Final Day, now it rains

Wednesday - Lily was going to work from home again, so we hd another day sans dog. She made me matcha latte then sent us out. Without Charlie, we could go to the Tenement Museum. This museum is right across the street (Orchard) from Alec’s apartment (tenement) when he lived in the lower east side. It had been on my list for awhile. It’s not a typical museum where you pay a fee and wander from exhibit to exhibit. The founders bought an old tenement building that was largely untouched and restored it. They restored the different individual units into apartments of the some of the people who actually (and not) lived there,-into the era’s they were there. They have since also bough another building for more exhibition apartments. SO, when you go, you watch a short film about the place, and choose a tour. There are 3 walking tours of the neighborhood and a number of apartment tours depending on the day/time you are interested in going. If you are a member, I think you get a discounted rate. It kinds of rubbed me the wrong way, that I would need to pay $30 and only see one part of the building. We signed up for “Family Owned” and got see a restored saloon that was owned by a German couple in the 1860s and their adjoining apartment.

The tour was run by a very engaging 30 something gal and the interaction with her and the others on the tour was very insightful! We got to see about as much about their personal life as was possible to know. In the adjacent basement space, we saw the restored 1930 auction space of a jewish man, Max Marcus. I will be going on tours in the future. This experience made me want to further research my NYC ancestors. I know a lot about them, but where did they live? are the buildings still there? Their churches?

Tuesday was so warm, that Todd headed out Wednesday in just shirtsleeves. As we came out of the museum, the weather was definitely a bit chillier. We were hungry, so headed up to see what the line looked like at Katz’s (too long), so we went around the corner to place called Sweet Chick, where I had the best piece of carrot cake ever.

Brooklyn General Store is another place that had been on my list for a bit. So we took the F train and headed into Brooklyn. We walked down Union chatting with a gal and her standard Poodle who had Charlie’s coloring, of course she was also headed to BG. Inside I got a new DropCloth sampler, and fat quarter set and a 2 yard remnant of lovely Liberty of London. I can’t wait to make myself a shirt.

We walked up Henry toward Brooklyn Heights so that we could brownstone shop lol. If only I had a few more millions.

This place had super nice water garden just inside the railing.

As we walked, Todd got more and more chilly. I was actually OK, since I had worn my brand new Andrew Mowry Tesselated Vest :) I remembered that Alec told us to check out a clothing place in SOHO that had reasonable prices. We got the train on Montague and headed back. The store was reasonable and we stocked up a bit. The self checkout machine could read what we had ?!? I never saw that before. Unfortunately no bathroom, and I was just about dying.

I then walked a mile to a scone place that Alec and Lily suggested in Ukranian Village without noticing the helpful google comment that it wouldn’t be open until the following day. It was now steadily sprinkling.

The rain created multiple small issues,—if it had been clear, Lily and I were going to go to a Yoga class in Bryant Park. More importantly if it had been clear, we could have gone down to the tudor bridge and watched ManhattanHenge. I was SO looking forward to this. Twice a year the sun sets perfectly down 42nd st, and we were going to be there that week!. But it was rainy and super cloudy :(

https://weather.com/news/trending/video/clouds-may-block-new-yorks-manhattanhenge-sunset

There was a backup Yoga class in the building, so Lily and I suited up. The teacher didn’t show :(

Alec did find us a nice place for dinner and a 50% off coupon, so that’s nice. Final nights are so bittersweet. I could have stayed longer, Todd was ready to come home.

The following morning we packed up. Generally we get to Penn Station and take the train to our cheap commuter lot in Morristown. What with Charlie and all the bags, we took the most expensive Lyft ever, and got to the car about 9:30 and we got the kennel at 5:30.

All is well :) It was a good trip.

NYC

In another place and time

My parents introduced me to NYC. My dad grew up in Bergenfield, NJ with his two sisters. His father worked at a bank in “the city”. I have no idea what he really did. I do know that he started off collecting deposits from businesses in China Town. It was impressed upon me, that this was a potentially dangerous business. Both he and my grandmother were born and raised here. My Grandmother Betty’s (nee Bertha) parents immigrated from Germany and they (along with their extended family) set up a brewery and hotel with beer garden in Brooklyn. I believe my side had the hotel while the uncles had the brewery. Anyway, prohibition came and all was sold, - the brewery uncles made out with more than Great Grandma Widmann did, though she did all right. My grandfather’s family were Irish. His father immigrated twice, becoming the stereotypical Irish beat cop. His mother believed that raw tomatoes were poisonous and was much alarmed when he came home one day after eating one like an apple. These are some of the stories that I grew up hearing.

As stated, my father grew up in Bergenfield watching his father commuting into the city every day. He didn’t want to repeat this. His sisters’ settled in more rural New Jersey and my parents ended up in Ohio, where my dad had a much shorter commute. My dad was a professor, so we had wide swathes of summer time. We often spent 3-4 weeks annually at a cottage in the Hudson River Valley, built on long gone brewery money. (see how this all comes together). Over the years, I had many day trips into NYC as a child. My dad telling the stories related above as well as his time working as a cabby, how rowed a boat across the Hudson as a teenager, how my Great Uncle Ardie,(nee Adolf), would evade the prohibition agents as he smuggled booze into PA. I remember St Patrick’s, FAO Schwarz, the boring boring circle line tour, and feeling very grown up eating oysters at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central. I remember the museums and driving through the park (we always drove into the city). I remember the traffic.

In college, I came to NYC with friends twice. The first was a spring break trip with girlfriends. We stayed with my aunt at the little cottage and commuted in on a bus and had loads of fun; walking around with paper maps, getting bagels, visiting all the art museums, sitting in Washington Square Park smoking. I remember having the best outfit, which ended up killing my feet. The second time must have been during summer break,—we took two cars and Todd came too. I think there also was a stop with Aunt Grace and a commute into the city, but this time we had friends to stay with! We split into 2 groups and ended up sleeping on the living room floor of the tiniest little walk up. I remember being shocked upon learning how many people actually lived in this 2 bedroom apartment. I have many wonderful memories of this time.

I really thought that I would live here some time.

But I never did.

Time went on, and I didn’t visit again for years and years and years. Todd and I got married, we had children, we still visited the little cottage. We thought about bringing the kids down, and we really tried once. We did take them to the Statue of Liberty, but from the Jersey side - I was just panicky about bringing them in.

Our youngest Alec went to college in New York State. He made many friends who lived here. He visited a time or two. He spent 10 weeks one summer interning (!) I was SO envious. I think this was the ony place he was looking for jobs post graduation. He moved here one year into Covid, in a little walk up in the lower east side that was generously called a one bedroom. He and I “toured” the rooms via facetime. At some point he met the lovely Lily, who has lived here most of her life. A city girl! They now inhabit a lovely apartment on 42nd in Hells Kitchen. This would likely have been on my great grandfather’s beat. Since Alec has moved here, we’ve been visiting yearly, (this year maybe twice :) ).

We arrived yesterday, and I am already filled to brim with the spirit of the place. We found out just a day prior that Todd’s neice and her husband will also be in NY for the weekend, so we hung out with them yesterday afternoon,—how crazy.

For the first time, we have brought our little dog Charlie. He has his own set of social issues and bringing him is a bit of a risk. Yesterday he walked on crowded sidewalks and was very overwhelmed. We’re going to be taking him out as much as we can, and then bringing him home to hopefully decompress. Maybe he’ll ride the subway today :)

So this week, I will share our NYC adventures as well as those of Charlie, the potentially psychotic havapoo.