A Day in the Life - Part Two

I do concierge/valet work at a private social club in Mid-town Manhattan  I’ve been at it for 25 years. That is where my walk takes me when I leave Grans Central Station. I know it’s actually a terminal and not a station, but no New Yorker of any worth ever called it that. “Where’d all these kids come from! It’s like Grand Central Station around here!” That was my dad talking. I was one of 11 kids raised in a four room railroad flat on Third Avenue. My mother had been cranking us out from 1938 to 1959. And, okay, my dad never said that out load, but I knew that look when he thought it.

Just caught the 3:18 to Cold Spring. It’s my usual train. With the usual mix of wandering souls heading home for the long Columbus Day holiday.weekend.

Yes. We celebrate Christopher Columbus. What would we be without him? He set the standard for an America to come. I’ll leave it at that. I also get a paid holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It’s a wonky balancing act, this country of ours.

I’ve been writing this from the train today. I write and listen to Joy Oladokun. Her album Hope is a Heavy Thing is a current favorite of mine. Nina Simone once said that art should reflect the times in which we live. Way to much fluff out there today. Ms. Oladokun does reflecting well enough to keep me interested.

Listen to Dear Maria and We’re All Gonna Die, and plenty of other soul inspiring tunes. 

I’m usually doing a crossword on these train jaunts. People telling me it will keep my brain active. It does do that. And it also tells me how bad I am at crosswords. But I had this sudden urge to do this daily diary. Write it down as it enters my skull. Do a quick spell check and post it when I get home. It’s now 3:43pm. I arrive at my destination at 4:33. I have little time left.

My train is now going past the village of Sleepy Hallow. A pretty big deal this All Hallow’s Eve. I’ve been to the graveyard a time or two to say hello to Washington Irving. He was speechless. So, I left it at that.  Back in Irving’s time it was simply boring old North Tarrytown. It wasn’t officially changed to.Sleepy Hallow until 1996. Go figure.

We’re now chugging past Sing Sing prison in Ossining. It’s where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on June19th 1953. We as a nation will soon be live streaming an execution by firing squad at Fort Hood, an army post in Texas. The secretary of War is at his Bible thumping worst. He may end up being the Secretary of Smite. We’ ve come a long way, baby.

I need to stop now. Been writing this on my phone. No easy feat for me. Have to remember to bring the iPad next time.

Tomorrow we fly to Kansas City Missouri to visit my mom-in-law. Will continue this on the plane. Until then, have a lovely weekend all you fellow muddlers.

Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sing_Sing_tower_NY2.jpg