, and while it is nice and new and crisp-looking, it lacks a lot of the amentities, with only one cafe. Since airlines are so stingy these days I grabbed a pathetic chocolate muffin and a pathetic decaf before boarding my flight, and a newspaper to boot. I managed to drip coffee on my white shirt on the very first sip. Oddly enough the stain landed squarely upon a previous coffee stain, showing that while I may have a drinking problem I am at least consistent with my dribbling.
The flight left, right on time, and even flew over my neighborhood so I was able to grab a couple photos out the window (although they turned out uniformly blurry).
Sun Country has much nicer amenities than any other flight I've recently taken, even though they're meager in comparison to the heyday of flight. Back when I was a lad, an airline trip included a hot meal served on a tray, even in coach. Most of my recent flights have involved miniature bags of minature pretzels.
Sun Country tried a lot harder, and were more generous. They made two passes with the beverage cart, AND they handed out breakfast muffins. They were gawdawful, but it's the thought that counts, after all. And while they were bland and gummy they were also piping hot. Of course this made my pre-flight coffee-muffin-and-dribble combo a fairly redundant expense. I was ready to kick myself for having bought a paper, too, except that the free newspapers ran out at the row behind me. Yah, I beat Murphy's Law just this once!
Despite the quality I at least landed in something other than a state of complete starvation. There was a bit of a wait at the Rental Agency, during which I chatted with a fellow visiting his native NYC from Fort Lauderdale to attend something called "The Feast of San Gennaro." After I picked up my rental car and made good time across the Verazzano Bridge ($8.00!) to Staten Island.
Barbara, Jeannie, and Carol are my oldest friends - they lived across the street when I was growing up in Queens. After I moved at age 8 we lost touch for thirty years. Then a fortunate Internet meeting happened to put be back in touch with them again in 2000, and my family had a wonderful time visiting with them when we made our East Coast Excursion that year.
They are a classic New York family - kind, loving, loud, and naturally hyper. Stepping from my car I was immediately engulfed in their family swirl. Their children, whose names I half-remembered had doubled in size, and gotten good and smartaleky. But they're great folks, taking time off of work to show me around once again.
So the great gaggle of us, four adults and five kids, made our way into New York. We carpooled to the train, rode the train to the ferry, took the ferry to the island where we caught another train and emerged in Greenwich village.
To call Greenwich Village an interesting place would be gross understatement. Sidewalk stalls sold scatologically-labelled T-shirts, marijuana pipes, and junk jewelry. Spiky-haired punks mourned the day's passing of Johnny Ramone by passing bottles on stoops, aggressively perfect young straight women stalked arrogantly past, and aggressively cool young lesbians held hands while they window-shopped. The sidewalks were uneven, crowded and narrow, the streets doubly so, and the crowd was mildly jostly as our crew made its way along.
Barbara's rebelliously-Republican 15-year-old stopped frequently to shop for vinyl records (which he then lugged around the city for five hours). My friends amazed me with their aplomb in handling these kids - they let the kids wander freely, yet always seemed to know where they were. They trusted their youngest not to dash out into the street, and he never did. Their easy aplomb in navigating the streets of New York contrasted starkly with the anxious protectionism that the Minneapolitans that I know practice with their own kids. And the kids returned the trust by being responsible about maintaining contact.
We disturbed Jeannie's workplace by paying it a visit in the middle of the day, disrupting conferences and distracting workers. Then one very nice fellow pointed out that the feast of San Gennaro was taking place only a few blocks away in Little Italy. Of course, the event that the fellow in the car rental office had mentioned to me.
The Feast of San Gennaro took over Mulberry Street for ten blocks, and was crammed with some of the best Italian foods in the city. I sampled an immense spicy sausage sandwich that occasioned a few ribald comments from my friends, a chocolate covered chocolate filled canolli, a kind of fried dough in powdered sugar, and some bad, expensive lemonade (too sweet and weak).
We walked all the way through the festival and then back along Broadway, by which time the kids were at the limit of their tolerance (they were all very good). Fortunately we managed to grab a bus back to Staten Island (by way of tunnel and the Verrazano Bridge), and I got to have a nice chat with Barbara along the way in air conditioned comfort.
After a very long day we split up at our cars, and I drove Jeannie, her daughter and her daughter's friend back to Jeannie's apartment, stopping along the way to see the house that they just bought - their first in 16 years of marriage. It looks great - just one block from the school, two full floors, and a yard. I guess it will be expensive for them, but I'm really excited on their behalf.
When we got to Jeannie's home her husband had prepared ribs and rice and salad for dinner, which was very kind. After dinner I sat down at their computer to help clean it of the 400+ adware, spyware, and viruses that were keeping it from working very well.
Now everyone has gone off to bed, but I'm still up, writing down my memories of the day. Off to bed! Tomorrow's the Groom's Dinner and who knows what else!
Posted by Albatross at September 16, 2004 10:04 PM