My Fix
By Pam Sherman | October 2, 2007
I’d been waiting for my NYC fix for about six months. When you live in a farm field you need a city fix every few months. It makes the empty spaces more tolerable to be crammed into the city streets - even for a day. We were scheduled to leave Friday evening at 5:00 p.m. but we got Jetblued (an experience of being left on a runway for 5 hours with no communication from the crew). Instead we got up at 4:30 a.m. and flew to NYC at 6:15 a.m. (I don’t know about you but I would rather stay up late and wake up where I’m supposed to be rather than get up early to go where I should have been.) We arrived in no time - having re-booked on US Air - totally exhausted.
As the cab pulled out of Laguardia and I saw the City rise in the distance I felt my whole body just get happy. Any hint of being tired disappeared as we pulled into Manhattan. Driving through Harlem I felt my pulse quicken. And when we pulled up to the place we were staying at - a friend’s INCREDIBLE apartment - I had reached a state of nirvana. When we walked into their place with the panoramic views of the Hudson River and Jersey on one side and the East Side and the Empire State Building on the other side I was tingling from head to toe. I exclaimed to my husband, like the bratty Veruka Salt in “Willy Wonka an the Chocolate Factory,”"Daddy I want one of these.”
My husband, having grown-up in Upstate New York doesn’t get it. In fact, after 24 hours in the City he is ready to move on. My son gets it. Thank god. My daughter is a tweener, in more ways than one. This summer she put her hands up in our convertible as we drove through the countryside near our home and screamed, “I love the country.” I thought, “I don’t know this kid.” She wants to do things like…heaven forbid, CAMP! And ride horses. And make bonfires. But she loves shopping so maybe there is hope for her yet.
My son, thankfully, learned to love NYC early. At four I had him at the theater. A few years ago we stayed in NYC and did all the touristy things born New Yorkers never do, The Empire State Building, the Central Park Zoo. He insisted on going to see Trump Tower - where there is nothing to see. When we got there we heard that Donald Trump was coming downstairs and my son insisted we wait to see him. An hour went by and still no Donald. We waited. Finally after about an hour and a half The Donald came down and slapped my kid five - he was in heaven. I think Donald Trump has become a New York icon - and while I have strong feelings about how he does business - I was pscyhed that at least one of my children gets it - this man is OF NEW YORK.
And it isn’t New York - it’s the City. Growing up on Staten Island we always said we were going into the City as if we didn’t live in the City - which we do. Staten Island is the forgotten borough of New York City but it’s still a part of New York.
This was a great trip - a chance to get into my groove. I actually cried while I ran up the park on Riverside Drive past the Hudson River.
As I saw families going to baseball practice and soccer games I thought what a different life I would have if I lived in the City. And then I realized - those people were going to baseball practice and soccer games just like me. Is life really that different? Maybe it’s harder. I sit in a car, they traverse the subway. I go to the grocery store and have to lug the bags in, they get them delivered (a plus I think). But would my love affair with the City end if I actually lived there?
At least I get to travel there and pretend.
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