i've lived in ny all of my life and feel like i literally have so many memories on so many blocks. i now live 5 blocks from where i lived when i was 12 years old. i miss the trans lux 85th street movie theater and the madison deli and baskin and robbins and the madison pub. i do like that dean and deluca replaced christedes. philips florist is still on 85th street. meyrowitz has been replaced by purdys for better or worse. it's a strange feeling living in the same neighborhood...a little bit comforting, a little bit odd.
i was walking down fifth the other morning and was amazed how in a relatively short walk, my mind was flooded with memories. i only walked from 86th to 57th and fifth and back, but my mind wandered to when i was born and lived at 860. the building is right across from the playground that i took zach to years later. my grandparents and great uncle lived up the block at 875. as i walked further down fifth and got to 57th street, i looked up at louis vuitton and could still see the location of my office at wb. i vividly remember looking out my window and seeing the christmas snowflake strung from corner to corner.
here it is years later and my son attends the school i did, we live 5 blocks from from where i grew up, and my mom lives in the same building we do. am i trying to repeat history by giving zach what i had? it was a great place to grow up - living so close to school, surrounded by museums, 1 block from central park. and then again, i would have also loved to move to westport when zach was 2 and had him grow up in the country with a backyard, lots of space and open skies.
wwcd: i love living in the present version of my neighborhood, but enjoy reminiscing
i was walking down fifth the other morning and was amazed how in a relatively short walk, my mind was flooded with memories. i only walked from 86th to 57th and fifth and back, but my mind wandered to when i was born and lived at 860. the building is right across from the playground that i took zach to years later. my grandparents and great uncle lived up the block at 875. as i walked further down fifth and got to 57th street, i looked up at louis vuitton and could still see the location of my office at wb. i vividly remember looking out my window and seeing the christmas snowflake strung from corner to corner.
here it is years later and my son attends the school i did, we live 5 blocks from from where i grew up, and my mom lives in the same building we do. am i trying to repeat history by giving zach what i had? it was a great place to grow up - living so close to school, surrounded by museums, 1 block from central park. and then again, i would have also loved to move to westport when zach was 2 and had him grow up in the country with a backyard, lots of space and open skies.
wwcd: i love living in the present version of my neighborhood, but enjoy reminiscing
Meh...the backyard takes lots of futzing with and the open space...well let's just say that last week we had a bobcat, the week before was a coyote and just now, a wild turkey. It's like living in an issue of National Geographic. 'Burb livin' aint all it's cracked up to be (though the schools are nice!).
ReplyDeleteI haven't been uptown in years so when I go back in April, I think I will take a long time to remember all the great times of my childhood. Blacker and Kooby better still be there. I stole a candy bar when I was 6 from Fred and I had to pay dearly for that move! All my pet's are buried under the apple trees behind the MET. I loved sneaking into the burger joints with my Dad to have a much needed meat orgy. (Mom didn't allow us to have that kind of meat so we were all banned from these establishments) Use to ride horses each Saturday around the reservoir with my friend Cindy in my twenties and my dear mom would come out at the unG-dly hour of 6:30 a.m. to serve us coffee in a thermos. I even remember the buses going up AND down Madison.
ReplyDeleteBut the country life is for me and I enjoy hearing the Coyotes, wild Turkey's, planting my garden, seeing my dog's run off leash through Jockey Hollow here and awaking up with songbirds and smelling the fresh green grass mixed with spring air. Zach will walk away with his own NYC memories and hopefully have just as much fun as we do today in remembering it all.
This is part of what makes real New Yorkers so special. I enjoy just peeking in through your window. Thanks Casper.
ReplyDelete