NEW YORK, NEW YORK? COME ON NEW YORK

Doing the right thing in New York is the same as doing the right thing in Oregon:

Stay home, keep a social distance.

My social distance from NYC is 3000 miles away, but it wasn’t always that way.

Frank said it best:

Start spreadin’ the news, I’m leavin’ today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New York

My vagabond shoes would have been on the city sidewalks three days ago.

Two days ago I would have seen Wicked.

Yesterday was a date with the cast of To Kill A Mockingbird on stage, and a late stop at the Rainbow Room.

Instead, our hearts go out to the shutdown city and the folks there.

I wanna to wake up, in a city that doesn’t sleep
And find I’m king of the hill
Top of the heapThese little town blues
Are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it
In old New York

I wanted to wake up in the city that never sleeps, get up late, find a good brunch in mid-town, then hit the High Line.

From my brief residency there, I learned a few things about New York that I had shared with my wife forty years later.

She wants to know the city like a native, which is always a good travel goal.

She’s the sort of traveler who make people she meets ask if everyone in Oregon is as nice as her.

I’ve had different New York feelings

NYC wasn’t an attraction to visit, but a place to dive into and absorb. She grew up in Los Angeles; my hometown was slightly smaller. North Bend, Oregon topped out under ten thousand people.

These little town blues
Are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you, New York, New York

Now the city will make a brand new start of it, and the rest of us will lean on them, learn from them.

Billy Joel sang this song for me.

Some folks like to get away
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood
But I’m takin’ a Greyhound on the Hudson River line
I’m in a New York state of mind

After things clear, I’ll be on a Greyhound on the Hudson River line. Greyhound is how I left four decades ago, pulled right out of the Westside Port Authority, through the states separating me from Portland, Oregon.

Wifey and I will take the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty and wave, and take the next boat back for the view of lower Manhattan.

We’ll stroll the Brooklyn Promenade.

What does my old neighborhood look like now? I’ve heard of big changes.

If we can find Joe and Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant, we’re going to the back patio for a calzone.

Change is happening, a change driven by covid-19, but one thing will never change about New York City, and that’s the awesomeness of New Yorkers.

They make their city one of the greatest in the world, and when they move to a new place, they make it better too.

That’s how it’s supposed to happen; how we’re all supposed to do it.

Start new and do the right thing: Stay down, stay in, be nice just for the practice.

And don’t forget to wash up, a lot.